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Op Een Oude Fiets Moet Je Het Leren

By David

The Auckland Open Championships have been held this weekend. Before I left to coach in the United States this was the meet Television New Zealand used to call me about, to ask if Toni Jeffs was coming up from Wellington to compete. If she was going to swim they would send a news team out to film the event. Of course this was also in the days when Toni was sponsored by Liks Night Club and West Auckland Aquatics was stacked full of rebellious buggers like Johnny Munro, Ross Anderson (senior and junior), John Steel, Paul Kent, Nick Sanders and Craig Ford – ably supported in Wellington by the likes of Jon Winter and Mark Haumona. In those days the meet involved all of Auckland’s age group swimmers as well as the Jeffs, Bray and Steel super stars.

I have no idea who decided to change the old format. But in an understandable quest to shorten the sessions, Auckland’s age group swimmers have been given their own Championship. It means the administrators responsible for the Open Championship now have a snappier, more spectator friendly format. Their problem is the competition has lost its old personality and is still looking to find a new one. The meet has improved; the swimming is better but the personality has been sucked out of the place. That’s not surprising when the menacing presence of Cameron hovers over the scene watching for any sign of rebellion in New Zealand’s best swimmers. It’s a sad day when the loudest voice and largest personality in the pool is an American who has only been here six weeks and isn’t even swimming. New Zealand has some bloody good swimmers but who the hell are they? Even Bell went the whole meet without a beer in sight.

There is little chance of Television New Zealand being interested in the Auckland Open Championships again until the cult of personality is restored. Television loves McEnroe, Connors, Phelps, Ali and SBW. Olympic gold medals seem to have an attachment to those sorts of people as well. It has been said before on Swimwatch that Olympic sport is a game for adults; men and women who have relationships, who enjoy a drink, who stay out too late, who are human, with interesting stories of human strengths and weaknesses to tell. Cameron and Byrne don’t want that. They want obedience. Cameron wants her personality to dominate. And that’s exactly what swimming in New Zealand has got. But it’s not Cameron or Byrne that are going into battle in London; it is Ingram and Francis and Bell and Radford. They have priority. It is their turn to shine, unfettered by the Cameron storm cloud.

I noticed the other day that the very good ex-New Zealand swimmer, Helen Norfolk, has been instrumental in setting up a swimmer’s trade union, called the New Zealand Swimmer’s Association (NZSA). When she was swimming, I thought Norfolk was one of the most obedient, “yes Jan, no Jan, three bags full Jan” swimmers on the planet. Being as she was raised in Canterbury I should have known better. For what it’s worth, here at Swimwatch, we think the NZSA is the best thing that’s happened to New Zealand swimming since Danyon Loader won his two Olympic gold medals. There will be a collective voice able to strongly put the case for better conditions. Swimmers will have more power. Byrne and Cameron will not be able to practice the divide and rule speciality of bullies. I am hoping the crazy controls currently exercised by the Swimming New Zealand politburo will be relaxed. Best of all swimmers will be able to mature as athletes and as men and women. With the protections offered by the NZSA New Zealand’s best swimmers should be able to express their personalities; their celebrity will be able to shine. And Auckland’s Open Championship administrators will have a product to sell to Television New Zealand again.

Our little club had a good weekend. We won a few races and swam even more PBs. I was discussing what to write in this Swimwatch article with a couple of the team’s mothers. Ella’s Mum said, I could always mention that her twelve year old daughter had swum two personal bests. And so she did! WAQ’s four swimmers (Jess, Justin, Zane and Jane) preparing for the New Zealand Nationals in three weeks appear to be well on track to swim well. Best of all they are beginning to swim with character. In all sorts of ways the personality of the team is changing and growing. Swimming boys and girls are becoming men and women – and for a coach there is no more satisfying sight in sport. Best of all one of the most senior officials in swimming here and a person who typifies the strength and knowledge of the “amateur” base of this sport, stopped me on the pool deck this weekend to say how well he thought our team was swimming. Because he is also certainly a person who has not always agreed with this sometimes rebellious swim coach, his opinion means a lot – thank you.

I recently asked a prominent US coach a training question. The title of this post is his reply. His Dutch ancestry gave me a clue where to look for the translation. Freetranslation.com supplied the answer – “you get the best education on an old bike”. Isn’t that the truth? Our team is moving forward. In the best spirit of Ross Anderson Senior we are heading in a direction he would recognize. Hopefully one day we will have a roll call of names to match those who headed this article and headed this team when he was its coach.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2011 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Racing . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Sensible Swimming

    Hey David, that is some classic roll call of swimmers you talk about – it would be great to hear what they are all doing now – I hear Jon Winter and Paul Kent coach, but what about the rest? Funny enough, I also hear that John Monroe is a respected lawyer and that he took Swimming New Zealand to court (The Sports Tribunal) a few years ago when he represented a much younger Kane Radford about selection (or not) for open water at Beijing. Not sure of the detail, but probably similar stuff to your last post – maybe you could find out more and tell us all what happened.

  • Rhi Jeffrey

    I like that “you get the best education on an old bike” quote. Maybe some people should realize that and leave well enough alone. :)

  • They were a great bunch. The last I heard Ross Anderson Junior had a senior position in the Auckland police force, John Steel had been the swim team captain at USC (I think) and is now flight crew with Air New Zealand. I know the Olympic Committee were trying to track down all the old NZ Olympians but couldn’t find Nick Sanders. Paul and Jon of course invade my pool everytime there is an Auckland Centre meet on at West Wave.

    There was a common thread that ran through those guys. The way they were coached, their family – who knows. Whatever it was, in and around a swimming pool they were scared of no one. They had fun, they misbehaved, they were alive and human. Good times on the old bike indeed. Let’s just hope the Ineson and Norfolk give today’s best the freedom to be themselves. It is down to those two. They do have that responsibility – especially Ineson. Let’s hope he doesn’t blow it.

  • Chris

    I have just noticed an announcement on the SNZ site and the Auckland site about a another fundraiser in April with the Aussies, organised by the New Zealand Swimmer’s Association. I presume that is Helen’s group? Good on them! Do you know which Aussies are coming?

    BTW, any word on whether SNZ are doing anything for Swimming Canterbury? Or is it too much to expect that they would give all the money from Opens to Canterbury, like these other meets around the country?

  • Chris

    Just having a second look at the new NZSA logo. Not sure if it is deliberate (or just clever), but having first thought it was a stylised wave, or a koru, or maybe a feather (??), but I reckon it actually looks like a saw!! How apt. I hope that bodes well.

  • Sensible Swimming

    Thanks for the updates about the old guys – they will be forever young in our memories!

    BTW Chris, like you I thought that logo was just another (well done) NZ stylised fern or koru, or even a wave – but now you mention the saw idea, yes I can see that – a rip saw or even a chainsaw maybe.

    I wonder how excited SNZ are about the Swimmers Association? I notice they are organising a find raiser for Canterbury called ANZACS for Canterbury (http://www.swimmingnz.org.nz/uploads/files/Press_Release3_1.pdf) if that is the type of stuff they are going to do then I hope everyone is really proud of what has been started. On the ANZACS for Canterbury, does anyone know yet which Australian Swimmers will be here?

  • Earl

    Ross Anderson Jr is now with ASB and is still swimming – you will see him pop up at some of the open water swims and more so as the team swimmer for half ironman races. He has been first out of the water at the Challenge Wanaka teams race over teh last couple of years (Challenge Wanaka is a Ironman distabce race – 3.8km swim)