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CANBERRA
- Deryk Snelling, the recently appointed National Performance Director for
Great Britain Swimming, visited the Australian Institute of Sport in January.
He took some time out to discuss his new position and his plans for British
swimming.
"Now I'm called the National Performance Director
(NPD) for Great Britain Swimming, that is England, Scotland, and Wales.
Each of the countries has a Director of Swimming, like Paul Bush was before.
"Paul is with the United Kingdom Sports Council.
Their job is to work with different aspects of British sport, probably similar
to your Sports Commission. His role is to work on identifying young athletes.
For us it is a good connection; he can keep us abreast of all the ins and
outs of things, like funding, which is going to be very critical to swimming.
We will be able to do a lot of things for swimming, but at the moment we
can only do maintenance work, because we're waiting for the funding to flow.
"The United Kingdom has taken a large piece
of the national lottery. That's the first time ever for Great Britain. I
don't know what the figure is, but it's pretty substantial. The critical
areas the Sports Council is interested in are athletes, coaching, international
competition (attracting major meets to our country), and facilities. Of
course, there are other items on the agendadifferent sports have different
needsbut these are the critical ones. I'm running a little ahead of the
game because I was employed before the thing got off the ground.
"Swimming and Track and Field are going to
be amongst the very first recipients of good funding. We put in a comprehensive
plan. I designed the technical part and we've got David Sparks, who is the
Chief Executive Officer of the ASA and of the Amateur Swimming Federation
of Great Britain (ASFGB). So he's heading up all those administration plans
and he's my boss, my line boss. He's all I answer to in my contract, which
is for the four-year period to the 2000 Olympic Games. Like Don Talbot,
I will be the Head Coach of all major international teams for Great Britain."
There are 2000 clubs and 300,000 children in competitive swimming in Great Britain. Deryk Snelling will be the Head Coach for the next
World Championships and Olympic Games. The Commonwealth Games are handled
differently, with each country England, Scotland, and Wales having its own
program. Ireland comes under the United Kingdom, but not for the Commonwealth
Games. Snelling will overview all performances at the Commonwealth Games
in Kuala Lumpur, but more as a father figure than as a leader.
"England and Great Britain used to be one
association. Scotland and Wales were always separate. Now England, Scotland,
and Wales are all separate, but above them is this new umbrella thing, and
this is at the high performance level."
Snelling has been busy since arriving in his new
position.
"I started on the first of October, and believe
that I've been able to get some good planning done, using the Canadian structure,
which is still one of the finest, as an example. This was brought in about
1980, probably because of the Montreal Games. We saw Sports Canada becoming
a power, and other countries that set up national systems used it as a model.
Of course, the Canadian system took some of the German concept. So if you
go back now to this thing that looks generic across the world, it came into
Canada, America, and Australia because of Don's (Talbot) experience. They're
looking very similar: coach education, funding athletes, professional coaches.
"The only thing is that Britain has none of
those in place, what I call The Final Layer. We have only thirteen 50-metre
pools in all of Great Britain, and I've been able to visit them all. What
is very obvious is that Britain is not lacking in talent. Its geography
is excellent; you can get to thirty countries in an hour to an hour and
a half. That's a great location to become an international player."
With an existing infrastructure, customs, and tradition,
it is not always easy to move and create change in the world's larger countries.
Does Snelling find this is the case with the ASFGB?
"I think there's bound to be a challenge if
you're going to create real change. You are going to disturb what is in
place, even though I think what's in place is good. I think the biggest
thing is there's an infrastructure, which is powerful; it's massive. There
are 2000 clubs and 300,000 children in competitive swimming in Great Britain.
Not only that; there is a very high standard of basic swimming. There is
a very good level of academic education, through the college structure,
through the teachers, and I would say Britain is by far the most advanced
nation I've ever seen at that level.
"I drove 7000 miles in eight weeks, visiting
centres, looking for where the current best swimmers and coaches are, coaches
such as Terry Dennison. I looked at all the 50-metre pools to see where
we could make a quick infusion to get the program going. £300 million
(about $540 million) has already been put into facilities, a lot of it in
25-metre pools controlled by leisure and recreation, which means swimming
competitive will never get in there."
Some people suggest that if coaching programs can
get into the 25-metre pools, they might be able to produce the high standards
of results desired by Great Britain. Cecil Colwin showed it was possible
in South Africa many years ago. Coach Colwin's swimmers broke world records
following ten days of orientation in the long-course pool after doing the
majority of preparation in a 16.66-metre pool in Johannesburg. Can that
be done today?
"Coaching in the 25-metre pool can be very
good. It's easier to teach, it's easier to coach, closer eye contact, all
that sort of thing. Fifty-metre pools, however, offer another option. International
swimmers have to be really proficient at not only racing, but also training
in the 50-metre pool. But I think the kids are going to come out of every
little village and town from all over the country that have all got 20-yard,
33.3-yard, or 30-metre pools. There are hundreds and hundreds of these pools.
I think the keys are coaching, leadership, and direction; focussing in on
world swimming, not just concentrating on domestic internal politics. That's
the only place where Britain is lacking, and I think they're ready to make
a step."
When asked how he and his ideas were received by
the administrators and the coaches, Snelling replied, "My feeling is
that Don Talbot did a lot of good, even in the short time he was in Britain
(as a consultant), because he clearly explained to the people who will be
running the sport what you must do, and he sold himself as well as what
his policy and philosophy would be. I would say a lot of ground work was
done for me.
"There were very mixed feelings about Don;
everything from, `This man will do everything, he can walk on water' to
`I don't think this man is going to fit in to the tight structure of a thousand
years of tradition.' Because of that, I think you'd put me more in the middle.
I think I can walk that line very well, and that is how I believe I was
perceived.
"Maybe a few people have thought they were
going to get a dictator in place, and a lot of people think they have an
easy touch. They're both wrong. I like to think they have a benevolent dictatorship,
which will lead to getting these people on track very quickly."
Deryk Snelling believes everyone wants the same
thing; they just see it differently. Everyone wants to see Great Britain
succeed. "So the one common thing we have is Great Britain. I believe
that I've had an incredible reception and just can't believe it, having
gone in with my guard up, assuming that there would be doubt, aggravation,
and challenges to what we're doing.
"But I think what has happened is we had an
OK Olympic Games (in swimming), but as a nation, we had the worst results
we have ever had in the history of the Games. Consequently, we have people
saying we must change, and if I expect them to change, I must also change.
Having said that, I've done a lot of work with the coaches' association
at the national championships / trials: setting up meetings, explaining
where we're going and listening to everyone, being able to speak to the
key players who will lead the charge into a different philosophy for Great
Britain.
"Hopefully there will be good support. Not
everything is going to work and not everything is going to be easy, nor
is everything going to be the way every individual would like to see it
go."
Snelling states that Great Britain is going to
go the same route as any team that has to win, and that is to focus on the
goal, to get the job done at the top end. "Britain will open up and
become a real global player. We will very quickly get our coaches up to
speed. They're not lacking intelligence, intuition, guts, work ethic, but
they have some basic problems: no facilities to train in, no professional
coaches, all working for an authority or in a profession. There are still
coaches who can't afford to go to the nationals, because they are full-time
employees in another job. That will change quickly. The funding will instantly
create a new profession by definition, because that will mean they will
get paid. However, they've all been doing a very professional job, but on
limited time because of their other work.
"We have coach Ian Turner here on this trip
and he has just been appointed Head Coach at the new 50-metre pool at Bath
University. Coach Dave Calleja (who coaches Graeme Smith, the 1500 bronze
medallist), another upcoming professional coach, is also on the tour this
time. There are, I think, only about four or five coaches who are coaching
professionally in the whole of Great Britain."
The purpose of this trip to the Australian Institute
of Sport in Canberra is very simple. "It's to create for Great Britain
the message that we're on our way to Australia in 2000. We'll not only have
a team in Perth for the World Championships next year, but we will, for
the next three years, have a squad that is training in Australia, somewhere.
We want everybody to understand where we're going. That's the first thingyou
have to get the location, then print the maps on how to get there. Secondly,
I want these two coaches to see how a professional operation at the AIS
with good international coaches works. It's exposure for them to your library,
information services, and to the facilities, just to see how that's going
to change from what they've been doing in the past. It's an educational
trip for the coaches, and we've put together a small team of six men and
one woman who were finalists in Atlanta, primarily relay swimmers. It's
a good model to start building a team from, building trust amongst each
other as you have to do with any team.
"You know I love Australia, but it's the World Championship and Olympic destination, and there are a lot of great athletes and coaches in Australia we can rub shoulders with and develop friendships. Also we have to learn how to travel. These athletes, when they go to France, have had an international meet. They think they've travelled, and it's only a thirty minute trip!"