“Too Good For You Now” – Club Swimmers & The Millennium Institute

By David

Readers of Swimwatch will be less than surprised to hear that I despise the centralist policy of delivering elite sport. It is a policy conceived by Miskimmin at Sport New Zealand, nurtured by his new mates at Swimming New Zealand; Layton, Renford, Villanueva and Lyles and paid for by a fourth foreign import, Baumann.

Swimwatch has dealt at length with the policy’s lack of success. It is seventeen years since swimming won an Olympic medal. Through most of that time the sport has followed the Miskimmin centralized delivery plan. However it is not the failure of Miskimmin’s policy that is of most concern; it is its wanton destruction that is of perilous alarm.

I heard some news, from a swimmer, today that really pisses me off. So much so I probably should calm down before writing about it. Perhaps I should not write about it at all. You see, I get on well with one of the people involved. Mentioning her on Swimwatch may well mean she decides never to talk to me again. I hope not.

During the school term Michael Mincham trains in Australia. Until now, during the holidays, he has returned to New Zealand to train with his home club, the Waterhole Club in Auckland. Judith Wright is the coach at Waterhole. For years Judith has been one of New Zealand’s best coaches. From learn to swim to international athlete Judith Wright successfully nurtured Mincham’s career. In New Zealand he received world class attention from a caring and knowledgeable coach.

And today I hear that, when he is home in New Zealand, Michael Mincham has decided to swim at the Millennium Institute. Judith Wright, the Waterhole Club, the environment that cared and provided have been discarded. Not because they are no good. Not because of any fault in anything they have done.

Mincham has gone to the Millennium Institute because Sport New Zealand and Swimming New Zealand sold him and his family their centralized fantasy. Mincham has gone to the Millennium Institute because of greed. Greed that has been fed by propaganda pushing the line that New Zealand’s best coaching is to be found at the government’s Millennium swim school. Perhaps you don’t believe me? Well, next time you are at your local pool ask the parents present, “Where are New Zealand’s best swim coaches located?” One hundred per cent will give you the same answer as Michael Mincham and his family, “Why at the Millennium Institute, of course.” It is not true, but as the worst German dictator once said, “Tell a lie often enough and it will be believed.” Well for seventeen years this lie has been repeated. It is less than surprising that it is now believed.

What is really pathetic is that a National led government should be doing this to the sport’s private sector. I’m no great supporter of the National Party but, naively perhaps, I did believe that National was the guardian of private sector values. Well, not in swimming they are not. In swimming, for seventeen years, the current National government’s sport’s agency has been tearing the heart out of swimming’s private sector.

And that’s the annoying part. Every reader must be able to imagine the hurt felt by coaches when swimmers they have tutored and cared for from cradle to international athletes pack their bags and piss-off to the North Shore of Auckland. “Thanks’ for what you’ve done, but I’m too good for you now. I’m off to the Millennium Institute.” When that process is repeated sixty or seventy times over seventeen years, is it any wonder New Zealand’s club coaches view themselves as second class; not quite as good as the government’s hired hands at the Millennium Institute. When that process happens to a good, hardworking servant of New Zealand swimming like Judith Wright it is more than unfair. Miskimmin, Leyton, Renford, Villanueva, Lyles and Baumann – you should be ashamed. Your policy has caused another case of unnecessary and damaging hurt. A very good coach, equal to anything at the Millennium Institute, has just been told she isn’t good enough. It’s not true but it hurts. It hurts the person and it hurts the sport.

You may remember when Renford arrived in New Zealand he did a whistle-stop tour of New Zealand swimming clubs. Like Donna Bouzaid he avoided West Auckland Aquatics. I’m beginning to think they are scared of me. I do hope so. When Swimming New Zealand warns their employees not to talk to me it displays a morbid and unhealthy degree of paranoia and fear. Renford asked us to keep an eye on what he does. He clearly panics when we take him at his word.

Shortly after his trip, Renford was interviewed on Radio Sport. He saved his most strident criticism for New Zealand’s coaches. We, he said, needed to polish our skills. We are not up to international standard. Although, I suspect Renford is totally unqualified to make that call, that’s what he said. What he did not add was that if there are any shortcomings in the standard of New Zealand club coaches, his organization, Swimming New Zealand, is responsible.

For seventeen years Swimming New Zealand has repeated dozens of times just what it did to Judith Wright today. Is it any wonder that good club coaches are feeling a little lost, like travellers in tourist class? Is it any wonder that good people do not perform at their best when the national organization uses its website to sell its superior Millennium service and by implication diminish the work of club coaches?

Sadly there is every sign that the hurt will continue. Miskimmin and Swimming New Zealand are committed to the centralized delivery of swimming. If the collateral damage of the policy is the pride and standard of many New Zealand’s club coaches, that’s unfortunate. But it’s important people’s reputations we are dealing with here. Damage to a few club coaches is incidental when compared to the main objective of proving themselves right. And that is what I despise.

I have written this piece without communicating with anyone from the Waterhole Club. I heard about Mincham from a swimmer at training this morning. It is a subject of deep personal interest. However, if my article has caused any hurt to anyone from Waterhole – I apologize.

PS What on earth is going on with Gareth Kean? I was told today that Gary Hurring kicked Kean out of the Wellington training group for bad training habits but that Kean has been taken in by the Millennium Institute in Auckland. Is that true? Because if it is, it seems very odd that the same organization that considers his behaviour merits pretty tough discipline in Wellington welcomes him with open arms in Auckland. It’s hard to imagine Gareth Kean has learned anything beneficial from that. If it’s true the message is clear. “It doesn’t matter if I screw up, Swimming New Zealand are so desperate they will find a way to take me back.” If it’s true it has all the hallmarks of Swimming New Zealand’s efforts at disciplining Daniel Bell and Phillip Rush. It is also a terrible undermining of Gary’s attempt to impose some much needed discipline.

  • David

    I have commented on the fact that although the NZ winter champion at 100 breaststroke swims at West Auckland Aquatics, our club was not included in Donna Bouzaid’s national tour. I suspect that’s just a case of petty politics being more important that a young champion’s future. It is interesting that another club missed the Bouzaid charm offensive – the Waterhole Club, home of New Zealand’s best young distance freestyler, Michael Mincham. Why was this? Was it because when Bouzaid was coaching at West Auckland Aquatics, it is said she shunned Judith Wright. Or is it because plans were already afoot to lure Mincham away from Waterhole. Did Bouzaid know about Mincham plans and avoided the embarrassment of a Waterhole encounter. Oh, what a tangled web.

  • Northern Swimmer

    Seventeen years David.

    • Jane_Copland

      Sorry – my shoddy editing! Thanks.