Top Canadian coach to hold swimming seminar

MANILA, Philippines - Is there a future for Filipino swimmers?

Wilfred Arzaga, head coach and chief executive officer of the renowned Crescent Swim Club in Ontario, Canada, will answer the question in a two-day seminar dubbed “Sports Realities” slated March 21-22 at the Asian Institute of Management Conference Center on Benavides St., Legaspi Village, Makati.

The seminar, organized by the RP Swim League, aims to impart to parents, coaches and the athletes the knowledge they need to pursue excellence in the sport and make Filipino swimmers competitive on the club, school, national, Southeast Asian, Asian, world and Olympic level.

Among the topics to be tackled concern issues always encountered – but often ignored – on the club system, grassroots and elite level, science of recovery and others from which parents, coaches and their athletes can derive the tools they need for competitive swimming at any level.

The seminar will be of interest to parents, coaches, swimmers as well as   those from other sports disciplines. Fee is P2,500 inclusive of lunch, snacks and coffee.

The seminar will help parents know the performance-destroying mistakes they make and what to say when the child fails, help the child achieve his athletic dreams and learn the principles of peak performance, transforming special children into excellent athletes.

For coaches, the seminar teaches them how to become better motivators, train their athletes to be mentally tough and how to get parents of young children to work with their coach –not against the coach – and learn the do’s and don’ts of pre-game psyching.

The seminar aims to eventually develop in the athlete the winning concentration, the mental toughness and strategies of gold medalists, help them take their training to the next level, and eliminate the destructive effects of psych-out and intimidation.

Arzaga, a national swimmer who competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, began coaching in 1967 and continues to the present as head coach of the CREST Swim Team.

He is a member of the Canadian Swimming Coaches Association, the Ontario Swimming Coaches Association and the American Swimming Coaches Association.

In 2006, he was head coach of the national swimming team for the Pan Pacific Games in Vancouver, Canada and Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.

CREST swimmers have set 24 age group records in Ontario and three national records in Canada and the club has sent swimmers to the Canadian Olympic trials, World Cup and World Championships.

Information and registration: AIM Conference Center Tel. 750-1010 loc. 2058; 0923-2806405; 0917-8210885.