As you know, I’ve spent this week in Australia
listening to, and learning from some of the world’s best coaches at the annual
Australian Swimming Teachers and Coaches Conference.
For me, this has been a great opportunity to
learn, and compare what I believe and do, against what is current best
practice.
The good news is that we are heading in the right
direction.
I have accumulated much information that I will
use, but what has been most important is the reassurance that swimming really
hasn’t changed much (more on this soon) and that some of the ideas that I have
had about programming, technique, and hard work are exactly what has been
presented here –PHEW!
Much has been said about coaches looking for
short cuts – we have been assured that there is no such thing.
Australia has a rich history of distance
swimming, and there has been a shift toward sprinting in the past few years.
The performance in London was seen as a failure – the older, more experienced
coaches such as: Bill Sweetenham and Doug Frost have certainly addressed this –
every time they speak.
We have
been bombarded with physiology data presenting the requirement of race pace
work in large frequencies but not necessarily quantities. Again, we are on the
right track.
For me, the opportunity to listen to Bill
Sweetenham has been the highlight. Coach Sweetenham has been coaching Olympians
for longer than I’ve been alive. He is the coach whose technique I based my
swimming on, and has been behind every “golden” period in Australian (and more recently
GB) swimming. He has also had an Olympic Medalist on the podium at each
Olympics since 1976. He has been a five time Olympic Coach for three different
countries. When he speaks, the room is silent, and everyone takes note.
He is inspiring, and as an older man, still has
the passion for swimming that a first year coach has – it is infectious. Some
of his messages were “focus on improvement over change”, “own the finish”, “PB = Previous Best, not Personal Best and
reminded us of Alex Popov’s promise that “he would never practice a bad
stroke”. He has grave concerns about the future of swimming, as swimmers are
not willing to do the hard work – at least, not like in the past. They need
instant gratification, and swimming is a delayed gratification sport.
Another highlight was the stroke day at the pool.
Here, we took a clinic on each stroke by coaches who have been leaders in these
strokes over the past few years here in Australia. Two of the demonstrators had
just won the men’s and women’s breaststroke at the recent national
championships and the others were Australian National team coaches or Coach
Gregg Troy – former coach of Ryan Lochte. I picked up some new drills, which
was the goal of that day, and again, looked at the stroke models that I have,
compared with those being used by the mentors. Again, I was relieved to learn
that my stroke models are VERY similar to what was being shown. As we move
forward, all of our coaches will be taking these on, and essentially, anyone
looking at the pool should say, “They all look the same”. This will begin in
Learn-to-swim as we introduce a systematic approach to improving swimming at
Dover.
We have had some great questions given to a panel
of very experienced coaches: Bill Sweetenham, Doug Frost, and Gregg Troy (USA).
and Bob Treffene, a physiologist who has been involved in many Olympic
campaigns. Each have given their opinion on questions along with encouraging
coaches to encourage their swimmers to swim more 200m+ events.
Last night the Gold Coast was hit with a pretty
big storm. Having ridden out many typhoons, it wasn’t more that a little wind
and rain, but the flooding in some parts has caused some damage.
Some coaches have proved that they can coach, but
can’t present!
One day to go, and more to learn.
There has been one theme come up in discussions that I've had with many coaches: pool space - even the best coaches in the world are struggling to get time and space at pools. We are very lucky in this sense, and am very grateful for the wonderful facility that we enjoy each day!
I won't be back right away, as I need to see my dad, who is not well. Please support our coaches in my absence!
