Breathless Teamwork At Its Best

Almost every evening at the Bukit Jalil Aquatic Centre, Team Malaysia synchronised swimmers – aged 14 to 22 – go through rigorous training comparable with that of military drills. 

These girls would start with the mandatory warm up stretching, weight-lifting, push-ups and running before they enter the water.

“In stretching our muscles, we do splits. We have to do the splits over 180 degrees on the ground so that we can execute flat splits in the water.  

“We also move our hands the way we’re supposed to do with our legs when we’re upside down in the water," says Jessie Kwong, a team member. "It helps translate our muscle memory when we get into the water."  

When the athletes are properly warmed up, they slip on their nose clips and dive into the pool. National coach Long Yan watches their moves by the pool deck with her assistant Shareen Png. The synchronised swimmers look like they are ‘dancing above the water’ as they slide and position their hands and feet beneath the water.  

As the athletes start to spin, flip and kick their legs to the beat of the music piped through underwater speakers, Long Yan remind them to keep an eye on each other. After a few rounds of the routine, the athletes rest at the side of the pool. The coach then tells them what needs to be worked on. 

People often don’t know that synchronised swimmers are vulnerable to injuries, particularly in their backbone and shoulders. That is why rest and rehabilitation is just as important as training. 

After a 5-minute interval, the swimmers jump back into the pool to rehearse, this time working on the timing and hand movements with weights strap to their ankles. She urges the girls to push themselves as high as possible out of the water. 

The pace of training becomes unrelenting with Png tapping an iron rod at the side of the pool while the swimmers make rapid, robot-like movements; one moment their bodies are upside down and their extended leg spiralling as they disappear underwater; the next, they strike exact angles with their arms and heads. 

These girls move explosively, propelling themselves up and out of the water using only their muscular power. Their lung capacity are also constantly pushed to the limits. 

As much as two-thirds of their lung-busting three minute routine is done underwater.  

"Synchronised swimming requires the athletes to hold their breaths for a very long time. 

"They need to do complicated moves with minimum breathing intervals throughout their routine," says Png, who represented Malaysia in international meets for 11 years before retiring to be a coach in 2013.  

Indeed, synchronised swimming is a very strenuous sport with three quarters of the training time underwater. On the surface, the swimmers’ exaggerated facial expressions of surprise, anger and pearly white smiles matches the music. 

The theatrics in their choreography is emphasised by their sparkly costumes, glittery head-piece and brightly-painted faces. Each of these elements enhances the performance themes.  

Halfway through their practice, Long Yan reminds them to smile more cheerfully so as to be in synch with the upbeat music tempo. 

“Although they are tired and in pain, they must remember to smile and point their toes because marks are given for artistic expression," she says.  

The swimmers surface from under the water again to smile with their mouths wide open while taking in deep breaths. At first glance, they look like cheerful cupcakes bobbing up and down in the water. 

In reality, however, they are tough cookies. Their smiles hide the constant pain of sore muscles from rigorous repetitions. "There are usually nine of us and we have to be identical. We have to go over the drill many times until we get our timing right," says Foong Yan-Nie, one of the team members. 

A Hubei native who represented China at the Olympics in 1996, Long Yan knows how to motivate and guide her athletes to become physically stronger and more assured of their abilities.  

“Their bodies would need to be flexible and strong. They need to be good in all the splits, whether it’s flat splits or box splits,” says the no-nonsense lady, who has been coaching Team Malaysia for the past seven years.     

She dishes out more difficult manoeuvres and higher repetitions as she expects them to build up core strengths and exert their muscles to the maximum.  

“We get them used to the rigorous demands of competitions. It becomes more intense and point-scoring oriented as the time gets nearer the international meets.”  The judges will be on the lookout for spectacular lifts, Long Yan says, the more complicated it is, the more marks the team will garner. 

Typically, it is the smallest and most graceful in the team who gets thrown up in the highlight of the routine. She is known as the ‘flyer’. The coach notes synchronised swimmers become more confident as they overcome fear to achieve one small goal after another. 

When the team fumbles and make mistakes, one can see her holler from the poolside, “learn from this, don’t let it happen again.”

It is the SEA Games in Singapore, from June 2 to 4, that will give Long Yan a better gauge of how far her team has progressed since the rebuilding process started early 2014. 

There will be three synchro gold medals up for grabs: a 'technical’ and a 'free’ competition in both the duet and team events, which feature eight swimmers. 

In the technical contest, the teams and pairs must perform a series of specific moves in a prescribed order; in the free event, they are able to perform an entirely original choreographed routine. 

Within the team, there are two pairs of sisters; the older pair being Hua Wei and Zhen Yu and the younger pair, Veronica and Victorya. 

One would think, being sisters, they would be more ‘in synch’ and therefore placed next to each other in the routine. 

The truth is far from that. “Zhen Yu and myself have different abilities. We’re sisters but when it comes to training, we’re all team mates. 

"I guess we’re lucky that other members don’t compare both of us,” says Hua Wei. 

Veronica nods in agreement and says her sister, Victorya, is seldom paired up with her. 

“Victorya and I have similar genes but we’re actually quite different in our flexibility and strength.  

“Coach Long Yan would usually select which among us should pair up for duets as she can best evaluate our abilities for different routines,” Veronica adds.