Klim's the veteran of the squad, but changes keep him on his toes

''It's almost like a crash course in swimming. A few of the things have changed dramatically,'' Klim said yesterday.

Head coach Leigh Nugent gathered the fastest men's swimmers in the country for the four-day camp in Homebush to prepare the potential relay swimmers for the highly competitive 4x100 metres Olympic event.

It was a technical affair, with cameras and computers capturing the finest details of the all-important changeovers.

''We never spend that much time using all these resources, but I think to win a gold medal, it takes that much these days,'' said Klim, who also had to learn the latest techniques on the starting blocks from the younger stars.

Exactly which six swimmers will be picked for the relay team won't be known until the Olympic trials in March, which leaves the eight swimmers training and bonding with their rivals. That includes James Magnussen, who notably skipped the recent World Cup events in Asia specifically to keep his international rivals in the dark.

Magnussen, the fastest swimmer in the world, is confident he has not given too much secret information away to his domestic competitors. ''In ways of relay changeovers, I don't bring a lot to the table, so there's nothing I'm really holding back,'' he said.

As Nugent noted: ''They haven't done any work in a way that's really about who's swimming faster than who, it's more about working together. Swimming is a unique sport where you're opposition, but you come together as a team too … there's rivalry, but it's friendly.''

Klim knows the importance of bonding. It was a feature in the Australians' famous relay victory over the US at the Sydney Olympics and he recognised the same camaraderie among the current world champion relay swimmers this week. ''They know everyone will be going for spots, but it's having a common goal that we have to be on the same page,'' he said.