Canadian trials on CBC

As i see it the nations we are discussing each have unique problems. USA Most pools are 25 YARD, a distance that no other country uses for competitive swimming. Meets tend to promote shorter distances, long distance suffers. You can add to that, Titile XI problems in the colleges and how much talent and money is sucked into the Glamour professional sports. An advantage is that a lot of clubs also run the learn to swim programs, allowing coaches to be paid a decent income and stay in the sport. CANADA Has some great pools and facilities. Vancouver ( pop 1 million approx ) has seven 50 m pools, even Nanaimo ( pop 20,000 ? ) has a 50 m pool. Vancouver has tons of good 25m pools as well. However the government puts almost no money into sports and if you couple that with just how expensive it is to run a National team in Canada due to a small population spread out over vast distances. The cities are thousands of miles apart and just getting teams together uses up most of the available budget. BRITAIN Now has a great culture at the top and Ernest Maglischo when he was shown the swim development plan for UK swimming at last years British Coaches conference was very impressed. He said that the States has nothing near as good a system for talent id and perfromance structure. The UK's problem is a lack of decent pools, Wales ( population 3 million )has ONE 50m pool, where Vancouver has SEVEN. Most of the 25m pools are very old and worn out. Building new pools is very expensive, the Wales 50m National pool cost £11, million to build ( US $ 17 million ). In addition most pools are owned by the local authorities, their mandate is to serve the needs of the majority. Hence we get little or no lane swimming, lack of pool time for clubs, and pools dominated by litle old ladies swimming head up breaststroke. A small masters club in Bournemouth was shut down because others in the pool complained at the splashing caused by the fast swimmers. The pool operators did reinstate them, but reduced them from 3 lanes to 1, and allowed them only 45 mins to train. That attitude would nevr happen in Australia ! Also, the authorities run the lucrative learn to swim programs and employ the teachers. This means that clubs cannot afford to pay their staff, my club runs totally on Volunteers. It is hard to make a career of swim coaching here. We are also 10 years behind on the importance of technique. One of the great benefits of Total immersion is that it has made a lot of people very aware of the importance of good technique. AUSTRALIA I am not sure what the problems are, but they have a culture of excellence in sport which helps so much. Lots of pools, especially 50m pools, outdoor pools are cheap to build. Swim in an Aussi pool and most swimmers there are good, fast swimmers.

As i see it the nations we are discussing each have unique problems. USA Most pools are 25 YARD, a distance that no other country uses for competitive swimming. Meets tend to promote shorter distances, long distance suffers. You can add to that, Titile XI problems in the colleges and how much talent and money is sucked into the Glamour professional sports. An advantage is that a lot of clubs also run the learn to swim programs, allowing coaches to be paid a decent income and stay in the sport. CANADA Has some great pools and facilities. Vancouver ( pop 1 million approx ) has seven 50 m pools, even Nanaimo ( pop 20,000 ? ) has a 50 m pool. Vancouver has tons of good 25m pools as well. However the government puts almost no money into sports and if you couple that with just how expensive it is to run a National team in Canada due to a small population spread out over vast distances. The cities are thousands of miles apart and just getting teams together uses up most of the available budget. BRITAIN Now has a great culture at the top and Ernest Maglischo when he was shown the swim development plan for UK swimming at last years British Coaches conference was very impressed. He said that the States has nothing near as good a system for talent id and perfromance structure. The UK's problem is a lack of decent pools, Wales ( population 3 million )has ONE 50m pool, where Vancouver has SEVEN. Most of the 25m pools are very old and worn out. Building new pools is very expensive, the Wales 50m National pool cost £11, million to build ( US $ 17 million ). In addition most pools are owned by the local authorities, their mandate is to serve the needs of the majority. Hence we get little or no lane swimming, lack of pool time for clubs, and pools dominated by litle old ladies swimming head up breaststroke. A small masters club in Bournemouth was shut down because others in the pool complained at the splashing caused by the fast swimmers. The pool operators did reinstate them, but reduced them from 3 lanes to 1, and allowed them only 45 mins to train. That attitude would nevr happen in Australia ! Also, the authorities run the lucrative learn to swim programs and employ the teachers. This means that clubs cannot afford to pay their staff, my club runs totally on Volunteers. It is hard to make a career of swim coaching here. We are also 10 years behind on the importance of technique. One of the great benefits of Total immersion is that it has made a lot of people very aware of the importance of good technique. AUSTRALIA I am not sure what the problems are, but they have a culture of excellence in sport which helps so much. Lots of pools, especially 50m pools, outdoor pools are cheap to build. Swim in an Aussi pool and most swimmers there are good, fast swimmers.