I'm not a newbie coach.  I'm in my 8th year as head coach of a YMCA that has been slowly been growing.  It wasn't until my 6th year, when I first attended LC Nats with one swimmer in one event, that I learned that there WAS a Coaches Association.  Not only that, but it was an association that I was a member of, complete with a President, VP, etc.  "Cool," I thought.

 

Three years later, I still know about as much as I did then, and that brings my to my main issues.

 

1.  Why is NO EFFORT made to include ALL YMCA coaches in this association?  I mean, yes, we're all members, great.  How many YMCA coaches don't know that fact?

 

2.  Why is NO EFFORT made to include ALL YMCA coaches in the decision making process?  I shouldn't have to ask my Y to pay for a flight and a hotel in Vegas or Ft Lauderdale or wherever to place a vote, nor should it be left to those elite coaches who consistently have swimmers at Nationals, or who have the revenue to send coaches on overnight stays to decide what every Y coach will have to abide by.

 

3.  Why is there no central location of information on the Y Coaches Association?  I shouldn't have to wait until my next National meet to find out who the new president of MY association is.  The existence of this forum seemed like it would be useful, but my post (should the admin's decide to actually post it) will be the third.  And the one post that has a reply provides no information that is of any use, but rather, "call me for an explanation."  That is not good enough.

 

4.  This is posted on the front page of the LC Meet:  6/20/09 - With input and approval from the YMCA Coaches Association, the Meet Committee has decided to re-align the swimming of the 1500 Freestyle events and the 800 Freestyle Relay events. The 800 Freestyle Relay events will be returned to swimming on Thursday. All heats of the 1500 Freestyle events will be contested on Monday evening. See the http://www.ymcaswimminganddiving.org/2009LC/2009%20Long%20Course%20Handbook.pdf - Meet Handbook for more information and the new Order of Events.  Again, when did I have the opportunity to have a say?

 

Can anybody provide a PUBLIC explanation?

 

Thank you --

 

Ryan Walker

Head Coach

Waterbury (CT) YMCA

Thank you for your feedback and your questions.  The purpose of the Coaches Association is to discuss topics and issues relevant to YMCA coaches and to provide ideas and feedback to the National YMCA Swimming and Diving Advisory Committee.  When votes are taken at Coaches Association meetings, they are to help determine the will of the coaches and then express that to the Advisory Committee so that they may take it into consideration when making decisions regarding YMCA Nationals and the YMCA competitive swimming and diving program. The Coaches Association concept originated at YMCA Nationals as a way to give feedback to the Advisory Committee and thus meetings have been held at the Short Course and Long Course National Championship Meets.  A meeting was later added at the ASCA World Clinic because that was an event where a collection of YMCA coaches from across the country would assemble.  In the past several months, the members of the executive committee have written bylaws (which are pending approval from the Advisory Committee at their Fall meeting), established a schedule for phone conferences throughout the year to address current issues, revised the altitude training camp and created proposals for partially funded coaches education opportunities.  With the support of the Advisory Committee, the Coaches Association executive committee is working to improve its service to YMCA coaches across the country.

To your points about needing to have more information centralized for coaches, you are correct.  The national website has the ability to carry more information about the Coaches Association and we need to post more there. 

You obviously have great passion for the YMCA and for competitive swimming.  I invite you to volunteer as a candidate for the executive committee of the Coaches Association.  I also invite you to continue to forward suggestions to the executive committee through this forum or directly to one of the members listed under the Coaches Association page.

Thank you again.