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  • Tanja Heinz zweifache Deutsche Mastersmeisterin!!!
    Ulrich Ringleb 11.09.2021 14:13
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By the Late Bernie Wakefield

Why only six? Why not a Top 40? Or a hundred? Because at this moment, this is all I can come up with. To be truthful, I actually began with four, then added a few more as the article progressed. Maybe tomorrow I might think of another couple and have to change the title! So that’s what this is, not a tub-thumping proclamation of some new revelation or a technically contrived masterpiece, just a spillover of my present thoughts on improving coaching tactics on the way to a successful career.

Achieving the level of Top Gun Coach is not an easy task, but there are many edicts endorsed in any coaching manual that will diligently explain the way to go. There is one requisite however, that you won’t find in any mandated text on this subject – LUCK!

Now, a lot of people will disagree with the statement that luck is an important feature of fulfilment but in the broad context, it is basically correct. You need to be fortunate enough to have in your squad, swimmers who, through your efforts, are capable of reaching a high enough standard. Ultimately, recognition will follow and with it, the identity of a top coach.

Whether you develop those swimmers to World class from a tender age or harvest them from somebody else’s hard work is a matter of personal semantics. Whatever your thoughts or ethics are in this respect, and even recognising the effort you have put in to get them to that required elevation, it is still, to a certain degree, a luck involved situation. There is a saying among horse and cattle breeders … "If you don’t have the right stock, you can’t breed champions."

I have a confession to make, I just made that up – but it is probably true anyway. However, there is one cliché common among swim coaches, which is relevant but not nice enough to print in these pages. It also refers to stock. I’m sure you have all heard it so I won’t repeat it.

Disregarding those philosophies, there is one other that bears printing and that is, "You make your own luck".

This is accurate … the enthusiastic coach will set up a program that will produce champions or swimmers who will compete well enough to attract other swimmers to the squad. He/she will search and find the right environment to house and train these up and coming champions and then be prepared to spend years of poverty and lack of recognition creating a powerful squad.

Luck does not come easy; in the coaching profession – all successes are due to hard, often thankless work and dedication. Luck will always follow success and vice-versa but if bad luck raises its ugly head, refuse to recognise the impostor, for that is all it is.

But what it all adds up to is the truism of being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. We all know there are many talented coaches out there who, given the right opportunity and environment, would excel far beyond their expectations.

Consequently, the second most important issue could be having the capability to develop that swimmer to a stand-alone position on the world stage of swimming.

That competence is absorbed from experience and without that seasoned wisdom you need to possess the luck of a multiple Pools winner to achieve a desirable end result. Knowing how to use those skills gained from experience contributes to the list of priorities required to get to the top of your profession. It is sadly true that some people never learn from their trials and tribulations and plod along year after year with the same procedural strategy that only resulted in unprofitable returns last season. They are inclined to blame their mediocrity on bad luck. I would call it idleness. Instead of the exalted title of Top-gun Coach, they are likely to end up as a Pop-gun coach!

So that could be number three. EXPERIENCE.

A fourth is, possibly, EDUCATION. It is not that important to own a degree or two to be a successful coach – but it certainly would help. What is really significant is the inner drive to learn no matter what level you finished formal education. Intelligence is a primary requirement in understanding the concept of the learning process. This is the key to the treasure house of knowledge but it is not an obligation to be a Rhodes Scholar or a nuclear physicist. Learning has to be a constant companion throughout the lifetime of a coach and can be digested in many ways and what is more, it can be accomplished without becoming a financial burden. Libraries are free. Conversation is free. Observation is free. And, best of all, thinking is free.

Books are not always obtainable without cost but there are other ways of procuring information reasonably cheaply. The resources of the National Sports library at the AIS are available for a few dollars annually and contain a small universe of knowledge in audio and videotapes, CDs, books, articles, journals and magazines.

If you can afford the price of a computer and learn to surf the Internet, mountains of information can be obtained and most of it is free, as it should be. The price of searching cyber space for enlightenment is now becoming a rational item in terms of cost and, if I can conquer the complexities of controlling that data detailer (well, almost) at my age, then it is surely a safe passage for anyone. Tip. First stop on the Internet … check out the ASCTA web page.

Now, not all the material available from these and other sources can be regarded as the absolute truth and this is where the thinking processes need a kick-start. Study with an open mind and if something you see does not relate to or agree with your experience, then re-examine your thoughts and also the information that you just read. It is distinctly possible the intuition that you gained from experience may be correct! Respect the authors for the research findings they have contributed but never believe everything literally or verbally expressed. To err is to be human. To claim infallibility is paranoiac.

The fifth path has to be TECHNIQUE and the teaching of.

Some time back I expressed concern over certain methods being employed to discover swimmers’ correct stroke rate for the distance they are competing. Unless you are sure of what you are doing, be very careful in using graphs to plot any test swims. These equations used to obtain efficiency ratings bear little resemblance to hydrodynamic principles because of all these human frailties or strengths interfering with accuracy.

They remind me of all the quasi-scientific graphs that have been advanced recently to predict future speed by plotting trial swims over a period of time. These procedures follow predicted curves – or straight lines or troughs or peaks or whatever directions you would like to believe the lines travel! Something like predicting the end time first or guessing a stroke rate and then drawing the graph to make everything fit and so prove your point! Magic! No, it’s not; it’s called a pre-determined outcome.

To accept an anticipated result from a dubious efficiency equation could lead to a stroke rate that is not properly designed for that swimmer or the distance to be raced. The ‘motor’ (the power factor) of the swimmer has to be equal to the task it has been set. Something like an overlarge propeller attached to an outboard motor that delivers insufficient energy to give the boat the speed required.

These ‘swim-tools’ can be used beneficially for future swim goal setting and can also assist in overcoming the difficulty of teaching illustrative values like ‘feel’ and the application of that sensory power to the water. They can be desirable features in the overall process of fine-tuning or even strengthening swimmers but should, in no way, be acceptable as the final absolute on stroking.

My sceptical nature does not allow me to embrace such expansive notions when they are offered as exact science. There are far too many components involved, which are impossible to feed into the equation. I shouldn’t have to mention items like basic fitness, what part of the taper or rest, muscle soreness, lactate levels, state of the race or importance of the race besides all the other biological metabolisms and physical actions the body experiences. Or the state of the environment, the swimmer’s turns and start, or streamlining, or even the swimmer’s innate feel for the water. Stop me please or I will fill this page with reasons not to accept such inconclusive revelations.

Use your eyes, your powers of observation to check for natural stroke rates for your swimmer. Look for the signs of full powered stroking by judging just where those hands are almost stopping in Freestyle and Butterfly. The late Joe King was fascinated with his swimmer Hayley Lewis and the way her hands actually quivered when she applied maximum power in the catch.

Watch the wave patterns swirling away from the moving swimmer and see how they move further down the body as the tempo of speed increases. Especially watch the hip-wave in Freestyle and note that when the swimmer is at full speed that wave should move back past the knee line. When Susie O’Neill was queen of the Commonwealth Freestyle sprinters, I would know when she was nearing her best when that wave disappeared behind her feet. She then became a two-wave sprinter with her lying in the centre of the waves.

In Breaststroke, check the wave moving away from the hips and note if the recovering heels are placed in that wave. The heels should then be sitting above the pool surface and giving the swimmer the opportunity to maximise the foot catch. Good Breaststrokers usually have the hip strength and flexibility to maintain that high catch position. Work on it if they don’t.

Look at the speeding swimmer from all angles to judge that vital catch position in all of the strokes. Even observe them from an upside down position, you will be amazed at what you will see; not only for the errors that show up, but a whole new scenario will emerge to study.

There are fundamental but essential areas of each stroke, which have to be performed correctly for maximum efficiency to prevail. For instance, balance of stroke around the long axis so perfection of streamlining can be attempted. The same applies to the art of kicking. From those two factors you then have to construct the rest of the stroke to the physical attributes of your swimmer. Which means you need, in your mind, a model for every one of your swimmers – not a copy of the most successful swimmer of the day but a mould, which will fit like a tailored suit to each and every one for all four strokes.

You only have to glance at your squad standing poolside to see what I am talking about. The only thing similar is that they have two legs and two arms, a torso and a head. And all of those different shapes, sizes and abilities, talented or not, require different strategies to lie streamlined in the water and be able to apply their maximum power in the water. Not to mention their floatability and probably a dozen other factors.

If there is one thing I have learned over a long teaching and coaching career is that no single human being is a dead set clone of another. We are all different. This is the one precept I hold strongly yet here we are picking up academic texts on technique and reading that certain strokes MUST be done this way. Stone the blinking crows! How many times have all strokes changed over the years? Consider Breaststroke alone. Whatever the latest world record holder is doing becomes the fashion of the day!

I remember when a couple of male Breaststrokers ruled that particular stroke with World Records during the 60’s. One was an American called Chet Jastremski and the other a Russian by the name of Georgi Propopenko. Both did this armstroke which was narrow and fast with legs kicking straight back and knees almost together throughout the entire range of movement. Their early breathing action closely patterned a previous Japanese champion named Ahsaki. For a long period after Jastremski set World records you would see almost every little kid in training attempting to do this difficult and ugly stroke. In my estimation, this incident of two short but rather strong people swimming fast, according to their unique structure, set back natural evolvement of the stroke almost ten years.

Over the next 30 years, this stroke evolved in at least ten distinct variations and, in the opinion of many coaches, can still bear improvements to peak perfection. But we blithely go through our teaching careers using various champions at present ruling the swim roost as role models when it is blatantly obvious that not one of your swimmers can measure up to that matrix – for a hundred reasons!

At this time in Australia, we have a number of highly successful male Freestylers who are close to or at the top of their events in the World. Names like Klim, Thorpe, Perkins, Kowalski, Hackett, Stevens, Fydler. Have you ever noticed how similar they are in the water when they race? Yeah! They all stroke overarm and kick underwater! Apart from that, the timing, stroke, kick and balance are as different as cats and dogs and you can bet the National Mint to a back yard dunny that none of their coaches designed or copied their stroke from any other swimmer.

And that is why they are so successful because their coaches had the nous to form their stroke around their structure – and pursue any other strength OR weakness problems they may have had. Even their breathing patterns are different. Their ratings are different. Then you may have noticed also, their shapes are different! Ken Wood, coach of the superb stroking Geoff Huegill, said about his pupil "He possesses the perfect Butterfly stroke".

Respectfully, and without criticising Ken and his magnificent swimmer, what could have been more appropriate would have been the statement, "He possesses the perfect stroke – for him".

You see, if Michael Klim, who is close to the same standard as Geoffrey over 100m, was doing Geoff’s stroke and Geoff his, then it is highly likely neither would be as successful as they are now. So it is equally certain that their respective coaches built to each, the perfect stroke for them, taking into consideration all those other constituents I mentioned.

Just remember that those flowing strokes do not always come together naturally and it is often a painstaking period of intense stroke development and experimentation to find, absorb and maintain that technique. Ask Ken.

So my advice is take those learned manuals with a pinch of caution; allow for the fact that you may need to follow a similar pattern but be prepared to do the unplanned or the unconventional should you encounter difficulties. It may be an altered breathing technique either earlier or later in Butterfly to correct a timing error, which in turn is creating excessive drag. It could be adjusting, in Freestyle, a longer sweep of the arms instead of the conventional S curve to cope with a stronger person who can use the long lever to advantage. Or a score of minor issues, any one of which could be that vital cog in the machinery of stroke or timing that you are seeking.

By all means study the actions of the present day champion, but don’t copy unless the movement or style adapts absolutely to your swimmer. Much can be learned from observation, without a singular doubt it is one of the finest tools in a successful coach’s toolbox.

Here’s another ‘fix-it’ spanner that you should keep in your special swag of ‘miracle’ tools. Never just treat the effect of a biomechanical problem, always seek the cause and fix that. A good Physio will always follow that rule and be able to track to where the real problem lies instead of just isolating and treating the muscular trauma itself.

However, before taking the plunge into something drastic like major stroke alteration, always keep in mind Newton’s third law of motion that forcibly reminds us that every action has an equal and opposite reaction; so be most careful of making these kind of changes that they don’t affect other parts of the stroke or kick cycle. Just because that part of the stroke offends your sense of perfection, does not mean it is wrong; it may be perfectly effectual for your swimmer because of some familiar or even obscure, uniqueness.

You have to prove it is wrong by close observation, experimentation, counting of strokes, taking times and perhaps consulting a physiotherapist or physiologist before making the big decision to alter a stroke that is technically impure by text book standards but may be the best possible mechanics for that swimmer!

We are all responsible, at various times, for making critical remarks on other coach’s swimmers without being aware of why they are seemingly performing incorrectly. There is nearly always a reason for such inconsistencies.

Probably in this respect, over recent years, was the alarmingly wild action of the World’s best ever female distance swimmer, Janet Evans. My first re-action on seeing her perform in Brisbane during the 1987 Pan Pacific championships was one of incredulity. She was a 15-year-old who looked like an undernourished 11-year-old waif with an amazingly undisciplined Freestyle action. I could not believe that someone so obviously undersized and so feral in stroke could go so fast.

It wasn’t until Barcelona in 1992 when I stood behind her on pool deck that I recognised her physical disability and ceased my wonderment. Her chronic scoliosis was so pronounced it ended all speculation why she stroked that particular way. What it did not explain however, was how she stroked so powerfully – in spite of, may I say it, an imperfection?

So even if your swimmer lacks that measure of unconditional, unbending perfection of stroke that science demands, don’t be concerned, it is still possible to attain a level of efficiency to rival the best in the World.

Understand what I am saying? Perfection is only in the eye of the beholder. Okay, so I’m taking a little licence with an old platitude but it still holds fast no matter if you are admiring beauty, art, or flawlessness. As is often the case, that beholder can be so wrong – even if they are responsible and well-lettered coaches and scientists!

Well, I certainly became carried away on stroke technique and its development. Forgive me for my lack of literary discipline, and the length of space used on that subject but I did warn you in the beginning it wasn’t going to be a startling revelation, just a tranquil wander down some well-worn paths. Let’s get back to the story.

Many coaches rely on identical training programs from season to season with only minor adjustments to allow for growth of the swimmer or the squad. It is quite possible to continue enjoying success by this method. Joe King espoused these principles; indeed, so much so that his cycles of work followed a week-by-week similarity and nobody could accuse Joe of getting less than great results. However, it can be stimulating to change work schedules without losing the impact that previous workloads have brought you.

I know that many coaches keep their past programs year after year if only to gain some idea how their squad is performing at the same date in time. I’m not suggesting that you do the same or, like me, throw your week old program in the bin every Monday morning (my only reason for doing this is to prevent a lazy habit forming and instilling, instead, a kind of mental discipline). I have a belief that forcing your mind into overdrive occasionally leads to fresh ideas and new ways of doing the same sets so better values may be obtained.

So here is the sixth commandment! Variety. Not exactly used for the purpose of entertainment but in a clever way distributing the same loads by different methods to maintain the magic of swimming. To enthuse! Following that endless black line without conscious thought may have been okay in the past when humongous sets were all the rage and swimmers needed to put their thinking processes on hold. These days it appears to me that our distance swimmers require more than just humming a catchy tune to maintain the increased intensity and quality of today’s distance programs

It would seem that all those definitive requirements to achieve champion status in your swimmers might not be enough. Combine Luck, Technique, Capability, Education, Experience and Variety in the big pool of wisdom and you could still fall short of the ultimate achievement. The extra ingredient, the spice needed to produce a first class product, may well be the capacity to incite and maintain zest while applying all those wonderful faculties. Therefore, we should add to the list, ENTHUSIASM.

On those days when the squad is bored out of their brains from the constant pressure and similarity of work, you may require a sense of humour to detonate the dullness and explode an ordinary session into a memorable one.

You also need to develop a certain potential to roll with the punches when the good times (in many ways) are not in profusion. Sadness and sorrow are a tangible part of a coach’s life.

And not lastly but certainly, you require a tolerance and patience virtue closely resembling that of Mother Teresa’s. That’s not only to deal with recalcitrant swimmers but also to placate over-expectant parents.

These seven paths, as I have begun to point out, have many sidetracks, some leading to brilliant results, others leading nowhere. Signposts like…

Patience

Tolerance

Understanding

Morality

Communication

Humour

Dedication

Sincerity

Humility

Commitment

Concentration

Unconventionality

Hard Work and Self-Belief

…are the ones to follow.

These, plus a few more of the same ilk, are attached or run side by side with the magic Seven to lead directly to the development of champions. It doesn’t hurt to be side tracked by those signs; they could turn out to be shortcuts to success.

Following the Seven (add a few of your own or wander down the others on display) Paths to Glory that many successful coaches have progressed along will surely lead to mastering your chosen profession – Good Luck – and with all the other stuff as well!

 

 

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