Swimmng Snippet - Don Talbot Australian Swimming Coach, 60 Minutes (Channel 9)

so long ago when Australia was a swimming Backwater a time when a place in a final was caused for celebration and gold was an extremely rare commodity well not any longer unashamedly We Are the Champions and undeniably it's largely due to one man when Don talber took over as head coach in 1989 his sole ambition was to make Australia number one so he Trot on toes bruised a few Egos and turned our team into World beaters the Goodwill games are his swans song as head coach and it's no surprise our swimmers have turned them into Don's [Music] party it's the day before the Goodwill games and we've been invited behind the scenes with the Australian swim team [Music] they're buoyant upbeat and why not this is a great time to be on this team it's so magic I um I really am so grateful that I'm in this era of the strange swimming I think it's just the most exciting period of time pretty much back in the 1950s was when we were strong and and I think we're back in that that era again and oh it's just magic oh done it another G Australia in recent times we've become used to this breaks the world record victories gold medals and world record used to it in large part because of one man right now though you've got a job in front of you don't let yourself down for the past 12 years Don Talbert has been the brains behind our swimming success youve got to do it it's your job now to get up touch touch the straight line is what you got to try to get with your hand he arrived when gold medals were as rare as they are plentiful now and brought with him an unshakable belief that we could and should be the best way I expressed is you know I think we've got a chance to be number one in the world if we if we really want to try it yeah like hell this guy's a looney right okay well but then start that way and gradually work at it uh I never believed in my heart I can't I cannot believe that any any Nation are better than we are just a little bit more on that last touch down a bit keeping it up like a normal I've worked in a number of countries and I've seen no athlete tougher than the Australian athlete they do it seems almost forever that dawn has been around Australian swimming indeed what is ending with Thorp began with the conrades it was 1956 when brother and sister John and Nilsa gave a young coach with a distinctive crew cut his big break I was very lucky to get two great swimmers particularly John who broke and held every world record from 100 met through the 1500 so you know that launched me they yeah I was lucky and the luck and the gold medals kept on coming by 1964 Talbert had begun his first tent as head coach it looks like the United States boys are pretty strong and uh he oversaw Champions Like Mike and Shang ghou and then he left in 1972 furious at a lack of funding and the way Australian swimming was run Talbert took off to Canada and with him it seemed went much of our success by the late ' 80s a country used to first place and World Records had become accustomed to gallon thirs or nothing at all our golden era had turned into the Bronze Age we gone from swimming superpower to swimming Backwater and so the call went out Bring Back Dawn he's had very good swimmers and he's made them better gold medals I'm talking about back in 1989 former Champion swimmer John devit had the job of helping recruits a head coach who would return Australia to its winning way he's prepared to kick and push and and scratch and scream at the guys to get there hey that that hurts egos uh but but I think we are seeing in 2000 2001 the results of that 12E cycle that we've been in yeah but why you why am I finding about this now rth yeah well you're a manager and you know you got to come and tell me yeah but yeah but you got to tell me he if he was that way he should have been out I didn't know he was that bad if Don talber believes in you he's your greatest Ally if he doesn't believe in you yeah you're in trouble he's a very strict person who likes to get results he's a hard man to please you've got to perform very well do something unbelievable to see a smile on his face or get a handshake Don if you were a swimmer how would you handle being coached by yourself I'd be very careful I all I want is an athlete to try to give me the best I can do the best not good enough well I can live with that and in fact I feel for them and I I try to help them more you know go to the bottom of the barrel find everything they've got that's what I want them to do and I don't think that's that's an unfair thing today I'll do it so I want them to do it so bad there's got to be something up but we can't put our finger on it right his toughness some would say abrasiveness has in the past led to walkouts and threats of mutiny you can argue with Don but as Susie O'Neal's coach Scott vkus puts it push him and he'll push right back uh the typewriter we call it that's the push the key with single finger uh that one there or just the verbal tirade that you can be confronted with so me it's a two-way street but uh don likes to be traveling in one way let me read you this from a newspaper article was about 1999 speak to people about Don talber and they say the most offensive things they say a bombastic old bastard a stubborn pigheaded intensely irritating Beast of a man mirthlessly tough autocratic and arrogant now that's quite a character assessment yeah it's interesting actually but I don't take any notice of them but then they say but there's no better coach in the world yeah maybe they're all like that all coaches are like that but probably I'm a little bit more demonstrative in it I don't know but I'm not deterred too easily by anybody and I guess the people that have felt my anger sometime know that uh if I believe we can do it that then I'm going to go after it till such time as I fail or I die there's no doubting the air of confidence carried by this Australian [Applause] Don Talbert who no longer trains individual swimmers has his critics the most stinging accusation is that he's taken the glory others deserve there's been criticism of talber at one stage and this may be the opportunity for me to say it on that that he coaches no one and he and he and he coaches nothing I mean anyone who looks at that and makes that statement doesn't know what the Sport's all about and therefore they do not have a a valid um criticism of our sport because he's not coaching the swimmer that swims in Lane five he's coaching the sport to get the structure in place so that the swimmer in Lane in Lane 2 3 4 5 six and seven swims faster than they've ever swam that's what it's about and that's what the head coach in swimming [Music] means what Don Talbert set about doing was to put into place the best support staff and the best science under him Australian swimming has gone high tech cameras and computers analyze every sta stroke turn and touch if you have a look at this you can actually see the differences uh here we have Ian with this is his stroke this is his velocity 1.86 so it's definitely being one that race because he was a faster swimmer but if you have a look at the turns at Major swim meets Bruce Mason and his team of biomechanics have multiple cameras trained on swimmers watching their stroke rate pinpointing their weaknesses so while to the uninitiated a race between thorf and hackard may seem simply to be about who's the fastest to finish in reality it's about finding those fractions of seconds that give The Winning Edge when you're racing the best you can't afford to lose anything at all second go medal for the championships for this Wonder swimmer [Music] [Applause] [Music] away from the pool it's perhaps no surprise that the man who brought science to our swimming loves his gadgets especially the two wi variety bikes are his other passion he even bought his wife Jan a bright red one for her birthday wasn't expecting it at all but I think the biggest surprises I didn't look at Styles or models I just looked at color and I went running upstairs and said D this is great I want the blue and he go not a chance look again I must say Jan Don seems to go a little soft around you do you run the show that means yes and I better do as I'm told so I do most of the time they live in Queensland where they share a love of long walks with their dogs it's a good life became even better earlier this year when Don's longtime ambition finally came true his Holly Grail had always been for us to be crowned number one in the world and at the world championships in Japan W had so long eluded him came down to this R is going to Gold it it is Ryan by half a body length Phoenix can't get there Ryan's in there Australian girls win 4X 100 medle our women went out and won what was the thought that went through your no it last thank himen for that I've been wondering about what I could do I mean the the proudest moment of my life I think patri at dinner that night the team got a rare glimpse of another side of D the proudest night right that's really sincere from my heart if I say too much more like that I'll ball I I wanted do what was it like in that function room for you that night when you got up and then you saw everyone and well that was an emotional time and very close to sort of falling over in screaming heop so to speak but really that emotional for you yeah yeah I can't um I can't describe it to you sorry it's all right I think your passion it's something that perhaps people will be able to see other side of Don talet and be able to maybe relate to what it really means to you and it obviously does give me a couple of minutes done he spent nearly 5 decades in in the sport but now at 68 Don is stepping down as head coach I don't like the word retire because it's you know it's like a death sentence but I guess that's what it is what will the Don talber Legacy be to Australian swimming i i i the Legacy I guess is to me is that you know the gold might have seemed impossible at first to be number one but we've got there and and and I think if you're persistent enough and you believe enough and you keep trying enough it will come and if people can adopt that or accept that Legacy right then then I'll be very happy as long as they don't lose sight of it from now on Dawn will be swapping gold medals for the Gold Coast but don't expect to see him running into the surf for a morning dip go get it the man who's pushed swimmers and their coaches for years has a secret he hates the water so we're not going to have a swim this morning no you might but I'll watch you I'll be the coach I don't know that I want that I can't I'll be gentle good on you