We reported earlier this month how, at the Western Australia annual conference, Queensland Swimming CEO Kevin Hasemann, didn’t hide his opinions on the overall state of Australian Swimming. During his speech addressing West Australia’s swimming community, Hasemann stated that “the real crisis [in Australian Swimming] isn’t that we only got one gold medal in London, it’s that our membership is declining and so is our revenue; it all starts there.”
He elaborated on his viewpoint that the theme of ‘fun’ should be a core tenet of swimming in Australia in order to secure to secure the sport’s future. According to Hasemann, today’s coaching and mentoring emphasis “needs to be on skill, technique, fun” as opposed to overworking kids.
In an effort to get his voice heard by the upper echelons of the Swimming Australia organization, Hasemann was interviewed on the “Breakfast With Bern Young” radio program on 91.7 ABC Gold Coast.
Within the audio interview, Haseman provides the example of his own son Paul, now 29 years old, who persevered through the age group ranks to become a successful open water swimmer and Australia’s 15 & U 1500m National Champion in 2002. However, due to what Hasemann describes as getting burned out and fed up with the sport, Paul walked away from his potentially medal-producing career at 16 and never looked back.
Hasemann speaks to his view that Australia “tries to identify talent in very young children and then taps into it far too quickly.” He says that both parents and coaches are guilty of “overloading kids with volume and expectation” when kids should be having fun.
So after having been CEO of the leading swimming state in Australia for 13 years, why is Hasemann just now making his stance public? “It takes time to gain credibility and influence within the sport” for people to take one seriously, for which Hasemann says he has now achieved and he can be comfortable in his opinions and drumming up support for them.
The key, however, to any change coming about within the sport, needs to come from the “top of the totem pole”, meaning Australian Head Coach Jacco Verhaeren, says Hasemann. “I would like to see the Australian National Coach more active in this space, stating the values that apply to coaching young children and then having that message passed out to the swimming community coaches and parents.”
Hasemann’s ultimate goal? To have athletes not only continue participating in the sport of swimming, but to actually love the activity in the process.
You can listen to the interview in its entirety here.
So being a CEO of a swimming organisation and observing his son’s departure from the sport now makes Kevin Hasemann an expert swimming coach with an intimate knowledge of what it takes to develop successful senior athletes over the long term?
I have read this article and listened to the interview in full. There are aspects of what he has been speaking about that I agree with… and then there are parts I definitely don’t agree with.
He is absolutely correct in saying that “Australia tries to identify talent in very young children and then taps into it far too quickly”. The emphasis in age group swimming, on race pace training, getting “that time”, and short term results, is… Read more »
Very, very actual problem indeed! Not an easily solvable one though…
In my country (Hungary), ‘the top of the totem pole’ is completely aware of this, yet, there is no real answer to this problem. It’s a competitive sport, where results are what matter most. Results equals money and fame. Results equals you’ll got your job next year too. Everyone says ‘Oh, I wont burn out my kids’, but everyone does. Why? Let’s be honest: If my club owner comes to me and says: ‘Mickey, I appreciate your work and I can see what you do with these children is good, but this club’s survival depends on the money income we get from the good results. So produce me 3… Read more »
Miklos,
You are assuming that more and harder work leads to better results. That is not always the case. The best way to invest someone’s time is work on biomechanics (technique and corrective dryland), mental skills (racing and practice behavior and psychology) , and then comes physiology along with nutrition etc. Just because the club you mentioned is 5th in Hungary with 50% of the work does not mean it would be number 1 with 100% of the work.
And on the other side of the coin, just because the number one clubs are doing a lot of mileage and intensity does not mean that they are getting the best returns for their work. Research has consistently proven that successful… Read more »
Finally someone is talking about this! Back in the day, I saw way too many of my friends and teammates burn out and plateau by the time they were in their late teen and varsity years. Too much intensity and mileage early on can cause kids to lose their passion or to encounter unnecessary injuries. If we want to see young, upcoming swimmers reach the pinnacle of success at the Olympic and World Championship levels, we need to properly train and prepare them for it.