More incredible wisdom and experience at the Global Coaches House! Bill Sweetenham has coached a medalist at every Olympics since 1976, and has just been named by Swimming Australia to do a review because of their disappointment in last week’s swimming results.
Bill is uncompromising in his commitment to high performance excellence. He defines coaching as converting involvement and participation into commitment and competitiveness in BOTH training and competition, and insists that the experience and knowledge of the staff must be in advance of the talent of the athlete. One lesson he has learned from experience, and that applies equally to coaching at Canada Games or other major competition, is to protect the health of the athletes and staff when you are in a major competition - if you arrive tired, you won’t recover in the Olympic village.
Bill’s guidelines for GREAT coaches are:
- Great athletes and coaches know something that good athletes and coaches don’t. The good commit to competition - the great commit to winning;
- They are highly energized;
- They are able to make athletes and staff feel valued, special and important (without indulgence or pampering);
- They know the heart and mind of the athletes and staff, the opposition and the competition;
- They are open minded;
- They are creative and innovative;
- They are technically advanced.
Bill Sweetenham, Australia.
