A recent Swimwatch post discussed the potential problems associated with the plan being prepared for the new Targeted Athlete & Coach Manager, Gary Francis. Steve Johns said he was going to prepare and announce a list of the selected swimmers and coaches. Gary Francis would then focus his attention on these individuals. They would be cared for with all the attention and resources available to the national federation.

And it will not work. And here are the reasons why.

Selecting a privileged cliché of swimmers is no different from what Swimming New Zealand has been doing and has failed at for the past fifteen years. Their centralized training program cost over $20million and failed. The only difference this time is that the selected swimmers will not be forced to transfer to a Swimming New Zealand coached program in Antares Place. Selected swimmers will be able to stay with their home clubs and coaches. That is certainly progress. However the multitude of elitist problems associated with selecting a privileged cliché will remain. Apart from location, all the stuff that characterised and killed the old centralised program will be present and will kill the new initiative.

There are two serious problems associated with Federation selected training lists. The first is a condition that Arthur Lydiard described as the “New Zealand disease”. Swimmers get ideas above their station. They get treated like Olympic champions without having anything to back it up. The incentive to improve is killed. There is no need to improve. They are already getting the publicity and the rewards of success. The “New Zealand disease” is serious and it is deadly.

When Toni Jeffs was swimming at her best she was frequently stopped in the street to sign autographs. The New Zealand disease was close at hand. I remember telling her to let me know when she was stopped in London’s Knightsbridge. Then I would be impressed. Keeping an athlete’s feet on the ground is vital to their success.

The New Zealand disease was rampant in the Swimming New Zealand centralized training program. The swimmers had been selected. They received unique uniforms and constant special mention in the papers and on the internet. Medical and massage services were freely available. They paraded around the pool like prize peacocks. At one National Championships Jan Cameron even had Swimming New Zealand build a mini stage for members of Millennium squad to sit on. It was disgusting and it was fatal.

The way Steve Johns is talking it will not be long before those on this list are infected with the “New Zealand disease”. The results will be equally disappointing; not to mention divisive in the clubs that have selected and non-selected swimmers. And the fault will lie with Johns and his mates who, in my opinion, have no idea what they are doing.

But just as damaging as the “New Zealand disease” is the second problem inherent in Steve Johns’ list. There is an extraordinary high likelihood that Steve Johns’ list will miss New Zealand’s best talent. The history of New Zealand sport is littered with athletes who have come from small country communities and have matured late. These individuals would be missed by the Johns’ selection process. For example Johns’ plan would miss Peter Snell from Opunaki, Murray Halberg from Ekatahuna, Toni Jeffs from Whakatane, Jack Lovelock from Reefton, Dick Taylor from Timaru and Johnathan Winter from Carterton. For exactly the same reason that Jan Cameron’s centralized swim program missed Lauren Boyle, Natalie Wiegersma, Liz Van Welie and Mark Herring this new list will miss many of the next generation’s best swimmers. Good national federations have long since given up trying to pick winners like this. They are no good at it and it does not work. But Johns and Cotterill will go ahead and try anyway; as though fifteen years of banging their head against a brick wall wasn’t enough.

So what should replace the old centralized training program?

Well a few years ago Swimming New Zealand had a very good motto. It said, “Excellence in every pool.” The only problem was while that was their motto; in practice they were pouring all their attention and resources into one pool on the North Shore of Auckland. In my view Swimming New Zealand should go back to, “Excellence in every pool” and this time they should mean it. Why? Because none of us have any idea where the next Danyon Loader lives. It might be central Auckland but it could just as easily be Westport or Wairoa.

There are 165 clubs in New Zealand. That means Gary Francis’ business has 165 branch offices. The Head Coaches of the clubs are his Regional Managers. The work that needs to be done in New Zealand is to maximize the effectiveness of each branch office. This should be done by selling the clubs a combination of duties and incentives. The duties should involve the preparation of an annual performance plan. What are the club’s swimmers going to achieve in the next twelve months? Each month there should be a short report on progress against the plan. And the incentives should involve assistance with travel costs, involvement in camps, advice on training problems, access to the National Training Centre pool and medical and massage facilities and the provision of a legitimate and free coaching education program. I would use ASCA for that.

In the past couple of weeks I have received two emails from parents asking for my opinion on their son’s training. They were dissatisfied with specific aspects of their children’s coaching. If what was reported to me was accurate they had every right to be concerned. Both coaches seemed to be making serious mistakes. Who knows; perhaps both these boys were potential champions. Perhaps both were in the process of being lost because a coach did not know any better. What Swimming New Zealand needs is a program that avoids this loss; that prevents this waste.

And they won’t do that by picking a group of thirty or forty swimmers from about 20 clubs and focusing all their efforts on that elitist group. They won’t do it because the next champion is probably in one of the 145 clubs that their program ignores; just like it has been for the past fifteen years.