Dick Campion, an Olympic swimmer from 1960, an International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honour Coach, and a former professional marathon swimmer from Australia flew to Sanur, Bali in Indonesia to help the Indonesian Swimming Federation host a 5-day open water swimming clinic for their interested swimming coaches.
The desire of the Indonesian Swimming Federation to get their athletes involved in open water swimming led to its decision to offer an open water swimming clinic to its coaches. With the goal being the 2016 Rio Olympics marathon swim, the Federation recruited coaches to attend the clinic.
Under the auspices of FINA Development, Campion flew to lead the clinic in November. 11 Indonesian, 1 Malaysian, and 3 Singapore coaches attended.
“We had pool availability and an ocean course set up for our use, plus a lecture room. I planned five 3-hour morning theory sessions and five 3-hour practical sessions. All of my talks and references were copied and distributed to the participants plus 2 DVD’s of the 2012 London Olympic Games marathon swimming finals,” explained Campion.
The coaches were relatively young, all between 25-35 who were former swimmers themselves. “I tossed them back in the water to experience it all for themselves. This went over very well and was quite an eye-opener to them swimming in a group without lane ropes and especially coming into turning buoys.” Campion introduced something new during all of the ocean sessions. “They swim in a straight line for 400 meters; they swam to a turning buoy one kilometer away without wandering by lifting their head regularly every 8 to 10 strokes and looking forwards to sight their target. The coaches all agreed that experiencing the open water swimming themselves gave them a greater insight to the sport.”
Campion also covered rules and coaching strategies before taking a final examination to confirm their grasp of the information. “I can say very happily all participants did extremely well,” summed up the Australian professor of open water swimming. “Indonesia is another country where open water swimming is capturing swimmers imaginations.”
Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source