Like other non-traditional athletic endeavours, synchronized swimming does not benefit from an endless glut of young athletes at its disposal to return later in life as coaches of the sport.
Yet for the Sudbury Synchronized Swim Club, tapping into qualified coaches has seldom been an issue.
Current head coach Carolyn LeRoy and Laurentian student Patricia Moore are but two of the handful of women who willingly give back to a sport they have enjoyed. The pair also represent an interesting cross-section of the varied background the sport attracts for both swimmers and coaches alike.
I think I take the most pride in seeing a swimmer have a personal breakthrough.
Carolyn LeRoy,
Sudbury Synchronized Swim Club, head coach
For LeRoy, the path from athlete to coach has essentially brought her full circle. A native of Valley East, she benefited from a family background that saw both her older sisters blaze the trail of synchronized swimming, one she would follow from the age of eight.
The coaching bug didn’t bite until she left Sudbury to attend the University of Ottawa.
“I wanted a way to stay involved in the sport,” she said.“There was a local club there that needed some coaches, and a friend of mine was coaching there as well.”
Cutting her teeth with coaching in the nation’s capital, LeRoy originally worked with the youngest of the competitive ranks, diversifying the swimmers under her wings throughout the four years she spent in Ottawa.
“You learn coaching methods,” LeRoy said.
She was approached to help out with her former club in Sudbury the moment the local crew learned of her pending return home in 2008.
“Certainly, teaching some skills can be very difficult, especially with the older the girls get,” the 25-year-old said.
“When you’re in the water feeling it, doing it, it’s different than trying to get a swimmer to get that mental image in their mind to be able to do a skill.
“I think I take the most pride in seeing a swimmer have a personal breakthrough,” LeRoy added. “It doesn’t only affect their life in the pool, it impacts their life in general, it impacts them as young women.”
In contrast, Moore meandered her way to the sport. The Richmond Hill native drew on a competitive gymnastics foundation of some six years, coupled with a stint in speed swimming, before combining elements of both sports with her start in synchronized swimming just before she reached high school.
“I think it’s a very unique sport,” Moore said. “There is a very close bond with the people that you work with and train with every day, and it’s nice to see that develop in other people, see them experience what I experienced.”
She started mixing her role as a club coach while still competing, eventually working her way through as a Tier 7 national swimmer with York University. Now completing the third year of her degree in sport and physical education at Laurentian, Moore has been heading up a team of 13 to 15-year-olds, working with the Sudbury crew for the past two seasons.
Because she is not far removed from her own days as a competitor, Moore said she is experiencing one of the ongoing challenges that coaches often face, even moreso if they have enjoyed a degree of success within a sport. “I sometimes find it difficult stepping back and being able to realistically assess what my swimmers are able to do and what I would like them to do,” she said.
But what about when it all comes together? “Those swimmers make it look effortless,” LeRoy said. “They’re stronger, they’re higher in the water, their movements are sharper and more intricate, and they can perform more movements at a faster pace.”
Something to strive towards, for both swimmers and coaches alike with the crew of the Sudbury Synchronized Swim Club.
