French coach Fabrice Pellerin has kitted out his squad, including Yannick Agnel and Camille Muffat, with waterproof mp3 players loaded with the sounds of Hans Zimmer's Dark Knight (Batman), Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Love the Way You Lie with Eminem and Rihanna, the Beatles and Mozart.

"There is no theme that better echoes sport than music," Pellerin tells L'Equipe.  "If I did not see any link between the two, I would not do it. The quick or slow movements of a symphony can correspond to a race construction with management, accelerations. I want to introduce them [the swimmers] to the musical states of mind that will allow them to maintain a rhythm or to change it if the race demands."  

On a tour of the US, a nation that gave us Bob Bowman's Phelpsian Symphony from a boyhood visit to a pool where watching Tracy Caulkins translated to the sound of a soaring movement  for the coach to be, Pellerin talks reporter Pascal Glo through a quarter of an hour of Agnel's training. 

The European 400m free champion works to the pace of the Dark Knight. "The piece climbs progressively in volume and a rhythm sets in, repetitive. The two arms ahead working in tune to the uniform beating [kicking] of his legs. Three chords of cello violoncello [the cello] appear then disappear by the time he has taken three arm strokes."

On Muffat, he told the paper: "Camille now swims better than before when I simply said 'do one 25m faster'. She is more streamlined because she is following the music and knew that one note follows another. Beyond that, she is more relaxed."

Agnel, his mp3 loaded with his own wide-ranging choices -  Beatles, Black Desire, Mozart, Polnareff, Superimposers, Nine Inch Nales and Breakbo - sounded not unlike Mumble (Happy Feet) when he said: "I'm not very good at finding the rhythm of my swimming - but I think this will help me." 

Pellerin says he has seen children with a musical education take to swimming more quickly than others. Music now features in three out of 12 sessions for his group. He intends to try some Heavy Metal at some stage: Vivaldi played by the likes of French guitarist Patrick Rondat or Ulrich Roth of the Scorpions. All in tune with his plans to have his pupils make a big noise in London next July.