The Hindu : Sport : Prolong swimmers' careers: Spahl

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Wednesday, Sep 27, 2006
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Prolong swimmers' careers: Spahl

Special Correspondent

VOICING HIS VIEWS: Olav Spahl, German coach, feels that Indian swimmers have a big opportunity to reach the world-level in the next decade, if they don't discontinue their careers. — Photo: K. Murali Kumar

BANGALORE: "The biggest challenge facing Indian aquatics is retaining all the talented juniors and helping them to continue their career in the pool. If that happens, India can stand up and be counted in World swimming," was the candid assessment of German coach Olav Spahl, who conducted a FINA clinic for coaches during the senior aquatics championships here.

"Conducting the clinic during the National meet provided me with a unique experience of watching all your top swimmers and helped me to work on some key areas like technique, starts and turns, which had a lot of scope for improvement. I have given my recommendations to your coaches," he said.

About 50 coaches from India and neighbouring nations in South Asia, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan attended the clinic.

Some positive signs

Commenting on the quality of Indian swimmers, he said: "You have a fine set of athletes, but they are still at the junior stage. The challenge will be to help them continue their career in aquatics for a further five to seven years. If they stop competing at 16 years old, they can't reach international standards. They will have to swim at least till they are 25," he said.

"As India's population is huge, it will be a challenge to identify the talent and support them. But I'm really surprised in a positive way about what I saw at the Nationals and what your swimmers are already able to do. I think you have a big opportunity to reach the world-level in the next decade, if the swimmers continue with their career, he added.

The German coach added that Indian swimmers should work on their underwater technique, which is quite popular with world-class swimmers.

Sound programme needed

Spahl, while complimenting the work done by the Indian coaches, including S. Pradeep Kumar and Nihar Ameen, stressed the need to develop a sound programme for the junior swimmers.

There has to be a scholarship system in place to keep them motivated and help them to pursue their career. In this respect, he said Germany has a foundation called Sports Aid.

Regarding the diet for swimmers, he said a balanced diet would be more than sufficient. "They can take a combination of carbohydrates, proteins and low fat. If they are vegetarian, supplement it with proteins," he said.

According to Spahl, the State-sponsored drug abuse by East German swimmers has now become a painful past. "After reunification, we launched a fight against doping. We were the first federation to do blood testing. We do a lot of random testing during training and events. It is really necessary to do that so everybody can believe in the spirit of sport," he said.

Spahl said he was going back with a lot of fond memories. "I'm fascinated by your culture and of course, I have made a lot of friends. I have promised the officials that I would help them in whatever way I can," he added.

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