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The ASCA Annual Awards Banquet 2009
Every Year, there is greater demand for tickets for the Annual Awards Banquet than we can adequately service in the time frame allowed.
We must give the hotel a number of guaranteed meals by noon of the Thursday of the Clinic.
Yet many coaches do not even arrive at the clinic until after noon on that day. Hence, they are left to “scramble” for tickets.
So, in 2009, we will have a new procedure for Banquet Tickets.
If you wish a banquet ticket, please email your intention to Amy Saxner in our office ASaxner@Swimmingcoach.org to attend the banquet. Amy will direct you on how to deposit $10 as your banquet ticket, via either check or credit card. Yes, you can also reserve a ticket for your spouse or friend for an additional $25.00.
Amy will attach a banquet ticket to your registration packet which you will pick up at registration, in accordance with your payment. When you return the ticket to us at the door of the banquet, we’ll happily hand you a crisp new $10 bill, so as usual, the banquet will be free to you.
We have an upper limit of 450 tickets available. When they are gone, they are gone.
IF we have any space left once we arrive at the clinic, they will be distributed on a first-come, first serve basis.
IF anyone purchases a ticket, then changes their mind, they can redeem it at the registration desk for their $10 deposit.
Thank you for assisting us in our efforts to make system out of chaos.
University of Pretoria and the American Swimming Coaches Association formalize an educational agreement
After many months of working on the systems and programs to be offered, a final agreement between the University of Pretoria and the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) has been reached regarding the inclusion of the ASCA Swimming Coaching Accreditation system and materials into the Tuks Bachelors programs for B (Sports Science) and BA (Human Movement Sciences), as well as a continued education system for the TuksSwimming coaching staff.
The University of Pretoria's department of Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences along with the TuksSport and the TuksSwimming club is committed to investing in their students and coaches through establishing quality education programs for all and ensuring that all are appropriately qualified and internationally recognized when they graduate.
The University of Pretoria, its swimming staff, academic staff and management have used the ASCA materials in a pilot project over the past 12 months. Tuks coaches were accredited by ASCA. Two coaches, Igor Omeltchenko (Head Coach) and Steven Bell, obtained Level 5 accreditation, which is the highest level of qualification within the ASCA structures. Larry Laursen (Tuks Swimming Technical consultant) provides the club with advice and a wealth of experience, also holds a Level 5 qualification. This shows coaches that have the appropriate level of education and experience in working with and coaching of international swimmers, and this is backed by a legacy of performance. At TuksSwimming the coaching staff has a combined total of over 94 years of experience at Regional, National and International levels.
ASCA's program was chosen because it has the academic AND practical program with deliverables, controls, follow-up and continued education emphasis to be THE program which the University of Pretoria would like to embed into its practical curriculum of Sports Education for swimming coaches. ASCA acknowledges the standard of education, reputation, expertise and experience at the University of Pretoria. This agreement sees the University of Pretoria becoming the first university internally to fully integrate the ASCA swimming coaching material within their formalized degree and certificate programs. The University of Pretoria is recognized for initiatives such as these, whereby they look to provide internationally recognized and modern sport relevant technical additions to their students' and coaches' education. This can be seen in relationships already established with various other international sporting federations and organizations, such as the Golf PGA and NSCA CSCS program.
TuksSport (TuksSwimming) is committed to educating our coaches, swimmers and parents and the greater swimming community and supports all initiatives that Swimming South Africa have planned and will implement in the future and all work done through our education programs will be aligned with the requirements of the national body.
Through this unique working relationship with ASCA the University will provide exceptional swimming coaching education to its students and interested outsiders. Academic education and appropriately applied training, gained in an environment where Olympians are training with professional coaches, will produce graduates with the expertise and experience to immediately be full members of the coaching profession. It remains the aim of the University of Pretoria to contribute to and provide relevant opportunities for the development of coach education locally, nationally and to our friends in Southern Africa countries whose swimmers are already part of our high performance swimming program.
June 11, 2009
Dear Friends,
It is with sadness and a profound sense of loss, that I tell you today of the passing of our great and good friend, Richard Quick, last night in Austin. (June 10)
I feel this deeply as a very personal loss, as I know Richard as a close and personal friend. It is one measure of his life that I take comfort in knowing that LEGIONS of people around the world, consider Richard to be the same in their lives. If indeed a man's measure is the consideration of what he leaves behind, then Richard was one of us who leaves the greatest of treasure, an admiring and grateful throng of people who considered him, "a close and personal friend."
Each of us have specific and individual memories of Richard that we personally cherish. For me, his constant admonition to begin each meeting and later to evaluate each meeting, by the simple measure of "in this meeting, lets make every action for the benefit of those we serve, THE ATHLETES", to be one of his most profound, lasting and inspirational thoughts.
Richard is a great coach, a great leader, selfless in service to his sport and all who participated in it, and most importantly, a man who loved his family and his friends, and let all of us know it.
I will sit with my athletes tonight and tell them about Richard, what he meant to all who knew him and what a difference one committed man can make in the world. And I know that many other coaches around the world today, will do the same.
Our loss is deep and lasting. More importantly, what he has left us, will endure forever as we pass it on to our colleagues and friends, in his name.
With love and respect, I say "GODSPEED, Richard, And PEACE."
John Leonard
Leadership in American Swimming through Education, Certification, Collaboration
TO: All American Swimming Coaches Association Member Coaches
FROM: John Leonard RE: Licensed massage therapists Date: June 2, 2009
Let me state this as clearly and simply as possible: If you are not a licensed massage therapist, you have no business providing massages to young athletes at any time or location.
Legal recommendations from a number of cases in recent years have made this very clear..."massage" is on the slippery slope to perceived or real sexual misconduct.
It is not a part of coaching. Please take heed and govern yourself accordingly.
JL
The SwimSuit/Doping War. Current Status Posted: May 28, 2009 By John Leonard
Here are the facts:
FINA has published its initial list of “approved suits” based on the Phase One Criteria. The list can be found on FINA’s website. These are suits approved for use in Rome and this summer.
On or about June 19, FINA will publish a list of any supplemental suits that will be allowed for this summer. (this list would come from suits rejected in round one, and given a chance to come back with a re-engineered suit.) Indications are that not many if any suits will be on this list.
FINA will check all suits for exact compliance for use in Rome. Any suits used for records outside of Rome will also be checked.
In later summer, FINA will publish the rules that will be in place for Jan. 1, 2010. Indications are that this list of rules for suits will include a clause that eliminates all non-permeable materials from all suits. No rubber, no plastic, nothing by fabric. This will place us “back in time” around 2007. Future suits will have a “chip” imbedded at creation to prove compliance to the rules that can be checked in the ready room with a hand held device. (like your I phone.)
In late summer, but before Sept. 1, 2009, we expect the NCAA Rules committee to indicate the rules for the use of suits in NCAA competition for the 09-10 season including all qualifying and championship competition. Likely that they will follow the FINA lead.
During 2010, debate will take place on further rules. Recommendations from coaches world-wide are very similar...no zippers, no outside fasteners. (climb into your suit) and for me, Knees to Navel coverage only and for women, hips to shoulder straps only. Limiting coverage limits the ability to “engineer” suits.
Those are facts at this time.
All the Best, John Leonard
Masters Swimmer Charlie Lydecker Takes on Olympian Ryan Lochte and Comes Out a Winner Posted: May 6, 2009 www.usms.org
Five years ago, Daytona Beach Community College decided it would become a four-year college and changed its name to Daytona State College. With an enhanced academic offering, college President Dr. Kent Sharples wanted to expand the college's sports offering as well. Dr. Sharples announced in the winter of 2008 that Daytona State College would be starting men's and women's swimming in the fall of 2009. Monumental to this decision was the hiring of Head Coach Steve Lochte. Coach Steve is the head coach of Daytona Beach Swimming, which includes an age-group team of more than 300 year-round swimmers and a Masters program of more than 100. Coach Steve is one of USA's most respected coaches, having produced numerous All-Americans and Olympic Trials qualifiers, and is also the father and coach of 2004 and 2008 Olympian Ryan Lochte.
Charlie Lydecker is a 45-year old Daytona Beach Masters swimmer. Professionally, he is executive vice president for Brown & Brown, a national commercial insurance broker headquartered in Daytona Beach. Charlie was a four-year competitive swimmer at American University and really thrives in open water competitions. When not flying around the country for business, Charlie can be found at the YMCA pool or the beach training with the other Daytona Beach Masters swimmers and lifeguards. Charlie is also fondly recognized as one of Daytona Beach's greatest community ambassadors. He gives generously of his time and money to many causes each year in Daytona Beach.
"We were looking for some PR buzz with the new college swim team," stated Steve Lochte. "The idea of Charlie taking on Ryan in a 200 IM was more of a ‘Wow, wouldn't that be cool' for our local swimming community to see. We thought we could tie it into the new college swim team and maybe raise a few dollars for Daytona State College."
Little did any of them know that the Lydecker vs. Lochte Splashdown would become one of the most successful promotions ever seen in the sport of swimming. "Our initial thought was if we worked really hard and networked, we might be able to raise $25,000," said Lydecker.
"When word started to get out in January of this event, the Lydecker vs. Lochte Splashdown, there was this unbelievable ground swell of interest. Ryan is from Daytona Beach. He graduated for Port Orange high school. Charlie is so incredibly respected and has given a lot to Daytona. You had two magnetic personalities that everyone liked," continued Coach Steve.
Daytona State College got fully behind the event. The university graphics and marketing department developed a Splashdown logo. A promotional poster of the two athletes wearing swim caps and goggles facing each other much like a boxing promotion was also developed. Volunteers placed several thousand of the posters around town. They did media interviews, raising awareness. Tickets were being sold at $100 apiece. The experience would include complimentary buffet dinner from Stonewood Grill & Tavern (where Lydecker is vice chairman of the board), autograph and photography signing with each athlete and of course a ticket to watch the two battle in a 200 IM. Rowdy Gaines was brought in to serve as the master of ceremonies. And Rob Butcher, USMS executive director and a Daytona Beach native, was also brought in to generate enthusiasm.
"At the end of February, we'd sold 200-tickets," said Coach Steve. "Give a lot of credit to Charlie. He was calling everyone he knew getting their support and asking them to make contributions. And here he is 20 years older than Ryan, taking on one of the world's greatest swimmers in his prime."
With each week getting closer, the ticket sales and donations just kept going higher. "Our pool area only seats 500 and we ended up selling nearly 900 tickets, raising more than $150,000. We put chairs along the pool deck and had standing room only," said Coach Steve. The college is applying for a matching state grant that would take the total tally to more than $300,000: an incredible sum of money for the sport of swimming!
As for the swim, Charlie, a terrific open water swimmer and winner of Escape from Alcatraz, was given a 15-second head start. When Masters swimmer and starter Anne Grahams gave Charlie the go, the crowd erupted. It was so loud in the pool, Ryan couldn't hear when he was to go and had to visually watch the starter's strobe.
For 175 yards, Charlie Lydecker was in the lead. Going into the last turn, Ryan was about half a body length behind. Ryan flipped and put in his patented underwater porpoise kick to pass Charlie with 10 yards to go. The two finished nearly identical at the wall and gave each other high fives. Ryan's time read 1:49, but they both knew this night was something special. It was much more than a 45-year-old Masters swimmer taking on one of the greatest swimmers in the world. It was a victory for everything good about swimming.
"That was by far one of the most fun things I've ever done," said Ryan.
"I've been around a lot of swimming and I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like this. The crowd was electric and I think more people were actually cheering for Charlie," said Rowdy Gaines.
"I'm so proud of Charlie for representing Masters swimming," said Rob Butcher. "I also think this event, and the success it had raising money, can serve as a template for other college university programs across the country."
Charlie Lydecker wrapped it up so well: "The real winner here is swimming and future generations. I applaud Daytona State College for starting a new team. The Daytona Beach Swim Team and the Masters team greatly supported this event. Many in the community who may never have been exposed to swimming got to be part of a great show."
Asked about a rematch, Lydecker, who contributed $10,000, said he wished he would have thrown in another $1,000 for an extra second. For more of a recap on the Lydecker vs. Lochte Splashdown, visit www.daytonabeachswimming.org.
To: Rules and Regulations Committee (Bruce Stratton, Chair) Posted: March 13, 2009 RE: New Swimwear legislation
Dear Bruce,
The ASCA would like to submit the following legislation to the process for September 2009 consideration.
page 28, Rulebook.
Item 102.9 – (Change to the following)
Swimsuits worn for all 12 and under age group defined competition and for all 13 and older competition serving athletes below the Level of national A time standards shall be: for Males, knees to navel coverage only. For Females, Hips to Shoulder coverage, only.
Purpose: In order to maximize the accessibility of the sport to people of all financial means, we want to limit swimsuits to the most basic design in the developmental levels of the sport, (as defined by both age and performance levels). Limiting design will also limit costs. In addition, we believe that at the age group/developmental level, improvement in the athletes performance should come from increasing athleticism, learning with attention to detail and appropriate training, without technical elements of swimsuit design adding to the enhancement of improvement.
Bruce, thank you for including this proposal in the packet of legislation to be considered.
All the Best,
John Leonard
What’s Up With The Suits? Posted: March 4, 2009 By John Leonard
OK, here we go. There is good news, OK news, some bad news as well.
First, I was privileged to be part of the FINA Swimsuit manufacturers meeting and a FINA organizational meeting that preceeded it, near the end of February in Lausanne. I was one of three coaching representative, along with Alan Thompson, National Team Director for Australia and FINA Coaches Commission Secretary, and Osvaldo Arsenio of Argentina, Coaches Commission Chair. The athletes were represented by Janet Evans, Athletes Commission Chair, and Alex Popov, who used to swim some sprint freestyle before the new suits came along.
I can report to you with absolute certainty that the coaches and athletes were on the exact same page with regard to all issues relating to the suits, at that meeting and since. It is fair to characterize that the athletes and coaches have the most conservative position in the room with regard to the suits. Good news, that FINA invited us to be in the room, good news that they listen to coaches and athletes very carefully, good news that they adopt many of the things that coaches and athletes recommend, bad news that “you don’t always get EVERYTHING you want” (with apologies to Mr. Jagger.)
Here is the scenario as it exists today:
FINA wants to moderate the rules as they exist, in regard to the suits.
FINA will moderate the rules in multiple phases.
First phase will begin immediately post March and continue through the World Championships, until end of December 08.
Second phase will be KNOWN from late summer or earlier, and will begin implementation on Jan. 1, 2010.
Third phase will be post Jan. 1, 2010 with an evaluation period of the effect of rule changes to date and contemplation of what other changes would be good to make.
The Major Traditional Swimsuit partners of the world of swimming are happy to adjust their manufacturing to meet the FINA requirements with the caveat that an 18-24 month development cycle for new products will be heavily stressed with our initial phases. This is a hardship for them, financially and operationally. Also no doubt, some newer players in the market that I categorize as “in it for the fast buck”, will be done in by the new rules and will not be happy. And because they are in it for the quick buck and not for development of the sport longterm, they may well take their unhappiness to a court of law to try to find their “quick buck”. Shame on them if they do.
FINA has watched this intrusion of technology into the sport over a period of eight years. FINA recognizes it will not be able to be fixed in a matter of one or even two years....it will take a bit of adjustment and time to “get it right”.
By get it right, FINA does not mean a technology free sport....FINA wants to allow manufacturers “some latitude” to create differentiated products to sell themselves to the marketplace. At the same time, FINA recognizes that using the body of the athletes for technological advance, in effect “enhancing” the athlete is undersirable for most, as opposed to the Pre-2000 concept of the swimsuit “maximizing” the ability of the athlete.
FINA “gets it”. But “getting it” and doing things that are legally defensible in court, are not always the same thing. Many of us “know things” that the suits are doing to enhance the athlete’s performance. But there is a far cry from what we know to what we can PROVE scientifically.
And if you’re going to court, you’d better be able to PROVE your points, with scientific measurement.
So here is where the “purists” will be unhappy. We cannot fix all that we “know” that the suits do to enhance the performance, because scientific tests do not exist to measure all that we know. (I’ll return to that later.)
By the way, I consider myself, at heart, a “purist” and proud to be so. But I am an utter pragmatist when it comes to courts, and lawsuits.
Its not enough to “know”, we have to be in a position to “prove”.
So, with those preliminaries out of the way, what’s going to happen?
PHASE ONE –
The BEST news...FINA has employed one of the great laboratories in the world to do independent testing on all swimsuits. Each suit to be approved by FINA will now be tested by this lab prior to the use of the suit in a competitive period. All suits will be tagged with either a “chip” or a barcode, so we know in fact that each used in competition is an approved suit. (FINA will establish a second level of “Ready Room” to do this.
We will have real testing against set standards by an independent tester. Hoorah!
Almost as good. FINA has banned all wearing of more than one suit. Hoorah!
In Phase One – suits will be a maximum of 1 MM thick. This will eliminate a few of the existing suits.
In Phase One – suits will produce 1 newton (100 grams) of flotation force, or less. This will raise the typical 180 pound swimmer less than 1MM in the water. (materials, amount of suit, etc. become irrelevant...the measurement is on flotation...)
In Phase One – any design features that trap air will be illegal.
In Phase One – any design feature that provides Bio-feedback or any related impact on the body is deemed illegal.
In Phase one – suits will be designed from shoulders to ankles, no arms.
Phase one will affect the Rome World Championships this summer.
All suits (previously approved or not) must be re-submitted for testing according to these standards. A few versions of a few suits will immediately disappear.
The situation will be “a bit better”.
PHASE TWO – will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2010. Both Coaches and Athletes Commission sent near identical requests to the FINA Executive for even stronger regulation than was adopted here. We didn’t get all we wanted. But we got some. Big Thanks to Janet Evans for her passion and voice on this. After conversations with Cornel Marculescu today, it appears that in addition to the above from Phase one, the phase two restrictions will include:
a reduction in thickness to .8 from 1.0 MM.
a limits on “non-permeable materials” used in the suit...probably to no more than 50% of the suit. And only limited amounts can be “continuous”...which means that permeable materials must exist right next to non-permeable materials to remove the air trapping capability of rubbers and plastics.
A possible reduction in the newton floatation forces. (still being studied).
A possible ban on zippers as a fastening system. (still being studied).
Phase Three – No date has been set yet for a third evaluation of the changes made by Phase One and Phase two, but Cornel assures that the intent is to give it a little time to fairly evaluate what we have achieved with rule changes in Phases one and two, and then, with a nod to the manufacturing cycle, decide if and what changes should be made in Phase three rules. (projecting, it is likely this evaluation will take place post world championships in 2010)
What has NOT been addressed so far?
The most critical is the issue of “compression”.
While it is unclear what role if any, compression has on physiological effectiveness of muscle cells, what is completely clear to any athlete and most coaches, is that compression is very effective in limiting and reducing the amount of “body fatigue and body line failure” in the last ¼ of races. A simple study of the 110 world record splits in 2008, shows over 70% with dramatic improvements in the 4th quarter of the race in contrast with previous (non-tech suits) world records. Simply put, the suits are holding the body line together and reducing resistance when the normal body fatigues, “sags” and loses its ability to hold the correct low resistance position in the latter stages of the race.
Now here, we have the classic example. We know this is true, but we cannot prove it in any way that is going to stand up in court. My personal quest for 2009 and 2010 will be to find a scientist with a reliable test for how to measure compression values in a swimsuit, so we can take it to the independent lab for analysis and a new rule to be introduced in Phase three. But for the time being, it is a bit of “enhancement” that we cannot prove well enough to take to court when FINA is sued. So we do not create a rule that we cannot enforce.
Botttom Line:
Let me be clear about this. I am a purist in the most absolute sense. I want to see us swim in jammers for men and hip to shoulder suits for women, with no compression to speak of in either.
In phase one, we won’t get there.
In phase two, we won’t get there.
In both phases, we will see dramatically improved conditions for “purist” competition, where the enhancements of the suits count for less and less and the athleticism, training and learning of the athlete counts for more and more.
FINA is moving in the correct direction, and in the correct way. It is a pointless and indefensible position to set in place dramatic rules rolling the sport back to 1999 when it would alienate all the traditional partners who contribute over $100 Million a year to coaches, athletes, federations and FINA and support our sport, AND wind up resulting in lawsuits from manufacturers whom we have mis-treated by pulling the rug out from under their products so quickly as to leave them insolvent.
A staged, systematic roll-back to the level we decide is correct is the proper way to treat people, treat companies and treat each other. And that is exactly what FINA has put in place.
I will continue to put forth ideas that will be able to be scientifically tested by the independent lab as a way to combat “enhancement” properties of swimsuits. I am certain that the lab and FINA will give each proposal due and proper consideration.
It is critical that athletes as well as coaches work collaboratively with FINA to give their ideas...but also to keep in mind that it is not what you “know”, its what you scientifically measure, that will keep you out of trouble in a court of law. FINA has done a fine job of walking that line.
My personal thanks to FINA volunteer leadership and the professional leadership of Cornel Marculescu, for moving forward on this issue within the first 12 month period when this issue came to the fore.
That willingness to quickly address the issue and consult strongly with its partners, the coaches and the athletes, and implement a solution, speaks very well of the FINA organization.
The blame for eight years of heading in the wrong direction can be placed by those who enjoy the blame game. When the ultimate overflow of bad reviews came about in 2008, FINA jumped to solve the problem.
That’s real progress. If you are old enough to remember other era’s and other problems, this is a great leap forward. At least one of my very good friends will label me a “FINA Apologist” for these comments. I reject that idea. No one in the world has been more critical of FINA at various times in the last two decades than myself. But when an organization does its best to
move in the right direction and solve real problems, they have earned support, not censure. Its important to say “thank you” when some body with which you sometimes disagree, listens, learns and changes. That’s where I am with the suit issue. Thank you FINA. Thank you Cornel. Nicely done.
Its Hard Times.....the Right Time to Raise Your Game. Posted: February 25, 2009
Each of you know that your families are facing hard times. They are making CHOICES every day about how to spend their dollars. If you want to keep those families in swimming, you need to provide top value of all their youth activities, to keep ‘em coming back to swimming.
One of the most critical areas in providing value, is communicating with and educating the parents as to the nature of our sport.
ASCA wants to help you. We want to provide you with a one page email each week that you can hit “forward” on your computer and send instantaneously to your entire roster of families.
That one page will be “Swim Parent Newsletter” and it will educate them about all of the issues that you and they know come up in the course of a swimming career. (I’ll bet some of what we have covered may even be new areas of consideration for some coaches!)
You know the true-ism...if you say, they half listen....but it sounds self-serving....if an expert says it, its gospel. And the ASCA is a great expert when it comes to educating parents about our sport.
The cost? Just $25.00 annually for each ASCA Member. You can distribute this to your entire roster each time, or, if you’re not sure you
want to use a particular piece, you know where the delete key is....you make the choice each week.
Swim Parent Newsletter will be in your email box each Monday morning for your use, with something new. One issue, one article, per week.
If you want to download and print it instead, go ahead. But emailing it to your parent lists sounds like a great service at “no time spent” per week, doesn’t it? And with the economy as it is, can you afford NOT to service your families in every way possible?
All the Best, John Leonard , ASCA Executive Director
Fellows ‘09: Call for Applicants Posted: February 16, 2009
Applications are now available for the 2009 Fellows program.
Each year the American Swimming Coaches Association selects a small group of coaches to serve a year of fellowship working on a project with a mentor: the Fellows. The program’s aim is to identify and begin educating the future coach leaders of our sport. As such, ASCA Fellows are typically young coaches with a passionate interest in improving American swimming.
The fellowship year is a year of educationand action. The education portion begins in early September with an intensive “clinic-within-the-clinic” held at the start of the ASCA World Clinic. The Fellows clinic will begin on Monday night (9/7/09) and run through Wednesday (09/09/09), with additional sessions later on in the week--so plan to attend the 2009 World Clinic, as well, which goes through Saturday (9/12/09). The 2009 ASCA World Clinic will be September 8-13, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The action portion of the program consists of working on and completing a project. Each Fellow, under the direction of the ASCA staff and Board of Directors, completes a project during the Fellows year (from the 2009 World Clinic to the 2010 World Clinic). For a second year, the 2009 Fellows project will focus on the ASCA/ College Swimming Coaches Association of America initiative called “Preserve, Protect & Expand NCAA Swim Programs” (PP&E for short).
Coaches interested in applying for the Fellows 2009 Class may obtain an application by contacting ASCA Staff member Matt Hooper via email at mhooper@swimmingcoach.org or by phone at 1-800-356-2722. Questions can also be directed to Matt, as well.
Application deadline for the 2009 Fellows Class is: Tuesday, March 17, 2009.
ASCA
HALL OF FAME 2009
Posted: January 30, 2009
The
American Swimming Coaches Association is proud to announce the
members of the coaching profession who will be inducted into
the ASCA Coaches Hall of Fame on Friday, Sept. 11, 2009, in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the ASCA World Clinic Awards Dinner..
Coach Bill Wadley, Chair of the Hall of Fame Committee, announces
the following newest members:
Coach
Ron Ballatore – UCLA (and others)
Coach
Bob Gillett – Arizona Desert Fox (and others)
Coach
Peter Malone – Kansas City Blazers
Coach
Jack Nelson – Fort Lauderdale Swim Team (and others)
Coach
Dick Shoulberg - Germantown Academy, PA.
We invite friends of the above great coaches to plan now to
attend the Induction Ceremony on Sept. 11, 2009.
Congratulations
to all of the new members of the ASCA Hall of Fame. (look for
bio and other materials to be posted to the Hall of Fame section
of this website in the next six months.)
The "Swim
Quick Day” Needs You!
Posted: January 26, 2009
Valentine’s Day, Saturday February 14, 2009 is being appropriately promoted as a “Swim Quick Day” for the purpose of raising money in the fight against cancer and for committing our emotional energy toward the healing of ourfriend Richard Quick. Coach Quick is battling an aggressive brain tumor that entered the wrong body, because if anyone can resist it’s damage, Richard can.
We’ve all had or have friends or family that have been effected by this treaded disease so why a day just for Richard? There are many reasons but here are some that I like.
1. Because of Richard’s popularity in the world of swimming we have the chance to raise a great deal of money toward finding a cur for cancer. Richard has done so much for so many that we can mobilize both the USA and the world-wide swimming committee to help by giving a little or a lot to Swim Across America, swimming’s arm for finding a cure for cancer and the endowment in Richard Quick’s name.
2. We can prove to ourselves what Richard already knows and has taught his swimmers for years: the mind and it’s emotional content can change anything if we focus hard enough on a specific task. This will be a day to swim concentrating on our love and well wishes for Richard Quick. If computers can run on “wireless” Richard will feel our energy as will the invasion into his body!
Swim Across America is organizing this special day quickly and needs your help. Coaches, please demonstrate your leadership in the swimming community by mobilizing your team, your LSC and your conference/league and swimming community. If coaches are the leaders of the world of swimming then it will be coaches – YOU! - that ensures the magnitude of success that “The Swim Quick Day” can be. The concept is to swim in practice or competition, devote our energy toward Richard’s good health and donate to http://www.swimacrossamerica.org/Page.aspx?pid=618 in his name. Please check your LSC website in the next week and make sure there is information on how to give money and the motivation to ive our emotional energy.
This author has been coaching swimming for 38 years and never led a prayer at a practice or around a competition. It never seemed like an appropriate intrusion into the personal values of my team members. We will have a prayer, or something like it, on Valentine’s Day Feb. 14th. The reason is that Richard Quick is not just my friend he is a friend of everyone who swims on the planet earth. Although a ferocious competitor with his own swimmers and teams Richard has made time for the rest of us. Coach Quick never let his competitive nature slow him from giving back every year, on committees, in volunteer work to make our day at the pool a better day than it would have been without his time, his smile, his yell and his effort. Richard’s mantra of “athletes first” has helped plow the road for clean sport, his creative training and stroke concepts integrated physiologists and biomechanics’ tightly into our sport and his first clas treatment of all swimming parties means it’s time for a party for Richard!
Thanks for your participation in a “Swim Quick Day.” When that day is done it’s lasting effect will have just begun. Doctors, scientists and researchers will be better equipped to help you and your family avoid
facing the same challenges that the Quick family faces right now. Make the Quick family our family, even if it’s just for one day. We will remember that day for a long time, so will Richard and so will the Quicks.
Among the ways to send your wishes to Richard and his family:
caringbridge.com;
Facebook.com
; or write to him at 1593 Olivia Way, Auburn, Ala. 36830.
Swimming
Fast in Practice By
John Leonard
Posted: January 13, 2009
Looking
back in the history of swimming, one piece of the picture is
remarkably clear. Over time, the percentage of time that serious
athletes have trained at close to race pace, has dramatically
increased. Accurate reports from the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s
will show that only rarely in practice, did athletes come close
to race pace swimming in training. During the 60’s and early
70’s distance was king and coaches compared notes about how
much yardage they put in each day (and probably told a few whoppers
along the way....) which resulted in an escalating distance
war.....but the fact is, in the USA, training two hours before
school and about 3 hours after school is about all anyone can
do....if there is homework to done, meals to be eaten, etc.
Now 5 hours a day, divided by a very fast 12 minutes per 1000
yards average, and you are going to top out quickly at 25,000
per day. (Reports tell us that 20K per day was not uncommon...but
25K might be the absolute tops.)
Now
once that practical limit of 20K a day is reached, how do you
“improve” by changing the stress? Naturally, you swim faster.
What
are the consequences of 20K a day? A few that coaches and athletes
experienced were mental fatigue with the sport (is that burnout?)
physical fatigue and an inability to get to race speed very
often for events shorter than a 1500, and of course at some
point, the body (usually the shoulder....) goes into rebellion
and biomechanics of even slightly flawed strokes taken over
20K a day takes its toll.
Meanwhile,
our international rivals in the old Eastern Bloc countries,
especially East Germany, were kicking our butt during the 70’s
and 80’s. Coaches in the USA beat up on each other about “what
are we doing wrong”. Over time, we heard the East Germans say,
“we train harder than anyone”. And a few Eastern Bloc coaches
and scientists came to our ASCA Clinics and talked to us of
“accelerated methods of recovery” and related topics. Still,
we didn’t get the full picture. Then we watched many of their
best athletes do a meet warmup at major international competitions
that consisted of 30 minutes of stretching, a 100 stretch out
in the pool and a couple of very fast 25’s or 121/2s and get
out! What did that mean?
Eventually,
we came to the realization that our rivals were beating us by
training far more INTENSELY (more yardage at race pace or faster)
and far less VOLUME, than we were doing in the USA.
The
“scratch your head” part of this was that every American Coach
knew that more intense work fatigued swimmers faster than long,
steady, smooth distance training. And when you did train intensely,
it took longer to recover than it did from those 20K a day sessions
of low intensity.
So
how were they doing it.
By
the late 80’s our suspicions were confirmed definitively. The
entire eastern bloc, led by a magnificently efficient system
in the old East Germany, were using drugs to recover more quickly
beyond the ability of the human body without drugs to do so.
So they could do “more intense work, more frequently, than their
rivals in the west.”
Then
the eastern bloc shattered at the end of the 1980’s. And only
China emerged in the 90’s as progeny of the old East Germany,
though they were much less perfect in their doping execution
than the East Germans. (that is another long story of its own....)
Scattered others used drugs but the day of an entire section
of the world using something that others were not using was
over.
Meanwhile,
an interesting development and experiment was taking place.....in
various clubs, universities and training situations around the
USA, in reaction to the “limits” imposed by American society
on the 20K a day training methodology, various coaches began
experimenting with the idea of increasing the amount of race
pace training in their training plans.
The
same experimentation was going on in the land down under, our
rivals in Australia.
Surprisingly,
over time, we can deduce that today, many world-class programs
do MORE intense work than the old East Germans did in the 70’s
and 80’s or the Chinese in the 90’s. (more in terms of percentage
of training at race pace and above.)
How
can that be? Is the entire world on drugs now? I think not.
But coaches have learned that we can expect MORE in terms of
high performance in practice, than we thought we could, and
recover in time to do it more frequently during the course of
the week.
ALL
of the old doped records are gone.....beaten by (we hope) clean
swimmers of today. (OK, so some of todays records might be compromised
also...but no where near as many as in the past.)
With
few in the world doing the 20K a day training efforts, we have
swum faster. We are stronger, faster, and we train HARDER than
ever before.
We
hear of the “magic number” of 14K a day now, for swimmers ranging
from sprinters (100/200) up through the milers. And a large
percentage of that 14K is now done at velocities much closer
to race pace. And a significant percentage of that 14K is done
at FASTER than race pace.
Athletes
eat better, rest more and have learned to recover faster.
And
maybe, we have learned that some of the limitations we assumed
from the past in terms of what athletes are capable of, were
self-imposed limitations.
What
are the “magic percentages” of race pace work? They perhaps
vary from coach to coach, program to program, time in the season
to time in the season, but they are significant. Much more work
is done at the edge of aerobic/anaerobic interactions than ever
before. And more is being done at velocities that are beyond
that which will happen during the race.
Why
this last? Why faster than race pace? One of the key bio-mechanical
and physiological interactions that we now recognize is that
as body velocity increases, the ability to streamline the body
and get it out of the way of the water in front of it, is critical
to continuing to increase speed.
When
we train at race speed “plus”, we teach the body to get out
of the way of the water. Many coaches use fins, paddles, assisted
towing, etc. to stimulate the body to “learn” by feel, how to
retain its least resistant shapes.
Now
what does this mean if you are an age group coach today and
you are preparing an athlete for the next stage in their development?
Some
things DO NOT CHANGE....first, Biomechanics (good stroke technique)
comes first. We have to learn to swim slowly WELL, first, then
swim faster with good technique. Then FAST with good technique
and then, “race pace PLUS” with good technique. But the first
job of an age group coach is teaching good technique.
Second,
laying down a good endurance base between the ages of 10-14
for girls, and 12-16 for boys, is critical. And again, this
is not about long, slow swimming. Its about developing the ability
to swim faster on less rest. Slow 1000s won’t do this. The ability
to “cruise” (to use an old term) on less rest is critical. If
your cruise speed is 100’s on 1:09 (on a 1:20 base) today, six
months from now, you’re trying to be 1:07 or 08 on a 1:15 base,
etc.
Timeout:
remember, the world record pace in the 1500 for men now is 57
seconds plus per 100 meters. Is that slow swimming? No, there
is no “slow swimming” in races anymore.
Finally,
whether you are training 8 and unders, or training senior swimmers,
fast swimming in practice is how today’s elite athletes are
improving their racing skills.
The
major issue with young swimmers is that they are typically in
“horrible” physical condition when you get them. They may NEVER
have moved fast in their lives....you will have to teach them
to be BETTER athletes, which means better limb speeds on land
and especially, in the water. The ability to move LEGS in kicking
and arms in pulling, and the ability to maintain body “integrity”
(good body position) are all muscular and endurance components
for young swimmers. Each day, they need some work at race effective
speed and pace. For most of these young swimmers, that means
some time per stroke cycle work in the 1.0 to 1.6 seconds per
stroke range. Slower than that, and they won’t race well, faster
than that and they won’t hold the water well.
Of
course, no matter what age the athlete, no radical or sudden
changes will work out well.
First,
understand how much actual yardage per day/week/month, you are
doing at race pace, or above race pace (or both).
Next,
very gradually increase those percentages. How much is gradual?
Probably 5% per week is acceptable.
Next
you will want to know, increase until what percentage of practice
is at or above race pace. Good question.
Enjoy
the challenge of deciding that for yourself. Consult with those
you admire in terms of how their teams swim. Decide where todays
“box” of accepted practices is...and then decide if you want
to stay “within the box” or go outside the box.
Remember,
nothing GREAT was ever achieved by staying inside someone else’s
box of expectations. Do you want GREAT, or will you settle for
Good?
All
the Best for Great Coaching.
Why
An Elite Athlete in Swimming Should Want The Focus on Themselves
and Not on Technology. By
John Leonard
Posted: October 31, 2008
The
Olympic Sport of Swimming has always been characterized by one
outstanding feature...it is FAIR.
Athletes
line up next to each other, each having prepared as well as
possible for the “big moment”. They have abided by the rules
of the game, done their legal best to be ready to give all they
have to give in pursuit of personal excellence and achievement.
Then
the gun goes off, great performances ensue and accolades follow...and
the next morning in the paper, a substantial amount of the credit
goes to a swimsuit company? This radical change in the sport,
dating from January 2008, is perverting the entire outlook of
our sport for the future.
No
longer will the athlete who has trained the hardest, learned
skills the best, steeled their nerves best to the demands of
high level competition, necessarily win the race. Instead, superior
suit technology, produced by research and development by scientists
in labs, likely determine the winners.
Worse,
not all suits are equal. The “fitted suit”, made specifically
for the individual athlete and their body, is a far superior
innovation compared to the “off the shelf model” of the same
suit that is tried on by myriad athletes before one decides
“this fits well enough”. In point of fact, there is considerable
debate in scientific terms of whether a non-fitted technical
swimsuit is in fact better than good fitting older suits.
This
means that 99% of the athletes competing at the World Championships
are at a disadvantage to the few athletes who are indeed measured
as the prototypes of the suits. A serious disadvantage.
The
next consideration is the issue of where praise SHOULD lie.
Does the sport want praise to be for the money to develop new
technology, or old-fashioned hard work, attention to detail
and competition hardened experience?
Next,
every child-swimmer wants to “be like Mike” and the other international
heroes of our sport. They will naturally ask their parents to
spend $300-600 for a technical suit and many, not wanting to
be seen as “bad mommies or daddies” will capitulate, at least
once....(or until they discover that the suits have a very limited
useful shelf-life...who wants to spend $500 for a 12 year old
that will be useful for a dozen swims? pretty expensive swims!)
The
more subtle and much more destructive influence will be on those
athletes whose parents cannot possibly afford a suit of that
expense. Now their children are relegated in large part to the
back of the pack, the essential “fairness” of the sport is lost,
and children will leave the sport in DROVES, if success in swimming
is now perceived to be something you can BUY for your child.
The fine-tuned sense of fairness of the child will immediately
see that winning can be purchased. And they already know who’s
parents have all the money.
The
Olympic Sport of Sailing has it right. Every Olympic Sailor
sails the exact same boat. The emphasis is on the skill and
abilities of the sailor. Swimming needs to change its rules
to eliminate high tech suits and keep the emphasis of our sport
where it has always been...on the effort, skill and preparation
of the athlete.
Ski
jumping is the same case. Years ago, commercial companies started
making jump suits that acted like sails...the governing body
said “NO” loudly and firmly and now regulates the suits that
jumpers may wear. The athlete, not the attire, is the focus
of the performance.
The
argument has been made that if the companies can’t sell these
high tech suits, they can’t afford to financially support the
athletes. This is nonsense. They supported athletes before the
new tech suits came out, they support them now, with the suits
limited NOT FOR SALE and only available to the world-level athletes,
and they will support athletes in the future because they need
the elite athletes to endorse their product, in order to gain
marketing advantage. Mr. Phelps could endorse a burlap bag if
it had a Logo on it, and still be richly rewarded by the company
and should be.
Finally,
our swimming athletes should realize that vast numbers of golfers
and tennis players are sponsored by equipment companies, despite
the fact that equipment in both sports are strictly regulated.
The commercial companies need the endorsement of swimming’s
top athletes just as they do in every other sport. All existing
records and results should be unaffected by a change in these
rules since they conformed to the rules existant at the time
of performance.
The
latest nonsense is that Parents or Companies will “sue” someone
if they create rules that retain a level equipment field. This
is utter nonsense. Most every sport regulates equipment. Do
you see parents suing little league so their kids can wear metal
spikes? Any governing body has every right to decide on appropriate
attire and equipment and enforce those rules.
Where
do we want the emphasis in our sport? On the manufacturers or
the athlete?
Please
support the roll-back on suit rules to an earlier, simpler suit
for men and women.
John
Leonard
American
Swimming Coaches Association Executive Director
Tech
Suits – The State of the Debate By
John Leonard Posted:
December 3, 2008
The
University of Texas, less than 24 hours before its big December
meet, does not have its new suit shipment.
Many
Universities are told they may or may not get suits by February
for the conference champs, leaving the opening that some will...and
some won’t. Some will qualify in super-suits and some will wear
old technology.
The
CSCAA pleads with the NCAA Swim Committee to put the new suits
on hold once again until the mess is sorted out...and the NCAA
Committee is slow to respond.
CSCAA
President George Kennedy takes the principled stand that their
team will not compete in the new suits.
In an international meet, the “suit police” inspect each suit
before it is used to make sure it is an “approved suit” by FINA.
Rumors
are rife (and some confirmation) that a suit is on the way that
gives bio-feedback to the wearer to reduce or remove the feelings
of pain. And its supported by 100 million dollars worth of work
by a major pharmaceutical company, which clearly can benefit
from a “no-pain” suit.
At
age group meets across the world, high tech suits appear, making
in some cases a totally unfair competition between the “haves”
and the “have-nots” and in other cases provide comic relief
as mommies with more money than sense buy suits that “you can
grow into” for their little darlings, and watch as they flounder
in the $500 potato sack.
Coaches,
happy for years to accept the support check from the swimsuit
company that helps put food on their family’s table, find themselves
in an terrible dilemna...they know the suits are bad for the
sport, but the checks are good for their bank accounts. National
Federations, with millions on the line in sponsorships, face
the exact same challenge....oppose the suits, but how to support
the companies who are their sponsors? And the companies just
did what they are paid to do...make money and make faster suits
to do it.
Where
does the fault lie? With FINA.
Where must the fix come from? From FINA.
Who has benefitted the most from the new suits? FINA and its
bank account.
The
terrible bottom line...CHAOS in the sport of swimming.
Now,
Cornel Marculescu at FINA (Executive Director) is not convinced
that this “issue” is not just a few American Coaches and Forbes
Carlile arguing against the suits. (Dinosaurs in the muck.)
The
ASCA is working daily to make sure that the WORLD impressions
of need for change goes to Cornel. You can all express your
opinion by emailing Cornel at office@fina.org . Feel free to
tell him that I recommended that you write. (that will make
me popular in Lausanne!)
So
far, USA-Swimming President Jim Wood has stepped up to make
sure that FINA knows that the USA favors a review and change
in the rules, and the USA has submitted relevant proposals for
rule changes to be submitted to the FINA Congress next July.
The USA has taken the lead in this argument in every way, starting
with the ASCA Board position in September, 2008.
Signing
on in support have been the Head Coaches of Germany, Russia,
and Slovenia, with Australia and Canada promising written support
by the end of the year. Many other nations are debating their
stance on the issue now.
Domestically,
Southern California and Indiana so far have passed suit legislation
even stronger than the legislation we were able to get passed
restricting the use of the suit to 13 and overs at the USA-S
Convention in September. More LSC’s will likely follow.
In
January, 2009, FINA will host a Coaches Conference in Singapore,
of which i will have the opportunity to play a role in both
managing the conference and shaping the debates on issues ranging
from the suits to the World Competition calendar. In praise
of FINA, its the first real opportunity for FINA to listen to
its coaching group and we hope for a real discussion and communication.
Also
in January, the FINA Technical Swimming Committee will meet
in Miami and will review the USA-Swimming proposal on the suits.
We can hope for their support.
In
February, 2009, FINA will meet with the swimsuit manufacturers...and
hopefully will have a broad imperative to change the existing
rules. We shall see, post that meeting, where things stand.
This
is a battle for the soul of our sport. Shall it continue to
be about hard work, attention to detail and athleticism, or
shall it deteriorate into a soul-less contest of engineering
expertise. Is it sport, or is it commerce?
Let
FINA know where you stand. Cornel Marculescu – office@fina.org,
President Mustapha Larfaoui – fax 213-21-740-096 (Algeria),
Treasurer Dr. Julio Maglione – fax: 598-2-902-4071
How
high throughput methods could revolutionize drug testing in
sport By
Laura A. Cox, Ph.D., Department of Genetics, Southwest Foundation
for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, TX - Alamo Area Aquatics
Association, San Antonio, TX Posted:
November 13, 2008
Did
you see the new television show “Life on Mars”? The main character
is a police detective who is transported back in time from 2008
to 1973. During an investigation the main character asks his
1973 fellow-police detectives how long it will take to find
out if fingerprints from a crime scene match any records in
the database. One 1973 detective replies that it will take about
2 weeks. While the 2008 detective is thinking that two weeks
is an incredibly long time and in 2008 it would only take a
few hours, the second 1973 detective interjects that it’s amazing
what technology can do to get the results back so quickly. As
with crime detection, quick accurate results in sports drug
testing can dramatically improve the odds of catching the bad
guys.
This
fictional story reminds us that technologies we take for granted
today were beyond the realm of science fiction only 30 years
ago. What does this have to do with drug testing in sport? Methods
that are currently available for testing biological samples
to identify genes, proteins, and many other substances were
beyond imagination 30 years ago.
The
classical approach in biology and medicine has been to test
for one substance in one sample at a time. Tweaking the testing
protocols might allow for increased throughput, i.e. faster
sample processing, for testing for one substance in as many
as 20 or 30 samples at one time. These methods were standard
in the 1950’s through the early 1990’s. The convergence of increased
computing power, implementation of stringent quality controls
on reagents for testing, development of specialized software
tools and machines in the late 1990’s has led to the development
of methodologies that allow for testing of hundreds and even
thousands of substances in a single sample.
In
addition, these new technologies allow for analysis of hundreds
of samples at once and require very small amounts of sample
material. That is, using today’s technologies it is feasible
to analyze samples from a few hundred individuals quantifying
hundreds or thousands of substances at one time. And even though
the current methods require much less sample material from each
individual, the results are far more precise than previous methods.
Because samples can be run in parallel, using less sample material
and less time, these new technologies have dramatically reduced
the cost of sample analysis for each substance from dollars
to pennies and reduced the time to analyze samples from weeks
to days.
In
addition to more rapid testing and analysis, these new capabilities
provide a “profile” on the thousands of genes or proteins in
a sample and this profile is extremely sensitive to substances
such as cigarette smoke and prescription drugs to name a few.
This profile, which has been referred to as a physiological
profile or a “physiological passport”, provides a detailed physiological
fingerprint for each individual. Consequently, these new technologies
allow us to not only ask: Do we find evidence of “Banned Substance
X” in the sample from this athlete? But also allow us to ask:
Do we see changes in a person’s physiological profile that suggests
use of a banned substance?
In
an era when some cheaters are collaborating with chemists for
access to the latest designer steroid or growth hormone rather
than using “Banned Substance X”, the availability of testing
methods that identify abnormal profiles without prior knowledge
of all substances currently in use by cheaters is a powerful
tool. Biomedical scientists and clinicians transitioned to high
throughput methods more than 7 years ago; maybe it’s time to
increase the odds of catching the cheaters and leave behind
the decades’ old approaches for drug testing in sport. If not,
it’s just “Life on Mars” for clean athletes.
What
Swimsuits to Wear, When and By Whom: By
John Leonard
Posted: October 22, 2008
The
array of swimsuits now on the market are daunting to parent,
athlete and coach alike. Throughout history, marketing has mixed
with design to first make suits that covered less and less,
and now to make suits that cover more and more of the human
body, under the assumption that certain engineered fabrics move
more easily through the water than human skin. And in the works
since early in 2008, suits that cover large portions of the
body in order to control, via resiliant panels, the sort of
“body line deterioration” that always results when an athlete
tires.
And along the way of course, the
manufacturers have raised the prices of all suits to astronomical
levels, where the top suit on the market now costs more than
the average age group swimmer pays to practice for the entire
year.
So what is “suitable” for what
athlete in what situation?
Here’s a guide for coaches:
At the Novice Level......regardless
of age.....the emphasis in our sport should be on learning to
swim the strokes correctly, which includes maintaining good
body position in the water unaided by a high-tech swimsuit.
The appropriate suit? The simplest competitive suit made by
any of the manufacturers. Good fit is important. Snug, simple,
basic. Encourage parents not to purchase suits that athletes
will “grow into”...by the time they do so, the suit will be
exhausted and in need of replacement. A good suit will last
the ordinary age grouper about 3 months if worn to both practice
and swim meets. More if a suit is only worn to swim meets. These
should be “minimal coverage suits”...for boys, knee to navel,
or less, females, Shoulder straps to hips. (not over the shoulder
suits.) Many boys, especially those new to the sport, will balk
at using the old style small “Speedo”. They want the jammers
to the knee. This is about modesty and societal associations.....good
to go with the Jammers, mon.
At the elite age group level, coaches
should still ENCOURAGE athletes to wear “normal suits” with
a good fit, with the same coverage rules as above. The longer
into their careers that the athlete can improve without the
“silver bullet” of “suit enhancement”, the better. At certain
zone level competitions, its possible that coaches will begin
seeing a majority of “technical suits” of various types. Some
actually work, some are just placebo effect improvements from
the hype of putting on a new suit. At this level, the coach
has to make a choice as to the effect of having their athlete
wear their “normal suit” while the competition is in something
exotic. This is a tough area. Remember that chances are, once
the suit comes off in the next meet, times may slip back to
where they were previous to the “super suit swim”. This can
be tough to handle for the athlete, the parent and thus, the
coach. The temptation will be for Mom or Dad to say “little
Susie is soooo disappointed in her time...why don’t we let her
wear the super-dooper suit all the time?”
What Mom may not realize is that
that $300-$500 dollar swimsuit may only be effective for 6-12
swims. Then it becomes a very expensive bag of water. And now
Susie needs a new suit every two meets...or maybe that means
twice a month. Gee, the sport suddenly got very expensive!
Coaches, keep the children out
of the “super suits” as long as possible! And when they do wear
it, remind them that there is difference in their performance
levels and once it comes off, their times may not be the same
as with it on.
So where IS it appropriate to wear
that Super Suit? Well, Olympic Trials sounds good. Senior and
Junior Nationals sounds likely. If the times at Seniors set
the qualifying times for Seniors, the athlete may have to use
the suit to Qualify for Nationals, at the Regional Meet. Maybe
not.
The ordinary club meet, Junior
Olympics for accomplished swimmers? Ordinary high school meet?
I’d recommend you stay in your “normal” suit. High School State
Championships? If you’re a senior, you probably are going to
wear the best thing you have, which may be the super suit. If
you’re a junior, can you live with wearing your “normal suit?”
The key to remember here is that
once you put on the Super Suit, you are likely to now establish
two standards for yourself...your best time WITH the suit and
your best time WITHOUT the suit.
These suits work well. Most of
us, including this writer, would like to see them banned from
all competition, so the emphasis in our sport stays on the athlete
and their hard work, dedicatio and attention to learning. But
while they are still legal, you, whether a new age group coach
or an experienced professional, have a lot of challenges to
face and decisions to make. Chose wisely.
JL
Disquieting
Thoughts...Fallout from the Great Swimsuit Debate of 2008 Editorial
by John Leonard
Posted: October 15, 2008
I’m
proud that the ASCA Board took a firm stance opposed to the
use of the new high tech swimsuits introduced in 2008 at its
most recent Board Meeting in September of 2008. I’m gratified
that the Board asked me to work on solving this issue in a reasonable
way. I’m happy that the USA Swimming House of Delegates voted
to restrict, in a “beginning” sort of way at its most recent
meeting in Atlanta in Sept. I’m delighted that various Local
Swimming Committees of USA Swimming have chose to enact even
more restrictive legislation within their own LSC since then.
Its
nice to know that a very authoritative source tells me that
nearly 100% of Australian Coaches agree with us and want the
tech suits banned for all ages including internationals.
And then the gnawing doubts start.
First, we’ve heard virtually nothing on this topic from Australia
in official terms, except that they will follow the FINA rule.
Australian Swimming is heavily sponsored by a major swimsuit
manufacturer. Ok, well, surely the Australian Coaches will speak
up as ASCA has done? No? Well, ASCTA is heavily sponsored by
Australian Swimming. No independence there at all.
I’m sure USA Swimming will speak up officially from the leadership.
No, the official silence is deafening. Volunteers at USA Swimming
are leading the way in restricting the suits for age groupers.
Good. USA Swimming also has a contractual relationship with
a swimsuit manufacturer as does virtually every National Govering
Body in the sport.
Now like a lot of people, when i am thinking something through,
i argue with furniture a lot. Or my dashboard in the car. Or
scenery on a run.
That dang couch is stubborn, the dashboard is downright obstinate,
and the palm trees here in South Florida are downright arrogant!
As i argue with the couch, the dashboard and the palm trees
about the suit issue, i say to them, “well, guys, if worst comes
to worst, since all the coaches hate the new suits, we simply
can tell our kids not to wear ‘em.”
In fact, a high ranking volunteer (and coach) in USA Swimming
told me, “while i agree with your premise, I am irritated that
my coaches association is telling me, via pushing these rules,
what to have my kids wear and don’t trust me to make the right
decision on my own!”
I can’t even argue with that. I agree with him.
So i picture myself walking into every coaches meeting i attend
in the next two years and saying “Listen Guys, even if FINA
can’t see beyond their noses here, and the national federations
are kowtowing to the suit companies, we can solve this problem
on our own by just telling our kids they can’t wear the suit.
Problem solved”
And i know intuitively, that i am dead wrong. 100% wrong. Or
more accurately, 92% wrong. Because that 8% is the number of
coach owned or coach run programs in the United States of America.
IF you own or run your own club in the good ole US of A, and
if you are brave enough to risk the estrangement of the parents
on your team, or financially independent enough to not care,
you can say “Guys, NO FANCY SUITS! Swim fast with hard work,
attention to detail and guts, like its always been done, has
always meant to be done and SHOULD be done.”
Stand up for “no shortcuts”, no magic pills, no buying of success.
Stand up for what you believe in.
But for the 92% of the clubs in the USA who are NOT coach owned
or coach run, those coaches work, directly or indirectly, for
parents. And THOSE coaches, are not going to be free to make
the beautiful speach in the paragraph above, unless they want
to risk their employment and their families regular eating of
meals on their support of principle here.
Because “a lot” of parents will want to be “good mommies and
daddies” and buy their children the latest and greatest gear
for their activities....including fancy technical swimsuits
that they can “grow into” (another gag line we’ve heard recently)
that will make them magically faster than they are now, today,
right now, without any additional work, effort or attention
to stroke technique and detail. Buy some succcess, in other
words.
And if they DON’T do it, in many of their communities, they
will be doing their children a dis-service, and look like “bad
mommies and daddies” to their kids and the other swim families
around them.
And of course, the suits actually WORK to make poor swimmers
better and good swimmers great. So all it takes is one or two
parents with more money than sense, and values, and competition
is no longer fair. And our sport, at the very local level of
your community pool, is no longer about talent, hard work and
attention to detail. Its about buying technology to give you
what you are unwilling to work hard enough for.
And the entire nature of our sport, changes.
Do you want to coach kids to think they can buy success?
I don’t. I won’t. Its not what I’m in the sport to help teach.
But for those coaches out there who work for a parents group
that is “in charge”, they likely won’t have a choice to reject
the suits. Their parent groups will stand up four-square for
their right to spend money to make their child faster with a
magic suit. I heard just last week that it was “un-American”
to set rules that limit what you can buy for your child.
Wow. I had no idea. I thought rules were for the betterment
of society. And sport.
Most sports have rules. Rules about equipment. We don’t, because
a group of men and some women who are called the FINA Bureau
don’t understand our sport well enough to know what they set
loose on the sport when they allowed the manufacturers to set
the uniform rules. And the FINA Bureau is supposed to be the
guardians of our sport and its legacy.
Some guardians. Some legacy.
So, what SHOULD coaches be telling their athletes to be wearingin
competition? That will follow on the ASCA home page shortly.
The bottom line, coach is that YOU need to be the guardian of
the philosophy of our sport that you believe in.
The Leadership Issue, Exposed by the SwimSuit Issue.
The fact is, the FINA Bureau and their buddies running most
sport federations are the last amateurs left in the Olympics.
Most disturbing is that 92% of American Coaches who are economically
unable to direct their club as they see fit, because of their
employment situation.
The suits bring all that to light, you see. If you can’t tell
your athletes what you believe they should be wearing, in order
to guard the integrity and fairness of our sport, what exactly
are you in charge of?
I salute the 8%. I hope each of you who is in the 92%, is thinking
immediately after reading this, “how can i join the 8%? “
Coaches need to guard the values and philosophies of our sport.
Coaches need to lead. These are sobering conversations. Have
them with your fellow coaches today. This suit discussion provides
you with the perfect opportunity to exhibit and develop leadership
whether you own your own swim club, or are the director of your
swim club, or not. Coaches understand the sport. Many parents
do not. This is a chance to rationally direct the conversation
about suits to the conclusion that best serves the athlete and
the sport. Leaders guard values and philosophies and help set
them. And frankly, unless you have been involved in the sport
for a significant period of time (as most coaches have) you
will have a hard time understanding the damage that can be done
by the Magic Bullet solution of buying better performances.
Coaches, exercise your leadership here.
John Leonard
ASCA
Seeks Nominations for the 2009 Peter Daland Award
Posted: October 2, 2008
The
Daland Award Committee, chaired by USA-Swimming Head Coach and
National Team Director Mark Schubert, is seeking nominations
for the Daland Award for 2009.
The
Daland Award is presented to a coach who has made significant
contributions to the governance of our sport, while at the same
time contributing significantly to the international swimming
success of the USA.
The
Award recognizes that coaches must not only coach, but must
also lend their expertise to leading the administration of the
sport.
Nominations
for this award should be sent to Coach Schubert at USASwimming@aol.com.
Thank
you in advance for your consideration of this request.
Hall
of Fame
Frank Busch
Ray Bussard
Paul Blair
Don LaMont
Mary Freeman Kelly Spitzer
Gold,
Silver, Bronze Awards of Excellence Gold Award of Excellence
Dave Gibson
Gregg Troy
Michael Chasson Silver Award of Excellence
Tim Bauer Bronze Award of Excellence
Bill Dorenkott
George Kennedy
Steven Lochte
Counsilman
Memorial Lecture Contributors
As of August 18, 2008
Our
thanks to the following individuals and organizations who have
contributed to the financial success of the Doc Counsilman Memorial
Lecture Fund. Additional contributions are sought and can be
made payable to the Counsilman Memorial Lecture fund and sent
to: Coach Bob Groseth, 2311 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL. 60208
. Credit card payments can be made by calling the ASCA office
with the request at 800-356-2722.
OUR
THANKS TO:
Bob Groseth, Ron Heidary, Jim Tierney, George Block, Butch Jordan,
John Leonard, Chuck Warner, Don Gingras, Alamo Area Aquatic
Association, Jack Simon, Santa Clara Swim Club, Dick Jochums,
Mecklenburg Aquatic Club, Tom Musch, Orinda Aquatics, Don King,
Curl Burke Swim Club, Cork King, Peter Malone, Joanne Macher,
Robert Strauss, USA Swimming, Peter Linn, Forbes Carlile, Vern
Gambetta, Dennis Dale, Tim Murphy, Jiang Zhan, Frank Comfort
And
the following individuals have donated by dedicating their speaking
fees at the world clinic to the Counsilman Fund:
Mark
Schubert
Bob
Bowman THANK YOU TO ALL FOR YOUR
Ed
Reese GENEROSITY IN HONORING DOC!
David
Marsh
04
vs 08 Trials Review
Posted: July 16, 2008
American
coaches did a terrific job preparing their athletes to swim
their best at the Trials. Here are some comparisons between
the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Trials.
2008
Review Improved Times
Prelims
Day
1 (sun)
Day
2 (mon)
Day
3 (tues)
Day
4 (wed)
Day
5 (thur)
Day
6 (fri)
Day
7 (sat)
ave
Women
42%
42%
42%
26%
37%
39%
42%
39%
Men
50%
56%
46%
57%
52%
50%
32%
49%
Total
46%
47%
43%
46%
43%
45%
37%
44%
Finals
Day
1 (sun)
Day
2 (mon)
Day
3 (tues)
Day
4 (wed)
Day
5 (thur)
Day
6 (fri)
Day
7 (sat)
ave
Women
71%
70%
79%
69%
60%
72%
81%
72%
Men
75%
75%
75%
81%
77%
73%
81%
77%
Total
73%
72%
78%
76%
69%
72%
81%
74%
2004
Review Improved Times
Prelims
Day
1
Day
2
Day
3
Day
4
Day
5
Day
6
Day
7
ave
Women
19%
18%
23%
7%
20%
16%
26%
18%
Men
35%
32%
29%
29%
33%
35%
21%
31%
Finals
Day
1
Day
2
Day
3
Day
4
Day
5
Day
6
Day
7
ave
Women
71%
62%
67%
53%
45%
53%
59%
59%
Men
56%
65%
53%
55%
60%
73%
75%
62%
ASCA
Awards of Excellence 2008
Posted: July 24, 2008
The
ASCA Awards of Excellences are bestowed annually to the coaches
who have swimmers reach the top-8 at various national championship-level
meets. The meets for 2008 are:
-2008 NCAA Division I, II and III Championships
-2008 NAIA Championships
-2008 USA Olympic Team Trials in Swimming
The
Big Home Run in Omaha By
John Leonard
Posted: July 10, 2008
You
have heard, and will hear, a lot about the Omaha USA Swimming
Olympic Trials that were held last week. Deservedly so. Lets
hand out some big congratulations right now.
Omaha
is no longer “just a baseball town”. Its a swimming mecca. The
town embraced the sport like nothing I can remember. Everywhere
you went the man and woman on the street were totally in tune
with the event. Including the guy in the quick stop that i hit
every morning for my 5 AM Diet Coke....he asked me about the
meet every day.
The
vision came from USA Swimming’s Executive Director Chuck Wielgus.
The best “number two man” in the world, Mike Unger, enacted
that vision, in cooperation with H2Omaha’s great director, Harold
Cliff. Harold’s on-site leadership and direction caught just
about every possible detail from the near perfect seating, to
a fabulous warmup pool, to perfect “hosting” capabilities.
The
production of the meet was head and shoulders above any other
swim meet I have ever attended anywhere in the world, including
every Olympic Games and World Championships. If FINA wanted
to see what swimming “can be”, they needed to be in Omaha. Sadly,
they were not there, except for potential future FINA President
Julio Maglione from Uruguay, for one day.
The
swimmers were remarkably fast, and letter-perfect in their media
and crowd responses. Whether they triumphed like Katie and Michael,
or suffered the fate of now four time 3rd place winner Hayley
McGregory, they were fantastic with the fans, especially the
children and portrayed our sport exactly as we all would wish
it to be shown.....class people performing as elite athletes.
The
hotels were close, very nice, convenient and did i mention close?
The
restaurants were varied, close, very nice and did i mention
close?
The
crowd was animated, excited, and due to a great venue, Close
to the action.
The
warmup pool was huge, complete, and did i mention, close? (and
convenient for the athletes and coaches.
The
city’s swim coaches, led by Docker Hartfield and Doug Krecklow
of SwimOmaha, opened their practices to visiting swimmers from
ages 8 to 48 and they came to practice by the dozens each day.
Young swimmers could stay in shape while visiting for the Trials.
Thanks guys.
Much
more will be said, and deserves to be. In the baseball city,
this was a huge Home Run. Hit by Chuck Wielgus, Mike Unger and
Harold Cliff. (and their staffs and sponsors.......)
Congratulations
Guys.......I left Long Beach 4 years ago saying “can’t top this”.
I left Omaha Thinking (but not saying) the same thing.
I
know they will “make a way” to do so in four years.
Thanks
for the memories, Chuck, Mike, Harold and the City of Omaha!
(yes,
we would love to come back in four years!)
International
Swimming Hall of Fame
Posted: June 10, 2008
“The
International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) would like
to invite you, the members of CSCAA and ASCA,
to attend the 45th annual Toyota International Swimming Hall
of Fame’s Honoree Induction Ceremony…..and we are making it
easy by bringing the induction to you!
Please
join ISHOF Honorees and emcee’s Rowdy Gaines and Debbie Meyer
on Sunday, July 6, at 1 pm at the Qwest Center in Omaha, located
next to the pool. ISHOF is hosting this year’s induction during
the USA Swimming Olympic Trials so we may bring this spectacular
event to the largest gathering of coaches, athletes, Olympians,
and fans of swimming!
This
is your chance to socialize with old friends, make new friends,
celebrate and honor aquatic heroes, and show your support of
the International Swimming Hall of Fame!
As
a Member of ASCA and/or the CSCAA, you will receive a 25% discount
off the $100 luncheon price. In addition, your discounted $75
dollar ticket will include a one year membership to ISHOF. If
you are currently already a member of ISHOF, you may attend
the ceremony for a ticket price of only $50!
To
take advantage of this fabulous opportunity (and seats are limited),
please contact Meg Keller-Marvin, as soon as possible at 954-474-7010,
home office; (954) 815-7946 (cell) or via email at marvingardens840@comcast.net
prior to June 27, 2008. This offer is good for advance ticket
sales only! Tickets at the door are $100.
Please
consider attending this once in a lifetime event as we honor
the greatest of the great! Please join us in honoring Honorees:
Fred
Deburghgraeve (BEL) Honor Swimmer
Anita Nall (USA) USA Honor Swimmer
Jill Savery
(USA) Honor Synchronized Swimmer
Shelley-Taylor-Smith
(AUS) Honor Open Water Swimmer
Melvin Stewart
(USA) Honor Swimmer **
Coach Jon
Urbanchek (USA) Honor Coach
**
Melvin Stewart was inducted in 2002 but was unable to attend,
so he will be honored this year
Other
Award being presented at luncheon will include:
Al
Schoenfield Media Award: Rowdy Gaines
Buck
Dawson Author’s Award: Ernest Maglischo
President’s
Award: Ken Treadway
“What
Universities do is take in teenagers and turn them into people.” Dr.
Myles Brand (in a lecture to the CSCAA meeting in Tucson, Az,
May 23, 2008.)
Posted: May 27, 2008
“What
Universities do is take in teenagers and turn them into people.”
“Ten
years from now, how many of your students will use what they
learned in calculus? But ten years from now, how many do you
think will be using the lessons they learned in athletics? Hence
the validity of athletics as a part of education”.
“Thus,
Universities should subsidize the cost of athletics. The question
is, how much is enough?”
If
ever there was an NCAA President who “gets it”, its Dr. Myles
Brand. A philosopher by trade, his address to the CSCAA told
fundamental truths about the nature of NCAA sports, NCAA administration
and NCAA politics of Olympic and Non-Olympic Sports.
Dr.
Brand urged college coaches to strongly and continuously promote
their sport to the larger audience of University and community,
and be the strongest possible advocates for the sport which
contains true “student-athletes”. In very direct language, he
told College Coaches to “fight for their sport”.
In
a later meeting with CSCAA, USA-Swimming and ASCA leadership,
Dr. Brand agreed to support and push forward several proposals
to strengthen collegiate swimming. We are grateful for his wisdom
and support and are working now to bring these ideas to fruition.
JL
5 Critical
Action Steps for Any College Coach TODAY By
John Leonard
Posted: May 27, 2008
Realize
that your program and every program in the USA, need to be in
“URGENT” mode, today and everyday, if you wish to Preserve,
Protect and Expand Collegiate Swimming.
Build
an effective, active, communicative group of Alumni and current
parents of athletes. Keep them informed week by week. Get
them INVOLVED in your program.
Build
a Fund to endow your program. Start NOW. “if its not important
enough for you to ask for money, it won’t be important enough
for someone to spontaneously write you a check.”
Educate
your athletic director on your successes. Direct copy your
President or Chancellor. Make sure BOTH get everything you
send out. Keep the administration informed about all you do
that reflects well on the University.
Become
a force in your swim community. (local and regional/national.)
Be involved and GIVE of your time and knowledge and energy.
Become known all over campus. Faculty, staff, students. Be
helpful and a great team player.
Leadership
is about Clarifying, Simplifying and “Justifying”.
As
in “just do this”. Make sure you clarify, simplify and justify
the importance of your swim program to your University and Community.
Nominations
for the ASCA Board of Directors Election Now Being Accepted
Posted: May 5, 2008
It's
that time of year. The ASCA will elect 5 Board Members at its
September World Clinic Business Meeting.
Our
current group of Board Members, whose term expires this fall
are Bill Rose, Peter Malone, Jim Tierney, Bill Wadley and Richard
Shipherd. Each is eligible to run again this fall, and we hope
they will do so.
If
you would like to nominate someone for the ASCA Board, please
obtain their permission to nomimate them first, then send to
the ASCA office (either electronically to JLeonard@swimmingcoach.org)
or snail mail to John Leonard, ASCA, 5101 NW 21st Ave. Suite
200, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309, the following information:
A
brief bio of nominated coach.
A
brief paragraph on the “statement of purpose” of the candidate...why
they wish to serve and what they’d like to accomplish in their
service on the Board.
A digital photo is helpful but not required.
We
will publicize all candidates on our website and at the World
Clinic.
Thank
you. John Leonard
Time
(and Impetus) To Move Outside Our Comfort Box
By John Leonard
Posted: April 29, 2008
The
latest and greatest Game Plan devised by the USA Swimming Staff
under the wonderful leadership of Executive Director Chuck Wielgus
sets an ambitious goal......”Build...Increase Membership. Goal:
We seek to increase membership by at least 20% by 2012.”
Two
key strategies under this umbrella goal are “Create a Centralized
On-line Registration System” and “Develop bridge programs that
seek to transition youngsters from learn to swim programs to
competitive teams”
Lawdy,
Lawdy, I AM A BELIEVER!
If
we want to grow the sport, lets stop yakin’ and GROW THE SPORT!
Great Goal. Great strategies.
Now
allow me to stop cheerleading and think of what this will mean
in terms of needs:
1)
Some more pool time for most clubs. (start getting creative...you
may not need even a 25 yard pool for a bridge program from lessons
to team. I teach my novices in a 12 yard area of the pool. Better
control. Better focus. Better teaching results.
2)
Capable, exciting, child-loving (as opposed to just sport-loving”)
new coaches. Don’t need to be young. Don’t need to be old. Just
need to be dedicated to helping young and new swimmers improve.
Start thinking who might fit that mold for your club.
3)
More swim meets. More SHORT swim meets. More Swim Meets that
are great opening experiences to our sport. Since 20% bigger
registration immediately implies 20% “new” swimmers, the chances
are they will be “B” and below level athletes when they start
out.
4)
More entry level swim meets raises the next issue.....more entry
level OFFICIALS.
And
therein lies our next great challenge in raising our numbers.
Because volunteerism is down. Number of new LSC officials are
down. Getting parents to volunteer to do officiating is down
as the economy demands a greater and greater premium on compensated
employment. Many LSC’s cannot today, appropriately field officials
to run the number of swim meets we already need.
So,
whither the future?
In
exploring this, I went to a man who doesn’t “ask to be asked”,
the redoubtable John Wilson of Athens, Georgia, USA-Swimming
Vice President and himself a world class elite meet official,
who came up through the officiating ranks in Ohio, where, in
those days, one just became “an official” and not all the fancy
titles we have today. His reply to my question was immediate
and fair. “how hard is it to officiate a novice meet?”
Clearly,
not too hard. Know the strokes. Know what is legal. Understand
it. Watch the water. Be fair. Be reasonable. Be aware of the
philosophical concept of “if its giving someone an advantage
not allowed in the rules, it deserves a disqualification”
So,
John, we make it easier for parents to be officials?
Well,
not so fast. We have no evidence now that the “difficulty” of
becoming an official is the key problem. It may be, because
how long does the average parent officiate?
Well,
the average child is probably in USA Swimming for about four
years....so the average parent probably officiates about 3 years,
at best. Not enough time to climb the big meet pyramid. Or any
pyramid.
So,
what’s the answer?
Use
a different population.
Who,
like Martians?
No,
worse. Or better. Teenagers.
Huh?
Teenagers?
Yes,
teenagers. In one of our fastest growing and most significant
competitors, soccer, kids officiate for kids. Bigger kids for
little kids. Teenagers officiate soccer matches between little
kids. All the time. As a matter of course.
They
have energy, knowledge of the sport, a keen sense of fairness,
and oh, did i mention....energy?
Also,
they are more familiar with the internet than most of us are
with our own face. So an on-line course and test to certify
teenage officials who have either left the sport on a daily
basis, or are summer only swimmers, or “high school only swimmers”,
make a GREAT source of new officials for our coming expansion.
They
know swimming. They love swimming. They already know most of
the rules. (especially how to swim the strokes) and they do
the concept of “Fair” a lot better than some adults.
And,
they need part time employment. Whether they volunteer at officiating
novice and “B” level meets, or whether we pay them a minimum
wage, they are the best possible help we can recruit to help
fuel our growth.
And
it will put a young, fresh, “cool” face on our officiating at
the entry level meets....not the very serious, very formal face
of adult officials...and in case you haven’t noticed, the coolest
“sports” for kids are skateboarding, wakeboarding, snowboarding,
etc. where no parents are around, no parents know anything about
the sport, and no parents interfere.
Its
a fantastic idea. I hope our USA Swimming Officials group will
set about creating an entry level “swim official” test that
we can use as we grow to our new “raise you 20%” goal. Its the
way to go. Back to the future.
Kudos
to John Wilson. Our “out of the box thinking” award of the year.
Let's
Keep the Tech Suits With The Senior Swimmers
An opinion... by John Leonard
Posted: February 10, 2008
The
last two weeks I have been at our LSC Junior Olympic Meet and
our LSC “Division II” meet, which is a nice way of saying, “the
last B meet where you can qualify for Junior Olympics”, without
making any of our supposedly delicate children swoon upon hearing
that they are in a “B” meet. (but that’s another story.)
One
of the most disturbing trends that I have seen is age group
swimmers, particularly 12 and unders and 10 and unders, in the
new hi-tech suits made by all the swimsuit companies, in prelims
and finals of these local meets.
First
of all, congratulations to Speedo, and all the other swimsuit
companies. Some have done real and very expensive research and
come up with fabulous suits that clearly assist the swimmers
in swimming faster...much faster. Others have simply done the
“Burger King Thing”. (Burger King does little to no demographic
or other studies when it locates its restaurants.....it lets
McDonalds spend its money on those expensive studies and then
Burger King just opens across the street from every new McDonalds....saves
them a lot of money and they get there 3 months later....so
what? Good bottom line approach. Trust your best competitor
to do the heavy lifting.)
Now,
the old man coach in me sighs at the sight of the new suits
on anyone, but lets face it, they are here, they are good and
they work. When it comes to setting World Records, American
Records, Ugandan Records, Finlandian records, and making Senior/International
Cuts, you’d better have one of these suits on, because the people
swimming the fast times and setting those standards for the
meets, are wearing them. If you don’t wear them, you are out
of it. Unfair for you if you’re NOT wearing one.
Case
in point, over 440 College Women have qualified for the NCAA
Division I meet this year with the “A” cut..phenomenally fast.
The biggest number in any prior year to make the NCAA Meet with
BOTH “A” and “B” cuts has been 259. Every college conference
meet in the country was incredibly fast....why???? .....The
Suits. Again. Good for the companies, Good for the Senior/International
Swimmers.
Now,
we get to the Division II Age Group Meet where the goal is to
swim fast enough and well enough to qualify for the Junior Olympics.
And
low and behold, here are the high tech $150-$450.00 suits on
10 and unders and 11 and 12 year olds.
“B”
Level 10 and unders and 11 and 12 year olds.
With some terrible stroke technique.
And
going to practice 2-4 times a week, for an hour.
And
not working all that well yet, in many cases.
And
not paying attention to the coach all that well yet, in many
cases.
And
coming late to practice in many cases, because Mom and Dad don’t
understand yet, the importance of being on time for practice.
And
coming late to warmup for the meet, because Mom and Dad don’t
understand the importance of warmup yet.
But
Mom and Dad want to “support” their child, and they are told
that those $150-$450 suits “work” and will make their child
faster. And good parents help their child swim faster, right?
Right?
Right?
SO........”honey,
get the American Express card out and lets get Clarence one
of those fancy new suits, so he can beat ________.”
Meanwhile,
some of those same parents are objecting when the club wants
to raise dues from $50 a month to $70 a month, because the club
wants to pay their coach some more, so he can get rid of that
15 year old car, and actually drive to practice in something
safe. He does the teaching of the swimmers.
Some
of those same parents don’t respond when the coach says “Clarence
really would improve a lot faster if he came to practice 3 times
a week instead of twice."
Or,
“Gee, if you could get Clarence to look up from his cell-phone
and text messaging when I am trying to talk to him, I’m pretty
sure he’d listen and learn better.”
Or,
“Please help me get Clarence to understand that hard work in
practice is what will help him swim better and faster in the
meets”.
Or,
“You said that you’d like Clarence to turn better and can I
fix that? Yes, I can, but I need Clarence to pay attention to
his turns when he’s practicing if he’s to improve, and not just
slop his way through practice without attention to details like
turns. I’m here to teach and I need him to be here to learn”.
By
buying the Tech Suit for Clarence, his parents are teaching
him that you can buy the things you want in life. You don’t
have to work for them.
You
can simply buy speed. You can fix anything that you lack with
enough money. No need to work hard. No need to Pay Attention.
No need to Learn.
And,
of course, reassuring themselves that they fully support their
child in swimming....”you know what we did at the meet this
weekend? We bought Clarence a $400 swimsuit? Can you imagine
that? When I was a kid, i swam in my underwear and now my kid
has a $400 suit! But boy, did it work! In his old suit, he hadn’t
beaten “_______” in the 200 free all season, but with this new
suit, he dusted that boy!”
So
Clarence, who all season has gone 2:25 in the 200 yard freestyle,
puts on the suit, goes 2:18 and qualifies for the JO’s where
he puts it on again and low and behold, drops ANOTHER 2 seconds
and gets to 2:16.
Hooray
for Clarence! Mom is happy. Dad is happy. Clarence thinks its
pretty cool...for about 10 minutes, until he gets out his $200
cell phone and goes back to texting his friends. Since he’s
really more into that than the swim meet, or swim team, or practice.
Now
what happens? Well, there are a couple of scenarios.
Lets
say Clarence goes to a meet, (a regular, ordinary, one session
age group meet) about two weeks later. Mom says, “oh honey,
you did so well in your new suit, put that on again and lets
see you GO!”.
So
Clarence does. and surprisingly, he just goes about the same
time...and actually, it maybe took some more work to get there.
And his next swim is worse. And the one after that is worse
still.... Clarence is disappointed. Mom and Dad are disappointed.
Coach
walks over and says “let me see that suit. How many swims have
you worn it for? Twelve? Well, these things wear out you know...they’re
only good for just so many swims before they no longer do what
they did do.”
Now
Dad is just a tad suspicious......... “what did you say?”
“I
said, these tech suits are not intended to be worn all the time.
The material fatigues, wears out and you need a new suit if
you wear it very often”
At
this point it dawns on Mom and Dad that another $400 suit is
going to make this a pretty expensive swimming month. And they
haven’t even paid their club dues yet. Or their entry fee escrow
account. And they are $800 in the hole.
Mom
puts her foot down. “No more tech suit. Back to the jammer.
We’ll buy you the tech suit for Championships only.”
Good.
Firm decision, reasonable for the family finances. Very fair.
So
two weeks later, Clarence goes back to his next age group meet,
in his old jammer. And his 200 free slips back to 2:23. Long
face on Clarence. Long face on Dad. Mom says, “maybe you’re
just not cut out for this sport”
“or
maybe your coach just didn’t prepare you properly for this meet”.
Or, “he’s not really a very good freestyle coach anyway, did
you see Clarence’s stroke fall apart in that 2nd 100, honey?”
NOOOOBODY
IS HAPPY!
Clarence
says to himself (or maybe even out-loud) “I can’t swim fast
without the suit.”
What
is lost in all this of course, is that the reason his parents
got Clarence into swimming was to make him more “fit” and “healthy”
and give him a chance to “compete” and “learn to work for things”
and be part of a good group of hard-working, dedicated kids.
What
Clarence and his parents should have been doing is working to
improve his practice attendence, his love of the sport itself,
his ability to focus and learn, and his technical swimming skills...his
strokes, his starts, his turns. His improvement should have
been coming from “real stuff” and not a $400 swimsuit.
Then
when he dropped to 2:23 from 2:25, it would have been a real
improvement and everyone could have been happy and he would
have been ENCOURAGED to work harder, pay more attention, and
focus on the tasks he needed to improve.
Instead
of relying on the “magic pill”of the suit.
The
solution to all this? Very simple.
Ban
the suit for age group competition. Nothing below the knee nor
over the shoulder in any competition except Senior/International
Swimming events.
Keep
age group athletes focused on improvement coming from hard work,
more practice, more attention in practice and quality coaching
of good strokes, starts and turns. The real stuff. The right
stuff. The only stuff that matters.
And
make a rule to do this. Not just “an agreement among coaches”.
We know there are always renegades who will do whatever a parent
wants to get their kid to swim fast...whether a $400 suit or
a hypodermic needle full of HGH.
Its
like the arms race....if Johnny has a $200 suit, then Clarence
has to have a $400 suit.
The
problem is not with the suit manufacturers. They’re in business
to make money. And by getting senior swimmers to do marvelous
times, they do that.
But
lets not allow commercial considerations to DESTROY the purposes
of age group swimming.
Again,
Applause to Speedo and the others for a job well done. Let the
suits do their magic at the Senior/International Level of swimming.
At the age group end, the magic is in the process of working
and learning.
Lets
keep it there. John Leonard
Postscript:
Southern California swimming has had this rule in place since
2000. The Rule reads......”swimwear in age group competion...The
swimsuits worn for all age group competition, shall conform
to USA Swimming Rule 102.9 and shall not extend past the top
of the shoulder (the acromial process of the scapula) nor further
down the leg than the top of the kneecap (Patella).”
The
Doc Counsilman Memorial Lecture Fund
Posted: February 5, 2008
Following
the passing of legendary Coach James “Doc” Counsilman, the American
Swimming Coaches Association asked a group of his closest colleagues
to create fund to achieve one of Doc’s most well goals....the
improvement of swimming by using ideas from well outside the
sport of swimming.
Doc
always sought ideas from professionals and dedicated practicioners
in other fields, in order to enhance his coaching, and encouraged
the members of our profession to do likewise.
The
Committee for the Counsilman Memorial Fund is chaired by Coach
Bob Groseth of Northwestern University.
(r-Groseth@northwestern.edu)
Members of the Committee include: Jack Pettinger of Wisconsin,
Dr. Joel Stager of IU, Mark Jedow of San Antonio, and Dale Neuburger
of Indianapolis, Chuck Warner of Rutgers.
The
purpose of the fund is to help afford the fees and expenses
of “special speakers” whom we otherwise could not afford to
fund to speak the Annual ASCA World Clinic. The first three
of these speakers included Hobie Billingsly of Diving and IU,
C.M. Newton of Basketball Hall of Fame, and Marcus O’Sullivan,
the great Villanova Track Runner and now coach, and in 2007,
Vern Gambetta, the world’s premier expert in dryland development
for swimmers.
To
make a contribution to this fund, send a check to Bob Groseth
at 2311 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL. 60208. If you prefer to
use a credit card, contact John Leonard at ASCA, who will then
write a check to the fund. (JLeonard@swimmingcoach.org.)
The
THANKS OF THE COMMITTEE GO OUT TO THOSE WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED
and CONTINUE TO CONTRIBUTE.
Among
those organizations and individual who have made contributions
in more than one year are:
Bob Groseth and Jimmy Tierney – an annual pledge of $500 from
their summer camp.
Peter Malone and the Kansas City Blazers.
Coach David Marsh and Coach Dave Gibson of Mecklenburg Aquatic
Club.
Coach Jack Simon.
Coach Richard Jochums and Santa Clara Swim Club.
Coach Tom Musch
Coach Don King.
Coach John Leonard
Coach George Block, Coach Mark Jedow and the Alamo Area Aquatics
Association.
Coach JoAnne Macher
Coach Mark Schubert – donation of his speaking fee from ASCA
World Clinic.
Coach Richard Quick – donation of his speaking fee from the
ASCA World Clinic
Coach Ed Reese – donation of his speaking fee from the ASCA
World Clinic.
Coach Jack Bauerle – donation of his speaking fee from the ASCA
World Clinic.
Coach Vern Gambetta – donation of his speaking fee from the
ASCA World Clinic.
Coach Rick Curl and the Curl-Burke Swim Club
Coach Robert and Jennie Strauss.
Coach Peter Linn
Coach Ron Heidary and Orinda Aquatics
Coach Forbes Carlile, Australia
Coach Frank Comfort, North Carolina
Dale Neuburger and the Indiana Sports Corporation.
Coach Robert Kasl
Coach Dennis Dale, Minnesota
Coach Jiang Zhan
Coach Tim Murphy, Harvard
Coach Chuck Warner – annual donation from Swim Camp
For
those too young to have benefitted directly from contact with
Doc Counsilman, it is wise to recognize that we all, in the
profession of coaching swimmers, stand on the shoulders of giants
and owe them a huge debt. We pay that debt by honoring their
memories and remembering their contributions to the great sport
we have today.
Doc
Counsilman was one of the American Giants.
John
Leonard
A wonderful
line from Chuck Warner...
Posted: February 1, 2008
"Once
again, swim coaches know that "impossible" is just
defining the difficulty of the task."
Practice
Posted: December 29, 2007 By John Leonard
Over
the Christmas Holidays, I re-read portions of “The Magic of
Thinking Big” by David Schwartz. I try to do that every year,
don’t always succeed. I do always know that when I re-read it,
I’m a better person when I am done.
This year, one word stood out to me. Practice.
Its in the vocabulary of coaches practically every hour of our
lives. It has a multitude of meanings of course, but I wanted
to be simple and just think of what things I want to practice
more, in order to be a better coach, better friend, just....better.
Here’s my list for the new year. When I got done, I realized
that like most practice, there wasn’t anything new, but there
were a lot of skills I’d used less than I should.
Here’s my list for Practice:
1. Practice appreciation. I want to focus more on saying thanks.
From the guys who pick up the garbage in front of our house
on Christmas Day (now there is job that needs appreciation)
to my swimmers, to my professional friends, to people who do
good things and don’t ask for anything in return. Just more
appreciation expressed.
2. Practice Real Compliments. When I see something good, I’m
going to comment on it more. More positive feedback to everyone
around us is a good thing. But it has to be real. Some people
around me think I am hard to please. They’re right. So I don’t
pass ‘em out like penny candy, but when I DO see something that
I think is a plus, I’m going to say it more.
3. Practice Calling People by their name. Its the sweetest sound.
I’m going to use it more. Especially at swim team practice.
4. Practice Spreading the Glory. Any accomplishment has multiple
authors and contributors. From a good day at training, to a
good day at the office. I want to practice making sure everyone
feels the warm glow of accomplishment. (everyone who deserves
it!)
5. Practice Raising People Up, Not cutting them down. Actually,
I am pretty good at this already, so what I am going to practice,
is educating the teenagers around me on how important this is.
Teenage humor today is incredibly destructive. Maybe it always
has been. Its unnecessary. I’ll practice my speech on changing
this behavior.
6. Practice Remembering that Praise is Power.
Hey, praise has huge influence. Catch someone doing something
right. Make ‘em feel good about themselves and there is no telling
what they will achieve. Thanks to Coach Jack Nelson of FLST
and 76 Head Olympic Coach for a lifetime of education on this
one. He’s the best ever at this.
7. Practice Putting Service First. All Else Flows From That.
My Dad used to say “Make yourself useful, Son”. I believe that.
Its hard to live it every hour sometimes. But if you practice,
you will see more opportunities to serve others well. A smart
salesperson by the name of Zig Zigler (the best who every lived
at this) says “you can get anything you want in life, by simply
making sure you help others get what they want in life.” A great
practice!
8. Practice Remembering that No One is Perfect.
Least of all me. So tolerance within limits is a skill to learn
and practice. Of course in training everyday, its important
to remind the athletes that just because we’re not perfect does
not mean we shouldn’t TRY to be perfect at our swim skills everyday.
9. Practice Remembering that everyone has a right to be different.
Or, as our friend Steven Covey would say “Simultaneous Loose-Tight
Properties”. As long as the individual commits to and lives
and enhances the central tenat of a group, allow all the little
individualisms that make that person unique. Encourage them
even.
Advances come from people who think and act “outside the box”.
10. Practice Courtesy all the time. It makes you and everyone
around you feel better. And it allows for creative differences
and civilized conduct of disputes. And Civilized Conduct of
Disputes allows for progress to be made on stalemated issues.
11. Practice Remembering that How You Think When You Lose Determines
How Long It Will Be Until You Win.
And we all lose at something fairly regularly. Our reaction
to that failure is the key to overcoming and triumphing over
the difficulty.
Bartsch
enjoys life around the pool
Posted: December 27, 2007 By Matt Brown
For the Collegian
"Never
coach." More than 40 years ago, Ed Bartsch received this
advice from his coach at Michigan, Gus Stager.Now the assistant
coach in charge of distance swimmers for the Penn State men's
and women's swimming and diving teams, Bartsch has a colorful
coaching past and has no regrets about his career choice.
"I've
been very, very fortunate that I've been able to work with really
outstanding people everywhere I've been," he said. Bartsch's
diverse coaching experience is difficult to match, but he also
has a distinguished history as a swimmer. He captured both AAU
and NCAA national titles and won the gold medal in the 100-meter
backstroke at the 1963 Pan American Games. But after collecting
championships as a swimmer, Bartsch followed the advice of his
coach and put aside his coaching dream to focus on a career
in business. He earned a masters of business administration
from Southern Methodist, did post-graduate work in finance at
Oklahoma and went on to spend more than 20 years in the business
world. However, in 1988, Southern California head coach and
long-time friend Peter Daland offered him a coaching position,
and Bartsch decided it was time to get back to doing what he
loved.
"He
was looking for an assistant coach, and I just had made a decision
that I wanted to sell my businesses," Bartsch said.
"I
got to do what I'd always wanted to do for 20 years." While
working as the associate head coach at USC, Bartsch got involved
in numerous other swimming programs, including clinics in foreign
countries and coaching a Los Angeles-based club team, Team Trojan.
Bartsch traveled to both Peru and India to teach swimmers and
coaches, and while it was difficult adjusting to coaching people
from other countries, he said he learned a lot from his experiences.
"You
get to know kids that are tremendously receptive," he said.
"They want to learn and they're so enthusiastic that they
do 90-percent of the interpretation. They were terrific, and
we communicated very well even though it was a sign language
more than a verbal one." But Bartsch said that his most
memorable international experience stemmed from his success
while coaching Team Trojan. Eighteen months before the 1992
Olympics in Barcelona, the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association
asked Bartsch if he would coach their swimmers that had qualified
for the Olympics. Bartsch agreed, and the Philippine swimmers
moved to Los Angeles and joined Team Trojan. About one month
before the Olympics, he was approached with an offer to be the
head coach of the Philippine team at the Olympics. After initially
refusing the offer out of respect for the coaches from the country,
he accepted a second offer and went on to help the swimmers
break eight Philippine national records in Barcelona.
"It
was a great honor, and they could not be nicer and more supportive,"
he said. "The athletes were just great. I had worked with
them on a daily basis for 18 months, so I had gotten to know
them quite well." The majority of Bartsch's coaching career
has been spent at the college level. He left USC to take over
as head coach at Villanova in 1994 and led the women's team
to back-to-back Big East championships in 1995 and 1996 before
leaving the program following the 1999-2000 season. In 2001,
Penn State head coach Bill Dorenkott asked Bartsch if he would
come to Penn State to oversee the distance swimmers.
"One
of the reasons we asked Ed to come over and be a part of our
staff is because he brought a wealth of experience and knowledge,"
Dorenkott said. "That in itself is a unique element to
what he brings to our program. There are a lot of times our
athletes or our coaches will go to Ed and ask for advice just
based on experience." Bartsch's wealth of experience makes
him well-qualified as an assistant coach, and he said that he
accepted a position as an assistant because Dorenkott was willing
to give him a lot of independence as a coach. Dorenkott believes
Bartsch's ability to practically relate experience to his athletes
is a major advantage.
"We've
never had a stronger distance program than during the period
of time while Ed's been here," Dorenkott said. "We've
had a good distance swimmer here and there, but just our depth
and our quality of distance swimming over the past seven years
has been remarkable and that's attributable directly to Ed and
his influence over our program." Bartsch's distance swimmers
have taken over the Penn State record books. The top four women's
swimmers in Penn State history in both the 1000 freestyle and
1650 freestyle all swam under his direction. As he stands on
the pool deck watching practice, the different aspects of Bartsch's
personality and coaching style are conveyed. Every swimmer who
walks by en route to the locker room jokes with him. But when
it comes down to instructing in practice, Bartsch is all business.
While he is tough on his athletes, they trust him and know he
truly cares about their success.
"I
swam my best times last week," sophomore Stephanie Roop
said. "The first thing he said to me was, 'I'm proud of
you,' and that means so much coming from him." Standing
next to her, junior Sarah Baker was quick to agree that Bartsch
genuinely cares about his athletes' performances.
"It's
not like just another coach being like 'Good, more points for
the team,' " Baker said. "He really cares about how
we're doing and that's why he's so intense in practice and on
the pool deck." When asked about his proudest moment as
a swimmer, Bartsch described the feeling of winning gold at
the Pan American Games. He said the most emotional moment occurred
when he stood on the podium afterward and listened as the national
anthem was played. Forty-four years after earning Pan American
gold, Bartsch prepares his swimmers to have similar moments
in which the feeling of accomplishment becomes overwhelming.
"When
it comes down to it, when I step up on the block at Big Tens,
I'm going to know that he's prepared me to be the best I can
be," Baker said. "Hands down, I'm not going to doubt
it at all." Bartsch was told that it is too difficult to
make a living as a swim coach. But with so much enthusiasm and
passion for the sport and a desire to help others succeed, it
appears that he made the correct career choice.
"I've
never felt it was the place; it was always the people,"
he said. "Whether there was a language barrier or not,
they were just great people to work with. And that's why I think
I really look back on it and I say it was never the wrong decision.
I've never been happier doing what I'm doing because of the
young people I'm working with."
Listen
closely; Hurry slowly
Posted: December 13, 2007 By George Block
Yesterday
I got an email asking for ideas. “I am interested in getting
a swim program off the ground with our Elementary/ Middle schools
and quiet frankly don't know how to get the ball rolling.”
It
is getting more and more difficult to have programs like that,
because laws like No Child Left Behind (along with the various
state adaptations) mandate "seat time", so taking
even very young kids out of class is difficult.
On
the other hand, AFTER SCHOOL activities are now REQUIRED by
the Federal Government, especially fitness programs that reduce
obesity. This might be the best approach.
When
you are developing any new product or service offering, my recommendation
is to spend 6 months doing "research". Talk – individually
- to your potential customers (in this case it is school board
members, principals, administrators). See what THEY need (not
what you want to do or sell). See what their obstacles are.
Then spend the next 6 months coming up with a menu of different
ways you can get around their obstacles and meet their needs.
See if you can get them to pick one and try a pilot program.
They
might need to get a grant to do a pilot, but obesity-related
grants are out there. It could take some time to research, develop
a menu of ideas, get (administrative) buy-off on one, get grant
funding, etc.
Most
people fail in developing a new product or service because (a)
they to sell a product instead of meet a need; and (b) they
aren't patient enough to deal with organizational inertia. Every
organization has inertia from a small family, to a huge, overly-regulated
bureaucracy. If you can listen closely, and be patient enough
to hurry slowly, you can grow a family or school district into
a long-term customer.
Congratulations
Mike and Amy Parratto!
Posted: November 27, 2007
Mike
and Amy Parratto inducted into Dover Sports HoF
Dover Hall Honors Six By
MARK QUIRK - Fosters Staff Sports Writer
DOVER
- After the 2007 Dover Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony,
Paul LeSieur had a gift for Jim Dunn.
It was a picture of a frog bench-pressing some weights as a
coach encouraged it on. Twenty-one years earlier Dunn had hung
the picture on LeSieur's locker at Dover High School. Written
under the picture was "I've got my money on you LeSieur"
and it was autographed by Dunn.
The picture LeSieur, one of the night's honorees, gave to Dunn,
another one of the inductees, brought a huge smile to Dunn's
face. It was just a small token of thanks LeSieur could give
to Dunn, who has touched the lives of so many Dover athletes.
"I
was excited to see Paul because I don't get a chance to see
him all the time," Dunn said. "It's a good time, and
everyone is still young enough to enjoy it."
Dunn was one of six people inducted into the Hall of Fame. LeSieur
was another, and there were also Jahn (Tibbett) Janetos, Mike
and Amy Parratto and Chris McKenney. Dunn and the Parrattos
went in as contributors and Janetos, McKenney and LeSieur were
all inducted as athletes.
Dunn was recognized for his 39 years of coaching football, most
of which have been spent at Dover. The Parrattos are longtime
coaches of Seacoast Swimming Association, one of the most successful
swimming programs in the Northeast that produced swimmers such
as Olympic gold medalist Jenny Thompson, who was at the ceremony.
Janetos excelled in both track and football at Dover and the
University of New Hampshire. LeSieur played both football and
baseball for the Green Wave and went on to play in the minor
leagues for the New York Yankees' organization. McKenney was
a football standout who played at Springfield College and is
now the head coach at Maine Maritime.
The room at the Dover Lodge of Elks was filled with some of
Dover's greatest athletes of all time. Dunn wanted to be the
first one there for one reason. Not to get a good parking space
so he could quickly get to his car after the ceremony to listen
to the University of New Hampshire football game on the radio,
and not to get a good seat - they were reserved.
"I
had to get here early because I didn't want to miss anybody,"
Dunn said. "I didn't want to do that."
There was somebody at almost every table that had either coached
with or played for Dunn, and there were just more than 200 people
at the ceremony. It became obvious how many lives he has touched
when he asked them all to stand.
Thompson is the most notable of the swimmers SSA has produced,
but there are many others that the Parrattos have helped get
into college or win state championships. They moved from the
Boston area to coach in Dover, and now they are in the city's
Sports Hall of Fame.
"They
basically made me," said Thompson, who is the most decorated
U.S. Olympian of all time with eight gold medals, three silvers
and one bronze in four different Olympic Games. "Swimming
wasn't the only thing. It's also their support, their coaching
and teaching me the ways of the world."
The first team the Parrattos coached when they moved to Dover
was the Seacoast Stingrays, which lost the first seven races
in its first duel meet. Now they are churning out Olympic gold
medalists and college swimmers.
"It's
pretty incredible," Mike Parratto said. "That's the
satisfying thing, to see people go on and be successful."
After he was done with sports, Janetos made a career out of
flying in the Air Force, National Guard and Continental Airlines.
"I'm
very proud to be selected to this," Janetos said. "All
I have to say is thank you to my coaches and my teammates that
made me look good."
LeSieur currently lives in Raleigh, N.C., where he is the director
of finance of the North Carolina Department of Education.
McKenney still holds the high jump record at Dover. His brother
Doug is also a member of the Hall of Fame.
"This
is a special night for me and a great honor," Chris McKenney
said. "Being inducted with so many great athletes means
a lot to me."
There are now 92 people in the Hall of Fame, which began in
1979. Inductees have to be nominated. The nominations are reviewed
by a nine-person committee and voted upon. It takes a majority
vote to get in.
Committee Chairman Marty Riordan said there were about 40 applications
this year. The committee tries to keep the nominations to about
"four or five" people every ceremony, which now takes
place every two years.
"This
is great," Riordan said. "It's almost an extension
of Thanksgiving. It's family. This is a Dover sports family."
Complaints
in the In-Box
Posted: November 21, 2007 By
George Block, Technical Vice-President, USA Swimming
After
less than a year of serving as Technical Vice-President for
USA Swimming, the most common (by far!) complaint that landed
in my email inbox was about “Zones”. So at last fall’s USA Swimming
convention, I used the early-morning coaches’ caucus for a “town
meeting” on Zones. What I heard surprised me.
The
standard complaints were brought forward, but I got to hear
“the other side” as well. Coaches who used the Zone meet as
the high point of their summer season. Coaches who had attended
the last 13-18 consecutive Zone meets. Age Group coaches who
use Zones as the bridge to senior swimming. All were completely
happy with their historic Zone meet.
The
more I reflected on it, the more I realized that the coaches
who were using the Zone Championships were involved in the design,
format and scheduling of the meets, and the meets met their
needs – well. The frustration I was hearing was from those for
whom the Zone Championship did not meet their team’s needs.
They wanted the Zone Championship to fill that void.
That
“void” seemed to be 3-dimensional. It was a geographic void.
Some areas of the country had a much greater void than others.
It was a calendar void – primarily (although not exclusively)
late summer. And it was a time standard void. There are a significant
number of swimmers who fall somewhere between the Sectional
level and the Junior National level that need a “Championship
Meet”.
The
Zone frustration was felt by those coaches who were trying to
fill those voids with the existing Zone Championships. The problem
isn’t with the Zone meets. The problem is that we aren’t meeting
the needs of a significant number of developing swimmers and
their coaches.
The
problem was most commonly defined as “the old Junior National
group”. Under the current Junior National format, the gap between
Nationals and Juniors has been reduced by 50% (from about 4%
to about 2%), while the gap between Juniors and Sectionals increased
by 50% (from 4% to 6%).
Below
is a one-event sample that demonstrates the “gap” I was hearing
about. The current Sectional standard from one, successful Section
is about 8% slower than Seniors. The “old” Junior meets split
that in half and were about 4% slower than Seniors. The new
(current) Junior standards are only 2% slower than Seniors,
leaving a 6% gap between Juniors and Sectionals.
Women’s
200 free Nationals Juniors 2000
Jrs. Southern Zone/Western Section
LC Time Standard 2:03.69 2:06.49 2:09.09 2:13.59
Time in seconds 123.69 126.49 129.09 133.59
%-age of Nationals 1.00 1.02 1.04 1.08
Additionally,
as many of the Sections have migrated to mid-July to become
National qualifiers rather than end-of-season championships,
this “calendar gap” compounds the “time standard gap”. This
effect becomes most profound in areas where the school year
is “late” (i.e. late starting and/or late ending) causing a
“geographic gap”.
Shooting
from the hip, I think we need a “Zone Junior Championship” (in
most Zones), late in the summer (late-July/early August). Since
I like to think with facts rather than impressions, I am going
to request the actual data on numbers of swimmers that fall
into these gaps. In the meantime, if you have ideas or comments,
please send them to asca@swimmingcoach.org
. We will try to publish the most interesting ideas.
Swimming
Fast in the Morning
Posted: October 8, 2007 By John Leonard
In
2008 in Beijing, the world's athletes will be faced with the
need to swim fast in the morning.....since that is when the
Olympic Gold Medals will be won, thanks to the commercial need
to put the Games on TV in USA Prime Viewing Time.
Likely you've all followed that discussion over the past 12
months. The world is unhappy about it, and have added it to
their list of unending reasons to be pissed off with the USA.
The statement (totally illogical, but hey!.........) is that
somehow the USA swimmers and coaches maneuvered this to provide
us with an advantage.
Now why the USA Swimmers would find contesting finals in the
AM to be an advantage is over my head...but.....its good for
those who love to bash the USA.
Many of us, with more mortal athletes, have been concerned with
how to swim fast in the morning for a long time, because if
our normal athletes don't, they don't get to swim at night in
championship meets. Actually a lot of the world has had to learn
how to swim fast in the morning much before any of this Beijing
stuff.
During a recent USA-Swimming meeting, i decided to ask the ASCA
Coach of the Year, who coaches a young man named Michael Phelps,
what they had experimented with this year to learn how to swim
fast in the AM. Here's Bob's responses:
1. "Wake up Three Hours Before You Swim"¯ (at least.)
2. Take a WARM shower.
3. Immediately dress in warm clothes, including cap, socks and
gloves or mitts.
4. Provide the athlete with a longer and more intense warmup
than you would otherwise do in the AM.
The Key Point, according to Coach Bowman? "its raising
the core temperature of the body and keeping it there. That's
the major physical difference between AM and PM swimming."¯
Thanks for the advice Coach Bob. It may be useful for our
slow people trying to make finals in our local meets, as well
as for the fast people going after Olympic Medals in Beijing.
Good luck to both groups!
Give
athletics credit, literally
Posted: October 8, 2007 By Gary Walters, Princeton University NCAA
News
The
following was presented as a speech to the Princeton University
Varsity Club in May.
As director
of athletics, let me share with you what amounts to my athletics
commencement address. I hope my theme isn’t too sobering,
considering the festive nature of this banquet.
At past
PVC banquets, a common refrain from many of our speakers and
recipients has been that the athletics experience at Princeton
is inherently co-curricular. Most, if not all, student-athletes
and past participants feel in their collective souls that
the athletics experience was every bit as educational as the
classroom experience.
Jon Veach,
a starting tailback and captain on our football team who graduated
in 2005, wrote a paper for Professor Hal Feiveson, in which
he stated:
“The reason
athletes put so much time and dedication into athletics is
because the athletes do not view varsity athletics as simply
an extracurricular activity but rather a vital part of their
life and an intense learning experience. I have been an athlete
since I was 8 years old, and I can honestly say that the summation
of my athletics experiences to this point has prepared me
for the hard times of my life better than any other experience.
Varsity athletics are imbedded with an abundant number of
life lessons, values and striking comparisons to the real
world. I believe so strongly in these values that I feel varsity
athletes should be given some type of academic credit for
the countless hours of training and learning.”
Jon’s
comments provoke the question: Is it time for the educational-athletics
experience on our playing fields to be accorded the same educational
and academic respect as the arts? Isn’t it, as I believe,
a co-curricular activity, too?
On January
20, 2006, President Shirley Tilghman proudly presented to
the board of trustees the President’s Arts Initiative, a vision
for Princeton that includes an arts neighborhood, expanded
programs in the creative and performing arts, and a commitment
to integrating those offerings into a broader liberal education.
The president
stated that Princeton “fully embraces the creative and performing
arts as an essential part of the educational mission.” The
president further pointed out that “by participating in the
arts, our students develop cognitive abilities and forms of
intelligence that complement training in other disciplines,
and in some cases they discover and develop talents and interests
that will shape their careers and principal avocations.”
Pulitzer
Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon has been appointed by President
Tilghman as the new chair of the arts initiative. As Princeton’s
own Poet Laureate, Professor Muldoon commented that:
“We’ve
come to understand more widely at Princeton that the arts
may be central to the experience here — not necessarily overshadowing
any of the other areas that a student might pursue — but that
there’s something about the way in which the arts make us
understand who we are and what we’re doing that I think has
become...more central to the university’s idea of itself.
“We will
be attempting to make it clear that the arts are central to
the life of an educated person, whether she or he might be
majoring in chemical engineering or computer science or whatever
it might be. One of the delights of Princeton has to do with
the curriculum that allows computer science and chemical engineering
and comparative literature majors to write poetry and produce
plays.”
Who among
us would not agree with President Tilghman’s and Professor
Muldoon’s compelling assessment of the arts and the significant
role they play in contributing to a broad liberal arts education?
But also, who among us does not believe that athletics at
Princeton is itself a discipline that tests our physical and
cognitive abilities? Athletics competition nourishes our collective
souls and contributes to the holistic education of the total
person in the same manner as the arts.
In his
recent book, “Excellence Without a Soul,” Harvard’s former
Dean of the College and professor of computer science Harry
Lewis courageously points out the mission drift at Harvard
and other research universities from their respective commitments
to undergraduate education and teaching. He criticizes the
growing academic-educational divide and he also argues for
a different professorial rewards system that places a greater
value on teaching.
But in
his book, Lewis didn’t limit his commentary to Harvard’s role
in the academic cosmos. As a former faculty representative
to the Ivy Policy Committee on Athletics, Lewis, too, is a
proponent of intercollegiate athletics as practiced in the
Ivy League and heartily endorses its contributions to the
individual and collective soul of a university. He concludes:
“Like
scholarship or mathematics or music, athletics at their best
operate in a glorious parallel universe in which the lucky
and the skilled can temporarily dwell and excel, detached
from the banality of ordinary life. Competitive ambitions
and financial rewards need not corrupt sports, no more than
awards debase the value and purpose of learning or of art.
The pursuit of excellence in any area can be more than entertainment
— it can be a thing of beauty that brings profound satisfaction
to the human spirit.”
In a very
real sense, student-athletes are also engaging in a form of
the creative and performing arts, but what differentiates
us is that we do so in a competitive, collaborative and cooperative
way — and like great theater, the anticipated outcomes of
our games remain in doubt.
Bill Coplin,
professor of public policy at the Maxwell School at Syracuse
University, professes that “intercollegiate athletics may
be the single-most important educational activity available
to undergraduates who see college as a way to prepare for
a professionally rewarding career, regardless of the field.”
Professor
Coplin observes that intercollegiate athletics is almost unique
in its ability to help participants develop professional competencies
such as critical thinking, time management, teamwork, goal-oriented
behavior, competitiveness, confidence, persistence/endurance,
loyalty, discipline, taking criticism, dealing with setbacks,
leadership, flexibility and adaptability.
If we
accept what Coplin affirms, and if we believe that intercollegiate
athletics contributes to the development of core competencies
and analytical thinking, why is it considered a distant cousin
to the arts when it seeks academic legitimacy, even though
the vast majority of its participants view it as having educational
legitimacy?
No less noteworthy an alumnus than Michael Spence (class of
1966, Nobel Prize-winning economist and a former hockey player
at Princeton) said at this very banquet three years ago that
the “physical, mental, emotional and social components” of
playing hockey at Princeton were a crucial part of his undergraduate
education.
To continue
on the same theme, George Santayana, the distinguished Harvard
philosopher, observed in his 1894 essay etitled “Philosophy
on the Bleachers” that:
“Real loss would come (to the academy) if a merely scientific
and technical training were to pass for a human one, and a
liberal education were conceived to be possible without leisure,
or a generous life without any of those fruits of leisure
of which athletics are one.... (In athletics, there) is a
drama in which all moral and emotional interests are...involved.”
Which
brings me back to the original question: Why isn’t the educational-athletics
experience in the academy considered to be as worthy of co-curricular
respect as the arts? Or even more confounding, why do so many
academicians question the legitimacy of the hyphen between
“educational” and “athletics” when they evaluate the intercollegiate
athletics experience? To the contrary, “Isn’t athletics,”
as Trinity College professor Drew Hyland hypothesized, “the
sweatiest of the liberal arts?”
You be the judge.
Gary
Walters is director of athletics at Princeton University.
He is completing his term this month as a member and chair
of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee
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