Call me an old fashioned cynic, but Gary Hall's oh so exclusive "Race Club" seems to generate more amusement than intimidation. To review the bidding for those with real lives, Mr. Hall announced a few months ago his intent to form his own club dedicated to elite swimming. It has a fabulous location and training facility in the Florida Keys. It will cover travel, training and living expenses. (I'm tempted to ask who is fronting the money, but I won't denigrade Mr. Hall's ability to raise funds.) If you want to join them, send in a resume; don't call us; we'll call you. Let us look over your accoplishments and decide whether you are worthy.
Hmm, great facilities, don't have to share pool time with the non-world class members (i.e. 99%) of a Swim Club, just about all expenses paid. Unless you have your own lucrative endorsement deal, what swimmer wouldn't want to join this team?
Well, the initial members of the "Swim Club" were announced last week. www.swiminfo.com/.../6097.asp Eight Olympians sounds real impressive. But then you look at the list a little more closely. Eleven swimmers, and although I have not googled everyone of them, all of the ones I have googled are in their late 20's or older. Or in other words, 3 of the 11 swimmers are chronologically at the back end of their careers, and they have not yet made their nation's Olympic Team. Closer scrutiny reveals 10 of the 11 are men. Just about all of them swim the 50 free or 50 fly, and few of them seriously compete in anything other that the 50 or 100 free or fly. In contrast to the lack of age, gender and event diversity, the team does have members of many nationalities and ethic backgrounds. However, the most telling stat of all is that roughly half of the members I checked are not currently ranked in the World Top 20 Rankings, LCM or SCM, in any event.
Overall, the "Swim Club" sort of reminds me of the kind of team a rookie fantasy league coach would assemble--there are a lot of names you would recognize, but their most productive years may be behind them. To be fair, all of these folks are amazing, world-class swimmers. Their careers to date have been awesome, and they remain extraordinary today by any standard, except arguably World Rankings. In contrast, I am an opinionated loud mouth. I would be delighted to see them find new speed and light up the scoreboards next year with medals and records, and make a complete monkey of me. As of right now, I think may the "Swim Club's" gloss may have exceeded its actual capabilities.
Matt
Former Member
Matt,
Just call your local Special Olympics, they will love to have you. I used Special Olympics to hone my language skills, being able to verbalize a swim motion can be difficult. If you can succeed there you can coach anywhere. It is rewarding, but non paying.
I also recommend ASCA for the coaching basic courses. You will be surprised how far you views of physiology are different from what they know now. There are 5 courses in the basic ASCA group to get a broad section of coaching. If you want to be the best possible coach, ASCA is the way to go. Or you can go to several universities that have classes on coaching.
If you want to coach children, most states require you to be fingure printed and background checked. It can take several months to be cleared.
Coaching Masters is more immediate, show up on the pool deck. Can be more financially rewarding, remember that Masters are 8 year old kids with credit cards. Masters is well lets say challenging and very social. They often don't listen to the sets, come late and get out early. Oh I must be describing myself when I swim:p
I hope to give more clinics arround the world when I retire. Travel and coaching together:D
In college I never would have expected to love coaching, it was never on my mind. Now I wish it had been my carreer.
Cynthia is correct,
The hardest thing in the world is getting an Olympic Gold medal. You can be the best for years, miss your taper ever so slightly and come in 8th! There is absolutely luck involved, along with years of hard work. Gary Hall Sr. is a perfect example. jr. had a great start and great finish in 2000 to tie for the Gold. I remember being quite proud of him correcting his technique error from 1996, and proud that americans had won two golds in one race. His coach, his hard work, his medical team did great. To come back from the bad year of 1999 when he first learned of diabetes and just a year later to win.
Actually I have never seen Bert do long course meters. Any stroke in short course yards or meters he is good at. I don't know about Bert doing a 54.0, but he is close at 47-48 for yards. He can even rip a great 200 free every once in a while. Bert is also a very good coach, but he has a job and family now. Coaching does not get you rich.
For those who are not SwimInfo addicts, let me be the first to note that The Race Club did right well at the recent U.S. Nationals meet.
www.swiminfo.com/.../6790.asp
Seems the guys from Islamorada claimed five (yup, 5) of the eight slots in the finals of the men’s 50m free. Gary Hall finished second with a time of 22.15 that would have ranked him #4 in the world in last year’s LCM season. That Hall guy…wow! Not only is he an “older” athlete (by the standards of world class swimming), he is also an insulin dependent diabetic. To swim the way he is swimming right now is nothing short of amazing. Excellent work by Mr. Hall, Coach Olson, and the rest of TRC’ers.
On the women’s side, well, I’ve given them some flak for only having one woman on the elite team, but oh what a swimmer. Michelle Englesman won the women’s 50 free. Nice work; I’ll look forward to seeing how she does at the Aussie Olympic Trials.
In the past I have leveled some criticism, some of it not entirely fair, on TRC and its promotion efforts. Their performance at U.S. Nationals was excellent, and they demonstrated that TRC may be on to something new in training somewhat older athletes for world class sprinting. Moreover, they do have a policy of having members of their elite team make appearances at meets that would not normally be of interest to them. However, they are trying to generate publicity and interest for the meets. This is a laudable way to give back to the swimming community.
Based on that, please take me off of the list of TRC’s critics. I hope to see them do well in the future, and I’d be interested in hearing more about their training regime. I still think they talk a big game, but they are backing it up. Congratulations to all involved.
Matt
Concerning our Spring Nationals, if you go to TRC's web site, you will see that they have an online form to request that some of their elite swimmers attend your meet.
So...can anyone from USMS or the Nationals Committee confirm whether they have approached TRC, and if so, are they at liberty to talk about any agreements they have with TRC? If the whole idea is to generate higher participation (as well as media interest), we are getting close to the deadline for entries.
Matt
I would be very surprised if Hall were at Nats. But I think they are aware of the fact that if you post something, and then don't show up, that it really pisses people off.
A couple of years ago Josh Davis entered Zones. IT was held at the Josh Davis Natatorium. He never showed up. He is a classy guy, but that was pretty lame. Would have been nice to "race" him in a 50.
Welll said Matt. As I have always felt, time will tell whether their endeavour works or not. So far things look to be going pretty swimmingly. (Pardon the pun!) However I think Sabir Muhammad wrote an excellent article on what this whole thing has meant to him which really resonated with me that this is a major opportunity to continue on that wasn't there in the past. If you haven't read it the link is:
www.theraceclub.net/column_sabir_storyofgrat.php
