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Members may enjoy reading the below excerpts:
Bill Sweetnam
http://www.byrn.
Bill used to supervise the Club System for Australia. Three years
ago, he moved to Great Britain to help turnaround their swimming
program. Sounds like he's applied the Aussie principals with good
results.
The best coaches all have a similar underlying theme in their
presentations -- demand excellence from your athletes.
The experience of the coach must be in advance of the athlete's
talent but the desperate and obsessive motivation to succeed must be
the same.
The Romans conquered the world not by forming committees but by
killing all opposition (Note -- Death to all who oppose me.).
A compromise is a decision between two people where neither is happy
with the outcome. I don't compromise, that way I ensure that at least
50% of the people are satisfied.
The UK junior team went from being weak to winning the Euro Champs in
three years. I think that the secret lies not in talent -- I think
the secret lies in demanding excellence from the athletes.
Cultural change must be driven through the coaches. Three things for
successful coaches/teachers: (a) know the product; (b) sell the
product; (c) demonstrate excellence daily.
Do the basic things exceptionally well, not the exceptional things
basically well.
The skills of any athlete under pressure and fatigue will ALWAYS be
below those at which the train. Therefore, you must demand excellence
in training. Athletes will not rise above their training standards in
competition. The must train at competition standards. Therefore, it
is not what you do, it is how you do it.
There must be a partnership between the coach and athlete. The coach
sees what the athlete cannot -- the athlete feels what the coach
cannot.
The bulk of training, 70%F / 80%M should be aerobic in nature -- 70%
of VO2 Max or slower.
He spoke a bit about reverse periodization -- as used by LVL (didn't
mention LVL, simply the method). Thinks that it can be effective with
females and older athletes that have some speed left. Note -- I think
older in swimming means >20.
You must be careful with Race Pace training (that's goal pace, what
he calls speed or race speed training) because if you go overboard
then the damage doesn't appear until it's too late. Never train Race
Speed to fatigue.
Aerobic training is not moderate effort work, it is specific effort
work.
A reason is an excuse and an excuse is not a reason.
Never lower your expectations to an athletes level. They must rise to
(and beyond) your expected level of excellence.
Compromise is the cancer of achievement.
Motivation, Commitment and Attitude are lifestyles, not short term
bursts of excitement.
Will you be better tomorrow because of what you did today?
National Team -- optional to join but once you join then you do
everything, on time. There is no part time participation -- no matter
how talented you are. Lessons for triathlon here – all around the
world there is compromise on this point. Holding fast to this rule is
painful, people will always try to compromise. There can be no
compromise. He demands continuous improvement from all national class
swimmers.
He likes short course for speed work only -- long course is superior
for aerobic training and back end development. Note he's talking
about swimming events -- I think that it would be even more clear cut
for open water racing.
He is a firm believer that every workout must be quantified (pace,
stroke rate, DPS, breakout…) -- this is the only way that the coach
and swimmer can gauge if it was a success.
At every workout, at every competition -- carry one's self like a
professional.
Keep it simple -- demand the attention of your athletes -- lead
through personal excellence – never extend skills before existing
skills are established -- eyeball every athlete at every session,
you'll learn a lot.
Athletes like to be challenged -- challenge your boys, love your
girls.
Do something positive and personal for each athlete as often as
possible. NOTE -- probably a good idea for your girlfriend as well!
We often think that we know our athletes. We don't, but they know
everything thing about us! Athletes hold much stronger views about
their coach than their coach does about them. This is worth
remembering if you think you have a strong view on a person.
Coaches must live to a standard of greatness.
============
Jamie Carruthers
Wakefield, UK
http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
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