Wuxi, China - Day 6

A day or two late with this, but had a few busy days.....

After a very long day on Wednesday, we went to bed and got up reasonably late on Thursday morning (like about 8:30 AM) to get a start for the day. After a quick breakfast of beef noodles, we set out on the road to Shanghai. Shanghai is about 2 hour drive from Hangzhou, but it seems quite a bit longer then that. We finally arrived around 1 PM and checked into our hotel, which conveniently was very close to Pudong-Shanghai Airport. After a quick lunch and a brief rest, we started out on our last visit of the week, The Shanghai Provincial Team.

Negotiating Shanghai traffic can be quite a mind-numbing experience and it took close to 2 hours to reach this facility. Along the way, we acquired Director Sun Weiyi, who was to be our guide. Director Weiyi has quite a resume himself as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Sailing Referee. As we approached the Shanghai Sports Development Facility, the first thing the strikes you is the sheer size and immense magnitude of it. After weaving through many different buildings, we pulled up to this massive building that housed the Aquatics Sports programs. This was very clearly a place where some of the best swimmers in China train and prepare to compete on the World's stage. Featuring two 50-meter facilities and two smaller pools, this place is all about getting faster.

China's National Shanghai Training Facility

Getting the "official tour" of the Shanghai Facility

After some brief introductions and the typical "official tour" of the place, I was introduced to the only other American (or Westerner) I've seen in the past week in the form of Chris Martin. Coach Martin is a high level American-born coach that is currently one of the Chinese National Team coaches. Turn's out, he's from Pennsylvania and we have several past "swimming" people in common so we had some nice discussion. We laughed and joked for a bit, but since he was in the middle of running a practice, our visit was fairly brief. We then were able to look around some more at the facilities and this was a very "high tech" swim place on about the same level as the USA Swimming facility in Colorado Springs. There was a practice going on with Chinese National Team swimmers and there skill was on full display.

Chatting it up with Chinese National Coach Chris Martin

The precision and flexibility of Chinese underwater work is impressive

We also got tours of the strength & conditioning facility and the rowing sport facilities as well. It was a thoroughly satisfying visit and was another "level" of the complex Chinese system that I got to take a peak into. After my 6 days here, I really feel like I was able to get a very good handle on the entire Chinese Swimming Development System and the similarities (and differences) to the American system. We finished off the day with our typical Chinese dinner feast. There were many well wishes and toasts to future ventures and I am quite sure that this trip was the beginning of something wonderful for our program and our swimmers.

Typical Chinese dinner feast

In the coming days, I will be posting some more specific posts about how this trip will be able to help with my own development as a swim coach and how this trip could open the door to future opportunities for our swimmers and other coaches. Also, I want to take a minute to publicly thank the people that made this trip possible. First off, I certainly need to thank our club, and Niagara Swimming, Inc for the assistance getting over to China, but I also must thank Mr. Jianlin Fan and the Wuxi Sports School for their support while in China. Also, a huge "shout out" to my interpreter Holly Tan who was so skillfully able to bridge the significant language barriers that existed. Thanks to all of you.

Wuxi, China - Day 5

I'm a day late getting this out, but better late then never.

Yesterday, we left Wuxi city in Jiangsu Province and traveled about 2 hours south to the city of Hangzhou in the Zhejiang Provence. In China, provinces are similar to states in the US. Currently Zhejiang Provence is a hotbed of swimming in China with several World Champions being produced there in the last year or so.

After the 2 hour drive or so, we met a student of Coach Xu, and we were able to tour around for a little bit. Hangzhou is a beautiful city and the portion we stayed in was situated on a very pretty lake (West Lake) provided a few fine picture taking opportunities. We then ate a traditional Chinese lunch at another great restaurant.

Party boat on West Lake.

Some Famous hunter that died in this spot. 

After touring around for what seemed like forever, we finally arrived at one of the best training facilities in all of Hangzhou, and one that recently produced a 2011 FINA World Champion in Shiwen Ye (who was the youngest world champions at age 15). After getting the standard royal treatment tour from the director of the facility Jerry Jiang, I was able to meet with Coach Wei Wei, who is Shiwen's coach. Anytime you get to met the coach of a world champion athlete, it is a big deal, but coach Wei Wei was very humble and we developed a fast friendship. 

Myself and Coach Wei Wei (to my right side).

That friendship developed an even stronger bond over dinner (which is very typical in China), and I hope to have Coach Wei Wei and Director Chiang over to the United States at some point in the near future. As if having dinner with one world Champion Coach wasn't enough, as fate would have it (or though a little bit of chinese special connections), we dined next to World renowned coach Zhuzhi Gen, who is the coach of Chinese Phenom Sun Yang, who recently broke the world record in the 1500 M freestyle. He happened to be dining with Yang Yu, who is an Olympic Gold Medalist from 2002. After formal introductions and greetings, we were able to take for a bit and take some more pictures. 

Myself, Yang Yu and Coach Zhuzhi (both to my right).

Two world champion coaches and one former world champion swimmers. All in all, not a bad night for myself. I am extremely grateful to Coach Xu for setting this all up. I was able to speak at length with Coach Wei Wei at dinner and was able to learn quite a bit of information.

Tomorrow, it's off to Shanghai and one last day of fun and adventure here in China.

Wuxi, China - Day 4

Tuesday was another great day here in China. Today was a productive day and was spent working, or at least on work related things. I'm finally getting into the rhythm of life over here and was my most relaxed and comfortable, despite the stress of having to have a formal lecture in front of their coaches. After a quick breakfast Coach Xu, Holly and I were off to the school for my lecture, which was to start at 9AM.

They had everything set up (of course), and the lecture started on time. Holly, by far, was more nervous then I, because it was her that had to translate my thoughts to the audience. After 4 days, she got to understand my mannerisms and certainly my "verbose" speaking style. She was petrified about toning that down into an easily digestible way for the attendees. I'm sure we can all empathize with her and that one.

My speech was a very simple one really. I barely had to prepare for it. It's all information that is ingrained in my brain, so it was really easy to talk about. I had prepared a 23 slide presentation as sort of a script for Holly, which made it even easier to follow. I spoke for 2 hours (no problem for me) with a 10 minute break in the middle. The first part was a very basic overview of the system of development for swimmers here in the USA. All stuff the average person can grab off the USA Swimming website, but for them it was really interesting to hear the differences between our two systems. Obviously, being involved at USA Swimming at the Niagara LSC level, I was able to probably deliver the information easier then the average person could have.

The next hour was really just a talk about my personal feelings and thoughts on how we "develop" swimmers aged 6 through high school. As you all know, I'm a big proponent on self-motivation and what we coaches do at RH is really set the conditions for kids to succeed, and then they will ultimately "self-dedicate" to a level that will make them successful as swimmers. It's never about the coach and always about the swimmer because they have the ultimate ownership of their success or failure. That simple concept that we live every day kinda blew them away. It's something that is very different to them. Soon enough, the 2 hours was up and we were done.

Overall, I think it went well. I didn't reveal and trade secrets or anything, and they certainly could have brought in a more "qualified" coach to talk to them about these very simple concepts, but I'm grateful for the opportunity to have spoke with them. The speech seemed very well received and they could not have showed more appreciation. Holly must have done a great job based on how they received my talk. I joked with a few people before I left that I hoped to get a great translator that made me look much better then really am. Little did I know how important that really became. Holly has been amazing and she made me look better then I am for sure.

Some Crab Lunch

After a great lunch with some of the school's officials, we had a quick change of plans. They had found out that my trip here coincided with my mothers birthday and I had let it be know that I needed to do a little shopping here is China to get some gift for them. They were reluctant to let me spend money here, but I explained our customs a home and despite their incredible generosity, I would insist that I had to pay my own gifts for my family. They relented, but ended having the last laugh later anyway. They arranged this trip special to make sure that I got quality Chinese products and did not get duped by the typical knock-off product you might find on the street. I was very happy with my selection of gifts, and that pleased them greatly. They guided me about with items were most meaningful in Chinese society and I choose my gifts that way.

Outside the Market in Wuxi

After shopping, I toured the grand facility and most of the school students were practicing. It was amazing. I was able to see all the sports here (mostly Olympic sports) and it seemed that at the time I was here, it was mostly the younger kids that were practicing (aged 4-11 or so). It was very cool. I think we (older Americans like myself) have this misconception of how the typical Chinese athlete trains is from the outdated "communist-non-communist" model. It's not like that at all. What I saw was a group a kids PASSIONATELY learning their craft with the same enthusiasm as our kids do at home. Whether it was TaeKwonDo or Badminton, the kids were just out there completing and being happy. It was really eye-opening.

After that, we had another extravagant dinner and many toasts with my new friends and I really think today went a long way in opening doors to potentially partnering and sharing with the Chinese (at least at this school) in ways that can be mutually beneficial to both of us. It was another great day and each day has built upon the day before. This day represented the end of my time here in Wuxi and tomorrow (today actually), we are off to Hangzhou to visit a college level swim program.

A pretty canal in Wuxi.

Wuxi, China - Day 3 (continued)...

Monday is typically the day that the swimmers have off (they swim on both Saturday and Sunday). As such, it was the perfect day to "take off" and explore the points of attraction for the city. My host chose to take me to two of the most special in the area. The Grand Buddha at Lingshan and Three Kingdom City.

Grand Buddha at Lingshan
The Grand Buddha is a religious "park" that serves as a major tourist destination for both locals and non-locals. It features many shrines and temples to Buddhism and the centerpiece is a huge 88 meter high (96 feet) gold colored statue of Buddha. It one of the largest freestanding statues of Buddha in the world. It's a very special place for the Chinese as they are primarily a Buddhist people. The entire park is on a grand scale and because it is a real religious shrine (and museum), all of the art and building decorations are made of the finest material they could find. There is an incredible amount of solid gold, Jade, marble and expensive wood carvings throughout. The place is LITERALLY worth a billion dollars.

The temples were really humbling places as they were so ornate and decorative. Symbolism is everywhere and just like for the very religious at home, it is a place of worship and to be revered. Everything in China has meaning and there is a specific way to move and specific things not to do. It can be very intimidating when you have no idea what you are doing because you really do not want to mess up. My host's were very good at preventing me from making a fool of myself. It was a very informative and cultural day.

Me in front of "Jolly Buddha", who has many kids playing on him.

Coach Xu and I in front of one of the Grand Temples (yes, the domes are made of real gold).

Three Kingdom City

After spending the bulk of the day at Lingshan, we moved to another place called Three Kingdom City. Three Kingdom City is an amusement park style place that is build upon the site where a very popular TV historical series of the same name is filmed. It's basically a film park for the series, which is set in the Han Dynasty period (206BC-220). It was very cool. There were warriors fighting on horse back and several wonderful and historically built buildings. It's also set on the shore of beautiful Lake Tai.

Sitting on the Kings Throne.

Lake Tai

After finishing there (10 hours between the two places), there was really only one other thing to do for the day. That was a very "official" dinner hosted by Mr. Fan and attended by the Principal and one of the Directors of the Wuxi Sports School, along with myself, Coach Xu and Holly (the Interpreter). Mr. Fan's niece also came along to make sure everyone got home safe.

Chinese dinners are a big deal and this one was no different. Great food shared among the group and many toasts to the new friendships we've made over the past few days. It was very nice. Now that my stomach is better, I was able to enjoy the food much more.

Today is all business, with a formal lecture to the schools coaches (all sports) and then leading practice for the older swimmers. I'm a little nervous, but I'm sure it will go fine. 

Wuxi, China - Day 3

Hi all. Had another amazing day. It was a long one (10 hours) and then dinner. I'm exhausted. We had no swimming today and it was really just a day to sightsee. Sightsee we did. We spend a good part of the day at the Grand Buddha at Lingshan (one of the largest statues of Buddha in the world). We also spend another part of the day and Three Kingdom City (another famous place here in China). We then had a traditional dinner with the Principal of the school and a few other important people. It was quite a day.

I will blog more on this in the next day, but time is short and I have to prepare for tomorrow big lecture at the school. Suffice to say, this trip is turning into the trip of a lifetime.

More to come later..............

Wuxi, China - Day 2

Had another very interesting day today. Only 1 practice, but it was a very good one. I was honored to be able to coach one of the groups (11-12 years olds) in my style. I elected to do a practice that would make Phil proud and I sprinted them to death. They loved it.... and hated it. It was very challenging for them, but they handled it very well. It is a very talented group of kids and they would be considered VERY advanced in our country, especially in the Breast and Fly. I found out their secret to producing great breaststroke and butterfly swimmers. Simple. They team them first. Not just in a club situation, but in a regular learn to swim too. The first thing they teach is the breaststroke kick. I found that interesting. I gave a few of the ones that handled it best a few "Comets" shirts and team caps. I think they enjoyed that.

After practice, Coach Xu, one of the supervising coaches and Holly (the Interpreter) went and had a traditional lunch and one of the most famous (and oldest) restaurant in Wuxi. The food was very good. I am a little hampered by an upset stomach, but I did my best. I have never been to the East, so my body is not accustomed to the different microorganisms that they have here, and it will certainly take a little time to get accustomed to it. It's pretty common I guess for first time visitors to China from the west (and I'm sure it would be the same for them coming to our country).

After lunch, we briefly toured a shopping center and they are pretty much the same as they are at home (even the goods). Most "sporting" facilities are owned by the government over here, but Coach Xu is friendly with the owner of a fitness center that has a 25M pool. It's one of the very few privately owned swimming pool (suitable for practicing) in all of Wuxi. In fact, there is a small club team that swims out of it a few times a week. We went over to check it out, and to have a genuine Chinese foot massage. It was pretty exciting and unique.

One thing that I find amazing is how well I'm being treated here. Coach Xu has been so incredibly gracious  with his time and everyone I've met, has been so kind. While many westerners travel to China on business, I think that in this area and in the places I'm going, they do not see westerners very much and I am a total attraction to them. They politely star at me, or go out of their way to say hi (mostly in English too). It's very strange because in our culture, we routinely see people from different places, so it's not strange to see someone that "looks different". Here, it's not that way at all. I'm very "unique". The average Chinese person is very intrigued my "western appearance" The only thing I can compare it to is being famous. Everywhere I go, people look smile, point, or giggle to the the person they are with. Not at all in a rude way either. Hard to get used to at first, but easier as time goes on. The only negative reaction was from a very small child that got into the elevator with her parents today. She cowered in fear at her mothers leg as she had never seen a westerner before. Her mom was embarrassed, but I thought it was cute.

The club was great and they, very typically, went WAY far out of the way to make me feel welcome (even had a sign out at the door). We took pictures, we toured the facility and we also had our massage (which was really great). By that time, it was getting late so we headed back to the hotel, stopping by a seafood market to look around first though. Dinner was very low key, due ailing stomach. I felt bad because I know how important food and dinner is to the Chinese, but my stomach just has to better adjust. I still had a great discussion with Coach Xu though. We talked swimming mostly and it's the one common thing that we know about together. Swimming transcends culture I guess. It was very informative and I like Coach Xu a lot.

Tomorrow is the swimmers day of rest, so I will spend the day touring the city's attractions with Coach Xu, Holly, and possibly Mr. Fan. Should be another great day. I just hope my stomach gets better. On Tuesday, I have a big lecture in front of all the schools coaches (little nervous about that). Coach Xu will let me coach his older swimmers (15-16 years old) in the afternoon of that day. I'm excited for that.

Pictures from the Fitness Club.

Day 3 - Junior Nationals

Cari Stankaitis swam a solid, 53.01, 100 freestyle at the Junior Nationals today in Austin, Texas. She was happy with her swim. While she did not make it back to the finals, she is very excited about Sunday's Invitational.

Swimmers will be swimming any event contested in the 2012 Olympics, and will attempt to meet the cut time to enter the United States Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska.

Cari will attempt to make the 26.39 time in the the 50 meter freestyle.

Coach Schueckler feels she has a shot to get close and possibly achieve the time due to the fact that there is no turn. It's just as fast as you can down the 50 meter pool, something Cari does well.

Good Luck, Cari!

Wuxi, China - Day 1

All, I can say right now is....... WOW.

I spent the day with Mr. Jianlin Fan (Arthur, Linda, and Eric's father), Coach Xu, and our interpreter Holly and it was amazing experience. Today started with a traditional Chinese buffet breakfast that was phenomenal. Chinese food in the US, is not like Chinese food in China. I really enjoyed everything I sampled. Next we went to the Wuxi Sports School to watch the AM practice.

Coach Tim and Coach Xu, outside the entrance to the Wuxi Sports School.

This practice was a full team participation workout and all levels participated. It was strangely foreign but at the same time very familiar being in the pool here. In talking and getting to know Coach Xu over the course of the day, I was able to get a very good idea of how the entire system of swimming in China works. I think that in some ways it is better then our system, but at the same time there are some things where the advantages our system really come through. I wasn't completely wrong in the way the system operates, but it's much more dynamic than I once thought. There are some things culturally that they do here that we cannot do in the US, but at the same time there are things that we do they they probably cannot duplicate here. It was a real eye-opening experience. I have not really had time to process the volume of information I learned today, but believe me..... It's something I will be doing in the coming days and weeks. It wasn't even so much in we said, but in what I observed. It's very special.

Coach Tim, Coach Xu (to Tim's left) and the rest of the coaching staff.

Coach Tim and Coach Xu with the 11-12 swimming group.

After the AM practice, we had a traditional Chinese lunch. Again, it's was so different of an experience, but very good at the same time. I'm still getting used to the feeling of being the only westerner in the room, and having everyone looking at me. Not in a rude way, in a very curious one. The little kids will go out of their way to get my attention, just so that I can say "hi" to them. Then they run off giggling. Lunch was great and after we headed into the office to wait for PM practice. Coach Xu presented me with some AMAZING gifts from himself, his school and the rest of his coaches. It was a very humbling experience to feel the sincerity of the gift just by the gift itself. It was very heartfelt by it's personal nature and you can feel the pride in their school, culture and country just by the nature of the gift. Gift giving is a much more important part of the Chinese culture than it is in ours and I can see why now. They don't give gifts, just for the sake of giving them, they give them because they mean something.

We then went to PM practice and only the 11-12 groups had water work this afternoon. Through Holly (who speaks fantastic english), Couch Xu and I were able to exchange a good deal of information about our sport and training. Coach Xu has been coaching about as long as I have in the Chinese system and we both understand things despite the translation difficulty between chinese and english. We ended the practice with Coach Xu offering to let me coach this group (11-12) tomorrow in my own style (with the help of Holly of Course). I consider it a great privilege. It should be very fun, for both the swimmers and for me.

Typical Practice Scene (not much different then ours)

Tonight, I will have a traditional Chinese dinner with Coach Xu, Holly and his staff. I'm pretty excited about it. One other thing that has most struck me so far is the incredible graciousness of Mr. Fan and Coach Xu. Perhaps this is typical Chinese hospitality, but there is no way that I can describe how good they have been to me so far. It's very humbling to me and I'm grateful for the experience so far. 

I'll get into more detail about the things I've learned in future posts. For now. It's getting close to dinner time.

Day 1 - Junior Nationals

Both Cari and Coach Schueckler had an eye opening day at the first day of the 2011 Junior Nationals. Such a beautiful and bright facility at the University of Texas. Cari was disappointed by her 24.01 in the 50 yard freestyle, which placed her 54th out of 97. But, my advise to her and any of you up and coming swimmers, is that it was a great experience. Now she know what a meet of this caliber is like, and next year she can come back and be a bit more ready.

She will now take a day off to complete school work and rest up for her 100 yard freestyle on Saturday.

On a brighter note, Cari was informed today, that she is being named the 2011 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle All-Greater Rochester Female Swimmer of the Year. Congratulations Cari.

Ready Set, Go........ (China, 2011)

Finally, at midnight on the eve of my trip, I finally have everything in order (I hope) and am ready to go.

It's a very long trip to China and I fly out of Rochester International Airport tomorrow (Thursday, 12/8/11) at 9:50 AM. I will first fly to Detroit, Michigan, where I will have 2 hours before heading out on the next leg of the journey that will take me to Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan (a 13 hour flight). After another couple hour layover, I will begin the final leg to Shanghai (another 3 hour flight). I will arrive at Shanghai's Pudong Airport at 9:50 PM (local time) Friday night. The total flight mileage is almost 8000 air miles.

Total flying time from Rochester to Shanghai is just over 23 hours. Shanghai is also 13 hours time difference from NY (in the future), so it will be quite an adjustment when I get there. After arriving in Shanghai, I will be met by my host, Jianlin Fan (Arthur, Linda & Eric's father). We'll then make the roughly 80 miles trip by car to Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. I expect I'll finally arrive at my hotel sometime after midnight on Saturday morning (which will be around noon friday our time).

If I can get some sleep that would be great, because I have practice first thing on Saturday morning (8:30-11 AM). I have another practice in the afternoon, so it will probably be sometime late Saturday (Shanghai time) before I will next update this blog. Look for another entry (with some photos) on Saturday afternoon.

P.S. Good luck to Cari Stankaitis, who is representing the Comets in Austin, Tx at the SC Jr. National Championships. What an exciting week for our team.

Live Webcast From Austin Texas

Thursday Dec. 8th at about 11:45am (10:45 central)

Watch Cari Stankaitis compete in USA Swimming's Junior Short
Course Nationals in Austin, Texas

Click the link below, be sure to follow the Womens Pool and not the mens.
Same pool, opposite ends of the pool.

Cari is in Event 7, Heat 10, Lane 5 GO CARI - SEND HER YOUR POSITIVE
VIBES

http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=2146&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en

Golden Comet - Cari Stankaitis - Heads to Nationals

Honeoye Falls-Lima Junior Cari Stankaitis will compete in the USA Swimming Junior Nationals at the University of Texas in Austin. Cari will be swimming the 50 yard freestyle on Thursday( Dec. 7), and 100 yard freestyle on Saturday(Dec. 9). She will participate in an official long course time trial on Sunday(Dec. 10). Cari will swim the 50 Meter freestyle in the hopes of qualifying for the United States Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska this coming June. The time is 26.39, for the long course 50. So on Sunday, all Comets should send out your positive vibes, to help her achieve that time.

Comet Coach, and 30 year Honeoye Falls-Lima Coach, Norm Schueckler will be also attending the meet to coach Cari. Coach Schueckler is looking forward to return to the Texas Longhorn pool where is was Assistant Coach of the NCAA Division I, 10 place finisher, The University of Iowa in 1981. Coach Schueckler says it's a fast pool and great venue for Cari to swim in.

Where in the World in China?

I asked myself that VERY SAME QUESTION when first offered this opportunity. Since then, I have learned quite a bit about the area and place that I will be going. I wanted to write my first entry as a background piece to give you all an idea of where I will be going, and what I will be doing.

I will be traveling to the City of Wuxi (woo-she), in the Jiangsu Province of the Peoples Republic of China. Wuxi is a very old (over 3000 years old) City situated on the shores of Lake Tai and is approximately 75-80 miles Northwest of the City of Shanghai. Wuxi is traditionally a manufacturing city, but recently is emerging as an economic business hub. According to the 2010 world census, the prefecture-level city (regional) population for Wuxi is 6.3 million people.

You can learn more about Wuxi from Wikipedia

Wuxi Sports School:
In many ways the Chinese Sport Development System is different than here in the United States, but there are also some similarities. They ways in which swimmers enter the system is very different, but once on a team and when it comes to competition, it is fairly similar. You strive and work very hard to get better, so that you can qualify for higher levels of competition. There's also the simple pride of racing for your team and beating rivals (just like in the USA).

Here in the US, as we all know, children and kids are free to join any sport they feel like doing and can come and go from an activity as they please. There are any number of different entry points for kids into a sport (private club, YMCAs, School teams, ect...), and for the most part, you just need the desire to start and perhaps the resources to pay for it). In China, a traditionally closed society, they do not have this same "club system". Instead, primary aged school children are occasionally given aptitude and skills testing at their "regular" schools and then, based on the results, can get selected to attend one of the premier local or regional Sport Academies. These are like traditional schools, except that in addition to academics, sports become a very important aspect of those student's lives.

The Wuxi Sports School is one such sport school that serves the greater Wuxi area. It is one of the most important Sports Schools in the Jiangsu Province. The Jiangsu Provence itself has a population of 78.7 million people (in an area slightly larger then the state of Maine), and there are several other Sport Schools that serve the region as well.

At this point, competitions become similar to the United States. Provincial school teams will compete against each other in regional, provincial competitions. The faster you swim, the more you qualify for and the higher the level of competition, up to competitions that feature the best swimming in the entire country. At some point, just like in the United States, the very best swimmers from all the various Provincial Sports School will form the Chinese National Team (to compete at the Olympics, and other International events). Others sports in Chinese operate under the same basic format, and the underlying bedrock of the whole system are these Sport Development School.

Are They Any Good?:
This is a fairly legitimate question, since just like here in the US, some teams are better then others and have more resources (from the Government in the case of China), so it's certainly reasonable to wonder what kind of reputation the Wuxi Sports School has among it's counterpart sports academies in China. The Wuxi Sport School is a Chinese Olympic Base School, which simply means that the government gives it its highest level of support ($$$) and it is looked upon to produce the future stars of Chinese sport. Based on their results, they have (and are) producing some of the best athletes, not only in China, but in the world.

Wuxi Sports School:

• There are 22 different sports teams at the Wuxi Sports School in the traditional Olympics sports (like swimming, diving, table tennis, gymnastics, shooting, basketball, baseball, weightlifting, and archery). The school has 100 professional coaches employed there. 
• In it's history, Wuxi Sports School has produced 16 world champions (i.e. best in the entire world) in sports like table tennis, weightlifting, shooting, diving, etc..)
• In the most recent 2009 Chinese National Games, the school produced 25 medals (8 gold, 9 silver and 8 bronze). That is a very high numbers. 
• The swim team (which has about 70 swimmers on it - Chinese teams by their selective nature are smaller then US teams), currently has 6 swimmers on the Jiangsu Provincial Team, which represents the province at the National level. That is roughly the US equivalent of "making a US National Qualifying Time". By comparison, The Comets currently have 1 swimmer at this level and trains 1 other swimmer (from Victor) at this level. Although, we have several others (2-3) that are on the verge of those qualifying times.

In short, this is one of very best that the Chinese have to offer in their Sport Development Program. We are honored to be able to go there and share with them.

Wuxi Sports School Pool (L - outside, R - inside)

So What Will You be Doing There?

I have posted my preliminary itinerary for the trip -HERE-

The first few days, I will be meeting and working with the team and my counterpart coaches from the School, Coach Xu and his staff. I will also be meeting and getting to know the School's principal (Principal You). I'm sure that I will also be getting quite a bit of a cultural lessons as I interact with their staff and swimmers. As a guest, I will no doubt be treated to traditional Chinese hospitality and I look forward to doing my part as a guest in their country.  I will be humble and represent our club in the most respectable way I can. I've done my best to research traditional Chinese etiquette and I will take my role as Ambassador from our club, and our sport as a whole, very seriously.

After a few days, of working and sharing with the Swimming Staff, I will obviously become more comfortable, and I'm told that I will be expected to give a much broader lecture to the entire school Coaching Staff (over 100 coaches) on Wednesday. Considering that some of these coaches have athletes that are the best in the world in their sports, to say I'm a little freaked out about that is putting it a bit mildly. I think that my 90 minute lecture will focus on the challenges of motivating an athletes in in an open society, but I'm not sure. I have some general thoughts on where to go with it, but I'm still a little nervous. I just hope my translator makes me sound better than I actually am.

Later in the trip, I will be going to a nearby college level swim team and will have meetings and discussion about our sport at that level. I'm actually very confident and about this aspect of the trip. This is right up my alley and I've coached at the college level for a very long time. I'm very interested in seeing what their approach is.

Finally, on my last day, I will travel to the Shanghai Sport Development School. This is one of the premier sport schools in all of China. I will be able to mingle with some of the finest coaches and swimmers in the country. By this time, I certainly hope to have mastered the different traditions and etiquette to come off professionally and with some dignity. Interspersed among all this "work", I will have a small amount of time to sightsee, and experience some of the attractions in the Wuxi and Shanghai area. That is secondary of course, but I think that understanding the culture and their traditions will allow me to be better able to open my mind and really challenge myself on all of the "norms" that I currently have as a coach.

After all, this trip is about challenging myself to open my mind, and learn more as a coach. I demand that my athletes abandon their comfort zones every day at practice, so it's only fair to hold myself to those same standards. I can't wait to share with you what I learn. I am told that I am one of the first USA swim coaches to be offered this level of access to the very base-level of the Chinese Sport Development System. To me, this is an incredible honor. I must thank Jianlin Fan, who is my primary sponsor, and his family for making this whole thing possible.

More to come next week......

Liveblogging from China.

Coach Tim will be liveblogging during his upcoming historic trip to China.

Being that this is such a unique experience, not only for me but for the program as a whole, both the board and I thought that it would be a great idea to use modern technology to keep the program up to date on everything that I'll be doing while in China. This is one of the first trips of it's kind for a USA Swimming coach to travel to the People's Republic of China for the express purpose of cooperation between coaches from the two countries.

China, like it is in so many other sports, has really started to emerge from a somewhat dark past recently in the world swim community. They have cleaned up their act and started to excel to new heights. That was never more evident than at the 2010 FINA World Championships last summer when 19 y/o Chinese phenom Sun Yang broke the oldest existing world record in international swimming (in the 1500 M Freestyle). Now back on the world stage, there is so much that we can learn from each other by breaking down old barriers and forming new friendships as we look forward.

Just like swimmers, us coaches must do everything they can to get better. Getting better (as swimmers and coaches) means getting out of your comfort zone, and really challenging yourself take advantage of new opportunities to learn and grow. This trip represents just such an opportunity for me.

I will be posting some background information on the my trip, and the area in which I will be going over the next few days. I will be arriving (after a 24-hour flight) in Shanghai late on December 9th and will be diving right in (so to speak) the next morning for AM workout with the Wuxi Sports School Team's morning workout.

Coach Tim

Welcome to the Golden Comets Swim Blog

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the Golden Comets Swim Blog. This blog is set up to help keep our swimmers and parent up to date on some of the "goings on" of the club and the many different things we are doing. Swimming out of 4 separate facilities, it sometimes gets hard for everyone to keep up with the different things we are doing.

This blog will serve that purpose. Whether its a coaches education trip, or a specific swim meet we are attending, this blog will allow the coaches involved a way to communicate with the club in a general way just what is happening.

Hopefully, you will find it informative and interesting to read.