ASCA: Getting on the Same Page

Swimming World and Junior Swimmer, Nov 2004 by Leonard, John

For many weeks this past summer, everywhere you looked in magazines and newspapers, you'd see ads with tag lines such as, "For 14 days this summer, everyone has the same favorite song," or "For 14 days this summer, we're all on the same team."

Pretty cute. Brings a tear to your eye, as a matter of fact.

Only problem is, it's true.

Why is that a problem? Because in the USA, we really are all on the same team only for about 14 days every four years. The rest of the time, we're like a bunch of squabbling little kids, each wanting his or her own way and only his or her own way. Because we are a huge, affluent population with lots of pools and quality coaches and teachers, we succeed in spite of ourselves. Individuals OVERCOME the lack of system; they don't succeed because of the system.

We'd be way ahead if we could just get to "system neutral" instead of the system being stacked against high-level performance.

What am I speaking about? I'm talking about the hostility in most states between year-round club swimming organizations and season high school programs. I'm talking about collegiate programs that only allow 20 hours of practice time a week even for their very best student-athletes, who need a third more than that to compete internationally.

Of course, this being the USA, in many places we simply turn a blind eye to "regulations that don't make sense to the common man," and teach our children to ignore the rules when it suits them (and us) instead of doing the logical thing and amending the rules.

I'm talking about children being ineligible for their high school state meet because at the beginning of the season, they were off at the Olympic Games! I'm talking about coaches being fired because they were supporting their elite athletes and coming home to find out they don't have a job because they missed the local JO meet.

So let's dream a minute.

What if we WERE all on the same team-"The American Swimming Team"?

We'd remove all the administrative hassle about who trains where, when and for how long. We'd wonder how we could all SUPPORT those who want to train five hours-plus a day to seek excellence. We'd say, "If you're a good student, train all you want to train!"

We'd recognize that elite athletes in any program remove the "limits" from every child in that program; that each child can believe that they can also soar to the heights if their teammate can do so-and that's a lot more important to know than having the coach at the JOs.

We'd rejoice when anyone, anywhere, wanted to increase his or her commitment to excellence. We'd know that that commitment is contagious, and we'd hope our own children would "catch it."

We'd have a national agenda for athletics in this country, and first and foremost on that agenda would be to have the system get out of the way of those who want to raise our sights and look to produce excellence, knowing that by one of us rising to new heights, we all can see a bit further.

Then we'd have the American Swimming Team 365/24/7.

Why not?

BY JOHN LEONARD, ASCA Executive Director