You'd hate to think how many times Tokyo-bound New Zealand swimmer Lewis Clareburt has trawled up and down the pool.
But his intense training is paying off big time, propelling the 21-year-old Wellingtonian to the second-fastest 400 metre medley in the world this year.
Clareburt’s efforts and numbers aren’t lost on coach Gary Hollywood either.
“I've been very mindful that I have this Kiwi treasure, and he's doing things that haven't been done in the past 25 years,” Hollywood said.
That “25 years” a reference of course to Danyon Loader but this story isn't so much about the 1996 double Olympic gold medallist; It's about his legendary coach, the late Duncan Laing.
“I remember meeting Duncan Laing at the airport,” Hollywood recalls.
“He was just what I pictured a Kiwi bloke to be - shirt, big woollen socks pulled up. I was wet behind the ears, fresh from Ireland and didn't know much about competitive swimming.”
That chance meeting at a coaches conference in 1997 soon changed all that though.
“I dropped Duncs off at the airport and as he turned to go he said, ‘oh, Hollywood’ and put these in my hand.”
The gift was decades worth of notes and training programmes dreamt up by Laing and perfected in the pool.
“It's got everything you could imagine,” Hollywood said.
“It's got warm-ups, swim downs, sets on all the different energy systems … people like Duncan Laing, they didn't need science, they felt it, they understood the athlete.”
Hollywood added that level of understanding is something he has tried to do ever since.
“As coaches, we have to kind of live up to these legacies and to show these guys we're worthy to try follow in their footsteps.”
And if any other budding coaches want to get their hands on Laing’s notes in New Zealand?
“Yeah, sure! This is Kiwiana.”
Kiwiana that might finally put a Kiwi back on the top step of an Olympic podium.
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