Courtesy of Elizabeth Wickham
The 2017 Southern Pacific Masters Swimming Coaches Clinic will feature Olympic gold medalist Shirley Babashoff and legendary coaches Mark Schubert and Jim Montrella. Babashoff will discuss her Olympic story and athlete doping—a relevant issue today. She is recognized as one of the all-time great U.S. women swimmers but unfortunately competed against the East German team during their state-sponsored doping program. Babashoff went public with her story in her 2016 book, “Making Waves: My Journey to Winning Olympic Gold and Defeating the East German Doping Program.”
The SPMS Coaches Clinic, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 23 in Mission Viejo, CA is open to all coaches and swimmers over 18 years old.
Mark Schubert will discuss “Building The Comprehensive Swimming Program And How To Include Masters Swimming.” Schubert, who returned last year to Mission Viejo Nadadores, built the program from 1972 to 1985 winning 44 U.S. National team titles. He was most recently Head Coach and CEO of Golden West Swim Club, and his collegiate coaching career includes NCAA titles at University of Texas and University of Southern California. A long-time U.S. Olympic coach, Schubert has placed 38 swimmers on Olympic teams.
Jim Montrella will present “Swim Training Equipment At Any Age.” His coaching career began at the age of 17 at Lakewood Aquatics, then continued with the NCAA-winning Ohio State Women’s Swimming and as a U.S. Olympic coach. Montrella’s expertise in training equipment includes developing polyurethane hand paddles with removable wrist straps in the 1960s, which are still in use today.
Coach Courtney Eads will talk about “Returning To The Water As A Masters Swimmer.” Eads is the head coach of Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, CA and an assistant coach for CMS Swimming (Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd and Scripps colleges) in Claremont, CA.
In addition to a meet and greet with Shirley Babashoff, breakfast and lunch are included plus morning swim workouts are offered. Coaches and swimmers over 18 are welcome to register and attend this clinic. Registration information can be found here.
Elizabeth Wickham volunteered for 14 years on her kids’ club team 
as board member, fundraiser, newsletter editor and “Mrs. meet manager.” She’s a writer with a bachelor of arts degree in editorial journalism from the University of Washington with a long career in public relations, marketing and advertising. Her stories have appeared in newspapers and magazines including the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Parenting and Ladybug. You can read more parenting tips on her blog.
Uaao, what a Blessing and Lucky are all participants been with Jim. A father figure, a friend and a Great “techno coach”, I remember swimming with paddles prototype, sewing sponges to our suits to create resistance, doing dry land and stairs intervals on the bleeches of MayFair Park, doing weights at Long Beach CC and trying to beat Susie Atwood doing bench press, doing resurrections sets 10×100 (Intervals of 1:10 Ann Simmongs and Steve Genter and maybe 4 others only on this interval, you attending the clinic can ask Jim 🙂 ) These sets where the hardest lung burning sets I ever done. A disciplinary coach, remember few of us who did not show for a Holiday training Day and… Read more »