Ethics - Having To Do With Moral Duty

The question of changing coaches became more strident this week with the news that Laure Manaudou has decided back her bags and leave the coach who has guided her to become the world’s best female swimmer. Her destination it appears is to Coach Penso, 53, Director General of LaPresse Nuoto club in Turin, Italy.

It’s a big change and is unlikely to work. Already her new coach is telling the world Manaudou swam 5x400 meters this week under 4.40. I coached two swimmers in New Zealand capable of that effort and neither was a 200/400 freestyler. On Wednesday last week Rhi Jeffrey swam 12x500 meters on that sort of pace through the 400s and until Penso’s comment neither of us would have thought it merited mention on international swimming news. This morning Rhi concluded a set of 70x100 meters on 1.30 with a 1.06 100 meters fly. I’d have thought that was better than 4.40 for 5x400s.

Manaudou’s old coach, Philippe Lucas is quoted as saying he thinks Manaudou can’t stand the thought of another year of the distance he gives her – seventeen kilometers a day. That makes sense to me. I’ve had swimmers leave for the same reason. However, it highlights the ethics involved in changing coaches. Is a change being made for positive reasons, because something is genuinely not going right? Rhi and others left USC for this valid and reasonable motive. Or is the change being made in some frantic search for greener grass. One is ethical the other is not.

Manaudou would have us believe things were not right in Canet. She has said, “I needed a change.” That’s just rubbish. She’s going because her boyfriend is in Turin, she wants to swim less distance, Turin is making her offers Canet can’t match and any number of other personal, selfish reasons. Her character has been revealed by her lack of allegiance to a coach who has cared and nurtured her to Olympic medals, world records and World Championships.

Some are probably going to say swimmers always have the right to change and that of course is true. The fact that something is able to be done does not however void consideration of its ethics. Many things are able to be done that good people do not do. Let me give you an example.

About eighteen months ago a mother brought a swimmer to our team. The swimmer was sixteen. She had been ranked in the nation’s top dozen swimmers as a twelve and thirteen year old. Since then her career had deteriorated, She was damaged physically and mentally as the mother carted her daughter to other Clubs searching for the girl’s pre-teen success.

As I say, she ended up at our door. Her mother was very specific. Her daughter’s pre-teen coach had damaged her daughter. He had pushed the girl too hard and had acted badly when she decided to attend the “wrong” high school.

The mother was right about one thing; the girl was a mess. She pulled out half way through her first race and I realized fast times would have to wait while we rehabilitated a broken soul. A combination of considerate training and selective racing seemed to work. She was faster, but not by much. She was however physically and mentally strong again. Even her pre-teen coach, the one blamed for all the damage said he had not seen her swim with such spirit since she was thirteen years old. He also explained to me that the mother had serious problems as he was sure I would soon find out.

The table below shows the swimmer’s 500 yard times over a number of years and gives you a statistical view of the story I’ve just relayed.

The swimmer came to us just after she’d swum the 5.30 (Column 11) and left eighteen months later after she’d swum 5.05 (Column 18). That’s right, she left because her mother said that the training wasn’t working. The part that really stole the whole bloody cake was she scampered off back to the team that according to her had caused the girl’s problems in the first place. And that beats even Laurie Manaudou.

Philippe Lucas has said he would never take Manaudou back. I can understand that. Arthur Lydiard, probably the world’s best ever middle distance track coach always said, “David, never take an athlete back.” I broke Lydiard’s rule on one special occasion. It looks like Lucas is not even going to do that.

As a fun aside, check out this piece written by Navtej Kohli about four popular sports and why they’re ... well, stupid. This is written in a rather “tongue in cheek” manner, as this guy actually loves sport.