Interview With Hannah Cromhout

Leader Manager Coach Podcast

Welcome to another episode of the Leader Manager Coach podcast. In this episode, Rob interviews international swimmer Hannah Cromhout who represents South Africa. Hannah shares her experiences of being selected for her country at the age of 13, her daily training schedule and what she has learnt from taking her training and sport more seriously.

Key Takeaways

Being Selected To Represent Your Country. Hannah spoke of being nervous beforehand. However, it was great to meet new people, visit new countries like Malawi and being able to wear the South African flag.

What made you start swimming seriously? Hannah spoke of her journey through junior swimming competitions, at state and regional level. Qualifying to swim in a 50-metre pool was really daunting but important step her Hannah's development.

Watching others. Being able to watch others and celebrating other people's success. Hannah spoke of the learning that she has gone through with regard to her sport. Not only specific learning to swimming but growing up on tour and learning how to look after herself. This is a path that Hannah really wanted to go one from a young age.

Growing and learning from Swimming. Flying to Durban without Hannah's parents for the first time was a big step in her development. Swimming is broken down into small things, and doing each of these well can be a really important piece of learning. Hannah highlighted how on every tour she has gone on she learnt more and more and more. Going on tour has enabled her to learn to look out for herself and take responsibility for her actions.

Looking after yourself with regard to sleep, hydration, and food. Hannah learnt to discipline herself with regard to sleep and food. She decided to pay the price with regard to eating the right food, and sleeping well. Some athletes really need six hours of sleep, but I try to get eight hours of sleep. In a gala the longer the competition goes on then Hannah's coach pushes for ten hours of sleep a night to aid recovery.

What does your training schedule look like? Hannah trains every day, sometimes twice a day, for 1 and a half hours or 2 hours. On a training camp in Greece, she swam 93 km over a ten-day period. Hannah learnt a lot from that hectic training schedule mentally which is another whole side of swimming. Hannah really focused on the positive visualisation emotionally and mentally which has helped to improve her performance in swimming

What is the focus of the individual sessions? Each session differs but there will be different drills, kicks and other sets including warm-ups and warm downs. Friday and Saturday we cover around 6K. We focus a lot on building our core muscles, which is essential for swimming.

What have you learnt in terms of mentality and psychology? 90% of your performance is mental, short term or long term and then only 10% is physical. Hannah learnt how deep the mentality is to this, to try and block out everyone around her. You can't change other peoples actions, only focus on what you can change. If something goes wrong, you can't let that affect your performance.

What is your biggest challenge? I have gone through lots of ups and downs. There is a thing called the swimmer's plateau where you don't increase your time for months on end, which is really frustrating. It's important to focus on the enjoyment as well as the constant drive to get a better time. It's really important for Hannah to have friends that is a successful network around her.

It's important to only focus on yourself. Not focus on others and their successes. Be willing to put the sacrifices in place so you can work hard on becoming an elite athlete. Don't let anything around you knock you off your path.

Favourite Film: Mamma Mia 2

Best Moments

‘This is a path that I really wanted to go on.'

‘How much of a difference the small things can make.'

‘My coach tries to get the best out of us.'

‘It took time for me to realise that my coach only wanted the best for me.'

‘My friends are the reason I turn up to my swimming.'

‘Focus on only yourself and be the best you can be.'

‘Don't let anything around you knock you off your path.

Valuable ResourcesMastery - George Leonard

About the Host (and Guest)

Host - Rob Ryles

Rob Ryles is a UEFA A licensed coach with a League Managers Association qualification and a science and medicine background. He has worked in the football industry in Europe, USA and Africa; at International, Premiership, League, Non League and grass roots levels with both World Cup and European Championship experience.

Rob Ryles prides himself on having a forward thinking and progressive approach to the game built through his own experience as well as lessons learned from a number of highly successful managers and coaches.

The Leader Manager Coach Podcast is where we take a deep dive examining knowledge, philosophies, wisdom and insight to help you lead, manage and coach in football, sport and life.

Guest - Hannah

Hannah Cromhout is an international swimmer who has represented South Africa. She currently combines her training with full time studies.

Contact Method

Website: https://www.robryles.co.uk

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMPYDVzZVnA

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertryles/?originalSubdomain=uk

LEARN MORE HERE Football, coach: https://www.patreon.com/robryles

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