DAY 1:

The Conference started with a one hour lecture for all delegates from the well known and charismatic Laurie Lawrence who had everyone on their feet chanting ‘Ausie! Ausie!’ at the end. For him, being the best you can means having an ego-desire and above all a passion. He talked about the qualities a coach driving to the top must have and the developing relationship between coach and athlete based on his own experiences during an incredibly successful career journey. His lecture was similar to a gospel, but very effective in raising the feeling of pride and spirit of the Australian coaching staff. That was just the ‘warm up’ session for what was to follow……

In my opinion one of the best lectures at the Conference was given by Bob Bowman of the USA describing the development of one of his swimmers, Michael Phelps, from age 13 to world record holder. He covered a variety of topics and detailed substance relating to coaching on a daily basis followed by practical water session techniques and advanced drills covering all four strokes.

In his early days Michael Phelps always had exceptional natural talents, but Bowman’s mastery of technical detail and consistent and challenging workouts developed a coach / athlete relationship and racing strategy which led him to be the record holder that he is now

‘Training principles and periodisation’ a lecture by Tim Kerrison was a practical reminder in the use of different energy systems when constructing training sessions relating to the events that athletes are training for. How about two aerobic systems? If that is a novelty for some of us consider training Fat Oxidisation System and Carbohydrate Oxidisation

System together with all the others of course. There is no considered single ‘best way’. Some of the highlights in this lecture were ‘Conventional or Reversed Periodisation’ and ‘Tips for developing a training plan’. Up to date information on these subjects is always very useful to any coach.

DAY 2:

This day started with great excitement as Tim Westlake (coach with City of Cambridge) and I had been very fortunate to receive an invitation to observe early morning training at Miami Swimming Club. This included Denis Cotterell and Bob Bowman working with their swimmers Grant Hackett and Michael Phelps!! The pace work set in the 50m pool for Grant was 26 secs - a blistering speed for the 1500 event.

Tim and I were privileged to be there due to the kind invitation of the Australian National Youth Coach who drove us to the pool.

Later that day Bob Bowman was again in action in the lecture room with ‘Training the IM’. once again an excellent presentation with some practical day to day tips on training an athlete for IM and the relationships with other events for example 1500m and 400 IM. Later in the day Bob gave another lecture on preparing an athlete for world class butterfly. Drills for lower and upper body and coordination were the agenda and then some sets for the 200 event (last 100 backend speed set) (speed -endurance sets) and pace control training (stroke count + time). An excellent presentation on preparing for advanced butterfly.

‘Gold Medal Teamwork’. A lecture presented by Brian Kerle - a top basketball coach. He made highly interesting points relating to requirements for a successful club. The need to work together as one, with common goals and an internal structure organised along business lines and principles. The team comes first - not the individual - even if the individual is a star. Create a sound team environment and the stars will emerge from that.

‘Coach - Swimmer from Age Group to Elite’ Denis Cotterell spoke about his swimmer Grant Hackett making points about his laid back approach to setting goals in their early days of working together and their faith in each others personalities. He made a good point about not taking parents for granted and educating them along the way. Bob Bowman then spoke about Michael Phelps and there were many similarities in the development of these two great athletes. On my question whether there was at this stage any specific psychological preparation used for these athletes during build up to a big event, the reply was that this was done on a daily basis during normal training and in the race environment with no expert involvement.

That afternoon we were taken to the Sport Super Centre by coach - a 20 minute drive from the Gold Coast and were able to see a practical session with Michael Phelps and his coach Bob Bowman demonstrating drill sets in a 25m pool. The 50m pool was then used by the Australian Institute of Sport to demonstrate the measurement of detailed parts of starts and turns using some highly sophisticated equipment. Barry Prime the ex City of Birmingham coach was demonstrating the analysis of starts. The maintenance of race speed through turns and at starts is crucial for successful racing as was shown by the analyses.

DAY 4: ‘Innovations in Technique and Programme’ was given by another great speaker - swimmer Susie O’Neils famous coach Scott Volliers. A valuable point for all coaches to pay attention to is a swimmers natural streamline body position, how to recognise it and the need to work on it in various ways. He also emphasised that in swimming as in most other sports power comes from the core of the body, the hips and logically they need to be fixed to generate ‘hip torque’. He pointed out that he was not seeing any value in f/c and back stroke catch up drills. He demonstrated how the canoeing principle could work in front crawl technique training using a very simple but effective device (elastic string) to help aquire the skill of a quick catch with a good hold on the water and good timing and position during the arm action. He touched on points affecting the pacing of the 200m event and tapering for example the length, amount and type of work. A very enjoyable lecture.

‘Advanced Personal Organisation’ presented by Wayne Goldsmith - a most informative and practical lecture dealing with topics facing coaches on a daily basis. He stressed the importance of coaches being in control of their situation through sound planning and the need for good communication with all those involved in their swimming team’s pursuit of excellence. The relationship with parents was again well analysed and the need to monitor the mood of athletes. Methods of managing a multiple approach solution to coaching problems were suggested. I remember reading previous articles by Wayne Goldsmith on a variety of topics, some published in ‘Swimming’ magazine, for example ‘Starts-Turns-Finishes’ and analysing the 2000 Sydney Olympics. This lecture showed typical Wayne Goldsmith style and approach and was most interesting.

DAY 5: ‘Psychological Preparation for Coaches and Swimmers’ - Wendy Swift who works for the Australian National Swimming Team has talked in her lectures about the value to the coach and athlete of realising the importance of mind state to performance - regardless of physical body state. She described some simple and some sophisticated methods for helping athletes overcome anxieties or improve performance. It is obvious that we need to pay more attention to this subject in order to maximise the ultimate performance of our athletes.

Thank you to British Swimming for the opportunity to visit the Offshore Centre in Australia where a swimmer from my club is now based and, of course, for the chance to take part in such a great event - the Australian Coaches Conference.

Svetli Tomov - Chief Coach to City of Derby Swimming Club.