In swimming, as in all other sports, coaches experience competition intensely. But at the edge of the Olympic pool at Singapore’s Sports Hub, the venue for the World Swimming Championships until Sunday, August 3, two coaching philosophies stand out. Some coaches, standing behind a barrier, remain outwardly calm, masking the intensity they feel once the race begins. Others are more expressive, shouting themselves hoarse, whistling or making grand gestures with their arms.
This second group has not given up on solving the puzzle faced by swimming coaches: how to communicate with a racing athlete, their ears underwater and their eyes locked on the tiles three meters below. “Coaches can try to get information across with gestures or whistles,” said Mathieu Neuillet, a coach at INSEP, France’s National Sports Institute.
Although he has not developed such signals with his own coach, French swimmer David Aubry, who specializes in middle-distance events (400m, 800m, 1,500m), said: “Codes between a coach and a swimmer can help, especially in the heats or semifinals, to know whether to accelerate in order to qualify.” A thumbs-up might mean the pace is good and there is no need to push harder; a hand gesture to the right or left can signal that it’s time to pick up speed. It’s up to coaches and their swimmers to develop their own language.
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