Swim coach's lesson embedded

New Prince Albert Sharks Swim Club assistant coach Marc Campbell will not soon forget the lesson he learned from a coach seven years ago.

During 2001, while training for his last competition, the Canada Games in Kamloops, B.C., Campbell was taught a valuable lesson.

While training for his primary event, the 200-metre butterfly, Campbell was told his stroke wasn't what it could be. He was actually only kicking with one leg.

"He stripped my stroke down to basics and we rebuilt it," Campbell said. "It's like stripping a car and rebuilding. It was really hard to do, but what a huge difference. I realized at that point, if you get the technique right at the beginning, you're going to go places."

Campbell matched his previous best time in the race, but he couldn't believe that the effort he had to exert was cut in half.

"My story is, I had all the fitness, I had all the get-up-and-go, the desire, but not the technique, so I only got so far as a swimmer," the 36-year-old said.

As a coach, Campbell will always emphasize technique first.

"Anybody can hop in a pool and crank away, do the miles, but to do it well, that's something else," he said.

Campbell coached his first practice on Saturday at the Frank Dunn Pool with the Sharks' green group, the team's beginner competitive group.

He got his start in competitive swimming at 13 in Newfoundland and attended Memorial University where he began coaching. From there, rather than using his mathematics degree, he worked at Air Canada for six years so he could travel the world and compete in triathlons, a sport he said was a natural next step.

To commute to swim practice, he'd bike for 16 kilometres.

"There I had two sports," Campbell said. "All I had to do was figure out what to do with that one they call running, which was my biggest challenge."

Campbell comes to Prince Albert after coaching stops in Edmonton and Calgary. He's also informally a personal trainer.

"I've just picked up so much along the way," Campbell said. "I'm kind of happy it passes on. People are struggling to do their swimming, or running, or cycling - a little bit of expertise passed on to them makes a big difference."

tpruner@paherald.sk.ca