Commonwealth Games 2018: Aussie swimmers’ secret weapon

BOND University student Shiqi Thng has developed a formula for helping our swimmers shave valuable seconds of their times — and it could mean the difference between gold and nothing.

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SHE’S the secret weapon in our bid to win gold in the Commonwealth Games pool.

Bond University student Shiqi Thng has developed a formula for helping our swimmers shave valuable seconds of their times — and it could mean the difference between gold and nothing.

Thng’s PhD is examining how specific gym exercises can improve swimmers’ starts and turns in the pool and among her guinea pigs are Australian team members Elijah Whittington and Alex Graham.

The sports scientist and strength coach said vital hundredths of a second could be shaved by swimmers who effectively channelled their power off the pool blocks and wall.

“There isn’t much in this space in terms of research but if you look at Rio 2016, the difference between first and second placed swimmers was a little as a 100th of a second,” Thng said.

“Getting a good start in a 50m sprint is massively important.

“In longer events you obviously have more turns, so the better you are at them the greater advantage you have. You have the potential to make small gains with every turn you make.”

Shiqi Thng has been working with high-performance swimmers attempting to improve their times when starting and turning.

Winnington, the youngest male on the Australian swimming squad at 17, said: “Without strength work you’re not going to be strong in the water.

“Ever since I started working with Shiqi my times have dropped significantly so I think she’s doing great stuff with me.”

The stars have aligned for Thng, whose test subjects are some of Australia’s best prospects in the pool and whose laboratory will be the biggest sporting event of 2018.

Bond Swimming Club members including Winnington and Graham work out with Thng three times a week at the university’s state-of-the-art high performance training centre at Robina.

“We do squats, dead lifts, then as competition gets closer we move into the power phase with jumps, barbell squat jumps and box jumps,” Thng said.

“They will drop down off a 30cm box and once they hit the ground they will rebound out, so that’s like a turn when you flip, hit the wall and push off.”

Thng said the swimmers felt the benefits of the training at the Australian Swimming Trials on the Gold Coast earlier this month.

“They saw massive improvements in their ability to generate power off the blocks and off the wall,” she said.

The improvements are quantified in the pool at the Queensland Academy of Sport in Brisbane where force plates on the blocks and walls measure the swimmers’ power.

Shiqi Thng completed a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science and a Masters of Sports Science at Bond University. She is midway through her PhD.

Originally published as Commonwealth Games 2018: Aussie swimmers’ secret weapon