your favorite swim coach of all time and why.

Archie a good guy a good coach. I think he coached a friend of mine from the past Peter Salmon. I met him several times.

Favorites--Rob Orr and Pete Orscheidt (a tie). Both were great motivators and really cared about all of the swimmers on the team. Rob is still coaching (Princeton); don't know about Pete. Least favorite--Pete Payne (football coach turned swim coach at Memorial High School in Houston back in the 70s (he was actually the head coach for the entire Spring Branch school district--six schools, boys and girls).

John DeBarbadillo and Bill Schmidt - York PA YMCA They made a great team. John was a great teaching innovator and was involved in national YMCA aquatics for decades; was even coaching a YWCA team into his 90's. Most of the team members taught beginning swimming; we had an extensive summer program where we went to the far reaches of the county and taught swimming at the public outdoor pools. Some of his teaching philosophy has helped shape my own teaching style, both in the early days as a swimming instructor and now as a community college computer instructor Bill was a great flyer and competitor of Councilman. Our program was tuned into Doc's research, etc. from the beginning, which allowed us to dominate the state for a number of years until everyone else figured out what we were doing. He worked us hard and smart without hardly raising his voice. Both were soft-spoken gentlemen who insisted that we act the same at all times.

I have had many coaches in my years of swimming. He threw chairs at us and he yelled when the "kiddies" were acting up, ah the good ole' days. A big strong man of a man who's idea of fun was giving us 100 x 100 after warm-up and before our warm-down. The team was pretty successful and the cream rose to the top. Back in the day, these coaches earned respect and got it the smart way! By working us HARD!! There's nothing I would enjoy more than stating his name, but in his old(er) age, he might have learned about computers by now and is reading this. Scary thought, I'm not in shape enough to take his wrath.

Originally posted by gull80 Favorites--Rob Orr and Pete Orscheidt (a tie). Both were great motivators and really cared about all of the swimmers on the team. Rob is still coaching (Princeton); don't know about Pete. Least favorite--Pete Payne (football coach turned swim coach at Memorial High School in Houston back in the 70s (he was actually the head coach for the entire Spring Branch school district--six schools, boys and girls). Rob Orr's son is my swim coach now for a summer team at our local swim club where we live outside of Princeton. He is an awesome coach...and when i saw his father's name, i laughed. Tonight one of the kids at the 2nd practice mentioned how his father coached, and asked if he learned from his Dad. lol and now seeing this. So, i guess it runs in the family. But, back to his son. haha He knows how to work one on one when you need help. I was watching him when we were practicing, (ive been going to 2 practices a day) but if you need help, he'll bend over backwards to try to help you learn something, and get it done right!! I'll tell you right now i wont ever forget him, because this year i think ive gotten my backstroke the best its ever been. Even though he makes fun of me and how i reach my arms all the way back in a bent position. lol oh well. I'll have to write him a thank you note since I am moving and thank him for all the help with swimming, etc. etc. sooo yeah. haaa! what a small world

Bruce Watson -West Valley College He cared about the athlete in us, as well as the scholar and person. It seemed that his favorite part of practise was the 'Word Of The Day'; where he'd give us a word like magnanimous and make sure we understood what it meant. Of course, he worked us hard; tailoring our workouts to each person. I'd be off doing sets of 200s and 500s while everyone was doing the sprints. But my personal favorite set was 40 x25 fly on the :40. :)

My favorite of all time is David Radcliff. He was my age group coach as well as my HS swim and water polo coach. He was, first and foremost, passionate about aquatics and that passion was contagious. Secondly, he had the ability to make swimmers/players of all levels feel welcome and confident in their own ability to progress individually and contribute to a team effort. While he last coached me over 30 yrs ago, the life lessons he taught through athletics still live on as I pass them along to my own kids (who, coincidentally are at the same age that I was when I first started working with "Coach"). All of my teammates and I were lucky to have had him as a coach and role model.

Patrick- I went to the Stanford Masters Camp once in the early 90's and I was totally blown away by his total involvement with with our aging & sagging selves. He didn't just 'star' in the camp, he rolled up his sleeves, got to know our names & treated us like we were his scholarship swimmers. What an inspiration!

Yessireee. That sounds like Richard. I have spoken to him in the last month or so. He is retiring from Stanford at the end of the summer and moving to Austin, Tx to kick back and enjoy his grandchildren. He and i plan to hook up again and talk about old times. (30+ years ago). thanks for the reply on that Peter.

My high school coach...Richard Quick. He was a complete inspiration to me. Even with 50 guys in the pool, it felt like he was coaching YOU individually. I was one of the top influences in my life.