GAINESVILLE’S RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

6/25/2012

By Mike Gustafson//Correspondent

No one can say that Gregg Troy sets low expectations.

“We hope to select the best men’s team ever,” said Troy, the 2012 U.S. Olympic men’s head coach, on Sunday.

Troy appears, to me, sort of like an affable uncle. He’s blunt when he has to be, kind when he has to be, funny when he has to be. He has those qualities all great coaches do – he knows what to say, and when to say it. (Like when Troy reportedly once told Lochte, “A lot of guys out there are better than you. If we do just what they do, you’re not going to catch up.”) You get the impression that when you ask Troy a question, you’ll get an honest answer. So when the coach says he hopes this could be best U.S. Olympic men’s team ever assembled, you think, “Definitely a possibility.”

While most eyes and ears will be tuned into that much-documented perfect storm of Olympic roster musical chairs (the men’s 400 IM battle between Michael Phelps/Ryan Lochte/ Tyler Clary), another story lurks under the surface.

It relates to Gregg Troy’s quote. On July 2, when Team USA is announced, and if this turns out to be the best Olympic team ever, a big chunk of that success could do with Troy and the program he’s built over a long career in Florida (20 years at Bolles School, then at UF since 1999).

As the Wizard of Gainesville, Troy coaches not only his famous superstar Lochte, but two other swimming prodigies who could – collectively, if all the stars align – sweep every single final on Day One of the Olympic Trials.

Each Gator-trained superstar on Day One – Lochte in the 400IM, Peter Vanderkaay in the 400 free and Elizabeth Beisel in the 400IM – are totally different in approaches, personalities and characteristics. One is trend-setting yet humble. Another is a workhorse yet appreciative. Another is confident yet nervous.

Troy – the mastermind tasked with assembling this smorgasbord of personalities – likens training athletes to an analogy:

When asked about the athletes he coaches now or will coach at the Olympics, Troy compares the journey of coaching with the journey of chocolate chip cookie baking. There are many different chocolate chip cookie recipes, Troy says. There are many different recipes to bake them. They’ll turn out well. What matters is not necessarily which recipe you choose for success, but that you stick to that recipe.

Here are three Gregg Troy recipes for success that could, tonight, have a major impact:

Peter “PVK” Vanderkaay
It’s almost counter-intuitive to tell your best swimmer to take a hike. Get lost. Beat it. Scram.

OK, that’s not exactly what Michigan’s head coach Mike Bottom told longtime Michigan resident and native Peter Vanderkaay 18 months ago, before PVK surprised many in the swimming world and departed from his hometown of Ann Arbor, Mich., for sunny Gainesville, Fla. Bottom apparently noticed something was wrong. According to Jo-Ann Barnas of the Detroit Free Press, Bottom told PVK, “make changes, make changes, make changes.”

So, PVK listened. He made changes. Took it to heart. Reading interviews, I don’t think many of us realized how close to retirement PVK maybe was. PVK told me last year that his move to Florida and to Gator Swim Club had nothing to do with climate. It was more about making himself “uncomfortable.” Swimming can be such an insular sport. You stare at the same black line, day after day. You get comfortable. Too comfortable. And sometimes, PVK explained, it’s good to mix it up. He credited Bottom – and his suggestion for PVK to change things up -- for keeping him in the sport.

”I’d say Mike [Bottom] is the only reason I’m still swimming,” Vanderkaay told Barnas.

Was PVK close to retirement? Doesn’t matter now. All that matters is he’s in the water, swimming, competing and ready for the Trials. And if PVK makes the Olympic Team, a journey that could begin tonight in the men’s 400m freestyle, I’d venture to say that Gregg Troy had some part in PVK’s “still swimming,” too.

Elizabeth Beisel
No swimmer is more fun to talk with than Elizabeth Beisel. Whereas PVK is sly with his jokes and dry in his humor, Beisel will let you know when she’s told a joke with her patented, contagious and boisterous laugh. The bubbly, energetic, audible Massachusetts native comes across as confident and always entertaining. She’s an East Coaster – a badge worn with pride. As a 2008 Olympian, Beisel has experienced more success than 99% of her competitors.

She’s just 19.

It’s surprising to realize Beisel is still a teenager. Her name has been in competitive swimming’s limelight for so long, we tend to think of Beisel as a seasoned, experienced veteran. Swimming-wise, she’s got the Olympic experience and a world championship. But she’s still a teenager.

“In 2008 she was a little high school girl,” Troy revealed about Beisel. “She was a nervous wreck before meets.”

But Troy now explains that Beisel’s journey has been one of maturation. She’s a much more mature athlete, he says, in how she handles herself and her training. And she seems to embrace the environment she’s encountered in Gainesville.

“I love going to practice,” Beisel says. “It's one of the funnest parts of my day, as weird as that sounds. I don't like the swimming part; I like the people I'm surrounded with, and swimming with Ryan every day and Conor Dwyer and Peter Vanderkaay and all the Olympians from other countries.”

Should Beisel continue her journey to London, it’s another one of those chocolate chip success stories Troy was instrumental in constructing.

Ryan Lochte
Ryan Lochte is unlike PVK in his appreciation of edgy fashion choices. (You won’t see PVK wearing a T-shirt that says, “Listen to Peter Vanderkaay.”) He’s unlike Beisel in that he never appears to be “a nervous wreck” before big swim meets. Lochte is a veritable enigma in the sporting world -- trend-setting yet humble, confident yet calm.

“I'm lost in my own world, and I just stay there,” Lochte said. “I just do what I love to do. I love to race.”

No doubt that Lochte stays in his own world. He marches to the beat of his own drum. But I partially believe that the drum was manufactured by Gregg Troy. Troy has embraced Lochte’s personality, but he’s also given Lochte structure. Challenged him. Put him on a journey to success. Lochte has transitioned into one of recognized hardest trainers in the entire world. That type of reputation has created a training hub that helped lure PVK from Ann Arbor, Conor Dwyer from Iowa, and other Olympians from around the world.

One United Goal
At times, the Gator swimmers help each other overcome each other’s faults and shortcomings. Like a Jenga puzzle, each personality contributes something else to the team, as if they were destined to train together. For example, Lochte helps the “nervous wreck” Beisel relax before big meets.

“[Lochte’s] much more laid back,” Beisel said. “He can tell if I’m tense, and he’s like, ‘Yo, Beis, chill out.’”

She adds: “I definitely need to be around him.”

What links Lochte to PVK and Beisel are not personalities. It’s training. The hard, arduous, gut-wrenching training. Like soldiers in battle, difficult physical training unites them. Inspires them. Challenges them. Gives them “an edge.” The expectation in practices to race, train, push and give in to Gregg Troy’s master plan -- his secret recipe, one that involves a deceptively simple ingredient called Training Harder Than You Ever Have.

Tonight, Vanderkaay, Beisel and Lochte tackle swimming’s two most difficult events, the 400 IM and 400 freestyle. No sane and sound mind enjoys these races. Yet these swimmers do it with enthusiasm. They love pain. They love to race.

And tonight, they’ll compete one at a time – in their own events – but fittingly, on the same, unifying, Gator-themed night.