It has been almost 10 months since Nick Juba moved from the UK to Denmark to take over as the Danish National Team Coach, replacing Paulus Wildeboer, who held both the National Team Head Coach and National Training Centre Coach positions before leaving for Australia.
SwimSwam had a chance to catch up with Juba, who is currently in South Africa at a training camp with some of the top Danish swimmers.
SS – How do you feel your first 10 months on the job have been?
NJ – Well I think that they have gone well so far. Our results have been pretty good (we were the 7th best country at the World Championships and the 4th best at a very high standard European Short-Course), and I like to think that we have laid down some foundations to sustain this position over the next few years.
Since I arrived in Denmark I have been busy trying to create the right sort of environment and the best possible atmosphere for us to succeed. I believe that this will be at the forefront of our success. I want Danish swimming to be strong and positive, but also relaxed and very happy.
SS – What were your goals for the first year on the job? Have they been achieved?
NJ – To be honest I had no set goals. I came to Denmark with a blank piece of paper – and knowing next-to-nothing about Danish swimming! Obviously medal targets were set for Barcelona and then, later in the season, for Herning. We hit the former (by winning 4 medals), but missed the latter by one medal (we ended up with nine!).
SS – Coming from the UK have there been any surprises for you in how things are done in Denmark?
NJ – Denmark is totally different from the UK. The scale is very different for a start. British Swimming is a large, complex organisation. The Danish Federation is quite small and compact. I have found that there is not too much red tape, and stuff can be moved around and problems solved relatively quickly.
Denmark doesn’t have the large numbers of swimmers seen in the UK. After all the population is just 5.5 million people as oppose to 60 plus million Brits and this disparity is reflected in the pool. Britain always seems to have endless numbers of great young swimmers. The depth of standard just isn’t there at present in Denmark.
Denmark is curiously parent-free at training sessions. The spectator’s galleries are almost always virtually empty. I think that parents are an essential support structure within swimming, especially for swimmers at age and youth levels, and for some reason they seem removed from the mainstream that is Danish swimming. I will be looking to encourage them to be more involved with their kids swimming over the next few years.
SS – What do you feel are the unique challenges that you have in Denmark to be able to take swimming to the level you would like?
NJ – There are any number of challenges! The Danish philosophy seems to be based on the concept of treating everyone equally, and underplaying excellence. Danes are happy to be good achievers, but don’t worry unnecessarily about being great ones!
The challenge is to convince and prove to them that they can be competitive on the World Class stage. This especially applies to the men – and that is why I launched the Great Danes project. I believe that Danish swimmers need to race at all times with great passion and with ‘fire in their bellies’!
SS – What do you feel are the strengths and weakness of the Danish program are currently?
Strengths:
Obviously our top swimmers are our big plus factor. In 2013 they demonstrated that they can comfortably live amongst, and in fact beat the world’s best.
These swimmers (predominantly female) who include Jeanette Ottesen, Rikke Moeller Pedersen, Lotte Friis, Mie Nielsen and Pernille Blume are our showcase and are, of course, a significant influence upon the young, emerging Danish swimmers.
Another strength is that Danish swimming clubs are usually large, stable and, compared with most other countries, wealthy. Most of them have 1000-2000 members with many of these members in lucrative learn-to-swim programmes, and only between 8 and 10% competitive swimmers (this low percentage is most definitely a weakness). The majority of these clubs have well-paid, full-time coaching staff, and access to a 50m pool. In many ways Denmark has evolved a highly developed and progressive club structure.
Weaknesses:
In my view the big weaknesses currently are – Danish male swimming, which lags behind our very successful females – but which is now definitely on an upward curve; under-powered top or ‘elite’ sections within the swimming clubs; and a faltering domestic competitive programme.
As things stand Denmark’s swim meets are not appealing enough, on any number of fronts, to attract top international competition and we need to address this urgently.
SS – What are your goals for 2014?
My goals for 2014 are very much rooted in medal success, both in Berlin at the European Championships, and in Doha at the World Short-Course. I would like Denmark to become the top ‘small nation’ in world swimming!
SS – Before you and Shannon (Rollason) got to Denmark your two jobs were one, how do you feel things have gone with the job being split? Can you comment on what it has been like to work with Shannon and on the strength of your relationship?
NJ – Yes, things seem to have worked out very well with Shannon, and the job split. He is truly a top-class international swimming coach, one of the very best, and Denmark is very lucky to have him. He is also a terrific man and we are very good friends. Although I guess we are pretty different human beings from very different backgrounds, we ultimately share a similar swimming philosophy, and are equally driven and ambitious. Best of all, we talk and laugh a lot together, and that has a great intrinsic value in life!
SS – You have been doing a lot to develop the junior ranks in Denmark, what immediate effect do you feel that has had? What other new initiatives/programs do you have planned in that area?
NJ– Well, I have done some bits, here but perhaps not enough. I do some work with Michael Hinge (Denmark’s Talent Developer) and he is a good guy. I have tried to get around the clubs and meet and get involved with as many swimmers as I can, including youngsters. Denmark has some impressive young swimmers for the future, but in my view, not enough yet, and we need to work hard to build these numbers up. We have new projects but ultimately these will be budget dependent.