Boles Discusses the Potential of Danish Athletes on the World Stage

After a year into his tenor as the National Coach in Denmark Dean Boles has identified the strengths and weaknesses within Danish swimming and has begun to implement a new structure that will help ensure that results at the highest level are happening by design rather than by chance.

Boles responsibility within the Danish Swimming Federation system is to develop and implement a system that will prepare athletes and coaches to achieve success at the 2020 Olympics and beyond, “I’m the National Coach with the focus and responsibility to help develop the strategy for the next four to eight years,” Boles told SwimSwam. “I work closely with my colleagues in the sport department, but rely a great deal on Nick (Juba) to help shape a plan.”

Boles envisions a system that empowers coaches and in turn inspires them to take on the responsibility of developing world class athletes no matter where they are located, “The plan moving forward has to recognize that it has to be different than what the last six or eight years has brought. We need to develop depth in particular the events that derive relays (100 & 200 m free and 100m Stroke). We have to inspire and motivate both swimmers and coaches across the country that they have a shared responsibility to the vision, to roll up their sleeves and not leave things to chance. To understand that the international success does not only come from the National Training Centre or one club or the US system.”

“A country like Denmark has to develop better within and use all outside sources and resources to be what it potentially can be. As I say and I subscribe to “you are as only good as your next swim” and that goes for swimmer and coach. I really enjoy working with Nick the current process is helpful for me to understand the environment and culture a bit more before being fully responsible or implementing a strategy.”

He sees many strengths to the inner workings of swimming in Denmark, which include the club structure, dedicated coaches as well as genetics and an active culture.

Coming from Canada Boles sees several advantages to the Danish club structure, especially when compared to the Canadian model, “There are 5.5 million people here, it takes less than six hours to cover the country by car from one end to another,” explains Boles. “There is the Swim Federation (national body) and no provincial layers although there are regional boundaries. There are approximately 180 swim clubs and the clubs run the full swimming program in pools so the membership in clubs range from 500 to 8000, but understand that only 8% of those numbers are registered to compete. So the business model has a different view than in Canada.”

“Here’s the big one, clubs either pay no pool rent or a nominal amount. This frees up money to keep training fees quite low (maybe ¼ of what it costs for a Canadian club swimmer at the senior level). They still pay pretty good salaries, and give good support to swimmers when it comes to training camps and competitions.”

He has observed that there are many coaches who are committed to the job and their athletes, but that the structure of clubs and the competitive salaries that are offered does have some drawbacks, “The coaches are dedicated, however one of my observations is not many coaches stay at one club for long, because of the healthy salary offerings club jumping takes place, some by the coaches’ accord or some by the club.  Stability is a challenge whereas my view in Canada coaches are staying for a long period establishing stability and improvement, at least in the most cases.”

Boles was pleasantly surprised when attending one of his first age group meets when he first arrived in the country, “The stature of the potential athlete—tall, long, lean, active. At one of the first meets I attended when I arrived was the Age Group Championships and basically the 15 and under athletes I saw were towering male swimmers. I think Denmark has capitalized on the stature of the female swimmers over the years, they have all the attributes to be a swimmer—a good one.”

He feels that a lot of this is because of the active lifestyle in Denmark and that swimming is seen as one of the more desirable sports to be involved in, “Although there is competition of other highly promoted sports such as hand ball, cycling, badminton—swimming stays in the top grouping. One distinct differences of Denmark and Canada (North America) is that in Canada you have a Tim Horton’s (coffee shop) on every street corner whereas here in Denmark there is a bike shop on every corner. That in itself says a lot.”

Over the last number of years Denmark has seen emergence of female athletes such as Lotte Friis, Jeanette Ottesen, Mie Nielsen and Rikke Moller Pedersen perform extremely well on the international stage, but there have been a lack of male athletes doing the same. To help change that Juba created the Great Danes program in 2013, which is an initiative designed to develop the men’s team by combining intense internal training with international racing opportunities. The program has been a success so far with it’s biggest star being Viktor Bromer who won the 200 butterfly at the 2014 European Swimming Championships.

Boles sees this program as a success and has plans to expand on the idea, “This is a program Nick Juba brought in when he arrived to help boost the men’s swimming program as there was a gap. The poster boy of this program is Viktor Bromer. I think there is real merit in this program and it has been under my watch this season. We have added more sport science integration to it and I know we can do a lot with it.”

“We are focusing on this area and expanding it to Women Great Danes as well. We have a solid group of junior national team members, but we have to bridge the gap from junior to senior swimming. I’m excited about what this can do for the future of Danish international bound swimming. I feel we are developing more clearly defined pathway (s) for Danish swimming with the start of Junior National program leading into the Great Dane program with the intent to carry more of the early batch through to the Sr National Team.”

When it comes to improving the strategy and systems within Danish Swimming Boles is focused on making changes that are powerful and transformational, “Change is good but transformation is better”.  I’m subscribing to this these days, personally and professionally.”

In his mind that transformational change comes from shifting your focus and improving your performance on a daily basis, “In my mind a shift in belief, daily behaviour and action is required. A focus on the technical approach in the day to day is a priority; a focus on the athlete’s well being mainly in the area of psychology, coping skills, perspective and staying for the long haul and perhaps looking at the physical preparation piece in a fresh way.”

“In Danish Swimming there is work to be done to integrate more on a daily basis,” says Boles. “I feel that there is still the idea of relying on chance rather than design for world competitive success here in Denmark.”

“I do know that success at the international games takes strong leadership surrounded and supported by outstanding people moving in the same direction. That maybe the first step.”