It’s Time To Change The World

PHOENIX, Arizona, April 4. IN the April issue of Swimming World Magazine, World Swimming Coaches Association president George Block looks at attempting to replace FINA as the primary oversight organization for Olympic swimming in this month's edition of A Voice for the Sport. The column is reprinted below:

Fellow coaches, we have come to a place where we must decide if we should put great efforts into continuous, incremental change within FINA, or risk and achieve much more and "change the world."
This is a very difficult place for all of us. Many of us are intimately involved within our own federations. Most of us frequently coach athletes on the world stage. Changing the world requires risking both these relationships.
By their very nature, our federations must maintain close and positive relationships with FINA. Actively opposing FINA will place our relationships inside our federations at risk. By our very natures, we want to coach and compete on the largest stage. Actively opposing those who run that stage will make us persona non grata on that stage.
When we have to resist the most, it may require asking our athletes or federations to sit out the very competitions by which we all define ourselves. Although we are all willing to do that ourselves, none of us wants to ask that of our athletes, but it may come to that—soon.
We have developed a mindset of fighting over table scraps from the FINA table and being quite happy when one falls our way. We have not stopped to realize that the banquet is being stocked by our labors and the fruits of those labors.
This is the great irony. If we leave the FINA table, those at the table starve, and we—coaches and athletes—will keep the fruits of our labors.
When dealing with an old, large bureaucracy, it is easier to blow it up and start over than it is to change it significantly. We are inspired every day by seeing that happen in North Africa. Those citizens finally got tired of hoping for table scraps and decided to turn over the tables and change their world.
Many hundreds of them have given their lives. Can we sacrifice a swim meet? Is our legacy going to be merely titles won, or will it be changing the competitive landscape for generations of coaches and athletes to come?
Many of you will have many questions: Can't we do both? Can't we work for incremental change within FINA while working outside to start a new organization? Can't we preserve our options? What if FINA changes? What do we tell our athletes when they bring the same questions to us? Can they preserve the security of their social lives while risking everything to be the best they can be? Can they commit halfway?
We can hope FINA changes, knowing it can just as quickly change back. We can hope that the people of good will inside FINA can affect some changes that will last until changed back by those without that good will.
However, hoping is all we should do. We should not expend emotion, intellect, effort or commitment to improve FINA. All of our emotion, intellect, effort and commitment should be directed toward blowing it up and starting over. We must have a World Swimming Association Championship in place by 2014, so that our federations and athletes can sit out the FINA Championships in the next quadrennium.
We must stop putting our food on their table, then begging them for scraps. Our labors put food on that table. It is time that we "change the world" and set our own table.

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April 2011 Issue
Contents of The April issue:

7 HAIL TO THE (NEW) CHIEF by John Lohn
University of Arizona's Frank Busch is the man who will lead the Stars and Stripes into this summer's World Championships, next year's Olympic Games and beyond as USA Swimming's new national team director.
9 DOWN TO THE WIRE by Emily Sampl
Diving fans witnessed world-class competition and several nail-biting battles among the country's top divers at the 2011 USA Diving Winter Nationals.

DEPARTMENTS:
6 A VOICE for the SPORT
40 FOR THE RECORD
45 CALENDAR
46 PARTING SHOT

In the Swimming Technique portion of the magazine you will find the following:

25 Q&A WITH COACH DOUG GROOMS, MISSOURI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY by Michael J. Stott
Doug Grooms has produced academic and athletic excellence at the Missouri University of Science and Technology and wonders what the long-term effect of capping athlete attendance at the NCAA meet will do to D-II swimming.
27 HOW THEY TRAIN: Zach Lemons by Michael J. Stott
28 SCIENCE OF PERFORMANCE: Weight Room Periodization Translating to Resistance Training by G. John Mullen
Many benefits can be gained with an individualized periodized resistance training program.
30 WARRIOR MENTALITY by Michael J. Stott
Mind matters when going to battle.
32 USSSA: Using the Flow Zone by Tyler Brewer
Even with the best conditions and training, an instructor will only produce great results if he understands how to use the flow zone.

In the SWIM portion of the magazine you will find the following:

13 THE WORLD'S BEST MASTERS by Emily Sampl, Jason Marsteller and Hideki Mochizuki
Swimming World Magazine's list of the Top 12 World Masters Swimmers of 2010 was dominated by the United States and Japan, with the swimmers ranging in age from 34 to 95.
20 DRYSIDE TRAINING: IM Stroke Series (Butterfly) by J.R. Rosania
22 THE WORKOUT CARD: Training with UCLA Bruins Masters by Erika Stebbins
24 LANE LEADERS: Bob Bugg, Dynamo Masters (Atlanta, Ga.) by Emily Sampl

In the Junior Swimmer portion of the magazine you will find the following:
35 NATIONAL AGE GROUP RECORD SETTER: Becca Mann, Academy Bullets Swim Club (Illinois) and Clearwater Aquatic Team (Florida) by Judy Jacob
36 AMERICAN RELAY by Judy Jacob
38 GOLDMINDS: The 5 "Abilities" Every Swimmer Needs by Wayne Goldsmith if you spend time developing your "abilities" — specifically, mo-ability, stability, flex-ability, adapt-ability and me-ability — you will be well on your way to enhancing your swimming performance.

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