Competing at the highest level is certainly not a walk in the park on either your physical or mental well-being. Matthew Rooney attends Leeds Beckett University and competes for the swimming team.
Rooney grew up in Chester and had a passion for swimming since the age of five. His Dad has played a huge role in his swimming development, “my dad is a swimming coach so as soon as I was old enough, he got me in the pool straight away.”
His parents have always been supportive, and they have never put too much pressure on him even with the superior talent he has.
Back in February Rooney was a part of the 4 x 100m relay team that took part at BUCS Nationals in Sheffield, BUCS is an annual multisport event where all the best university athletes compete on the biggest stage.
Highlight reel of BUCS nationals: https://www.instagram.com/p/C30EX5eMKdw/
The relay team certainly didn’t let Beckett down, finishing third behind Bath and Loughborough led to a place in the A finals where they would finish in fifth place out of a possible ten.
Competing at BUCS comes with wades of pressure, 1-2 weeks in advance Rooney uses race visualisations and breathing techniques, but also tries not to put too much pressure on himself as he knows that won’t help his performance.
On the day of the event that is when he will aim to hype himself up as much as he can, speaking about the preparations on the day he says: “I try to lock in as much as possible, having a pre-race play list helps my performance massively before I get behind the blocks.”
Matthew Rooney interview: https://www.instagram.com/p/C30EsGTMN6O/
The relay team’s physical preparations vary depending on the level of competition. “For high-level taper races, physical preparations are gradually reduced two weeks before alongside reducing the volume of work in the gym.”
With swimming commonly being an individual sport, less experienced spectators may look at the competitor’s time and compare it to the other racers to see who won. Rooney explains this is not always the case: “throughout the swimming season there will be races where the process is more important than the outcome as your form is the most important factor in specific races.”
There is a lot of teamwork that also goes into relay racing, hyping your teammates up is a massive factor in the mental preparation. In Rooney’s eyes the most important factor is to finish your race on a full stroke to ensure the next swimmer doesn’t start too early and then gets disqualified from the race.
A reason why Beckett’s relay team do so well is the relationship they have between them, they all joined Beckett at the same time meaning they have been training with each other week in week out for over two and a half years.
Instagram story highlight of the day at BUCS: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17990760104356176/
Jordan Cooley is involved in the same relay team as Rooney. Like Rooney, Cooley was obsessed with being a swimmer from such a young age.
Cooley’s swimming talents haven’t gone unnoticed, this month he will be up against the best as he aims to get a spot on the plane to compete for Great Britain at the Olympics in Paris.
Racing at BUCS has given Cooley the opportunity to prepare for the trials, “it’s a great steppingstone, by the time I get to the trials, and I am stood on the blocks I know I will feel fresh and ready to put my best performance in possible.”
On the day of BUCS Cooley was the first to race in the relay, mentioning the pressure that it comes with when racing first Cooley says: “we lead off on a dive anyway, so it just feels like an individual race and then you have someone to take over you afterwards. However, it is vital to get off to the best start because if not the next person has a mountain to climb when they are racing.”
In February, this was Cooley’s third time competing at BUCS. As the years have progressed the level of competition has increased every year: “it gets quicker every year, the standard is ridiculous especially in the finals when you are competing against swimmers who are setting world class times. It’s vital that I bring my A-game and I feel I have done that today.”
Both swimmers have a bright future ahead and will be aiming to progress even further once they graduate from university.
