On Thursday October 30, Swimswam got an exclusive tour of the new Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre courtesy of high performance centre head coach Ben Titley.
Titley took Swimswam contributor Mitch Bowmile through the facility, showcasing some of the finer attributes that make the home of the 2015 Pan Am Games one of the top training environments in Canada.
The facility included a world-class gym which was only accessible to elite athletes training at the facility, not the general public, which showcased excellent workout machines as well as an indoor track. There were multiple large gyms which were being used by wheelchair basketball players as well as badminton players.
Heading towards the pool, Titley first showed Swimswam the warm-down pool. The pool was 50m with a bulkhead placed at the halfway point. The most interesting detail about this pool was the fact that the floor of the pool could move up and down in order to alter the depth. When shown to Swimswam, it was at a wading depth, however when training or competitions commence in the pool, the bulkhead will be removed and it will be set to an appropriate depth.
Following that, Swimswam was shown the main competition pool. The pool featured state-of-the-art blocks, a beautiful 10-lane competition pool, as well as a diving well towards the back. The seating around the venue was extremely large, making the pool-deck feel like a prime place for competition.
After seeing the main competition pool, Titley showed Swimswam the main room where athletes keep their belongings such as dry-land equipment. The room also had medicine balls, stability balls, and a bench.
After separating with coach Titley to speak with coach Dean Boles, Swimswam met Titley and his high performance squad on deck to view a practice. The four swimmers did a variety of pull work with an individualized focus for every swimmer.
Titley arranged so that the swimmers would take turns doing some resistance training with resistance bands attached to the blocks.
Sport biomechanist Ryan Atkinson gave Swimswam footage of some of the work that has been done at the centre, which includes rope work as well as extra-speed training where swimmers dive in from a higher platform in order to gain more momentum than the usual start. The goal here is to keep the speed.
Atkinson works with the Canadian Sport Institute of Ontario which is also located in the building. Atkinson and others like him provide assistance to training groups such as the High Performance Centre Ontario as their staff consists of physiotherapists, biomechanists, ect.
The new facility seemed like a great training grounds for the high performance squad, and a pool fitting of high-level competition and world-class results.