David Leggat: Getting it right at the right time

First it was yachting's turn, then last week rowing took centre stage.

This week it was hockey - albeit in a slightly different format - and next week it's swimming's turn.

It happens every four years and is guaranteed to bring delight and despair. Roll up, roll up, it's Olympic selection time.

Yachting's selection process copped a well-documented foot-trip at the door of the Sports Disputes Tribunal. YNZ is now heading for the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. Olympic nominations in two classes are on hold - hardly the ideal preparation for Athens in August.

Hockey's Black Sticks qualified for Athens not through any subjective analysis. They had to finish in the top five of the final qualifying tournament in Auckland and did so. End of story.

Rowing New Zealand's announcement of its Athens crews didn't seem to create any ripples of discontent, although two experienced oarsmen who had secured Olympic places missed out in the final shakedown. A case of making the cake but not getting to taste it.

There is the hint of a minor issue, as a women's crew is appealing against not being included for an Olympic qualifying regatta at Lucerne in June.

But that's more in the nature of seeking to demonstrate they should be given another opportunity, rather than claiming they should have been named directly to the Olympic squad.

Swimming New Zealand's national championships, which double as the Olympic trial, start at the Henderson pool on Wednesday.

Swimming's policy is simple: you clock the required time, you go. Your past performances are irrelevant. A swimmer might have gone under the qualifying mark three times in the last six months. Doesn't matter.

There will be tears for sure. About a dozen swimmers have the chance to go to Athens. They won't all make it, and in many cases it will be because they did not peak at the right time.

So the New Zealand Olympic Committee is doing its bit. This week it began a series of four seminars spread around the country, talking to Athens hopefuls and looking at how athletes can maximise their talents when it is most relevant.

Top athletes of the past, including canoeing legend Ian Ferguson, former Black Sticks captain Anna Lawrence, champion rower Chris White, Olympic long jump gold medallist Yvette Corlett and Sir Murray Halberg, are lending their wisdom to those with Athens in their sights who are willing to listen.

The idea is to try to give an insight into how they tuned their talent to achieve optimum performance on the biggest stage.

It's all very well producing the best when the heat is less than white hot. The speakers are talking about focusing on the task - how they coped with the specific pressures they felt when there was no escape, no "I'll be really ready next week". They had to be at their very best.

Halberg, 5000 metres gold medallist at Rome in 1960 - the second half of New Zealand athletics' golden hour with Peter Snell's 800m triumph - says the seminars are to "unleash the Olympian within".

The NZOC has followed the lead of the Australian and United States Olympic Committees, which have adopted the same strategy.

It is a worthy idea and if it can provide an extra spark, turn a cog in the listeners' minds, more power to it.

But it is essentially an add-on, an extra piece in the overall puzzle of unlocking an athlete's full ability with a sense of timing to do a Swiss watchmaker proud.

Ninety-nine per cent of the work has to come from the individual, and it's based on hard graft, and making the most of natural gifts. The top two inches are critical and other elements do come into play.

Next week we'll discover which swimmers have got it all right - the preparation, the mental strength and, importantly, the timing.