It's Monday, and I have just wrapped up my first sporting weekend in Bangkok.
From Friday, February 9, to Sunday, February 11, I attended the SWIMCON International Swim Coaches Conference, hosted and held at Bangkok Patana School with Swim Australia.
Conferences are an excellent opportunity for coaches to network and forge relationships.
This was my first coaching conference in five years, and I was looking forward to learning, sharing, and interacting with coaches who were passionate about swimming.
The three-day conference was divided into two streams - Learn to Swim and Competitive Coaching- and allowed coaches to upskill themselves by attending the Learn to Swim or Competitive Coaching Courses.
As we all know, Australia has a proud and strong swimming history and has produced a long list of world-class coaches and swimmers. Gaining a teaching or coaching qualification from Australia will put coaches in good stead.
The conference also allowed me to listen to Janelle Pallister. Janelle is a former Australia swimmer and platinum swim coach at Griffith University's High-Performance Program alongside Michael Bohl.
I can't speak for the other coaches in the room, but Janelle is easy for me to relate to. Her journey and pathway into coaching started with learning to swim, then age group coaching, and then high performance, and for many of us in the room, that is the journey and path we are on.
Listening to Janelle talk and present, there were a few common themes. As coaches, we guide swimmers and provide them with the tools to be successful; coaches must be adaptable and explain the WHY to swimmers. And it's a long-term process; you are constantly adding layers.
Another presentation I enjoyed
Toby Altree and his team from Imprimis Performance presented Dryland Training for Swimmers. I like their philosophy around training and the importance of teaching swimmers and athletes how to move and build fundamental movements.
The Roundtable Discussion on Saturday morning allowed you to sit, listen, discuss, share, and take ideas from other coaches that you could implement back in our programs at home.
Providing Feedback to Swimmers at Meets - It was great to see how the feedback varied between age groups and the common themes shared across all age groups.
After a fantastic weekend of learning and sharing, I would like to give a big shout-out to Bangkok Patana and Swim Australia for hosting a great conference. I'm looking forward to touching base with all the coaches again soon.
As my first sporting weekend ends in Bangkok, Im starting to get excited for the Bangkok International Rugby 10s and look forward to sharing Pt2 of my Bangkok Sports Weekend.
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