A Reminder at Thanksgiving" with THANKS to Don Heidary

Swaziland Swimming
ASCA Level One Clinic - Foundations of Coaching

I had the recent opportunity and privilege to present the ASCA Level 1/Foundations of Coaching Course to the
coaches (all of them) in Swaziland, Africa. For them, this was the first connection to ASCA (The American
Swimming Coaches Association) or USA Swimming in the country’s history. We spent two full days reviewing
course material in Power Point and DVD format, watching videos from Olympians to Dr. G analysis, reading
articles, and discussing safety and child protection.

The clinic was attended by twenty-five coaches and four parent council members. The coaches included those
running small, humble club teams, teachers who offered swimming in schools, learn-to-swim instructors, and
even some who run an orphanage (with motto, Orphans Today, Leaders Tomorrow) that offers swimming.
Each coach received a USA Swimming pin, sticker, and pencil, and a glimpse into a world that they had only
heard about; America and USA Swimming.

The Meet (Gala)
We ran the course on Friday and Sunday because of a meet (Gala) scheduled for Saturday. The meet was one
of the most endearing and precious experiences I have enjoyed as a coach. It was an early season relay meet
and included the elementary schools. The meet had no timers, no officials, no “stars”, only a few streamlines,
but more spirit than I have seen in my thirty-five year career. There is truly something for all of us learn from
this humble group with modest talent. There was a complete absence of anxiety, individualism, or apathy.
These kids gave completely to a very simple and pure process that was in front them – swimming, friends,
teammates, and opportunity. Everything mattered (except their time). It was powerful and refreshing and a
stark reminder of the pure joy that can and should exist in sports – at all levels.

During one of the first races, I was standing on the side of the pool and was overwhelmed by very loud,
intense, and rhythmic cheering. I turned and stared at the kids in awe. I have seen a great deal of cheering in
my career, but nothing like this. I naturally assumed that the race in front of them was a closely contested
heat of four or five teams coming into a photo finish. I turned to the pool to see five young swimmers,
struggling with butterfly, spread out throughout the pool, in the middle of the race. They were cheering for
the kids, not the race. It continued like this for the entire meet. During a later race, I turned to a woman next
to me to comment on the excessive cheering but it was so loud, she couldn’t hear me. When the race was
over, I told her how I was very impressed with spirit of the kids. She almost embarrassingly said, “Oh, this is
nothing. You should come to the meet at the end of the season.”

The kids were adorable. One warm-up lane (see photo) had about fifty kids in it. No one complained or even
knew it was too crowded to “warm up.” The lane next to that one had less than five kids in it (one lane per
school). No one asked to move. I think they liked it better “warming up” with their friends and classmates.
And don’t ask about the dive lane!

Realities and Reminders
A reminder and recap of the swimming backdrop in Swaziland is; no heated pools, one pace clock, one set of
lance lines (the rest are ropes), and relevant to this course, no coach certification (i.e., no education, safety,
background check, CPR, etc.). This course served not only as an opportunity for education, and exposure to
USA Swimming, but as the beginning of a dialogue on a host of issues that can positively impact these children.
During the course, as we were discussing workout management and group organization, one coach raised his
hand and asked matter of factly, “what do you recommend with eighty kids?” I asked how many groups –
“one”, and how many coaches – “just me.”

Towards the end of the course, I was presenting the section on diet and eating disorders. I wasn’t sure
whether it was an issue there so I leaned over and asked the parent near me. Her response was, “the only
eating disorder here is not enough to eat, otherwise, no, not a problem.”

A harsh reality to swimming in this small country (as I am sure is the case in most developing countries) is not
necessarily a lack of equipment or staffing but safety. The afternoon of the exciting relay meet I attended, a
nine year-old boy drowned in the same pool. I asked where the life guard was. The response was simply, “we
don’t have life guards. We can’t get anyone to do it or pay them.”

As I have said before, these kids are painfully polite and humble, fit, eager, and content. There are truly
inspirational. This always reminds me of the quote, “I would rather be able to appreciate things I cannot have,
than to have things I am unable to appreciate.” E. Hubbard

A special thank you to John Leonard (ASCA) for supporting this effort, and to Tom Avischious (USA Swimming)
for the invaluable gifts.

Don Heidary

The Journal of Swimming Research Returns! (Volume 18).
            After a hiatus of several years while searching for both an editor and a business model to make the JSR work, we are once again “back in business”.
The new, improved JSR can be found on the ASCA homepage, Research Journal section.
           The JSR was initially conceived in 1984 by my predecessor, the academically gifted Dr. Keith Sutton, who became a good friend of mine. He and his talented wife Mary (also a Ph.D) gave birth to the first peer-reviewed JSR (a first for swimming as a sport!)  in 1984 and after Keith’s untimely early death, Mary continued as editor for many years and put out a number of top quality issues of JSR. Following Mary, Dr. Joel Stager of Indiana University gave self-lessly of his time and energy to continue the publication and advanced it further.  Now taking the Journal into an On-Line publication is one of the original editors, Dr. Jan Prins of the University of Hawaii. We are indebted to Dr. Prins for his energy, enthusiasm and applied intellect to make this publication a vibrant and coach-useful entity once more.
      From Keith and Mary, to Joel and Jan, this is indeed a labor of love. For us coaches it is a peer-reviewed source of “real science” that we can depend on.
     Our thanks to all these great scientists for their persistence, and dedication to cause of “real science” for coaches. Many warm thanks! JL

Click here and find our World Clinic 2011 audios available for download.

Coach Don Sonia of Vero Beach, Florida Leads Off the ASCA 2012 Coaches Hall of Fame Inductees.
         Legendary Coach Don Sonia is the first coach selected for the 2012 ASCA Coaches  Hall of Fame!

          Coach Sonia, who owned and coached the Glendale Swim School from 1961 through 1966, then moved to the Philadelphia Aquatic Club, is being inducted on Sept. 7, 2012, into the American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame.  He began his coaching career in the US Army in 1954 and concluded his coaching career in the Vero Beach area at St. Edwards school, Indian River College Masters, and Christi’s Family Fitness.
       Coach Sonia taught over 10,000 young people to swim during his 57 year career. In 1953, as a swimmer, he swam a 23.1  - 50 meter freestyle. Two philosophical gems from Coach Sonia – On competitive philosophy – “Coordination and knowing how to pace yourself are the two major requirements for becoming a world record holder!”, and on the Secret to Success; “Be at the right place at the right time. Everything I did, I didn’t know it was coming. In terms of coaching, be fair and honest…everyone’s equal on a team.”
His team was third in the 1962 outdoor nationals, and had multiple Olympic team members for the USA. Among the famous names in swimming who either swam for, or coached with Coach Sonia  are Ed Spencer, Tom Miliam, Frank Bates,  Ken Krueger, Tim Barnes, Roy Saari, and  Billy Craig and Rich McGeagh,  Jack Bauerle, present coach at University of Georgia, and Coach Steve Fenning.
         In recent years, Coach Sonia has been active in Masters Swimming and has helped set a number of Masters World Relay Records.
         Coach Sonia lives in Vero Beach, Florida and is working on recovering his health in a local health care center. We look forward to honoring Coach Sonia in September, 2012 at the ASCA Annual Awards Banquet in Las Vegas.

Coach Richard Shoulberg (ASCA President) recieved the USA-Swimming Award on Friday evening, Sept. 16 in Jacksonville, FL. The USA Swimming Award is the highest Award a USA-Swimming Member can recieve. Congratulations to Coach Shoulberg!

Posted: 6/3/11

The Future of FINA: Part 2, Coaches

Posted: 6/2/11

Happy Birthday to Swim Coach Forbes Carlile of Australia on his 90th Birthday June 3, 2011

             Forbes has been one of the iconic coaches of world sport…all sport for many decades now. A pioneer in breaking the infamous “Amateur Code” that kept professional coaches as serfs in every federation in the world, the signature fighter for the sport of swimming and all its athletes and coaches, all over the world, Forbes turns 90 on Friday, June 3, in Sydney Australia, with his marvelous Coach/wife, Ursula Carlile with him.
              The Coach of multiple world record holders and Australian Olympic Medalists, including the incomparable Shane Gould, the last female to hold world records at ALL recognized distances, Forbes has been a scientist pioneer as well, introducing, along with his academic mentor, Professor Cotton, the term and practice of “Taper” into the swimming literature.
            The Australian Swimming and Coaching Community has invited the world to a special reception  to celebrate his 90th Birthday on June 13 in Sydney.
            Forbes has only a few true “contemporaries” still around, including Peter Daland of the USA, a man of the same age and distinction. At His, 90th celebration a few weeks ago in LA, Peter’s remarks included “if you marry well, you have a chance in life!”  Certainly Forbes fits that category,  and Ursula deserves congratulations to helping see Forbes through to this marvelous milestone.
           Forbes, you are THE hero to many  of us in coaching. Many happy returns of the day from the USA and around the world!
             Happy Birthday my friend! John Leonard, USA.

12 selected as 2011 ASCA Fellows
May 27, 2011

The American Swimming Coaches Association is proud to announce the 2011 Fellows Class. The class is composed of 12 coaches:

• Ad’m Dusenbury – Mission Viejo Nadadores  (Mission Viejo, CA)
• Kristyn Evans – Nitro Swimming  (Cedar Park, TX)
• Michael Galindo – FSS Tritons  (Poway, CA)
• Craig Harris – Tiger Aquatics  (Baton Rouge, LA)
• Casey Hnatiuk – Lyons Swim Club  (Western Springs, IL)
• Ross Lannan – Bryant University  (Smithfield, RI)
• Matthew McDonough – Eagle Swim Team  (Owings Mills, MD)
• Justin Morin – Central Area Aquatic Team  (Seattle, WA)
• Meaghan Murphy – Ridgewood Breakers Swim Team  (Ridgewood, NJ)
• Mike O’Connor – TWST Swimming  (Orchard Park, NY)
• Manny Perez – Mako Swim Team  (Valparaiso, IN)
• Chris Sheppard – Charles River Aquatics  (Boston, MA)

The ASCA Fellows program is a mentoring program for swimming coaches, designed to foster the future coach-leaders of American swimming.  The program annually takes a select group of coaches and pairs then with a mentor coach to work on a year-long project. For the 2011 class, the Fellows project area is “Coaching Boys”.

2011 represents the eleventh class of Fellows, which was begun in 2000.

-ASCA

ASCA Announces It’s Hall of Fame Class for 2011!

Chairman Bill Wadley, Head Coach-Men, The Ohio State University, announces the Honoree Coaches for the American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame for 2012.
“We’re pleased to announce a distinguished class for 2012…they are…Coach George Block, San Antonio, Coach Earl Ellis, Pacific Northwest, Coach Bob Miller, Pacific Northwest and Coach Jim Wood, Berkeley, New Jersey. We will also honor Coach Jean Freeman, University of Minnesota Women’s Swimming, posthumously. This marvelous class has served athletes across the USA with dedication, passion and marvelous achievement for many decades.
“In the case of Coach Freeman, we made an early decision last fall (2010) so that we could notify Jean of this honor as her health was failing. Her loss is deeply felt by all of us, and we are pleased that her long time colleague Terry Nieszner, will be on hand to accept this honor on behalf of  Jean at the ceremony in San Diego.”
        The Hall of Fame induction is part of the ASCA’s Annual Awards Banquet on Friday evening, Sept. 9 at the Town and Country Hotel.
Friends of the honorees may purchase tickets to attend the dinner, contact the ASCA at 1-800-356-2722.
Congratulations to our Class of 2012!

Posted: 3/22/2011

A Nation of Wimps
"Here's an article every coach and every parent needs to read," John Leonard.

Posted: 3/14/11

It is Time to Change the World

By Coach George Block, President, World Swimming Coaches Association

Fellow coaches, we have come to a place where we must decide if we should put great efforts into continuous, incremental change within FINA, or risk and achieve much more and Change the World. 
This is a very difficult place for all of us.  Many of us are intimately involved within our own federations.  Most of us frequently coach athletes on the world stage.  Changing the World requires risking both these relationships.
By their very nature, our federations must maintain close and positive relationships with FINA.  Actively opposing FINA will place our relationships inside our federations at risk.  By our very natures, we want to coach and compete on the largest stage.  Actively opposing those who run that stage will make us persona non grata on that stage.  When we have to resist the most, it may require asking our athletes or federations to sit out the very competitions by which we all define ourselves.  Although we are all willing to do that ourselves, none of us wants to ask that of our athletes, but it may come to that – soon.
We have developed a mindset of fighting over table scraps from the FINA table and being quite happy when one falls our way.  We have not stopped to realize that the banquet is being stocked by our labors and the fruits of those labors.  This is the great irony.  If we leave the FINA table, those at the table starve and we – coaches and athletes – will keep the fruits of our labors.
When dealing with an old, large bureaucracy, it is easier to blow it up and start over, than it is to significantly change it.  We are inspired every day by seeing that happen in North Africa.  Those citizens finally got tired of hoping for table scraps and decided to turn over the tables and Change their World.  Many hundreds of them have given their lives.  Can we sacrifice a swim meet?  Is our legacy going to be merely titles won, or will it be changing the competitive landscape for generations of coaches and athletes to come?
Many of you will reasonably ask, “Can’t we do both?”  Can’t we work for incremental change within FINA, while working outside to start a new organization?  Can’t we preserve our options?  What if FINA changes?
What do we tell our athletes when they bring the same questions to us?  Can they preserve the security of their social lives while risking everything to be the best they can be?  Can they commit half way?
We can hope FINA changes, knowing it can just as quickly change back.  We can hope that the people of good will inside FINA can affect some changes that will last until changed back by those without that good will.  However hoping is all we should do.  We should not expend emotion, intellect, effort, or commitment to improve FINA.  All of our emotion, intellect, effort and commitment should put to blowing it up and starting over.
We must have a World Swimming Association Championship in place by 2014, so that our federations and athletes can sit out the FINA Championships in the next quadrennium.  We must stop putting our food on their table, then begging them for scraps.  Our labors put food on that table.  It is time that we Change the World and set our own table.

Posted: 2/14/2011

InCredible. Really.
By John Leonard

         A review by ACES (Association of Chief Executives for Sport) supplied to USA-Swimming reports that exactly ZERO are the number of people serving on the governing boards of directors  for their international Federation, who are ATHLETES or COACHES. At the end of this short article, I’ll list all the federations who responded.
        No athletes. No coaches. What conclusions can we draw from this?

1. International Federations operate as paternalistic organizations where anyone except the “suits” (sport politicians) are not welcome.
2. Professional athletes in all sports, are “done to, and for” by amateurs who reside in the old thinking of the 19th century that only “gentlemen” run sport.
3. Professional coaches are not considered worthy to help govern the sports in which they spend their entire lives.

Someone told me recently that clearly it was a “bad idea” to have athletes and coaches on governing bodies.  This same person is a ranking sport politician not only in their own federation, but in the international federation.
What flawed logic. (“it’s never been so, so clearly it SHOULD never be so.”)
   In reality, this is the strongest possible indictment of the CREDIBILITY of International Sports Federations to govern their sport. Making them, quite literally, IN-Credible. 
   As proof of the absurdity of this conclusion, I point to USA-Swimming and to Australian Swimming….the two most successful sports teams in the history of Olympic Sport, in terms of medals won, records set, etc. (we’ll dismiss the old drug cheating East German regime from consideration, shall we? )
       Both organizations have both athletes and coaches imbedded permanently in the highest levels of decision making in their organization….quite successfully it would appear.  While I cannot speak authoritatively on the history of Australian Swimming, it is correct that USA-Swimming has had athletes and coaches on it’s Board of Directors since it’s inception in 1979.
       It works for the two most successful Olympic organizations on the planet, but wouldn’t work for International Federations? Please.
       And please, remember that we’re talking “Serving on the governing boards…” not the eyewash of “athletes commissions” that the IOC and some others that they put in place to blunt valid criticism, and then roundly ignore.

Time for a Change.  InCredible.
John Leonard
The sports represented in the survey: Badminton, Biathlon, Bowling, Equestrian, Fencing, Field Hockey, Hockey, Lacrosse, Luge, Masters Swimming, Rugby, Sailing, Shooting, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Synchro Swimming, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Water Polo, Water Ski, Wrestling.

Coach representation on the FINA Bureau:  Vote with the FINA President!
  by John Leonard, ASCA/WSCA Executive Director
  Posted: February 4, 2011

The FINA Bureau meeting of January 27-28, 2011 in Frankfurt, Germany, saw a remarkable shift in opinion on the topic above, being the inclusion of a professional coach on the FINA Bureau in its coming iterations, with voice but no vote.

The measure, proposed by USA Swimming and other federations, lost by a vote of 17-4… BUT voting with the four, was FINA President Julio Maglione.

This vote simply means that the Bureau will recommend that this motion not be adopted by the FINA Congress in its meetings on the FINA Constitution this July in Shanghai.  As we saw with the swimsuit rules, sometimes, when the cause is good, the federations will NOT support the Bureau recommendations, but instead, vote for the right result.

And surely in a sport dominated by professional athletes and coached by professional coaches, the input from one of those professional coaches cannot be anything but a wonderful assistance to the volunteers of the FINA Bureau.

(One should note that the same FINA Bureau, at the same meeting, approved a measure to include the selected chair of the FINA Athletes Commission as a member of the new Bureau, with voice but no vote. Why is an athlete approved, but a coach not?)

This leaves all of us, as professional coaches, in the powerful position of urging our federations to VOTE WITH THE FINA PRESIDENT in July and add a professional coach to the Bureau, alongside the athlete.

A more important principle also arises here:  neither athletes nor coaches need their representative selected by the FINA Bureau.  Athletes and coaches are fully mature enough to VOTE for their representatives on the ATHLETES and COACHES committees.  My hope is that a number of nations will seek to amend the measure on the floor of the Congress to an ELECTION, rather than a SELECTION of representatives of the most important parts of our sport:  our athletes and our coaches.  Please, let’s make it so!

Let us work from now through July to persuade our respective national federations to VOTE WITH THE FINA PRESIDENT and put a coach on the FINA Bureau.

Nothing is more important to the future success of our sport.