How does David Marsh get all these athletes to join his group, and then they get worse while training with him, while college boys and girls surpass them? How did he get appointed as womens coach for the US team?
I wouldn't draw too many conclusions from the photos. Remember that during the last Olympic build-up Lochte was following an over-the-top dryland strength program with truck tires, etc., that a lot of folks thought might have been detrimental to his performance in the water.
Just from watching him limp off after several of his races at the Trials it sure looked like his groin was bothering him - don't think that had anything to do with making excuses.
In defense of Marsh, one thing you can't coach is age.
Yeah, the athletes are all equal machines, and the outcomes are 100% the responsibility of the coaches. :blah:
This. As if any athlete is an absolute guarantee at Trials. Have you ever heard of Bill Barrett, BraunMan? We're talking tenths of seconds in one given race on one given day between qualifying and not qualifying - it's absolutely ridiculous to pretend a coach has control over that situation. You are talking like a non-swimmer who knows nothing about the sport.
I love me some statistics - The clock (and the numbers) do not lie.
According to the USA swimming website, there were 1790 swimmers that achieved a U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying time. This is .2% of the total USA Swimming membership (640k people)
Making the Olympic Team roster are 45 total swimmers: 21 women, 24 men. 45 out of 1790 swimmers is 2.5%. 2.5% of the .2% make the team. (Pool swimmers only, not including the 1 10k swimmers you'd need to add to both mens and womens teams who made just the 10k and nothing in the pool.) This is something like .005% of all USA Swimming membership.
SwimMac Elite has 16 USA swimmers, and of those, all 16 made 2016 Trials. One heck of an accomplishment for a single workout group. 6 of those 16 made the team - 37.5% of that one workout group!! Incredible! Those 6 are 13.3% of the entire team. Again, impressive.
My input here:
You can say what you want about Lochte being "better" or whatever than Litherland. Did SwimMAC and Marsh fail Lochte individually? Unless Marsh's training directly led to Lochte's groin injury, no swimmer or coach would tell you that Lochte's failure to earn a 200 IM spot was Marsh's fault. The fact remains that you still need to get in the pool, swim the race and finish 1st or 2nd. Lochte himself and himself alone didn't do that.
As for SwimMAC/Marsh being a failure, looking at the statistics above, I cannot agree that on the whole SwimMAC and Marsh were failures. Given the odds of making the team, the number of swimmers on the US Olympic Team out of SwimMAC is impressive. Most teams are ecstatic to land one or two swimmers, but 6 is incredible!
I can't imagine this cycle was not a good marketing tool for SwimMAC, as their elite squad probably has a few strong applicants waiting in the wings. Not to mention any of Geek's homegrown talent also waiting to move up.
We all need to stop taking BraunMan's bait. He's a true believer in his theory and facts won't sway him. Dave Marsh has a long history as an exceptional coach. Is he perfect? No. Are his swimmers perfect? No. But, should future elite athletes still consider SwimMAC as their training ground? Absolutely.
I wish I could fail that bad.
Dude handpicked his own team of Olympians and they get money to swim for him.
Lochte was not in condition in the 400 IM - he gives the excuse of the groin - but for Litherland to pass him on the final 50 points to Bauerle outcoaching Marsh.
Also, who has he produced - seems like he just inherits fast swimmers
The bottom line is these swimmers are coming to Charlotte to train with Marsh. They could train anywhere, but they choose to train there. What does that tell you? These are pro swimmers who depend on swimming for their livelihood. If Marsh wasn't good they'd be going elsewhere. Yeah, I'm sure Marsh is disappointed in how a few of his swimmers performed, but it was hardly a disaster overall.
We all need to stop taking BraunMan's bait. He's a true believer in his theory and facts won't sway him. Dave Marsh has a long history as an exceptional coach. Is he perfect? No. Are his swimmers perfect? No. But, should future elite athletes still consider SwimMAC as their training ground? Absolutely.
Nobody said he had to be perfect - but when he fails Lochte so badly that he goes from a 4:05 to 4:12 in 400 IM there is something not right with that picture.
Also, who has he produced - seems like he just inherits fast swimmers
David Marsh should not be considered an elite coach. Period.
Really? Based on WHAT? :shakeshead:
I agree with the others who have posted on this thread. As King Frog posted: :dedhorse:
