The question from the lastest episode of deckpass http://www.deckpass.com/. Does the coach make the swimmer or does the swimmer make the coach? lets hear some disscusion on this.
From my experience, it's the coach to a great degree. And part of what makes a good coach is finding the good raw material. I was sent to the YMCA in York, PA (1954) just to learn how to swim. After a couple of months of progressing through several levels, not extremely quickly, as I remember, I was asked to participate in their intramural fall league. This was pretty informal with no workouts outside of the lessons. After two years of that I was invited to join the team. We were in a Mid-Atlantic Y league and also participated in Mid-Atl AAU meets. The coaches were John DeBarbadillo, who was a leader in National YMCA swimming for years, and Bill Schmidt, a former competitor of Doc Councilman. At the time, Councilman was fairly unknown, but they knew him and were up-to-date on his stroke techniques and training methods. So for about a 10 year period, both at the high school and YMCA levels, we ruled the state. Then, as others picked up the methods, the playing field became more level and we were just another good program among others of the same level. I don't think we were better athletes than the others; we just had superior training and instruction.
Referencing another active thread, many of the team members became instructors while in high school and John and Bill were definitely into the hands-on, in the water with the students methods. We were not allowed to wear anything but a swimsuit as instructors and were probably in the water more than we were out.
From my experience, it's the coach to a great degree. And part of what makes a good coach is finding the good raw material. I was sent to the YMCA in York, PA (1954) just to learn how to swim. After a couple of months of progressing through several levels, not extremely quickly, as I remember, I was asked to participate in their intramural fall league. This was pretty informal with no workouts outside of the lessons. After two years of that I was invited to join the team. We were in a Mid-Atlantic Y league and also participated in Mid-Atl AAU meets. The coaches were John DeBarbadillo, who was a leader in National YMCA swimming for years, and Bill Schmidt, a former competitor of Doc Councilman. At the time, Councilman was fairly unknown, but they knew him and were up-to-date on his stroke techniques and training methods. So for about a 10 year period, both at the high school and YMCA levels, we ruled the state. Then, as others picked up the methods, the playing field became more level and we were just another good program among others of the same level. I don't think we were better athletes than the others; we just had superior training and instruction.
Referencing another active thread, many of the team members became instructors while in high school and John and Bill were definitely into the hands-on, in the water with the students methods. We were not allowed to wear anything but a swimsuit as instructors and were probably in the water more than we were out.
