We reported last month how Queensland Australia CEO, Kevin Hasemann, has been taking to the talk circuit regarding the concept of kids being worked too hard within the Swimming Australia system. Challenging the traditional approach to training within the sport, Hasemann has been stressing that Australia needs to “take care of our thoroughbred swimmers to they retain their enjoyment.”
In an effort to get his voice heard by the upper echelons of the Swimming Australia organization, Hasemann was interviewed on the “Breakfast With Bern Young” radio program on 91.7 ABC Gold Coast.
While on the program in October, Hasemann elaborated on his viewpoint that the theme of ‘fun’ should be a core tenet of swimming in Australia in order to secure to secure the sport’s future. According to Hasemann, today’s coaching and mentoring emphasis “needs to be on skill, technique, fun” as opposed to overworking kids. “Swimming has also held on to the really tough practices that worked back in the 80s that will no longer work in this modern age,” he said.
As a rebuttal of sorts to Hasemann’s comments, Swimming Australia CEO, Mark Anderson, spoke on the same radio program one month later to discuss his organization’s views on the questions being raised regarding SA’s stance on training. Interestingly, throughout the conversation, Anderson essentially denies the claim that kids are indeed worked too hard, but yet goes on to describe several ways his organization is “ensuring that the sport is creating an environment that is enjoyable, safe and one in which people have a passion for what they’re doing.”
Listen to Mark Anderson’s interview in its entirety here.
While Anderson agrees with Hasemann’s view that swimming is in Australia’s DNA and athletes’ passion for the sport should very much be cultivated and developed as a key tenet of Swimming Australia’s approach, he does not agree with Hasemann’s statement that kids are being worked too hard. “A sign of a strong environment and culture is that we can have these debates. I agree that participation needs to be a strong focus. But, I do not agree with the statement that kids are being worked too hard.” says Anderson.
However, Anderson does go on to describe how Swimming Australia’s culture has been revised in recent years to focus not just on “hard work and grinding out the laps, but to also focus on enjoyment, having fun and recognizing that athletes develop at different paces.” The CEO also admits that this sort of culture shift indeed “takes time to evolve and filter down. It takes time to develop culture and there still may be coaches entrenched in the old ways.”
Anderson says that there is tangible evidence of SA’s combatting the “coaches stuck in 80’s mentality” suffered by breaststroker Leisel Jones cited within the interview, for example. “We have redeveloped our coaching courses, our curriculum and have extended the reach of our Junior Achievement Program.”, says Anderson. “We’re moving into a modern environment” as an organization.
Both men at the centre of this “debate” have a point, but Anderson’s right to insist coaches have made efforts to address the supposed sweatshop mentality of past decades. Hasemann conceded his own experience was coloured by his son’s failure to convert years of hard pool yakka into a successful career, but that’s a common fate in any pursuit of competitive excellence.
If Hasemann is arguing that a swimmer’s progression to high repetition/high attendance training should be delayed until later years, he should probably also be citing specific examples (e.g….”10 year olds should not exceed five workouts per week”, or “no swimmers under age 13 should be in the water longer than an hour and a half”). The downside… Read more »