coach or swimmer

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. yeah you guys sure did rule the state!!! not that i remember first hand, but my high school coach was one of bill's swimmers in both high school and age group in the late 60's/early 70's. bill was awesome- he always had the best advice for my coach to give to me, and always checked up on my progress in Y swimming (i swam for West Shore Y in harrisburg). and one year, he and my high school coach came up with the most minor stroke correction, but it made a huge difference in my times and i won both the 100 and 200 free at high school districts. and i managed to get both bill and my coach to give me my gold medals. it wasn't too many years after that when bill passed on. :( i felt very lucky to have been coached by someone who grew up under his coaching philosphies. and it's nice to know that there's other people out there that still remember bill. :) so to me, i think you need a smart coach and a swimmer who has at least some natural talent.

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. yeah you guys sure did rule the state!!! not that i remember first hand, but my high school coach was one of bill's swimmers in both high school and age group in the late 60's/early 70's. bill was awesome- he always had the best advice for my coach to give to me, and always checked up on my progress in Y swimming (i swam for West Shore Y in harrisburg). and one year, he and my high school coach came up with the most minor stroke correction, but it made a huge difference in my times and i won both the 100 and 200 free at high school districts. and i managed to get both bill and my coach to give me my gold medals. it wasn't too many years after that when bill passed on. :( i felt very lucky to have been coached by someone who grew up under his coaching philosphies. and it's nice to know that there's other people out there that still remember bill. :) so to me, i think you need a smart coach and a swimmer who has at least some natural talent.