Waves coach Andy Adair's tough approach with his club squad brought impressive results at the Queensland short course championships last weekend.
The six Waves swimmers won nine medals - three gold, five silver and one bronze - in two days of intensive swimming in a packed field of 900 competitors.
"We have to become a lot tougher if our swimmers are to reach international standards," Adair said on his return from Brisbane.
Adair adopted this new approach after seeing the success of his top female swimmer, Phoebe Williams, during the transtasman series.
The idea in the transtasman series is to throw the swimmers in at the deep end by competing at meets in three different venues in six days.
This includes travel by bus and sleeping in basic accommodation.
"It is a very hard approach but it gets swimmers ready to compete in the international arena," Adair said.
"It makes them mentally tough."
The Waves squad is preparing for the New Zealand Spring championships in Christchurch at the end of the month and Adair did not taper his swimmers for the Queensland event.
"I told them to look upon the competition as just another part of their training," he said.
"But I still wanted them to swim fast."
Adair designed this approach to get his swimmers ready for international competition and make it easier for them to cope with the pressure.
"Failure is not an option for us," Adair said.
"It is a teething time for our swimmers and it will toughen them up mentally."
Williams was the best-performed Waves swimmer at the championships and won two golds and a silver medal in the 16 years age grade.
Williams won gold medals in the 400m individual medley (4min 52.91sec) and 800m freestyle (8min 44.83sec).
She also won silver medals in the 200m freestyle (2min 4.92sec) and 200m individual medley (2min 20.69sec).
Shane Patience won a gold medal in the men's aged 17 and 18 1500m (15min 19.19sec), silver in the 400m freestyle (3min 55.01sec) and bronze in the 200m butterfly (2min 5.10sec).
