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Exasperated

David’s note: From time to time Swimwatch receive stories from people involved in the sport of swimming (and would love to receive more! If you have something to share, send it on to democracy@swimwatch.net). We think it is good for Swimwatch to be a platform for these issues to see the light of day. Here is an email I received late last week.

My coaching / teaching career began in the United Kingdom when I took my swim teachers certificate in 1986. This involved preliminary teacher’s certification, bronze medallion lifesaving and then I progressed to take my full teacher’s certificate of many hours practical experience. My examiner was Joe Jagger (Mick Jagger’s father).

I taught swimming after my retirement as a swimmer and carried on teaching whilst my sister continued to swim for a couple of years at the Centre for Excellence at Crystal Palace London. For 10 years I helped out and taught a variety of people the basics of swimming till my own children became involved. I then went through a 4 year updating process – (re-taking all my teacher’s exams) in order to start the coaching programme. This resulted in me being awarded the Level 3 Club Coach’s certificate. I also became a regional timekeeper and licensed official. During this time I became an Age-Group coach and developed Regional and National swimmers. Prior to coming to New Zealand I had a swimmer who got onto the British Talent Podium programme and up for selection for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

In New Zealand I registered with NZSCAT and had my qualifications audited by Jan Cameron and Sheila Galloway. This resulted in me receiving my Silver Coaching certificate (with a note that there were aspects of Gold equivalence). Other than helping out 1 hour a week at Zenith (Dan Loader’s former Club) I am not permitted to coach swimming. This is a Dunedin City Council Policy. There are approximately 6 other pools in Dunedin under the city council’s control. Moana Pool being the only one available for 12 months of the year – the others are closed for 6 months of the year.
The reason that I am not permitted to coach is that there are two “professional coaches” that the council has signed a contract with. The council would be in breach of contract. Refer to: (Policy :http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/swimming-pools/moana-pool/policies-at-the-pool). Gennadiy Labara and Andy Adair currently have the Swim Coaching rights at Moana Pool. No other person may coach swimming in an amateur or professional role other than in his or her own swimming club and during that club’s specified time, unless they have hired a lane for private use. The only resource I have is to use a school pool of 25m for 2 sessions.

A parent, amongst many, is so exasperated that her daughter cannot get the coaching she wants and needs she has written to find out who in the area has the skills to coach. NZ Swimming has reported that I am the only Silver accredited coach in the immediate area. I do not mentor any other coaches.

I have coached her daughter for a 1 hour session each week, for some stroke correction but clearly this is not enough. This swimmer, in my humble opinion, has exceptional talent, but her times under her existing coach have dropped approximately 25 seconds between her 15th and 16th birthdays. Too much more information will identify this swimmer in the area. She is amongst a group whose times have done the same.

I have done everything I can to make some allegiances with these coaches but they do not want to know. I am employed full time and do not want to take over their role or club and am happy they take any credit. I would just like to be part of the local set up where I can offer some really good expertise and help for their club.

Everyone I talk to shrugs their shoulders and accepts there is nothing that can be done and I too agree that I have exhausted every possible way to help this swimmer. She is destined to give up or move out of the area. What should she do? Isn’t this sad?

David: Here at Swimwatch we have no idea of the merits of this sort of story. We certainly do not want to get involved in a debate with the Dunedin City Council. However there is possibly one issue a story like this does highlight. Swimwatch has frequently argued that the resources available to New Zealand’s swimmers should be available irrespective of where they live. It should not be necessary to move to Auckland to receive the support of your country. If that view is to succeed it is important that local issues such as this one are sorted out before they damage the reputation of all New Zealand’s local coaches. It is a very easy step for centralist supporters to say, “Look they can’t even sort out their own local affairs and you want us to provide them with the resources required to win the Olympic Games.” Jan Cameron was an expert at making that argument. South of the Harbour Bridge was a swimming wasteland as far as Jan Cameron was concerned. Petty politics damages us all. Surely it’s possible to find a Silver qualified coach some work that will successfully use his ability. When all New Zealand’s coaches are given responsibility for producing Olympic medallists again we are going to need all the help we can get.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 10:37 pm and is filed under New Zealand . 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.

  • Skipper Penguin

    Dear exasperated, I feel for you as it is always sad to see a swimmer not fully reaching their potential. As you will recognize that there is no one way to coach, motivate and get the best out of a swimmer- it can be as you say different horses of different courses. Bob Bowman for instance has done wonders with Micheal Phelps but struggled with Katy Hoff when Paul Yetter left- does this make him a bad coach no and on the other side since he coaches Phelps does this mean he is the best ‘coach’ in the world, no.
    The bronze, silver and gold licensing is new to New Zealand and unless you have done some specific aquatic study/research along with performance requirements you cannot get the gold license…I’m not sure that they have even offered the research side of it here yet. So there are a fair few coaches around with former qualifications (levels 1-3 etc) and a lot on silver(eg Gary Hurring who has had great success).
    You cannot blame the council, if they were to let anyone coach it would undermine the unity of the facility and the bonds that have been made between the clubs that pay for lane rights. Both coaches you name I guess they come from David’s philosophy on higher mileage(don’t want to wrongly infer that though David as your sprinters have had great success in the past)- so that does not always suit everyone. The one on one coaching you have been doing with her is obviously working, but if you want her to go on with the sport she will either need to wade out till she is 17 and move, or she will need to integrate into one of these clubs.
    I would not call either of the coaches you have named poor technical coaches but working with a big squad as I assume they do, sometimes one on one feedback is being missed and obviously she is responding to you better- maybe she could approach her coach and try and form a better line of communication, or look at offering videoing for the clubs in the area. A coach always has a vision when they look at a athlete(never the finished product) but it tends to be building skill development over time- so I would say to look out that she does not have too much going on in her head- two coaches is tough.
    In the future why not look to start at the development end and build swimmers from there, you are obviously a great coach and New Zealand can always do with better teachers- I’m sure that if you send on technically efficient swimmers to either of these coaches or programs they will have to sit up and have a look and maybe a better working relationship can grow. If you continue to work from the outside I’m afraid that your relationship will not grow and in the end it will be a shame to loose your potential impact on swimming in Dunedin.
    I wish you all the best for the future

  • Welly

    NZ swimmers and pool users should be able to use pools as they see fit. As long as they do not endanger anyone whats the problem? Councils contracting exclusivity contracts with swim mangement organisations and coaches is unfair and unkiwi.
    Where I live, we have a problem with our council, that the local swimming club cannot teach learn to swim anymore, even though they have for many years. They used that programme to finance the club and as feeder group to their squad programme. The swim management company has a contract with the council allowing only them to teach swimming, so are trying to stop them. This is happeing all around the country and some swim clubs have gone under because of it.
    If you’re the best coach/ club/ teacher or the worst what harm are you doing if you have paid for the lane space and swimmers seek you out. What happened to the free market?

  • Joe Smith

    Thank you for your comments I am the exasperated.

    I am grateful for your points. My problem is not with the council per se but more with the policy that I think damages swimming. Dunedin city council do many things extremely well and have been credited as such, however, this policy results in the consequential damage to swimming.

    If a swimmer plateau’s with their existing coaching structure they will look for a change. It is quite normal to have to have a change. The best compliment is to return to the original coach, which I have seen over many years. To have variety is a good thing and to have other experienced coaches on the poolside brings so much to the table. The pool availability should be the least of the swimmers worries. I always welcomed visiting coaches and invariably learnt a great deal from them even if it was just a communication method or drill.

    The difficultly I have with the current system in Dunedin is it supports the businessman and business organisation. Unlike a normal business however, this model is not subject to any competition – the policy (and tax payer) indirectly protects the business. I have been encouraged to speak out, not because it is just my gripe but because local people are frustrated that they don’t have a choice. I have nothing to lose as there is nothing to take away. It is so undemocratic, the model in place represents some of the reasons freedom was so vigorously fought for.

    The resulting attitude becomes; If you don’t like the system then forget swimming as a sporting option or you can only be as good as the coach will allow. To my mind this is seriously flawed policy, which is damaging to swimming in every respect. The solution could be as simple as just one other pool open for the full year. This would allow a full competitive programme to be developed.

    The feeder clubs are granted just one hour per week. If you work through this process 8, 9, 10 and 11 year olds you could be looking up to 40 hours for the whole season per year assuming no other commitments – This is now not enough for fitness, not enough for technique, not enough for good drills and not enough to keep the interest. The parents can’t see where to commit either again a major loss as where are the new coaches coming from if it is not to get involved with their children? Numbers are declining for all in the area.

    A dangerous precedence has been set. This is especially bad with the legacy here and the amazing array of tools which include the flume at Otago University and all the students trying to get some practical experience with their sports programmes, not to mention their research. We could so be easily developing the swimsuit or the smart skin here that measures heart rates etc. These are all excluded in the 2 people business interest and are a great opportunity lost.

    Thanks to SwimWatch and respondents as there is great merit in being able to vent.