Angela Marlton, founder and coach of the Hillcrest based, Aquazone Swim Club, had the fantastic opportunity of flying over to America to gain international swimming advice and tips from world class coaches that will benefit her swimmers and SA swimming as a whole.
As a member of the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) she attended the week long, 46th ASCA World Clinic held in Jacksonville, Florida.
The Clinics provide coaches with the tools necessary to build better swimmers with the most relevant of coaching information on all levels of coaching from “Learn to Swim” to education about training Olympians and Masters Swimmers.
“Not only did I listen to fantastic presentations but I also got to meet a lot of different coaches with ranging levels of experience. I was able to meet a number of these contacts as I continued my travels throughout the USA and I believe I have developed some connections that will open up doors for my swimmers to travel and train in the USA,” said Marlton.
Some of her favourite presentations were: Being a great meet coach – how to get the most out of swimmers at a gala and World class beginnings – how to run a club where all levels of coaching are offered and to streamline everything towards a common goal.
“The greatest thing about the conference is it validated much of what we at Aquazone believe and currently do while inspiring me to do better. It also encouraged me to continue wanting to learn from other coaches as it appears no one has a magic, perfect way of coaching and the best coaches are the ones that evolve and are prepared to constantly question what they are doing and ask for help and advice.”
One of the big discussions still raging in international swimming circles is the quality vs quantity argument.
“My personal feeling is to follow the principles and ideas of Dr Dave Salo whose coaching is centred around quality and not around quantity. Some coaches feel that they are achieving both ends and this was interesting, but from my experience it is difficult to maintain quality when aiming for quantity. The more a swimmer swims and fatigues the poorer their technique.”
While in America she also got to visit the Olympic Training Centre and top swimming coach, Dave Salo, head coach of the University of Southern California swimming teams and Trojan Swim Club; Sergio Lopez Miro from the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida; Ryan Hogan of Rocky Mountain Rapids swim team; Kunio Kono from University of New Mexico who coaches her swimmer, Cait Gardiner and Tim Wise from Yale who coaches Matthew Coetzee, one of her swimming pupils who she helped get into Yale.
“The most exciting part of the trip for me was meeting coaches on their pool decks and seeing them coach. I took something away from each one of them. I picked up some new training ideas from them and found the experience to be quite inspirational. All coaches were extremely welcoming and I feel I can keep in contact with them.”
She returned from America feeling inspired.
“It was an amazing opportunity to travel, become a better coach, meet people from other countries and relationship build. Swimming is a big sport over here with some of our top swimmers coming from KZN. It is important to be exposed to the international scene – to learn more and give talented swimmers the opportunity to compete successfully overseas.”
