Spain's artistic swimming coach Mayuko Fujiki: How to train to be an Olympic artistic swimmer
Spain achieved its best ever artistic swimming haul at the 2023 World Championship in Fukuoka, winning seven medals. Their coach, Japan's Mayuko Fujiki, explained to Olympics.com the training methods that have reaped such reward.
Artistic Swimming
Japan has practically become Spain's sister nation in artistic swimming.
Or sort of like a lucky charm. Although in reality it has nothing to do with luck in this sport. Rather with work - with the succession of repetitions of movements, of hours in and out of the water, of listening to the same piece of music over and over and over again without any seeming to be the last.
Artistic swimming is as synonymous with perfection and synchronisation as Japan is to Spain in this sport.
At Fukuoka 2023, Spain achieved the best World Championship results in its artistic swimming history, finishing second in the medal table (to Japan, of course) having won seven medals, including a first ever gold in team technical.
“I don't feel [this success] is a surprise because we have worked for five years focusing on progressing in each competition," Mayuko Fujiki, the coach and choreographer of Spain told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview. "Before going to this World Championship we already knew that we could achieve medals. These medals are not a surprise, but there's one more step to go to Paris because we have the next Olympic Games as a very big goal. In this Aquatics worlds we have gained great energy to continue one more year for Paris."
Fujiki, because it seems that it could not be otherwise, is from Japan.
Back in her home nation, she brought Spain to the top of the sport with the next Olympic Games in sight, but before resuming training with that goal in mind, Fujiki spoke with Olympics.com to explain her training systems and the path Spain will follow towards Paris 2024.
A typical training week for the Spanish artistic swimming team
The programme below describes a peak week of training, taking as a reference the two weeks before the Fukuoka World Aquatics Championships 2023. After that fortnight, the physical load decreases.
Mayuko Fujiki divides her day into two training blocks: a morning block and an afternoon block. Every five blocks (two on Monday, two on Tuesday and one on Wednesday; and two on Thursday, two on Friday and one on Saturday), the swimmers do not work in the pool, in order to rest.
This is a typical training week of the Spanish artistic swimming team:
Monday and Tuesday
Morning session
- 7.30am: duo and solo swimmers begin to train: one hour of dry land training and three hours in the water.
- Immediately after, the team arrives. Their training programme is normally: around half an hour of acrobatics, 45 minutes of dry land training and around three or three-and-a-half hours in the water.
Afternoon session
- Team training: around three-and-a-half or four hours in the pool.
- Afterwards, recovery, such as a cold bath.
Wednesday
Morning session
- Similar programme to Monday and Tuesday in the morning sessions.
Afternoon session
- Rest [without pool training]. "In this break, we don't dive into the water but we take the chance to do dry, video sessions...".
Thursday and Friday
- Similar programme to Monday and Tuesday in the morning session and afternoon session.
Saturday
Morning session
- Dry training for an hour
- Four hours of training in the pool
Afternoon session
- Rest [without pool training]. "Generally on Saturday we try to do different things because the fifth session is always more complicated [as concentration dips due to fatigue]".
Sunday
- Rest day: day off
What is dry land training in artistic swimming?
Dry land training in artistic swimming normally consists of repetitions of the routine, but outside the pool. Generally, arm movements and facial expressions remain the same as in the water, but leg movements are also performed with accompanying hand gestures.
"Dry training is very important, especially for the teams. They serve to perfect the details of the movements because in the water it takes longer to reach the exact point of synchronisation," explains Fujiki.
For example, when making a diagonal, at dry training the distance between the swimmers is calculated in order to achieve the desired shape. To perform the same diagonal in the water, factors considered include exactly what point you have to see on the cap of the partner who is immediately in front of you.
The dry routine also serves as a warm-up and is also usually repeated one last time before diving into the pool in a competition.
The importance of rest in artistic swimming
In a sport in which the repetition of movements and figures is vital, requiring many hours of training, with the consequent physical and mental fatigue, Fujiki sees resting as necessary as the training itself.
"Resting is important, and I think this has changed because in my time people thought more about training than resting. Now we know that, without rest, the quality of training both mentally and physically drops," says Fujiki who won bronze as an artistic swimmer with Team Japan at Atlanta 1996.
Medals the main goal for Spain's artistic swimmers at Paris 2024
Generally speaking, Fujiki plans the competitions following the Olympic cycle, the most important competition for her team. Taking into account when they are taking place, goals are planned around the rest of the competitions.
An example of this is the 2024 Doha World Championships, which will serve as an Olympic qualifier for Paris 2024 for artistic swimming.
“Doha 2024 is a World Championships, but in my head, it is as if it were a pure Olympic Qualifier Tournament because our biggest objective there is to qualify for the Games," remarks Spain's coach. "In Doha, we will focus on technical team, free team, technical duo and free duo because the most important thing is to get the ticket for the Games."
Another consideration is the generational changes that may occur in the team. For example, since Fujiki returned to the Spanish team in 2018 – having first coached Spain to two Olympic silver medals at Beijing 2008 – the first objective was to form a base team with which to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Games, and with which to fight for the medals in Paris.
"In Tokyo, my goal was not to win medals but to build up and gain confidence as a team. If we get the ticket to Paris 2024 in Doha, at the Games we will fight for the medals because I think we are in the top four. The intensity of the competition is maximum. All the countries at the Games will be able to win medals, but we are going to the maximum thinking about this objective in Paris 2024," she says.
How the training system changes in the build-up to the Olympics?
In addition to the Olympics being the biggest objective for Fujiki and her team, the Games have unique demands that must be considered.
"The Olympic Games are a very different competition," Fujiki says. "For example, we cannot change the swimmers in the technical team and in the free team. At the World Championships, we can. Therefore, for the worlds, we have a substitute swimmer in the technical and another one in the free team. So we can ensure two swimmers only focused on a different team routine. And the same happens with the duo. But in the Games there can only be eight swimmers in total. This means that the training changes from a year before the Olympics because the same eight swimmers, they have to do everything."
What separates the best artistic swimmers from the rest?
Working on the technical elements, acrobatics, artistic impression and difficulty to achieve a perfect synchronisation of a team – both between the swimmers and with the music – and with the aim of showing the best possible routine, is not something that can be done without spending hours and hours of time and effort.
Taking this into account, Fujiki brings up another factor that sets the world's best apart.
"Personality makes the difference between swimmers," she reveals. "In our sport, time is not measured, or it doesn't matter who can lift more kilos. We are not numbers but a sport that is judged and, therefore, what other people think of your personality is very important."
"For me, the best athletes in artistic swimming are humble people but a little bit tetchy as well - but they only show that part of themselves when it's needed during the three-minute routine. The rest of the time these swimmers are humble: she thanks the coaches, she helps other countries, she thinks a lot of her team... These types of athletes always reach the top."
How to grow as a coach, by Mayuko Fujiki
Mayuko Fujiki, a bronze medallist at Atlanta 1996 with Team Japan, has been in five other Games as coach of various teams: Athens 2004 (two silver with Japan), Beijing 2008 (two silver with Spain), London 2012 (United States), Rio 2016 (two silver medals with People's Republic of China) and Tokyo 2020 (Spain).
But although her life has been completely linked to artistic swimming, Fujiki also looks to other sports for inspiration as a coach.
"I love talking to coaches from other sports because I think we can learn a lot from each other and have a wider point of view. I usually go to matches or competitions in other sports but to look at the coaches, not what is happening on the field. I pay attention to how they communicate in the field, how they talk to their athletes... This is very important for me to learn because we don't have a book on how to be a coach, but we learn through experience," she says.
However, although there is no manual, Fujiki does read books by coaches and she has a main reference: Eleven Rings, by Phil Jackson.
"Not only because he is a very good coach," remarks Fujiki of the man who coached his basketball teams, including the Chicago Bulls, to a record 11 NBA championship titles, "I simply pay attention to how he walks or how he touches a player who is on the court or what place he gives himself within the team during interviews. Even aspects of his personal life as well."
"You spend most of the day with your athletes and I think it's important to learn how other coaches do it, how they treat their athletes, the results of their matches or competitions are not that relevant for me. I aim to be this type of coach [that shares positive values with her athletes]."
And her goal is in constant progression. It does not have limits.
Like her team.