With the benefit of a hugely challenging Olympic task successfully completed 6 months earlier, Vicky and Team Phoenix were able to draw on the lessons learned, to structure the training regime and set comprehensive training schedules for Ayrton to follow. Laura and Tanya (assistant coach in Cape Town) would be in charge of making sure Ayrton was keeping up with stretching and water work with Vicky on video feedback and zoom keeping an eye on progress. Enormous credit must go to Tanya and Laura who spent many hours in the pool teaching Ayrton basic sculling and body control and hours and hours of stretching over the next few weeks. Men are generally NOT flexible. Tanya was almost always on the deck, drilling Vicky's schedules or taking video and pictures to document progress.

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Both Ayrton and Laura work full time and do not always have free time at the same times - so training together was tough and at odd hours of the day - often squeezed in between their clients and business meetings. Compared to speed swimming, Artistic Swimming requires easily double the amount of training time and a very different way of preparing for competitions, so this was a big adjustment for Ayrton to adapt to these new demands. It was also an adjustment for the team (Vicky, Tanya & Laura) to go from coaching and swimming with two female athletes to coaching and swimming with a male and a female athlete who think differently and have completely different body structures. Techniques that generally work with all female athletes don't always work the same with a male athlete. 

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Tough but Fun  Nationals: 8 weeks  Ayrton: 2 weeks

 

But while it was hard work, both athletes had hours of fun (a key ingredient in any training) - Laura admits they both spent lots of time laughing as Ayrton attempted to master the moves, to the extent she said her abs hurt from all the laughing. The positive chemistry between both athletes was a huge benefit to being able to progress quickly, it helped the duet to be able to connect and train and be on the same page. They spent weeks together doing both land and water work to fast track Ayrton's learning.