Canadian Heritage Committee on March 4th, 2013

[Matt Showers]

I don't know, but.... Whether that's true or not for hockey, I really think that's the way it should be for swimming, at least up to a certain age. When you're 16, 17, or 18 and you want to decide where you want to swim, by all means, go right ahead.

But I think we're missing the point as coaches and clubs. There's too much interclub battling going on for certain kids, coaches, and talent, whereas you could look at it and say that if anybody from Quebec or from our area were to succeed, that's a win for all the coaches. Or if anybody makes it from Canada, that's a win for everybody: everybody is helping each other out.

I think the bottom line is going to be the coaches. Pool time is what it is; there isn't more or less to go around.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Mr. Comerford, could I have your thoughts on this? I'm actually focusing this on where the resources should go and perhaps even whether there are facilities or even age groups that we need to do this with.

[Tim Comerford]

Yes, I agree with Matt. I think resources going towards coaching are important, especially resources going towards coaching that will help people understand the sport of swimming. I think we're in a situation where.... I coach kids who are eight years old and under. We practise four times a week, and we have a swim meet maybe once every three weeks, if we're lucky, whereas in hockey you have two practices a week and then a game, which is consistent, so there are a lot of direct payoffs.

In the sport of swimming, as Matt was saying, we have competition from other clubs, and they may be training their kids more and getting results now, but in the long term, that's not the case. I think if funding went into coaching and into helping coaches to develop a club.... Maybe the situation is that “this is where you live and this is where you're going to swim”. If you're able to develop a club and hold onto this group of kids through their lifetime of swimming, I really think that would benefit the sport. Doing that through allowing funding to go to the swim club and the coaches is a smart way to start.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Richards.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Wild Rose, AB]

Thank you.

I'll start with you, Mr. Showers.

I'm not looking to exclude you, Mr. Comerford. If you have something to add, please do so.

Mr. Showers, earlier you mentioned the coaching certification program and you talked a little about it. You mentioned levels 1 and 2. You felt there wasn't a lot in that first couple of levels that really would give you much in terms of coaching techniques.

What you were referring to I'm not familiar with.... I know about the national coaching certification program. Is swimming a part of that national coaching certification program, or does Swimming Canada have some other parallel coaching certification that you were referring to?

[Matt Showers]

No, it does fall under the NCCP. Swimming does have a branch in there. For example, the first part of your level 1 program could be with coaches from any sport.

There's a second part of the course that branches off and touches on swimming, but as I said, it's maybe for a weekend—a Friday night and a Saturday, and then maybe a half-day on Sunday—so there's not much being learned at a lot of these classes. Then what you get is coaches who, for the first few years of their career or their coaching life, just coach based on what they've done. All coaches have to rely on their previous swimming years or whatever to coach.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Wild Rose, AB]

Would you suggest that we should look at something more sport-specific in the national coaching certification program at the earlier levels? I have a follow-up question if you want to respond to that one and then to the second part. I'm most familiar with hockey because I played some hockey and coached a bit myself.

I know that in some sports there are certain programs where they're now looking at.... You've talked a lot about professional coaching and how it's difficult financially for someone to sustain that as a career. What if we looked at a model for a club where there were maybe one or two head coaches and under those individuals there was a volunteer, maybe a parent, or a parent of a past member of the club, or a past member of the club who doesn't intend to pursue coaching as a career but would volunteer some of their time? They would work under the head coach, who would oversee the total thing.

Also, if we did have in that national coaching certification program something a bit more sport-specific earlier on in the training, could something like that work as a model that would enable clubs to stretch their resources further?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

We have time for a real quick response.

[Matt Showers]

I think it's a great idea. We have that in place right now at our club. We have a brand-new head coach, who has a ton of coaching experience, but he's never been a head coach before, so this year we are working with a man by the name of Clifford Barry. He is Victor Davis's old coach, so he knows his stuff. I think we're experiencing our best year as a club because of his guidance. I think it's a great idea to have figures like him. He's not there all the time, maybe once or twice a week for a couple of hours. It's really short, the time that he's there, but that short time makes a huge impact on all the coaches. I think it's a great idea.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Richards.

Mr. Comerford, Mr. Showers, thank you both for agreeing to be here and to contribute to our study.

We will suspend now, committee members, for 30 seconds while we go in camera to deal with some committee business.

[Proceedings continue in camera]