International guests in the Lab – Two-day training camp for two Serbian elite swimmers

News March 21, 2022 | 0

“The little details always count, I’ve lost by 1 millisecond and I’ve won by 1 millisecond” – said Velimir Stjepanović, after the second session of the training camp, in which – together with his teammate Uroš Nikolić – they had the chance to work with the technology of InnoSportLab de Tongelreep.

The swimmers spent two days – four sessions in the Lab in order to work on their starts, turns and stroke techniques. The focus of the first two sessions were on the starts and turns with the help of specialists from the Lab: Roald van der Vliet, Sander Schreven and Carlo van der Heijden.

For both perfecting starts and turns a video-based analytical system is used, where reaction times and forces of the swimmers are also measured. The athletes have the opportunity to analyze their mistakes instantly with their trainers and human movement scientists to find those important seconds they are all looking for.

“We came here because from what we know this is one of – if not – the best labs in the world” – added Velimir, who started Thursday’s session with a 1.3 second wall time when it comes to butterfly turns, but after 20 minutes of intensive work he managed to get it down to 1.05 second.

The 28-year-old European champion and Youth Olympic silver & bronze medalist is hoping the same results from the other tests too, aiming to improve in all aspects of his swimming for Helsinki, where he is going to compete in a few weeks.