Swimming Western Australia, one of the leading sporting organizations in Western Australia, held its annual conference this weekend, where guest speaker Swimming Queensland CEO Kevin Hasemann presented a ‘state of the union’ of sorts on the not-for-profit organization’ status.
Swimming WA consists of 83 clubs and more than 9300 registered swimmers, including Nanjing Youth Olympics bronze medalist Brianna Throssell from Perth City Swimming Club and Tamsin Cook from West Coast Swimming Club. Its vision is “to ensure that swimming is an essential part of the Western Australian Life” and the evaluation of this goal from over the past year, as well as a planning session for the future was incorporated into the conference.
Key snippets from Hasemann’s speech lends insight into the overall state of Australian Swimming and, to some extent, the sport in general. According to Hasemann, “the real crisis [in Australian Swimming] isn’t that we only got one gold medal in London, it’s that our membership is declining and so is our revenue; it all starts there.”
Hasemann stated that he “wants to target 7-year-old swimmers now, in order to build our potential for the 2028 Olympics” and stresses the theme of ‘fun’ as a core tenet of securing the sport’s future. Today’s coaching and mentoring emphasis “needs to be on skill, technique, fun” as opposed to overworking kids said Hasemann. His rhetorical question of ‘Why are we working kids so hard?” seemingly challenges the traditional approach to training within the sport, stressing that “we need to take care of our ‘thoroughbred’ swimmers so they retain their enjoyment.”
Swimming WA’s annual report for 2014/15 indicates that the organization has established a new vision and Strategic Plan for 2015-18, which is aimed at growing not only its competitive swimmer-base, but by striving to be “more inclusive, accessible and engaging with the broader community, ranging from learn-to-swim programs through masters Swimming.
So being a CEO of a swimming organisation now makes Kevin Hasemann an expert swimming coach with an intimate knowledge of what it takes to develop successful senior athletes over the long term?
There are aspects of what Hasemann has been speaking about that I agree with… and then there are parts I definitely don’t agree with.
There does need to be an emphasis on “skill, technique, fun as opposed to overworking kids”, but these are not the only elements of swimming development that need to be addressed.
Not only is there nothing wrong with volume if it’s done correctly, it is an essential element in the development of young athletes over the long term! It’s the training intensity… Read more »
If Kevin Hasemann really believes Australian swimmers should train less, he has a strange way of showing it in his home state of Queensland: his state qualifying times have recently become so stiff that there are now far fewer heats lining up compared to several years ago.
My younger daughter expected that by bettering last year’s qualifying times in a couple of recent races, she would make this year’s cut off. But when the new standards were published several weeks ago she was suddenly so far behind that she has virtually no chance of competing. So what does she do?…. step her training up from a reasonable 5 times a week to 7 or 8, or jump ship at… Read more »
I guess Miami’s Denis Cotterrell disagrees with the QLD CEO, Hasemann…… He believes our young swimmers are weak and need toughening up! Let’s punish our little ones with 1km fly and force them to bark like dogs – it won’t hurt them…..hell, we may even produce an olympian for the 2028 games……”this is the toughening process”.
Swim Swam report February, 2015:-
A few weeks ago Brian King‘s name appeared in the press, he is the man now training Sun Yang in Australia.
King, a former assistant Miami Swimming, is now being investigated for how he has treated swimmers throughout his career. In a recent article in the the Daily Telegraph it details some of these events.
He… Read more »
Interesting comments about the future. What could be asked is the increase in staff and associated costs $1.2 million at Swimming Australia for what? Where are the development programs? What about the cash flows into the payments for the team as against the programs that will develop future teams?
Yes we do need to make the sport attractive as we are being eaten away by basketball, Football (all codes), netball, softball, etc…
State of the union is more like state of collapse.
For 12 and Unders “fun’s FUN n’ serious SUX! Too many ideas to comment. Visit; gamesgimmickschallenges com/coaching resources, for tons of ideas ALL swimmers love to TRY and coaches love to watch.
Bob
“…the 2029 olympics?” Did I miss something?
Smart Man , get the technique right , make it fun and have kids encourage each other …..
The strongest in body and mind will be apparent soon enough as they all grow and get strong at different times ….
In the process the stroke with the muscle memory lies in wait for that strength of body and mind.
Ahhh, the old buzzwords. Read everyone is special and should get a trophy.
No. If you want kids’ parents to pay for something, it helps a lot if the kids want it. Working *kids* hard only produces burnouts. A local club started to have young kids with highly refined strokes show up at meets. Swim coaching being so open (at least in this area) I asked how they did it? They do 25s and 50s and talk about technique between each one for more than half of practice.
Sounds like USRPT to me.
Cherrybrook Carlile Swimming in Australia won No.1 Club at NSW State AGE & OPEN Championships 19 GOLD, 25 SILVER, 22 BRONZE Medals. First time in 28 years!
http://cherrybrookcarlile.swimming.org.au/
They train USRPT under Doc. Rushall’s guidance.
Whether you agree or not, or like it or not, USRPT will revolutionize the sport of swimming as we know it today. USA Swimming just have to decide whether they want to keep on shunning it (pay for studies to dismiss science behind it) or test it (invest in clubs testing it out with small groups) before dismissing it and let other countries lead the way.
Didn’t another swimming club merge into Cherrybrook (Auburn) for pool reno reasons?
No merger.
Just a coach moved and some swimmers followed.
I do question the notion of USRPT being used as the now Cherrybrook coach is one of the hardest working coaches in NSW. With great success mind you.
Not sure which lines you read between to assume that is what the speaker was saying, but I think he wants to retain the top athletes who tend to eschew swimming for other sports after years of grinding yardage.
“Fun” is not a four letter word.