Champions grow up here: how athletes train in the Moscow Swimming Academy

“Steady, ready, go!” Spraying water around, young swimmers dive in and race for the finish line among a clamor of encouragement. The Winter 2023 Championship started in the Moscow Swimming Academy. Judges evaluate swimmers’ technique while coaches watch their charges like hawks. Some are already breaking away, perhaps they’re destined to become champions. They train in the academy managed by Evgeny Korotyshkin, a Russian swimmer, 2012 Olympics medalist and holder of multiple Europe and world records. In early February, he won the Moscow Sports Award. The Academy Director talked to mos.ru about swimmers’ training routines and how to motivate children to be winners.

19 swimming pools and high-tech practice sessions

The Moscow Swimming Academy was set up at Kosino sports school relatively recently: just last April.

“Our Academy brought together 10 swimming departments from various sports schools training over 2,500 children. Now they have a chance to practice in 19 swimming pools throughout Moscow. Now, when parents contact us, multiple key issues like the choice of school their kid would want to attend to become a pro swimmer, or transfer to a more convenient swimming pool, can be solved faster,” says Evgeny Korotyshkin.

Before the championship started Director took us to the biggest swimming pool in the former Kosino school. It’s 50 meters long with 10 lanes. Today, it’s going to be used to host the Winter 2023 Championship, with 450 athletes aged 13 to 16 vying for main prizes. For now, though, amateurs are swimming there under their instructors’ eye, while water polo players are having a practice session.

Coaches in the Academy make use of the latest technologies. One of them is the controlled light leading system. Evgeny Korotyshkin points at a slim tube running along one of the lanes on the pool bottom. A light runs down it at a certain speed, and the swimmer’s objective is to keep up. There’s an exercise machine in the corner that looks like a tall frame with two buckets.

“You have to have strength and endurance for swimming. The Power Tower exercise machine, the only one in Moscow, is of great help there. We fill the buckets with water to a certain level and roll the machine to the pool’s edge. An athlete puts on a belt that’s connected to the machine and jumps in. With each stroke, in addition to the water resistance, ha has to overcome the machine’s pull,” explains the Academy Director.

Initially, they planned to use the large pool for practice only, but its size and equipment proved to be enough to hold school competitions there. For that purpose, they outfitted a pool with a high-tech timing system: electronic starting blocks that record the jump time and timing devices that feed the results to the screen displaying the final rating in a race.

The only thing they miss so far are audience stands so that parents can watch their kids compete. There are, however, online streams, including from an underwater camera. In the future, Evgeny Korotyshkin assures us, there will be foldable stands on the one side of the pool.

A sport for everyone

We cross the Academy lobby where the competitors are already gathering around. Children discuss the championship animatedly, look over the glass display with various cups, then hurry to the locker rooms.

“Swimming is a truly all-purpose sport. It’s great for both boys and girls, there are no definite physical criteria for people who can be swimmers. It’s injury-safe and even sometimes recommended for medical rehab. That’s why every year we have more kids coming to us. Over a thousand of them go through the initial training now,” says Evgeny Korotyshkin.

Is it easy to make your child interested in swimming? It is. All you have to do is to make the conditions comfortable and the practice sessions fun. Young swimmers find new friends there, take part in competitions and boot camps and that motivated them to new achievements. “We have all-encompassing training program that takes into account every child’s individual needs,” explains the Academy Director.

Seasoned coaches see gifted kids at once and try to motivate them to train more seriously. After they reach age 12-14, they start preparing for professional sports.

10 per cent of talent

On our way to the gym, we take a peek into the teachers’ room where coaches converge. There are 53 coaches in the Academy: 10 of them have the highest professional category, 5 are Honorable Coaches of Russia.

“We have a mentorship system in our Academy. Young coaches learn from seasoned professionals and hone their skills. We hold master-classes for both our athletes and coaches telling them how to exercise correctly and showing all the details of the training process,” points out Evgeny Korotyshkin.

The Academy Director does not rule out joining the ranks of coaches himself in the future. He already has relevant experience. Evgeny Korotyshkin was coaching Svetlana Chimrova, a female swimmer, for the 2021 Olympics. She came up sixths in the Olympic race and won a European Championship medal in the same year. Now Svetlana Chimrova is an Honored Master of Sports in Russia.

Another name for the gym is the dry swimming pool. There, swimmers can use various exercise machine, including stroking ones. They help athletes improve their stroking technique, along with strength and stamina. The Academy Director shows us how one of them works.

“For a pro athlete, talent is just 10 per cent of success, the rest of made of daily hard work,” believes Evgeny Korotyshkin.

Usually, a practice session starts with the dry swimming pool. After that, athletes go either to the big, or to the 25 meter pool. That’s where we’re headed down a long passage.

Sports and studies

The Academy employs a selection system for swimmers. Each one goes through a test after which he or she is assigned to a group. At the initial stage, they are taught to swim, overcome their fear of water and master the element. What comes after is training and honing your skills.

The 25 meters pool is full of activity: there are lots of amateur swimmers there, mostly adults. The Academy students are, for the most part, still in school.

“Our kids often face a choice if they should study or practice. We work together with general schools to solve this issue. We give our trainees a chance to practice sports right in their schools. 217 kids are practicing that way now,” says Evgeny Korotyshkin.

There life buoys, a rescue pole and other equipment hanging on the walls; each lane has a starting block at one end. The mid-sized pool is also a venue for competitions, lessons for children under 7 and practice sessions. Kinds mostly train in groups, but a coach can give them personal assignments, if necessary. For example, swim four kilometers in four different style or do some special breathing exercises. Evgeny remembers one of the more challenging ones: to stay underwater for a minute, then to swim as far as you can without resurfacing.

The power of the three: talent, hard work and motivation

Why would swimmers need a fighting ring, punch bags and punching balls? Evgeny Korotyshkin explains that the Academy decided not to close down the boxing club inherited from Kosino school. Students of Vostok Olympic Reserve School use it for practice. And if you raise the boxing equipment to the ceiling, you get another dry swimming pool.

Next, we go to the small, 17 meters long pool. It is used by children aged 4 and up. They have everything they need to turn a practice session into a game: underwater arches for diving, balls and inflatable toys with varied buoyancy. As per the rules, the water in the kids’ pool is warmer than in the grown-ups’.

Until they reach 12-14 years of age, every session for the trainees is full of games, fun and easy assignments. But coaches see even then who has the potential to be a champion. Practice sessions become more frequent for kids like that.

“The most important thing is to let a child show interest in swimming. Pro-level commitment is hard. Sometimes kids who have won championship titles just give up and stop practicing. You have to be talented, hard-working and motivated to achieve success,” emphasizes the Academy Director.

He remembers growing up in a family of swimmers, going to the swimming pool of the Olimpiyskiy Sports Complex and starting serious practice when he was 14. “I have never dreamt about being on top, but I managed to make some friends during my swimming training, and we moved forward together. Later, I couldn’t imagine my life without swimming,” reminisces Evgeny Korotyshkin.

The Academy students follow their Director’s example. Many of them are already Russia, Europe or World champions, Olympic medals winners, Honored Masters of Sports. Some of the names are: Kliment Kolesnikov, Maxim Stupin ans Rozalia Nasretdinova.

The kid’s pool was the last stop in our Academy tour, but we go to Director’s office and keep talking.

Champion and manager

According to Evgeny Korotyshkin, he has a separate cabinet at home for cups, medals and other awards he’s won. Recently, his collection was expanded by a Moscow Government Award badge. The Moscow Government commended his contribution to growing and popularizing swimming in Moscow and the efficiency with which he set up the training process for future athletes.

“It’s really nice to be awarded as a manager, not an athlete this time. It’s a great honor to be praised by the Moscow Government,” says Evgeny Korotyshkin.

After retiring from professional sports in 2016, in 2017 he took charge of the Russian Swimming Federation Supreme Supervisory Board, then the anti-doping committee. These days, Evgeny Korotyshkin also presides over the Moscow Swimming Federation.

“I have reached a global level as an athlete. I want to bring up champions who break records,” he adds.