SwimSwam’s 2018 Swammy Award winner for Oceania Coach of the Year Dean Boxall has proven he has a special connection with his athletes and possesses the ability to conjure the best performances out of the elite talent prolific on his St. Peters Western squad.
Boxall slid into the head coaching role at St. Peters when former head coach Michael Bohl moved on to Griffith University, giving Boxall the lead role at the storied club that Olympic medalist Mitch Larkin and speedsters Jack Cartwright and Clyde Lewis also call home.
Another big name under Boxall’s tutelage is teenager Ariarne Titmus, the Tasmanian titan who accomplished a historic feat at the 2019 world Championships by beating American icon Katie Ledecky in the 400m freestyle. Conquering Ledecky with a winning time of 3:58.76 to the American’s 3:59.97 in Gwangju, Titmus became the only woman to have ever beaten Ledecky in a distance event at a major international competition.
Regarded as an unconventional coach among the Aussie green and gold, Boxall says in the vignette above that he views ‘coaching as an art form.’ The 41-year-old says that it’s all about ‘trying to get the best out of people, people who are aspiring to be the best.’
Titmus attests to Boxall’s effectiveness, stating, “he knows exactly what to do to get the best out of me.”
Hear more about the intense, yet effective bond between Coach Boxall and Titmus in the video, courtesy of Swimming Australia.
It is a bit troubling that Boxall talks of consuming five (!) cups of coffee before reaching the morning pool deck. https://www.2gb.com/five-coffees-before-sunrise-thats-what-fuels-australias-next-super-coach/
Caffeine is a drug. And I have heard Arnie Titmus on our Australian radio speak of her own “coffee addiction” and that she downs three espressos before each of her races (perhaps her true bond with Dean?) Anyway, at least WADA maintains caffeine as a “monitored substance” and maybe that will cause a re-think of that approach. We don’t need more AUS swimmers suspended like S.Jack.
I find the audio interview of Dean Boxall by Alan Jones that accompanies the five cups of coffee article quite offensive, worrisome and scary. At around the 4:50 mark, Boxall speaks about his pep talks to his swimmers and says “I talk about warriors, of killing something, of war, of Gallipoli something,and then I say ‘Just remember, get out there and enjoy yourself.'” That kind of militarism (kill and enjoy it!!!) has no place on a school’s swimming pool deck, or really anywhere in this day and age. Boxall probably should not be allowed on a school’s pool deck.
What about being a Climate Warrior ?
Courtesy of Swimming Australia as it is, this seems to be a weak attempt to counter the charges of fat shaming and militarism leveled by Australian media about Boxall’s SPW program following the suspension of his swimmer Shayna Jack for Ligandrol use. We still do not know what happened there. Titmus has spoken openly of her own use of (batch-tested) supplements btw.
I’m glad that Ledecky’s sickness was never used as an excuse of losing to Titmus in 400 race. 3:58.76 shown by Titmus is an outstanding result comparable to Katie’s best wins. It’s just a petty that she came with it when the 3:56 is a standard already. Otherwise it would be taken as the shocking performance that has broken Pellegrini’s incredible high-tech suit record as it was in the case of 17 years old Ledecky.
Regarding coach’s style of repeating at each possible occasion that his swimmer is the #1. The attempt to improve swimmer’s confidence this way may be a good thing to do when she is on the rise. But what will happen to a swimmer when… Read more »
I’m not sure about that..Ledecky had gone 3:57 at the Grand Prix in Indy not too long before, and she’s both an in-season swimmer and a big meet swimmer. I think at a healthy level she would’ve for sure been able to go sub-3:58, and I really doubt she would’ve, healthy, let Titmus beat her (however Titmus would have, in the end, have given an incredible performance against her
This is an article about Titmus and her coach. Ledecky’s performance in 2019 season both in-season and at WC deserves a separate discussion. The 3:57 was shown in May 2018. My first reaction on her 15:48.90 in prelim race before I got known about her hospital visit was that she is experiencing a strong psychological stress after losing 400 race. Most likely that on the first day of competition at WC she has already had some health issues. But it was never mentioned. And that is what I like about her.
Ffs , its over , she lost . Life goes on .
well he seems like a whacko…
SWIMCOACH24…when you’re wearing coke bottle glasses you don’t see beyond one dimensional personalities…..
In the article linked, Boxall said that he’s never picked up a textbook about swimming technique.
Imo some hints about starts, turns and underwaters could be more useful for Titmus than every military speech..
“Unconventional.” “Eccentric.” We know what these code words mean. As Titmus states in the video herself–“nuts”. It seems as though Boxall likes a couple of scoops of sadism in each of his five cups of coffee. Have we really gotten to the point in Australia where we want our swimmers fat-shamed, bullied, and being coached in a manner that glorifies militaristic “killing” in order just to win a medal? Is this the spirit of the Olympic movement?