Hillcrest swim coach gains international knowledge
Aquazone swim coach, Angela Marlton plans on staying ahead.
Angela Marlton, founder and coach of the Hillcrest based, Aquazone Swim Club, has had the fantastic opportunity of flying over to America to gain international swimming advice and tips that will benefit her swimmers and SA swimming as a whole.
As a member of the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) she attended the week long, 46th ASCA World Clinic held in Jacksonville, Florida from 8 to 14 September.
The Clinics provides leadership to World class swimming at all levels from Learn to Swim to education about training Olympians and Masters Swimmers. The function is to provide coaches with the tools necessary to build better swimmers with the most relevant of coaching information.
This is Angela’s first trip to America, and she is hoping to come home having learnt an incredible amount.
“Five years ago I went to the 2009 Australian Conference and I learnt more in those two weeks than I have here in South Africa.””
While in America she plans to visit Rick Payne, CEO of American College Connection who is also a vital link in recruiting SA swimmers into colleges and varsities in America. It was thanks to his input that one of her swimmers, Matthew Coetzee was given a scholarship to Yale.
She also plans on visiting the Olympic Training Centre and top swimming coach, Dave Salo, head coach of the University of Southern California swimming teams and Trojan Swim Club.
“In my opinion he is one of the best coaches in the world and had 13 swimmers in the 2012 Olympics, representing ten countries.”
She will also visit Matthew and his Yale coach, Tim Wise as well as get in some sightseeing in before she returns to SA on 6 October.
“It is an amazing opportunity to travel, become a better coach, meet people from other countries and relationship build. Swimming is a big sport over here with some of our top swimmers coming from KZN. It is important to be exposed to the international scene – to learn more and give talented swimmers the opportunity to compete successfully overseas.”
