USC All-American Carsten Vissering studied abroad in Australia for the fall semester, making his return to Southern Cal in the spring semester, in time for the NCAA postseason.
Vissering was in Brisbane, Australia not only broadening his mind scholastically, but also aquatically. Carsten told SwimSwam that while down under, he joined an elite lifting club, and to stay in shape for swimming mostly participated in recreational water activities such as intramural water polo and surfing. He said that this has given him a new perspective on swimming, and that he has returned to USC refreshed in his sport.
This strategy seemed to work in Vissering’s favor for the most part, as he produced some very fast results for USC at the 2018 NCAA championships. Notably, he split the fastest 50 breaststroke in history at 22.58 in the 200 medley relay, powering USC to win its first relay title in years.
Vissering also split 50.90 on their 3rd place 400 medley relay and placed 3rd in the 100 breast individually, notching a personal best of 51.28.
I think this shows how much Olympic lifts can benefit sprinters, particularly in short course. Carsten was 23.7 in prelims, then 24.0 in finals on his splits on the medley relay last year and he gets down to 22.5 this year. Having a period of dedicated weightlifting where he didn’t have to worry about potential interference with his swim training can make a huge difference in strength and explosiveness for someone who hasn’t experienced that before. Probably not as beneficial for everyone, but clearly paid off big time here.
Amazing what pure talent can get away with
its obvious he came mentally refreshed and that led to his success at ncaas
If anything, it tells us the importance of mindset.
It is good for him. He’s in college and that’s the time to discover himself and the world. Very few of these swimmers will ever make money swimming or make the Olympics, so kudos to him for making a lot of his college experience….
But what about his teammates, and the coach who gave him a scholarship? He has missed 2 of 3 fall training sessions. He obviously has enough natural talent that he can skip fall and score points in the 100 breast in March. But he is awful, relatively speaking, at 200 breast, which takes a lot more hard work than 2 laps.
And what if every teammate did the same thing? They wouldn’t have a team,… Read more »
Of course Carsten Vissering is training in the fall, just not with the team. It allows Salo more freedom with scholarships if Vissering only trains with them half the season, so 1) yes it’s good for the team and 2) yes Salo is good with it.
Good for him. Even the best of the best in the NCAA are likely to ever have swimming be a true career. Like anyone who has the chance, go and study abroad during college or enjoy new things.
Must have been the turtleneck.