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Michael Bohl Edit
Mon, 3/21 2:44PM • 31:07
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coach, athletes, swimming, people, day, bit, swam, olympics, swimmer, stories, talking, years, swim, olympic, australia, fast, trials, dennis, helping, karen
SPEAKERS
Paul Barnett, Michael Bohl
Paul Barnett 00:00
Michael Bow. Good morning, and welcome to the Great coach's podcast. Pleasure to be so very much looking forward to talking to you today. And we can talk all about Australia and maybe the floods that are flowing around up there. But could I start with something really simple, Michael, where are you in the world? And what have you been up to so far today,
Michael Bohl 00:18
I had a very busy day actually pulled to be honest today, it's been a bit chaotic. But I'm in on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, today's been a bit of a busy one, I had to sit on something in Australia, meaning there's a whole bunch of recommendations that have been put through after review, and are looking more particularly at females sort of female coaches in their role and how we can get them a little bit more active. So that was a big two hour meeting, as well as that I had a visiting swimmer from India arrive at the airport to drive through a lot of traffic to pick him up and settle him in at the hotel that he's staying to be downstairs to shop for groceries. He's only fairly young, he's been here before he was here two years ago. And he made an Olympic qualifying two years ago in 2020. But with the cancel on the cancellation, the postponement of the Olympics, his time didn't count. So he had to re qualify and 21. And he couldn't do that from India. So the Indian Swimming Association and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals have decided to fly him out again, in the hope that he can regain some form and hopefully, you know, swim well, all the way through to Paris.
Paul Barnett 01:20
There's that selflessness, I love in great coaches. So sounds like you've had a great day. And I'm looking forward to chatting with you about our performance and all other stuff related to that. But could I start Michael by just going back and talking about some of the great coaches that that you've experienced in in your career? I can see there's Dennis Cotterell, John Carew, Bill Sweetnam, Laurie Lawrence. And then you've also had the chance to meet Wayne Bennett and Lee Matthews from other sports too. But from this wonderful experience, what is it you think the great coaches do differently that sets them apart?
Michael Bohl 01:52
I think they're all individual and kind of do things their own way they don't follow the well trodden path. They're looking for new ways of doing things[PB1] . Someone like Dennis cultural, the first person that you mentioned, there was someone that I really looked up to he's in his 70s Dennis, and it looks like a any a surface still is still very, very fit whenever we go away on teams, and this isn't on the team anymore. But when we did, he did the only current case that it take his shirt off to get some some will keep ours on but he's built like a 25 year old athlete, but he he really told me a lot about something I know that Sam, we got this big meat called the Queensland championships that runs for a week. And any made that runs for a week there's going to be dead moments of time where you've got no one swimming, my first port of call was always to go over to Dennis and spend half an hour here half an hour there just picking his brains about coaching and his beliefs, his experiences, training sets a whole range of different things. And there's something that I still use to this day. So we're very, very lucky in Queensland, to have the high level of coaches that we've had Bill swing them Laurie Lawrence, John Kuru John King, Scott Ball, because Stephen did Margaret. Yeah, the list goes on Simon Kuh, Zack Shannon, Rolison Vinc rally. They're all Olympic medal winning coaches. And there's a great history with Olympic swimming in Queensland. And the people that have gone before us had been very generous with what they've shared. And I think it's, it's really helped fast track a lot of us coaches that are around my age and maybe even a little bit younger. They're very, very grateful to the influence that they've had on me,[PB2]
Paul Barnett 03:21
Michael, I had this wonderful quote from you. And I'd like to read it before I ask the question you say, to make a difference with the people that you are coaching, I think you've got to connect, they got to feel that you care for them as a person first, and as an athlete second. And it made me wonder, in the context of this, quote, what is the role of a coach at elite level swimming,
Michael Bohl 03:41
I think it's one of those multifaceted roles. I think you're a psychologist, you're a coach, your parental figure is spending a lot of time with these athletes every day, you know, after four or five hours, and a lot of the parents in particular sort of these days, mothers and fathers but in particular fathers, I think probably don't see their kids till nighttime, they come home from work, because as soon as they're leaving first thing in the morning, and they don't get home till seven 730. At night, they're probably only spending an hour an hour and a half with their parents through the day. So you're spending a lot of time with them. And I think your job first and foremost is to improve them.
And I think there's people first but as athletes second and looking at the character of the athletes that you've got in like I think I've just seen over the years that I've coached so many very, very talented individuals that never ever really achieved what they should have achieved. I think a lot of it was character related. They didn't appreciate even though you've got talent, you've got to work very, very hard. John wooden's, one of my coaching idols, and he's got that pyramid of success. And in that pyramid, there's a whole bunch of different building blocks and the two cornerstones he titles industriousness and enthusiasm and his wording for industriousness is the understanding that to get success. You've got to work very, very hard and the enthusiasm it's quite obvious the coach and the athlete both have got to be very enthusiastic about what they're doing in order to be successful.[PB3]
Paul Barnett 04:58
So you've been coaching for 33 years, not a short period of time, but you must have seen a lot of innovations, a lot of change over that period. What are some of the most impactful changes and innovation that you've seen?
Michael Bohl 05:11
As I coach more and more I guess, you know, you're learning every year and I think probably a couple of things. I think the biomechanics side of things, you know, the skill acquisition starts turns, and finishes. Very, very important. Like when you get to that Olympic level, you're watching races that are won and lost by 100 that the second thing called charmers was second by three one hundredths of a second to callate Dressler, when you look at the individual 100 freestyle, Kyle's swimming speed is faster than Caleb's. But Callens start his turn, and he's finished. The more you coach, the more you realize it says little 1% things that make a difference at the end of the day. So I think that the sports science, I think swimming coaching, in my mind is a combination of the art and the science. And I think sometimes I think the balance is very even. And then other times, I think it's more of a more of an art. I think if you look too much, and follow the signs too much, you can't see the trees for the forest, I think your experience, over the amount of time you've been coaching helps you make decisions every single day. So I think that wealth have experienced that library of training sessions, going to competitions and watching people rise under pressure. When you get in the heat of the battle that meets like Olympics and World Championships, you're always reflecting and drawing upon experiences that you've had in the past. And you know, they're not in textbooks, he get that experience by doing by failing by learning. So i i value very highly the art part of it. But I also understand and get how important that the sports science part is. And I think the other side of the science, we as coaches have to have a fairly basic understanding of physiology. So I think that is a gimme, if you're going to write the programs, and you're going to lead your troops to battle, you've got to get them something fast, and you've got to get them enduring. So they've got to have good amount of endurance and a good amount of speed. And it's finding that right recipe for each of the individuals that you've got in your program[PB4] [PB5] . You had Bill Swain them on the on the podcast, and Bill was my old coach. And you know, back when I was swimming, not only bill, but every coach gave every swimmer exactly the same thing, whether you're a 50 meter center or a 1500 meter summer, everyone did the same thing. And I think I post 2000, sports science kind of taught us a little bit more about being a little bit more specific than trying to train those energy zones that are going to improve the athletes that you've got. So it's using that sport science, not seeing it as being the panacea, but just using bits that you want to use to help make your athletes some a little bit faster.
Paul Barnett 07:42
Michael, you said two really interesting things that you talked about a wealth of experience and insurance. So 33 years gives you the right to talk about insurance. But I want to jump into this wealth of experience, because I've heard you say on multiple times, multiple occasions, it was your nonperformance at the Olympic trials, which has become one of the drivers for you as a coach, can you tell us a little bit more about the motivation that you took from that experience that now drives you forward?
Michael Bohl 08:10
You're bringing back a very sore point called sorry. That's all right. Now 9090 Olympic trials, I still remember it like it was yesterday, I just didn't seem as well, as I'd planned for some of that trials. And swimming Australia took a very small team to Moscow. That was when that war was on. And us didn't send a team at all and Australia sent really a half team. And it's picked about 17 centers. Normally they pick 30 to 40 athletes, but they pick a very, very small team and I think I remember I got a second and a third or fourth I think it was at those trials back then and, and obviously didn't get selected in the team and that really hurt me I didn't want to swim anymore. I still remember punching a hole in my in my parents bathroom. I was so upset with how I swam down in Melbourne. It just stuck with me for a long time. And I was given a bit of a life raft by Southern Illinois University in the States. Bob Steele was the coach there back in the early 80s. There were a top 10 University at NCAA back in those days. And he said a couple of Australians a bit of a lifeline and send invitations for three of us to go over only two of us went Anthony burn is still over there want to build Sweden's as soon as as well. And myself we both went over. And that was really the saving for me it was something very different. Something I really loved the challenge of writing short course and did reasonably well over there, luckily enough, came back swam in the 82 games on the Australian team, which was a very, very sort of memorable experience. And then 83 I was swimming really well again, I was number one in Australia and three events or was looking good for the 84 trials.
And I know thinking back I just put too much pressure on myself to make this team it was such a letdown every minute of every day was me spending time just thinking about making this Olympic team I was just building it up to be the biggest thing in the world and and once again didn't perform up to the level I should have topped in three events, tuna middlee, foreigner middlee, the turtle back the before the trials and 93 and was just very, very ordinary 94. So I think that failure from my end was the was the catalyst, one of my favorite sayings is fail is the fertilizer of success. And I think that that, to me was something that really triggered something in me and I didn't know it immediately. But when I decided to start coaching, which was by accident, in 1997 months, I had a taste of preparing sinners for the 88 Olympic selection trials. That was, yeah, that was the thing that I knew I wanted to do. I wanted to become a swimming coach. And I've been coaching every year since then,[PB6]
Paul Barnett 10:41
I've read where you've said, on multiple interviews, that becoming a swimming coach was an accident. But there's something in your story, when I read through it, there's two themes that really come through, for me, a non swing person and an outsider. First thing is helping people deal with anxiety, and the second self belief, I want to dive into self belief first, if I can, you had a conversation with Stephanie rice when she was in a teenager, and you talked about what she was going to achieve and where she was going to go. And I know years years later, she recalled that conversation to you for word. So there was something in there about you recognizing the need for her to build this belief, this vision, and you helping her build that as well. So I wanted to ask you very broadly, what have you learned about the role that belief plays in us as human beings?
Michael Bohl 11:30
So I think something that over the years that you coach, I've got people in my group at the moment who've fallen into this category, people do a great job in the six months coming into a competition, and then they come to you just before they're gonna swim in there in tears. They're so anxious and so uncertain about what's going to happen when they compete. And it's something you can try and help them with. But at the end of the day, they've got to be the ones pushing the positive button, you can lead them to the water, but they've got to drink the water, they've got to do their part. There's no magic fairy dust that we can sprinkle over their head and get them believing they've got to be a willing party there. When it comes to the belief state. It's a real two way process. I think we as coaches must instill that belief in the chargers that we've got working underneath us, but they've got to be big believers as well.[PB7]
Paul Barnett 13:05
I couldn't find a specific quote around managing anxiety from interviews, interview swimmers, but I did find this one from you. And you say the focus is to keep them relaxed. I think that is the most important thing you can do as a coach as you gear up in competition. Now for many people listening, anxiety grows and grows and grows, the moment we get close to a presentation or an exam or any kind of significant event. What techniques have you found to be more effective in helping people just lower their anxiety a notch or two?
Michael Bohl 13:37
I think it's really just talking to them. And I think what I try and do in the days leading up to those big competitions is just tell them how proud I am of what they've done. Irrespective of the result, the result will hopefully take care of itself but just revisiting what they've done over the six months leading in and how proud I am of the consistency in the level of effort. I think the two things that you can control every single training session attitude and effort. They're the two big things that we try and focus in on and if you've got an athlete that's managed for the Olympic Games, I've obviously tick both those boxes. So it's you know, going back with them not immediately before the meet that maybe three days before sitting down away from the maddening crowd, have a cup of tea or a cup of coffee with them and just tell them how proud you are of them. It doesn't matter what happens in terms of the result that you've done a great job getting yourself to this level and just trying to keep them not thinking about what's coming up. Like you're gonna try and distract them a little bit and talk about other things. So it's a talking about their family talking about their study talking about their boyfriend, girlfriend, just they've got to know that you care for them as a human being. [PB8]
And I think when you get to have those sorts of conversations with people and it's not just about swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming, it's about their life as well. I think the connection that you make with the people that you've got working with you becomes even stronger like they've got to know that you know your care for them as people is very, very high. It's just so disappointing. When you see someone not do well in a meet like a level because obviously the bright spotlights are on them and the TVs there, and everyone can see what they do. And I think there's as external things as well with meats, like the Olympics, all their friends and, and all their family and all their buddies from school. They think that going to the Olympics and getting a medal is something that's common practice. In every invention swimming, you know, there might be 80 people doing the 200, backstroke, 16 make it through to the semi finals, eight mega through the finals, and we're talking about the world we're not talking about Australia, or just Great Britain or, or Sweden, we're talking about the whole world, like everyone who's doing that event that's qualified is there, they're there for that event every four years. And it's very, very normal for that anxiety to be up very, very high. But as I said, I think it's just the dialogue just talking to them, I kind of look for signs of the behavior that they don't normally do. Like if you've got someone who's a real social butterfly, and then three days before the meet, they're over on their own. They're not talking to anyone, that's when the alarm bells go off on me and I make a beeline for that person and I I started talking to them about it. I think it's a mistake to sweep it under the carpet. If you see that behavior that's not the same as they normally are. Then I think you've got to address it and you're going to talk about it it's okay to feel like that it's very normal.
And then I can talk about Stephanie rice story she was in tears before she swam and still got up and and you know, when that Olympic medal one of my favorite stories actually is is from a similar call Daniel Kowalski, who got a silver medal in the World Championships in 1994. And he got a very bad case of vomiting and diarrhea a couple of days before the meet, and Don Talbert, who was a head coach met with a Doctor Brian Sandow. And the doctor said look, no way can this boy his son his last six or seven kilos in two days is vomiting. He can't control his spewing in pooing sorry about that everyone, but he wasn't in control of himself. There's no way he can swim. So Don said, Daniel, you're not serving. And Daniel said, I'm swimming. And he hopped up and swam. He plays second behind Karen Karen wanted, he got second and he went 1453 for the 1500. And the next seven years that he swam healthy, he never ever went quicker than he did that day he was violently sick and lost all that weight. So when you have an athlete come up to you and say, Look, I'm not feeling well, and I've got a bit of a sniffle, the Daniel Kowalski story comes out of the library. And you share those experiences with your athletes. So it's being able to draw on those experiences. And Daniel wasn't my swimmer who was one of Dennis cultural summons. But everyone knows the story about that. Another good one is a Karen Perkins story I love apparently I wasn't at the 96 Olympics, but at the 96 Olympics, Kieran was battling for fall. He swam the heat, he qualified in last position. He made the final by about two tenths of a second described in very narrowly, and Greg Norman happened to be at the pool that day, right, the famous Australian golfer, and he was on pool deck. And Karen had just finished, he said, and all the coaches were talking to Greg and Greg was saying, how do you how do you think about Karen's chases tomorrow on the final he's got in, and every cage to a man said he's got no chance he's way out. The fall is about 25 seconds over his best talent. He's just scraped in, there's no way you can win. And then Greg just nodded his head. And he walked over to Karen and spoke to him for about half an hour. And then he came back to the group of coaches. And the coaches said, What do you say great. And Greg said, he's gonna win that tomorrow. And they all started laughing. And we all know that here and hopped up that next day and just led from start to finish won the 1500 was just a fantastic swim. So, you know, reversals
18:21
that form, I have to ask, sorry, what did he say?
Michael Bohl 18:25
He just said that he felt he had one of these ribs he felt was a little bit out. And his physio therapist, Roger pitcher was on the team. And Roger fiddled around there for 45 minutes or so after his hate and sorted it out. And Karen felt that the rib thing plus the fact that he didn't shave down, so that were the two things that he felt was gonna make the difference when he hopped up in the final layer that makes not any dialogue with Greg, he was very convincing to Greg and Greg came back and said, he's gonna win. That's a great story. I love it. It's just amazing, because we always have swimmers that line up in eights, and they don't swim particularly well. And that's when you bring the Karen Perkins story. There's a ton of stories over the years, you know, you, you sort of see from people who, who made errors, they made mistakes, but they're able to remedy them under pressure. So you try and draw those stories in when you're talking to your athletes.
Paul Barnett 19:14
When talking about mental toughness. You said first and foremost, it's about enthusiasm, a desire to want to come to training and get better. But what I wanted to ask you is, how do you handle it when enthusiasm wanes? Because there's a lot of people that experienced that, particularly through COVID. Have you found a way of just slowly pulling them back in?
Michael Bohl 19:35
Well, I think it's about accountability. They've got to be accountable. It's no good saying you want to perform at this level and come along on a day to day basis and be here. I actually gave my students a talk two nights ago that I'll share with you. We came back from the New South Wales championships on Monday and we had a session Monday afternoon. And I was just talking about the next 10 weeks like I think it's important to give them the vision of what's coming up so they can put it in their own mind. Okay, what's coming up got four weeks to the next competition. Then after that next competition is another six weeks through the trial. So it's a four week block and then a six week block. And when I said to the athletes on Monday night, I said, I drew up a a stagecoach up on the whiteboard, you know, that stage cages with a big wagon wheels on them. And I said, the stage cage, it can be a really fast moving vehicle. But to drive it fast, there's got to be a horse at the front. I said over this next 10 weeks, your aim is to put 10 Horses every week is a horse, you've got to put 10 horses at the front of your carriage and your other competitors, Abel got carried as well as they've only got to get that done two good weeks or three good weeks or four weeks, in theory, your carrier is going to travel twice as fast as the other person's character. You can't control how many horses that person gets, the only persons horses that you can control is your own. So this next 10 weeks on Saturday morning, I'm going to be saying the pole, and I put your horse at the front, who cares? That's one, that's two, that's three as the weeks go by. So I think you know, those little stories are just a bit more tangible for the kids and they seem to resonate. I think that's one of the things that we're going to try and do as a coach, you're trying to make that connection, you're trying to get them to understand the importance and the relevance of their training sessions, not just the week, but every day that 10 sessions you're doing from Monday to Saturday, it's not about just being there for the two hours, it's really about what you're doing. So if you've got aims and ambitions of making Australian teams that comes with a lot of responsibility, you know, you've got to be able to, if you're talking the talk, you're going to be able to walk the walk, so you know what the standard is a coach has got to be for them to get to that high result, it's no good reaching for this and be training at this level, you're going to fill in the gaps, and you got to pull yourself up, there's no other way to do and I can't I pull a fairy dust out of my pocket and sprinkle it over your head and get you to swim fast. It's you coming in and putting in great effort having a great attitude. And those two things combined together, they can't guarantee success, but you're putting yourself in the best possible position to do something special.[PB9]
Paul Barnett 21:59
I was very interested to read about the fact that as a swim coach, you often can't accompany your swimmers to the meets that they're going to. And so part of your job is to teach them good self management and discipline skills, which is of course important to everybody. So I wanted to ask you, what have you learned about the link between self management, discipline and ultimately performance?
Michael Bohl 22:19
Well, I think they're all up to the individual. You've got to be there taking responsibility as an athlete yourself, I think, yeah, there's a couple of good stories. And that one called chamas, recently broke the world record in the 100 freestyle, short course meters. He was over in Europe for two months, and his coach wasn't even over there. And he popped up and broke the world record. So that's that's testament to call just didn't rock up and send the world record, he would have been over there training without his coach, his coach, I'm sure would have been writing sessions and giving him guidance. But when you coaches and they're watching you, if you're not pushing and pushing hard, there's no way you'll get up at the end of it and break the world record. So that's performance in action, isn't it? He's not just talking about doing stuff. He's actually doing one of the centers that I used to coach I don't need more Mitch Larkin swam his best ever swimmers when it wasn't over there. He went to a World Cup in Dubai and went 53, one and 153 one and he's backstroke races, which to this day, still, he's best ever times. So I'm not sure whether that's testament to Mitch being a great self managed athlete or whether it's me being a dad coach, every time I've been away within I wasn't able to get the best out of it might be a combination.
Paul Barnett 23:22
I think the results you've got might indicate that you're not a dud coach, but I'll leave that up, make a decision on what you enjoy interacting with other coaches. So I've seen pictures of you with other coaches, you've talked about them on this interview. And I have a quote, actually, which is I want to play back to before we give you the question you say it's just fascinating hearing the backstory, you think it's just a dream run for them. But when you sit down and talk to the coaches, you realize some of the hardships that they went through. And it's interesting, because this theme of struggle, run through a lot of interviews with you this whole whole idea of working hard you referenced earlier on, you know, working hard being consistent showing up. But I wanted to flip it around a little bit and ask, is there anything that you've uncovered or anything that you've reflected on when it comes to the line between perseverance, and perhaps obsession? Oh, that's
Michael Bohl 24:11
a tough question. I think it's a good question. I just love talking to coaches, as you said, and listening to what they've done and the struggles that they've been through. I know this isn't a cage, but Brooke Hansen, the swimmer that's fine for Australia, and got that silver medal in oh four. If you go back through history and look at the 96 trials in 2000 trials, she missed both those teams by less than a 10th of a second. And you know, third time lucky she Bob's up and Jags not only an Olympic spot, but she gets second in the 100 breaststroke at the Olympics, beats Lacell Jains and gets a gold medal in the fall by one rail I like I just love those stories of struggle and just coming out the other side triumphant.
I don't really like telling people to stop. I think it's got to come from them. They've got to have the choice. They've got to have the desire They're gonna be the ones controlling what they do. I think my job as the coach is to really just help to try and set the pathway clear for them to try and achieve what they want to achieve. [PB10]
And you know, not everyone in your group can make the Olympic team can win Olympic medals, like the group and you've got more about that I've got 20 centers in my group at the moment, they're all not going to make the Olympic team. But they're all a really important part of what we do. If you were to talk to Emily, Seebohm or enemy key and they'd both tell you how important that training group that they had going to take EO was for them. Like, you know, Tokyo was really, really tough, but those athletes are older athletes, Emily's 29, ms 27. So the extra year really kind of hurt initially, both of them, because they saw the closure of their swimming, being 2020, they'll both kind of stop in 2020. And having a 29 year old girl who's been on the team for 12 years, extend out another year, like it was really, really difficult. But I'm just so glad that she did. And you know, she felt like at times she wanted to stop. She never ever told me that. But she told me Subsequently, she said that there were a couple of times there where she didn't think she made it all the way through. And I've only since found out in the last couple of weeks, she spoke to one of the people who was on the support team for swimming Australia, that swimmer in Cannes, she thought about not going through the Olympics, you know, she wasn't even sure if she wanted to get through there, she was just so kind of over, it was just so protracted. Luckily, I didn't interfere and tell her that it's a good idea to stop.
So I think I just let them govern what they do. But once they tell me that that's where they want to shoot for then anything below that, that's when I I kind of step in. And if I see behavior, if I see the level of training slipped below the level that they're telling me, they want to get sued. And I just pointed out very, very clearly to them that that's not what you need to be doing to get to what you want to do. If you want to get to that level, this is what you got to do, they've got to have a good understanding of that.[PB11]
Paul Barnett 26:51
Michael, your father was a policeman and your mother helped raise you and your four siblings as well as working other jobs I read where you said she used to clean buses and so forth. This sounds like a strong ethical base for you to have as a coach. But I wanted to ask you, there's many stories about performance enhancing substances being involved in sport, and swimming in all sports at the Olympics, for that matter. But has there ever been a time that you were challenged ethically? And if so, what did you learn from your response?
Michael Bohl 27:21
Now, I don't think I've ever been challenged ethically, I'm a big believer, and it's got to be fair, and and everyone's you know, working under the same conditions, I think I get a little bit annoyed, I suppose when you see people who are testing positive to drugs being allowed to compete in Olympic Games, I just get I'm not very happy with that, because you know, everyone else is playing by the rules. But then there's other people that potentially aren't doing that. And I think that annoys me a lot. Because you know, you're working with with athletes that are just you know, over the four years between Olympics or just putting themselves in the in the best position they can and doing it the right way. And then we see athletes who get caught taking substances still be allowed to compete and get smaller up a little bit. I don't particularly like that. So it's never really happened to me where I've been challenged that way. But looking from the outside looking in, I suppose it's one of the things that is quite sad about sport these days, you see it in a lot of sports that happened in swimming quite a lot through the 80s and 90s. And I think a good job was done to reel that back in. But you just hope that a lot of those things are going on, like we put a lot of our faith, I guess in in sort of water and painter and our national testing agencies and national swimming associations around the world to make sure those things are cleaned up. But I think there's countries that are doing it probably better than others in terms of policing, what's going on. That's probably the bit that that makes me quite upset to see that happening.
Paul Barnett 28:45
Michael, you've been very generous with your time. So perhaps just one final question. And I'll preface it with another quote if I can. And you say That's the style of person I love having in the group. Not always the best swimmer. But someone who contributes to the environment that we're trying to build within the club structure, someone who's got the great attitude, someone that's always willing to drop the cycle, or push a little bit harder than you're asking. That's the style of the person that I like working with. If I'm going to have a pool full of people like that, have finished coaching a happy man. And it was the last part of that they go by heavy man. So I wanted to ask you in the distant future, well, you've actually come out and said Paris will be your last Olympics. But at some point in the distant future, when you do finish coaching, what's the legacy Your hope you've left?
Michael Bohl 29:31
I think you just hope that you make a difference with the people that you've had working with you like it's just nice to hear from people that you've coached in previous years come back and say what a difference remained in their life and I think not only as an athlete, but as a person and we've got people have gone and done medicine at university and, and so on and so forth.
And there's you know, there's a group of people who I still keep in contact with the very first summer that my coach told to an Australian team in 1999 Angus Waddell, we still every year at least one sometimes twice. We go for a steak in the beer. I think it's just nice to have those relationships that I've been coaching for a long time, as you said, 33 years, and he was probably in the second or third year that I coached, he was one of the swimmers. I think it was the second year. So I've known him for 31 years. And every year, we still get together for a beer and a steak. So I think he's not the only one. But it's just nice, I guess, to have those sorts of relationships with the athletes that you coached formally. But it's nice to hear them say that they couldn't have done it without your influence there. And it's just nice to be a part of it.
We all know that the major part as a coach, if you haven't got athletes that have got the talent, haven't got the drive, haven't got the ambition, no matter how good you are, or how good you think you are, as a coach, if you haven't got that talented, ambitious athletes, you're not going to get any great success. So it really is a partnership. And it's just nice to reflect back, I guess over the 50 threes three years and look back to a lot of those successful stories that you've had.
Paul Barnett 30:54
Michael, thank you so much for your time today. It's been a masterclass in helping prepare Olympic athletes and I wish you all the luck on the road to Paris.
Michael Bohl 31:04
Thanks very much pleasure to be there.