THE ultra-FIT INTERVIEW

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ultra-FIT OCTOBER 2012

Wattage!
Interview by Caroline Sandry

THE ultra-FIT INTERVIEW

Australian long jumper Mitchell Watt won silver in London behind our very own Greg Rutherford, here he talks to ultra-FIT about his meteoric rise to fame.

UF: First of all, huge congratulations for your silver medal! How do you feel about your performance at the Games? MW: I am extremely happy! To come away with a silver medal is a pretty big achievement. Obviously there is always a tiny part of you that wants the gold medal, but I am still young and this is my first Olympics and I learnt a lot. UF: You are 24 now how do you feel about the next Olympics? MW: Physically the next Olympics should be my best. Late 20s is when most long jumpers (and actually most track athletes) are at their peak, so hopefully I can learn from this, take a bit of down time and then look forward to doing it all again! UF: How has the 'London experience' been for you? MW: The London experience has been amazing. As soon as I got off the plane at Heathrow I felt the buzz and this was three weeks before competition. There were Olympics logos everywhere, countdown clocks and the Olympic rings on display, I was really excited. UF: Did you know you had what it takes to be an elite level long jumper or was it a surprise? MW: It was a bit of a surprise! When I was younger, around 12 or 13, I used to enter races and things and win a lot of competitions, but it was nothing serious back then. I was playing rugby also in secondary school but after uni lots of my old pals were training in track and field and they persuaded me to go and train with them. Initially it was

only to hang out with my friends and get fit, but as a few weeks passed I noticed that I was getting fitter and faster extremely quickly and I was really enjoying it! Then my coach started me doing some jumping and long jump drills and we realised that I had a fair bit of talent. I was almost jumping as long as the guys that he had been training for years and I had only been there a couple of months. five or six months later we sat down and talked about it seriously and decided to give it a real shot. That was only four years ago UF: So jumping was an innate talent that you didnt even realise you had? MW: Yes, exactly. My coach (Gary Bourne) said to me that even though I hadnt done the

training and wasnt as fit as the others, that talent never leaves you and that was one thing that really stuck with me. This is one of the things that I say to young athletes, it doesnt matter what sport you play, if you have to take time out or are injured, that talent is still within you. UF: Who are/were your sporting heroes and why? MW: I am a massive football fan and Wayne Rooney is one of my favourite sportsmen. Also a couple of the rugby players that I used to play with one of them is captain of the Wallabies now. I do really admire a lot of athletes in track and field but wouldnt say they are my heroes.

OCTOBER 2012 ultra-FIT

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UF: How important has your coach Gary Bourne been? MW: (Grinning hugely) Gary Bourne? I probably owe about 95% of my success to him! Being so foreign to the sport I had no real idea about training programmes or technique or recovery and he has guided me through all of those aspects. That would be one of my pieces of advice - your coach is probably the most important person. You spend three orfour hours a day together so you need to have a lot of trust in him or her. Even here at the Olympics I was about sixth or seventh half way through the competition (which is quite unusual for me I usually get a good jump out early) and

THE ultra-FIT INTERVIEW

UF: What does a typical week's training involve? MW: During competition I would do three sprint sessions a week, two weights sessions and one jump session. And thats pretty much the same throughout the year. We run a lot more pre-season and the weights are heavier and then as you come into competition its shorter and sharper. UF: Does your training change in the winter? MW: Its hard because I am from Australia so winter and summer is confused in terms of the main European track season, but its just the volume that changes really. My pre-

UF: If you weren't an elite athlete what do you think you would be doing? MW: I am studying a law degree at the moment which has taken a bit of a back seat lately, but no matter what I will always go back and finish. I am so close to finishing but just cant find the time right now! UF: So how do you manage to combine competing with studying? MW: Well, I was really lucky because when I started I wasnt at an elite level so I wasnt travelling and this meant I was able to get a big chunk of my degree done before I reached an elite level. Now I just try to squeeze in a subject or semester every so

DoB: 25th March 1988 Height: 1.84m (61) Weight: 83Kg (180lbs) Pb: 8.54m

Mitchell Watt factfile

Olympic silver medallist 2012 World Outdoor Championships Silver Deagu 2011 Bronze Berlin 2009 World Indoor Championships Bronze Doha 2010

he gave me a few words of advice and reassured me - that helped me to commit on my second to last jump which moved me into silver medal position. UF: What advice do you have for any aspiring long jumpers amongst our readers? MW: The first thing that I recommend, which applies to every sport is to do core stability, ab and yoga type work. This is probably as important for my mum as it is for me as it keeps everything in alignment and protects your back. I think core stability often goes unnoticed, but I think its the most important thing. That has been one of the things I have been working on this last year and it has made a huge difference. The main thing I work on is my speed, so I work on getting faster. The technical stuff comes later, but there is no point working on this if you dont have the speed first. When I first started out I didnt jump for maybe 3 4 months but worked on running and getting stronger and faster. Thats how we work with our training after the season I probably wont jump until Jan next year.

season training is a lot more running and a lot more weights based, but nothing at 100%. I might do 10 x 100 at 90% then close to competition I would do 5 at 100%. Early season is higher volume lower intensity and then the opposite for competition. UF: Who's going to be the first guy to jump 9m? Have you come close? MW: Well the guy that holds the world record, Mike Powell, at 8.95 was 26 when he first jumped over 8.50 & I jumped over 8.50 when I was 23, so I am ahead of where he was at his age! Its a pretty amazing record that he has (Mike Powell holds the world record with 8.95m). UF: What do you do away from the track to relax? MW: I spend a lot of time at my house. I love kicking back with my buddies watching sports - we love watching soccer in particular. I try to rest and recover and dont really go out too much as I dont want to spend my one rest day of the week feeling hung over! We may sometimes go for a cycle to keep the legs moving too.

often, but now that I have an Olympic medal its not too high on my list of priorities! UF: Whats next for you? MW: I have some more competitions left to do before I take some rest: We have the final Diamond League meets which started in May all around the world and I have a couple of those left to do in Europe. The vibe on these is a bit more relaxed, especially post Olympics, so I am going to just enjoy them and do a bit of travelling around in between. (interview took place in mid Aug and Watt will be resting now back in Oz Ed). UF Caroline met Mitchell Watt during Olympic fortnight at The Powerade Sports Academy. Read all about her experience of training with top athletes from around the world in our next issue. The Powerade Sports Academy is an elite coaching experience where sportsmen and women from around the world train across five different disciplines with Olympians and world class coaches.

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ultra-FIT OCTOBER 2012