Ben Firing For Trials

Having just turned 22, Funky Trunks athlete Ben Armbruster is quietly climbing up the ranks of Aussie sprint swimming, and it just might be at the right time with Olympic Trials less than a month away.

Racing at the Australian Championship on a full training load, Ben swam three PBs with silver in the 50 fly and back and bronze in the 100 fly, which he swam straight after 50 free final, where he was fourth.

Ben's schedule is packed with studies at Bond University, training and racing but he managed to squeeze in a quick interview with us to give us an insight how he is feeling prior to Trials.

FT: Your results at the Australian Champs were great. How do you now re-focus and find ways to improve in such a short period of time leading into Trials?

BA: I wouldn’t really call it a refocus as it’s always been my focus. It’s just about practice and training to get myself on that team. There are 6 weeks to keep doing what I’m doing, focus on all the little things and try to give myself the best chance possible.

FT: You seem to keep finding any extra few fractions of seconds every time you race. Are you analysing each race and finding small ways to improve or is it simply just training harder and getting stronger in the gym?

BA: I think there is an element of my simply getting better, but we are definitely analysing my race and looking at where we can clean things up. At the moment we are looking at skills. Swim speed comes and goes with fitness really, but skills are where you can make a lot of ground up, especially with the underwaters.

FT: What is a typical training week for you, both in the pool and dryland?

BA: At the moment we are swimming 9 sessions per week coming into Trials, 3 of which are quality with plenty of dive efforts. I also gym 3 times a week, physio once a week and occasionally a massage.

FT: How important is recovery for a sprinter? What do you do to keep your body feeling good?

BA: All the little things are really important to make sure I stay flexible and don’t tighten up, so if I can stretch, roll out or trigger point I’ll use the help from my physio to help me to get that done so I am preventing injuries and not treating them. In terms of recovery diet is really important too to ensure I eat clean, although everybody does love a cheat meal.

FT: Can you talk us through a 100m fly final when you’re going neck and neck with the best swimmers in Australia. Are you aware of where you are in the field or is it just head down?

BA: I’m definitely aware of them but I know it all comes down to that moment and who puts together the best race, so there could be somebody on paper who is faster than me but it doesn’t matter if they can’t execute in the race. I need to stay focused, do my thing, trust myself, trust my process and nail everything I can.

FT: There are a lot of Trials going on around the world. Do you pay much attention to the times other swimmers are doing or do you like to block all that out?

BA: I am keeping my mind in Australia at the moment, however I met a fella in Germany at a World Cup who has the same last name as me (Luca), and he just made the Olympics for Germany. I typically try to not worry about others around the world but I thought that was pretty cool.

FT: How do you distract yourself from the constant pressure to perform and prepare for a Games Trials?

BA: I don’t really get stressed about swimming until I’m behind the blocks, but when I’m not swimming I’m not really thinking about swimming. I’m usually off doing other things with mates, this year I picked up surfing so I’ve been doing that and trying to nail the balance between life outside of swimming and not making swimming my whole life.

FT: What’s your favourite pair of Funky Trunks at the moment? Will it get packed in the bag to Paris if you get a ticket?

BA: My favorite pair out of all Funky Trunks are the Cracked Gold APEX Suits. They are awesome. I also love the Still Reds, they’ve been a favorite lately. The APEX suit is what I train in and I don’t want to change that going into competition.

We can't wait to see what Ben can do fully tapered and firing at Aussie Trials when they start on June 10.

You can follow Ben @_benarmbruster