PREVIOUS SEASON REVIEW

INSIDE SWIM:  So let’s start with a review of your previous season, last summer. You competed in 3 events at World Championships, the 200 fly, 200 back, and 400 IM. Can you just take us through that meet for you and how you felt about your performances there?

TYLER CLARY:  Well, the meet wasn’t all that great. I didn’t perform all that well and that’s for a number of reasons, but that being said, this year is already going a heck of a lot better. And, I’m in probably the best shape I’ve been in since 2009 so I’m definitely looking forward to next year.

You recently swam at the Minneapolis Pro Swim Series meet, competing in the 400 IM, 200 fly, and the 200 back. Are you happy about how you performed at this meet and are you where you want to be right now in the season?

Training wise, I’ve been training well since we got back from the meet. However, I’m not happy with how the Minneapolis Grand Prix actually went and that’s because obviously I wanted to go faster. But that being said, it’s not all that surprising that I didn’t swim all that fast because typically when I come down from altitude I have a period of time where I just don’t swim all that fast. So it was semi-expected I guess, but since I got home and have gotten a little more rest I’ve been doing much better.

So you’re going to be swimming at Duel in the Pool next week, what events will you be competing in there?

Actually that’s a good question, I don’t even know that answer yet. But most likely the usual suspects.

Ok, do you anticipate possibly swimming the 800 freestyle relay?

That’s completely up to the coaches and they’re not usually very open about what they like to do with their relays. They usually like to wait until the night before to make that decision. I hope so but who knows.

Are you resting at all for Duel in the Pool or do you plan to train right through it?

We’re completely swimming through it. That was actually one of the things I had spoken to David and Frank about in regards to our approach to the meet. Since I found out later than I would have wanted that Duel in the Pool was actually going to be short course, we decided to swim through the meet and prep for another meet in the near future, not to necessarily shave down, but to rest and swim fast once before we hit trials.

TRAINING

So coming into this Olympic season, has your training changed in any way or has what you’ve been focusing on in training changed in any way from the previous season?

Well, the biggest thing is probably my strength program. This previous year was kind of tumultuous in that we had a couple of different things going on in the strength program and I wasn’t really confident that the program we were getting was really geared toward what I wanted to accomplish. So that ultimately led to me not doing as much strength training as I needed and I think that really injured my performance at the end of the season. This year that’s not the case. I’ve got a strength program that I believe in for the first time since before London. So all is good in that area. We just have to keep executing and work out and have a plan moving forward.

Are there any weaknesses in your strokes that you have noticed and intend to work on?

Well breaststroke has always been a weakness of mine so we are constantly working on my breaststroke. Backstroke has gotten much better in workout over the past 3 or 4 weeks, so that’s been good. You know, generally we’re trying to get faster in all aspects right now. I have the aerobic base that I need to do the events that I want to do. At this point we’re just trying to polish of the details of all my races and all my strokes.

Ok, so a lot more detail work at this point and that kind of thing?

Yeah, right.

What would you consider to be the best meet of your life or the best swim of your life? The most obvious answer would be the 200 Back at London but would you consider that your best race ever?

I’d say that London is certainly up there. I can’t really think of a whole lot of performances outside of that one that kind of take the cake.

Do you currently or have you in the past spent a lot of time analyzing the strokes of certain swimming greats to try to improve your techniques/races? If so who and what would you study?

Well the only period where I really did that consistently was when I was in college. It was 2009 and we we’re looking really closely at Aaron Peirsol’s backstroke, we were looking very closely at Ryan’s backstroke, and even Michael Phelps’s backstroke. We were watching what they were doing right and what I thought I might be able to do better, and I tried to employ that in practice I guess. It seemed to have worked for that season haha.

Yea, I would say so. So what drives you to swim? Do you enjoy the competition? Do it for the fun of it? What do you like most about swimming?

I do it because I’m competitive and I enjoy the competition that swimming brings along with it. You know, obviously being in shape is an upside, I certainly can’t complain about that. It’s more of a competition thing and at this point I’m starting to see it as a means to another step in life so that’s kind of motivation as well.

Ok, gotcha. So you’re speaking about your auto racing career after this?

Yeah, potentially.

So you currently train at SwimMac, and you guys obviously have a lot of talent on that team. What is the atmosphere like on the team? Are you enjoying it?

Yeah I enjoy it a lot! Charlotte is a great city – I love the city of Charlotte. We are really kind of engrained as a team here, and that makes being here a lot of fun. And the group that we’ve got – you know, it’s a great group of people and they’re probably one of the best professional groups in the world. So having all of that talent in one place is pretty special and it makes it a lot of fun to go to practice every day.

Yeah, I can imagine. That has to be a great group to train with. In recent years it seems like the whole world of swimming has shifted in such a way that there is more of a focus on less yardage and higher intensity/quality swimming, vs. the old training ideals of yardage, yardage, yardage. Do you see that reflected in your own training? If so, do you think this has benefitted you as a racer?

That’s kind of a loaded question because it works for some people and it depends a lot on the events that they do. So if you’re talking 100s and 200s people, sure – and you know, obviously I swim a 200 from time to time so yeah, it has helped my speed in that aspect. However, I’m never going to be able to replace the training that you get out of doing just a ton of yardage. You just have to do it sometimes, and for me, I’m one of those people that unfortunately have to do that kind of training.

Ok, so you do training that has both a lot of yardage in it as well as some shorter intense stuff that is more race pace?

Yeah, exactly.

At SwimMac I’m assuming that you guys split up into different training groups and different distances?

Yeah, at any one point there can be like four or five different workouts going on at one time – so they make sure that we get what we need.

What group do you usually train with at SwimMac?

I’m usually the one who gets stuck in the distance lane and I’ve never gotten to do anything other than the distance lane.

Who would you say is one, or a couple, of the people who you like training with the most or who push you the most in practice?

Just because of the way I train and what I train, when I have super high intensity sets and I need somebody pushing me on it, it’s usually Ryan. He always gets me to do the times that are going to make me good at the end of the season, if that makes sense.

Which training method do you identify with most/which do you enjoy most/feel is most beneficial – the training that you did with Mike Bottom at Michigan, Jon Urbanchek at FAST, or David Marsh at SwimMac?

I’d say they’ve each had their own effect to help me progress forward. I think that David has the potential to be the best for me. We just have to make sure that I’ve got the aerobic kind-of “backbone” to be able to respond to the type of training that he’s really good at giving.

Gotcha – because Marsh is kind of known to be more on the shorter, spring side of training, if I’m not mistaken?

Right.

If you could raise an ideal swim superstar from ages 6 to 30, which coaches would you want this swimmer to train under? Would it be the same coach throughout their entire career or would you change the coach/training style throughout his/her career at certain points?

Well if he could have Jon Urbanchek and David Marsh through his entire life I feel like that would be a pretty ideal setup.

Ok, so kind of start with the high yardage base and then move into more of a sprint/race-pace type of training down the line?

Right.

What do you do for training outside of the pool? I have hear that you do some Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as cross training and a supplement to your swimming, is that true?

Yup, that’s true. I do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as cross training because I think that it helps my upper body strength a lot and it’s a ton of fun of do. I go and do it usually once or twice a week when I’m in town for a while, and it’s just a lot of fun.

What would you say is the most beneficial exercise for your swimming that you do outside of the pool?

Our strength training as a whole is extremely beneficial because what we’re doing in the water is supplemented very well by being extremely strong out of the water because water as a substance is much thicker, obviously, than air. So having that extra strength is a must.

Ok, so lifting in general you find very beneficial?

Well anything that’s strength really. I mean any dry land or any kind of on land strength is a really big thing to have.

And you feel that what you’re doing translates pretty well into your swimming?

Absolutely.

Can you give me an example of a kick set you might do to work your underwaters? Also, do you do any dryland exercises to mimic and work on your underwater kicking?

I mean, underwater kicking is an extremely core intensive motion or movement so being extremely strong in your core is obviously going to help that. Ankle flexibility is a big thing two, so those would be two things to work on. A set that we did on Wednesday was ten 100s kick all out on 2:30 in SCY and I was going mostly underwater for it, so that might answer your question.

Ok great. What times were you going on that set?

I think I was going mostly 55s and 56s.

In backstroke, what is the first motion you think about after entering your hand in the water? Is it grabbing the water/the catch or is it stretching and rotating a bit?

It’s really a mixture of both, that has to happen all at once. So really, my answer would be yes to all of that haha.

Do you still enjoy having a coach get in your face and really motivate you or are you almost purely internally motivated now?

I mean there have certainly been times where me being angry has helped, but I would say that it is a healthy mixture of both.

PERSONAL

So I hear that you are involved in aquaponics as a hobby in your spare time. Can you just run us through aquaponics and the system that you have built?

Well it’s a greenhouse that’s 6 feet wide by 16 feet long. It has three grow beds in it and we’re growing – I want to say – close to 20 different varieties of vegetables in there. And that is probably at about two-thirds of the capacity for what it can grow in there as far as species are concerned.   But overall there is a lot of vegetable life going on in there right now.

Very cool. And the whole idea behind aquaponics is that the food grown in the system is more healthy and more organic – is that kind of the premises there?

Yeah, pretty much. I also kind of just wanted something to – not necessarily to do – but seeing Aquaponics as a system and building my first greenhouse – I thought it would be fun to try to automate it. So most of it is automated and web-connected so it kind of just runs itself and I check on it from time to time.

I hear there are some schools nearby you in Charlotte that are interested in studying the system that you have there.

There is a group that gets more greenhouses and gardens in the schools around the Charlotte area and we’re in talks right now to do some work with them where I would design the control systems and aquaponics systems that would go inside greenhouses at seven different schools in the area.

That’s great, good for you. You’re also an avid racecar driver. How do you plan to move forward with your racing career and do you still plan to pursue racing as a career after the Olympics?

Yeah, so basically we had the good luck of getting signed by BMW in June. And essentially what that started from was my passion and my hope to get into racing after I’m done swimming, so they’re very aware that I want to pursue racing and they’re on board with that. So we just have to kind of keep this relationship with BMW alive and healthy and it looks like we might be able to continue the relationship post-swimming into a racing career which would be wonderful. And if I can move forward and keep building relationships with other companies and get some funding to go open wheel racing that would be an absolutely ideal situation.

Very cool. So when you say that you’re signed to BMW, do you ever get a free car that you can use or anything along those lines?

Basically yes.

Nice, pretty good deal. I hear that you are an avid player of League of Legends – I actually have a lot of friends from school who play and have basically lost their lives to that game – Caroline (Tyler’s girlfriend) says that you play a game after almost every practice. Do you think that it helps your mentality and helps you unwind?

Yeah, I think it does. I mean it definitely helps to have something to kind of take your mind off of things. I would say that it is a good thing because you have a chance – at least for me – to sit down and relax and kind of just like ‘be,’ if that makes sense.

Yeah, definitely. My brother and I are actually kind of addicted to Zombies on Call of Duty, I don’t know if you have ever played zombies or not…

Yeah, definitely. That’s a good one!

Do you still DJ and make music at all?

I do but it’s more of a past time for me and I really just kind of mix every once in a while. It’s not something I do nearly as frequently anymore but that’s because my time is kind of at a premium lately and that’s just kind of how it is.

Right, you just have other priorities now.

Yeah, exactly.

Do you have any other big hobbies that most people are unaware of?

You know that’s really about it. I like programing, I like video games obviously, love racing – pretty much everything has been covered.

THE GOOD STUFF

Who is your favorite person to follow on Instagram/Twitter?

I like to follow a lot of men’s fashion stuff and that’s partly because I am kind of changing my look a little bit. So I follow a lot of that stuff. I’m starting to follow more of gardening and aquaponics type things as well. So basically anything included in my basic interests are the type of people that I follow but there’s not really a particular account that I’m jazzed about.

So as far as fashion goes, if you could self-describe your own fashion, what kind of fashion style would you say you have?

I would say kind of like a high class, modern take on vintage.

I heard that one time Ryan Lochte let you borrow his Ferrari, what was that like? What was the occasion?

To be honest, he didn’t really like driving it very much and he was going to sell it and get another car in a couple of weeks so he let me have it for a couple of weeks and it was awesome obviously. I mean driving around a red Ferrari 430 Scuderia was definitely not something that I ever expected would have happened and I extremely enjoyed it.

What is your dream car?

Hmm… I don’t have a dream car, I’ve got like a few cars that I’d like to have in the stable I’d say. Obviously anyone wants the supercars but I, no joke, absolutely love my BMW X5. I love it to death. It’s really everything you could ever want in a car. I wouldn’t mind having a BMW M5 as well. I’d like a Nissan GTR, and a Ferrari LaFerrari would be pretty cool. As far as street going cars go that’s pretty much all I have my eye on. As far as race cars go, a sponsored one is what I want.

If you had to choose a ringtone for your phone right now what would it be?

It would be “Pets” by deadmau5.

So it wouldn’t be “Sorry” by Justin Bieber?

No.

Haha ok. I’m turning into quite the Justin Bieber fan myself. He’s been putting out fire if you ask me…but I guess to each their own.

I mean, I’ll give it to him that he’s much more bearable than he used to be. You know, I will listen to “Where Are You Now?” but that’s mainly because it’s a collaboration with Skrillix.

What did you care about most when you were 10 years old?

When I was ten I was loving going to swim practice, I was really interested in robotics, and I was really interested in any kind of fast desert cars back then – for me it was dune buggies, robotics, and swimming.

I know you are the belly flop king but how are your jackknife/cannonball skills?

Haha. My cannonball skills are dismal and my jackknives are average.

What would I find in your refrigerator right now?

A ton of Thanksgiving leftovers.

If you could trade places with someone for a week who would it be?

Louis Hamilton – the driver who won the Formula One World Championship this year and last year.

If you won $100 million in the lottery, what would you do with it?

I would invest it and live off the ridiculous amount of interest that would be accrued and be set for the rest of my life.

If you could give your high school self any advice, what would that advice be?

Just have faith in yourself and the people around you and everything will work out.

Who do you think is better looking, Brad Pitt or Ryan Gosling?

Obviously Ryan Gosling – it’s not just the face, it’s the style too.

You know what – you’re absolutely right. Ryan Gosling is a pretty good looking dude. Not that Brad isn’t but…

Well I never said that he wasn’t but you asked who was better looking.

Tell me about your beard.

It’s long, it’s thick, and it’s bushy.

That’s what I’m talking about, I like that. Do you plan on shaving it soon or doing anything special with it?

It’s probably gonna stay until the Austin Grand Prix to be completely honest.

FAVORITES

Pre-meet meal:

I got some advice when I was in high school – I think – maybe it was before London… A chiropractor that I was working with back then told me that it is actually not a bad idea to have a cheeseburger before a meet to help you load up on good fats and things like that before you actually start to compete so that’s kind of what I try to do before the meet starts.

Pre-race song/music:

I’ve been really into trap music lately, and anything from Grabbitz really. That’s what I’ve been listening to before I compete.

Movie/TV show:

We’re in the dark period right now with Game of Thrones, with it not currently being in season.

Competition pool:

I really like the pool at Omaha. It’s really cool that we get to compete in a pool as special as that one. And the fact that it’s in the middle of the country, we can pack tens of thousands of fans into one place to watch it, there are pyrotechnics on deck – it makes it like no other swim meet in the world.

MOVING FORWARD/OLYMPICS 2016:

So do you have a lineup of events that you’re pretty sure you are going to compete in at trials?

Yep, the 200 back, 200 fly, 400 IM, and 200 free for a shot at the 800 free relay.

Have you considered doing any 100s?

Haha, I’ve considered it but I’m not good at them so no.

Are you focusing more on one event than the others in your training?

I train IM so my training kind of takes care of everything, if that makes sense.

There is a lot of young talent in USA swimming lately, have these rising swimmers played any part in how you are preparing/training? For example, Ryan Murphy has made quite a name for himself in both SCY and LCM. How would you say the competition this year compares with the competition of 2012?

It is just as intense as it has ever been. There has always been people who have gone fast and you just have to turn your focus inwards and try to make yourself as fast as possible and not necessarily worry about what other people are doing because not only are you different from them but there are so many different variables between what I’m doing and what they might be doing. And if I’ve come this far off what I’ve been doing then I’m doing something right, so I kind of stick to my guns.

How is your mentality different going into the 2016 Olympic trails vs. the 2008 and 2012 trials?

It’s different in that I have made the Olympic team before and the Olympic Trials are a stepping stone into the Olympics now and not something that basically my entire future hangs on anymore. And it’s exciting because the better that I do there, not only will that improve my legacy in swimming but it will also give me a higher chance of success when it comes to Motorsports.

Do you plan on fully tapering for trials or not all the way?

I’m going to taper very hard for trials but there will still be some left in the tank.

Any advice for swimmers where this meet will be their first Olympic trials?

Just enjoy the experience, don’t let it intimidate you, and realize that it’s just another swim meet.