JUDO may not be the most orthodox training method for a swimmer but for Keri-Anne Payne, it is something that she feels will take her one step closer to Olympic gold next year. Payne is an Olympic silver medallist and double world champion in the 10km open water event but there is one aspect of her discipline that she has struggled to deal with: the violence.

Swimming is not usually considered a contact sport but Payne has had to deal with all manner of assaults in the water, including finishing the London 2012 race with a black eye. As the 27 year-old prepares to try to reclaim the world title that she won in 2009 and 2011, she has been a bit more imaginative than usual with her training methods; the Englishwoman has deployed the talents of her friend, countrywoman and fellow Olympic medallist, judoka Gemma Gibbons in an attempt to find that few percent improvement that can make all the difference in elite sport.

“I did a judo session at Ratho with Gemma and Euan Burton [Commonwealth champion and Scottish national coach] and it was the most surreal experience of my life,” says Payne. “I’ve had to become a stronger person to deal with the fighting in the water but I’ve always been a bit uncomfortable with that side of the sport. That’s why I did a judo session – to try to get used to that kind of physicality but I just laughed the whole time because I’m not used to somebody throwing you to the ground. So it was a strange experience but a really good one and it made me feel that if I can cope with someone doing that to me then I can deal with someone swimming over the top of me in the water.”

Payne, who now lives and trains in Edinburgh, is in the British team which has travelled to World Championship in Kazan and will compete in the 10k open water swim today. The fact that this event doubles as Olympic qualifying means that even more is at stake than usual and so Payne is bracing herself for a tough few hours.

“There’s about 50 girls in the race, only 10 Olympic places available and about 25 girls who could finish in the top 10,” she says. “About 7 times out of 10, accidents happen. You’re swimming in such close proximity to so many people, you’re going around buoys and you’re pushing yourself to the brink, so accidents happen and it’s just something that you have to deal with. There are occasions when someone will pull your leg back or swim over the top of you.”

Payne is adamant, however, that she will not stoop to that level and she believes that she can achieve her dream without playing dirty. “One of the reasons that I want to win the Olympics is to prove that you can do it fairly – that it’s about who is the best athlete, not who is the best puncher or fighter,” she explains. “I feel really passionately about that. I’m not going to let anybody swim over the top of me but neither am I going to go out of my way to injure someone or stop someone swimming.”

Payne, who is supported by law firm, MMS, finished in fourth place at London 2012 and admits that post-Olympics, she was unsure of what she wanted to do. But a year out of the sport in 2013-14 convinced her that her immediate future lies in swimming. “Taking time off was always going to be a gamble but I loved every minute of it and it was exactly what I needed to get my mind back into swimming and to really start enjoying the sport again,” she says. “Now, it’s my choice to be doing this – there’s not that nagging feeling that I don’t know what else I could do so it’s really refreshing.”

There was one side effect of her time off that really got to Payne though. “The thing that hurt me the most was going to watch the opening ceremony of Glasgow 2014,” she says. “I had this wave of emotions thinking, ‘I should be there’, because it would have been brilliant to compete in a Commonwealth Games in the country in which I live. It was actually a very positive thing to feel like that though because it showed me that I really do want to be out there.”

While Payne’s short-term focus is the World Championships, her major goal is the Olympic Games next year, so much so that she has called her dog Rio.

“The focus for me in Kazan is to qualify for the Olympics,” she says. “Then I can build on the training that I’ve done this year and take it up another level to try and win that Olympic gold medal.”