The tabloid media has tried to generate a controversy over Ken Wood, the coach of Jessica Schipper, selling his training methods to the Chinese coach of Liu Zige, who then defeated Schipper in world record time in the 200m women’s butterfly.
Other Australian swim coaches who have directly coached non-Australian swimmers, successfully in the case of Brett Hawke and his protege Brazil’s Cesar Cielo Filho in the men’s 50m, have been accused of “sleeping with the enemy.”
This is just nonsense.
In the case of Ken Wood, he sold his training methods to a Chinese coach. He did not coach the Chinese swimmer in these methods.
It is all rather like, say, Tiger Woods publishing a book on how he plays golf. Reading the book and using the Woods techniques will not make you play like Tiger Woods.
In the case of Liu Zige, the swimmer had to put in the hard work, learn the stroke perfectly, develop racing strategies and techniques, and then hold her form and nerve to pull off her world record swim.
As the president of the AOC John Coates points out, none of the personal coaches of the Australian Olympic swimmers are paid to develop their charges into champions.
They have to live.
If they have specific intellectual property, it belongs to them. If they can get paid for this intellectual property, why should they be stopped from doing so?
The case of the Australians coaching out of Australia is just as clear-cut.
Mike Colman and Tom Smithies in The Daily Telegraph had this absurd observation: “Even more disturbing for Australian fans last week was the sight of Denis Cotterell, former coach of Australian swimmers Grant Hackett and Ky Hurst, standing on the pool deck in a Team China uniform.”
As John Coates and Ken Wood point out, though, the Australian Olympic movement has recruited over 200 coaches from overseas since the 1980s.
The improved performances in any number of Olympic sports resulting from this importation of overseas coaches proves the merit of the system.
Where is the repugnance from the tabloids about these imported coaches “sleeping with the enemy?”
If the tabloids can’t get their heads around the concept of imported coaches, they should ask the CEO of the ARU, John O’Neill, to explain why New Zealander Robbie Deans, the former Crusaders master coach, is just about the best thing that has happened to Australian rugby this year.
The fact is that coaches are now international commodities, not national assets.
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