Part 1: Preparation for the big ones
Meeting Brock on a sunny Tuesday evening, we grabbed 30 minutes between her teaching and taking part in a Pilates class. We sat by the 50m pool at Becontree Heath Leisure Centre where she trains.
Her accolades include being a four-time world record holder including beating a seven year old 200 metre individual medley world record by almost five seconds. Her highlights last year at the Paris Paralympics included winning gold in the SM8 200m individual medley, two days after she claimed silver in the SB8 100m breaststroke. Her debut on the international stage was at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships, an event she’s returning to this September in Singapore. At 28, she is already thinking about her future and what comes after, but as long as she’s able and still has the same passion for swimming, her dedication is clear to see.
She is fortunate to have already qualified for the Worlds from races earlier in the season and continues to compete at key events to help her gear up to the international level competitions. Next up this month is the Aquatics GB Next Gen Championships in Sheffield where she’s competing in five events.
With her coach Stewart Nicklin outside of the competitions as part of daily training, the strategy is to continue upping her meterage within the pool, ensuring her key sets are at the best of her ability and having higher target times than what was achieved in Paris.
Being realistic, Brock reflects on when things aren’t going as well with training: “You’re not the only athlete to jump in the pool and have a bad session. Everyone goes through this, everyone has a bad session. It’s how you deal with it and think about what went well.” Her advice to other swimmers is to use these as moments of reflection, for example: “My turns were really good but my approach into the turn could have been better; or my underwater was better but my breakouts were not as good.” She says to take stock of what didn’t go as well and how it could be better next time. Her weakness is backstroke but that means she has to keep practising rather than shy away from it, as for other swimmers, it’s their strength.