australian swimming 93rd annual report 2001/2002

28 australian swimming coaches
and teachers association
As Chairman of the Australian Swimming
Coaches and Teachers Association (ASCTA)
I take pleasure in presenting my first report
for the Australian Swimming Annual Report.
On a global scale we have seen enormous
change in our world in the past year. ASCTA
Conference last year saw us welcoming those
coaches from overseas who were participating
in the Gold Medal Clinic Lecture program—
such an occurrence would have seen a much
more serious attitude to security for
themselves and their families had they been
visiting in 2002. The events of September
have, like previous memorable events
throughout history, changed our level of
thinking to one of suspicion and lack of
confidence in the future.
However, as participants in sport, we have
shown since September 11 that we are not
going to be dictated to by the threat of
terrorism. Many of our swimmers put such
thoughts aside to participate in World Cup
events in the wake of the terrorist disaster just
as they did when the Munich Olympic Games
were also attacked. Fortunately for us sport
can rise above such threats by simply saying
we are prepared to compete regardless of the
political arena.
The Board of ASCTA has long been recognised
as an active, progressive Board committed to
the welfare of its coaches and teachers to
ensure that we can o≈er the best educational
and working base from which to operate.
Our profession is not to be taken lightly.
Coaching and Teaching is not an afterthought
whereby people who, by virtue of the fact can
swim a fair time over 50–100 metres, can
doug frost
2001 Coach of the Year
suddenly don a cap and stopwatch and
assume the role of Coach or Teacher. Coaches
and Teachers are professionals and should be
recognised as such.
As a large proportion of their clientele
comprise children, Coaches and Teachers are
legally required to act responsibly, pass police
checks and possess current insurance. All
these issues have taken time to be addressed
and ASCTA maintains a proactive role when it
comes to recognising Coaches and Teachers as
the professionals. This enables them to
possess qualifications that are recognised
worldwide.
There has been a lot of work behind the scenes
by both Michael Ursu and John Kirkpatrick to
have ASCTA recognised as a Recognised
Training Organisation. ASCTA is attempting to
put into place a new Professional Development
plan for Learn-to-Swim Teachers and Coaches
throughout Australia. It is to be hoped that this
groundwork and the new ASI/ASCTA
cooperation programs in the Coach Education
area will allow us to have these new
educational and professional development
procedures in place in the next swimming year.
The signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding with AUSTSWIM in March
allows ASCTA to deliver AUSTSWIM courses
and is proving to be a most successful
enterprise. Since the signing, many courses
have been delivered under ASCTA’s banner in