Besides revealing to the world that triathlon fan favourite Lionel Sanders is actually a ‘Swifty’, the most recent episode of the Tower 26 Be Race Ready podcast also underlined the reason behind the Canadian’s move back to former swim coach Gerry Rodrigues.

The Head Coach of the prestigious Tower 26 swimming programme – based in Santa Monica, California – Rodrigues is a swimming technique expert and had previously worked alongside Sanders on what has always been his triathlon Kryptonite.

In the episode (watch it in full via the embed below) Sanders talked about how the PTO Tour US Open in Milwaukee opened his eyes to the writing on the wall, why Rodrigues is the man for him and why as an athlete, learning from his mistakes is such a big part of the process.

“My career was well and truly over”

Having, by his own admission, ‘ruined’ the coach-athlete relationship with Rodrigues so many times in the past, Sanders admits that after a swimming epiphany in mid-July, he didn’t have the nerve to ask for coaching, but rebuilt Rodrigues’s trust thanks to a trial period in the pool.

“I messaged Gerry, because I saw the writing on the wall with my swimming in about mid-July and I didn’t have the nerve to ask him to coach me, because I had ruined the Gerry relationship multiple times, but I messaged him to get back on the online programme. By then, I had gone a solid year with no emphasis on technique and had deteriorated to borderline career-worse swimming.

“We got on the phone a few times and we had a trial period, where I had to prove I was relationship material again. I looked back on when I was doing my very best and that was when I was working with Gerry, and that was the best swimming I was doing, so there was an element of having to swallow my pride.” 

Stubborn Sanders ready for meaningful change

One thing which helped rebuild the relationship, according to Sanders, was the change he had seen in himself after becoming a father. Despite being the type of athlete who wants to make his own mistakes, the Ontario native knew he now needed to move forward.

“I am one of those people who has to learn about things on my own and learn from my mistakes and whilst a lot of things that Gerry pointed out to me whilst we were working together were true, I just didn’t believe him and had to test it myself, where I then eventually came to the same conclusion.

“In Milwaukee [PTO Tour US Open], I said to myself that my career was well and truly over, not that I couldn’t go and race professionally anymore, but that the dream of being the best in the world is 100% over, if I didn’t make meaningful change in the swim.

“I concluded that I have no time left to waste, and for the swim, I needed someone who knows me well and would help me make the least amount of mistakes and whilst Gerry will admit that he doesn’t know everything, he’s the guy for me.”