So, coaches are getting some bad press in a couple of other threads, so I thought it might be interesting to talk about who has really impressed us as a coach (masters or open) and what it was about that coach that was so good. Ok, I'll go first.
A fellow named Archie Mckinnon was my first coach in age group, when I was 7-9yrs old & was flat out the best communicator I have ever seen. He let us know why we were doing what we were doing, what we were going to do & consulted us frequently as to what we wanted to get from our swimming (us individually, not the parents). Sounds out of a modern textbook, right? This was 1959-62 I've never had a coach since who came close to him, which had a great deal to do with me leaving swimming when I was fourteen.
Parents
Former Member
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. :)
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Former Member
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. :)
