Old-school bonding heals divide

"Old-school bonding" is healing the gender divide among the Aussie team. Source: Quinn Rooney / Getty Images

TWO weeks of old-school bonding has united the Australian swim team with social interaction rather than social media helping to repair the gender divide.

One of the big issues facing Australia for the world titles has been improving the "toxic" culture which ruined the London Olympic campaign last year and included the infamous stilnox bonding night by the relay men.

But for 14 days in Barcelona Australian swimmers have connected with regularly activities such card games, jigsaw puzzles, Pictionary, celebrity heads and even a trivia night.

Mobile phones are banned at meal times and on pool deck, forcing swimmers to communicate through words rather than 140 character tweets.

Former Olympian Matt Dunn was invited to address the team during the week and head women's coach Michael Bohl said the entire camp environment was very much improved from 12 months earlier.

"Yeah there's a definite difference," Bohl said.

"I think the feeling amongst the group is a lot more bonded and a lot more united this time.

"You hear yelling and laughing and those sorts of things which is always good coming into a meet to keep them nice and relaxed."

Head men's coach Rohan Taylor said the team staff had deliberately kept the swimmers busy with fun activities throughout the staging camp.

He said the attitude of the team was built upon three key rules this year: make sure you're individually prepared to perform, understand and respect that everyone else is trying to prepare to perform and have fun supporting your teammates.

"We think those three things will give us our best chance of having performances consistently through the meet," Taylor said.

The team's new leadership group met with high performance director Michael Scott and the coaches to set guidelines regarding athlete support in the stands to help foster team spirit.

Swimmers are expected to attend morning and evening sessions to support their teammates, with only those with races in the next two days exempt from going to the pool to cheer.

"It will give us enough critical mass in the stands to create a good feel of support and as much as we can do that without interfering with their individual preparation," Taylor said.

"It is important, it's something we definitely want to bring back to the fore."

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