This sort of exciting thing.
What exactly is this?
Well that is the pool deck at Claremont Pool where I stood for a couple of hours this morning helping out with the Perth Swim Smooth swim squad. Not coaching, what I was doing was far from that, but more being there and helping and learning.
It is all kind of funny how it came about. After seeing the Dr Stobie yesterday I cancelled my booking for the Friday morning session and then I wrote to coach Paul Newsome asking him to put my session bookings on hold long term since I wouldn't be able to come down for quite some time. In my e-mail I also mentioned that if there was ever anything I could do to help out then to let me know. At the same time that I was writing my e-mail Paul saw my cancellation and sent me a text message asking me if I might be interested in helping out. Freaky.
After chatting to Paul he asked if I would be free to come down and help on some of the busier sessions, the ones where he never quite has enough hands. I asked him which sessions those were and it turned out that Friday mornings was one. Today being Friday I figured that there was no time like the present and if he minded me coming down today. He didn't and so I did.
And I had a blast.
So does that mean my future looks a lot like coaching?
Who's to say? I wouldn't be jumping to that conclusion yet. As I have said in previous posts, doing some coaching is something that I have been considering, but it isn't a move that I want to rush. I like the idea of coaching, but at the moment I don't know if I will enjoy it or whether I will find it frustrating because I can't be training myself. Personally I think the former, but I want to give it time so that I can be sure.
The other issue is is that if I do want to do some coaching then I think there is a lot of learning I would need to do first in order to do it well. Just because I have done a sport for a number years it doesn't mean I know enough to teach it to somebody. However, I am keen to spend some time with coaches that I respect so that I can learn from what they do and also so that I can figure out if it is something that I think I might want to do more of. That is a bit of what this morning was about.
As I said though, I certainly did enjoy this morning. It was just great to be back down the pool and amongst it again. One reason I would consider coaching is because it would give me a way to be involved in triathlon without actually doing it. Being down the pool today certainly did that for me. Even if I was just adjusting the odd tempo timer and telling people what the next set was, I had a ball. I realised things like, I have never really watched all my friends swim. I know that everyone has their own strokes with different quirks, but it was really interesting watching them. How differently people can move through the water yet still all be doing it quickly. It was also amazed at how fast it all went by. I was down there from 5:30 until 7:30 and the time just flew past, much quicker than it does when you are swimming it. I also got an inkling of just how hard Paul works to make the sessions so successful. He knows everybody's swim speed. I mean everybody. Person A isn't here, but B is, well that lane will now be swimming at this pace. But person B has just had a cold, so the pace of that lane will drop by this much. He does that for every session for every lane. It was rather impressive. Also just a little bit daunting. All we do when we are in the pool is swim up and down, and we think we are the ones doing all the hard work.
It was a great way to start my morning and while it is all quite fresh and new it was a wonderful ray of sunshine on what could have been a fairly dark week.
Looking forward to what next week brings.
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