Going the extra Miley - How has the SIS has been supporting swimming star Hannah Miley and the rest of the swimming squad?

Individual Medley swimmer, Hannah Louise Miley (20) is a star in the pool. Finishing 6th (400m IM) in her 2008 Olympic debut in Beijing, a year later the Inverurie based swimmer came 4th at the World Championships in Rome, and followed with gold at the European Short Course at the end of last year. She is currently British Champion in the 200m IM and 400m IM.  

Throughout, the sportscotland institute of sport has provided high class facilities and high performance expertise to help Hannah achieve her potential in world class swimming events, including at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Coached by her dad Patrick, who introduced her to swimming at the age of three, the Garioch ASC swimmer works closely with a support team of ten.  Each is focused on enhancing a particular aspect of her fitness and performance.  

The team includes SIS strength and conditioning expert Neil Donald and physiotherapist Lisa Hogg.  Hannah regularly travels from Aberdeen to train with her team at the Stirling Intensive Training Centre, one of only five intensive training facilities in the UK equipped to deliver on-site, world class and fully integrated programme support.

Neil and Lisa work with Hannah’s technical coaches to design ‘dry’ land programmes that aid performance in the pool. For example, they look at ways of improving a swimmers posture. Video analysis and feedback of each training session enables Neil and Lisa to identify areas that affect stroke mechanics in the pool.

Aware that a lack of flexibility in key muscle groups can be the result of consistently poor posture, Hannah’s team address such problems by ensuring her land training programme incorporates the likes of Pilates based exercises to strengthen the body and improve posture.  In turn, this translates to giving the swimmer better shape and more control in the water.  Such land training has proven to be particularly effective for improving starts and turns – both key to improving speed in the pool.

Injury prevention is also a priority.  Due to the amount of training swimmers must undertake to compete at the highest level and the repetitive nature of strokes, these athletes are often prone to shoulder and lower back injuries.  Consequently, as part of her integrated programme, strength and conditioning and physiotherapy play an important role in ensuring Hannah is always fit to perform at her best.  

The important work Neil, Lisa and the other members of the swimming support team undertake with the current pool of Scotland’s top athletes, will also benefit the emerging talent with their own medal ambitions.  By filtering examples of best practice down to swimmers at club level, the aim is to raise overall performance in the sport – one that will deliver Scotland with a legacy of talent well beyond Delhi and Glasgow 2014.