Page 5 - DSA-Newsletter-2016-Jan
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News of your No. 1 Swim School                                                             Vol. 2 Issue 1 January 2016

                                                                                           best swimming education and coaching in
                                                                                           Australia.

                                                                                           TWO full days of classroom and
                                                                                           pool sessions

                                                                                           Bill Kirby’s 2-day swim clinic organised
                                                                                           by DSA was held at Bukit Jalil National
                                                                                           Aquatic Center. Bill took time off his
                                                                                           schedule to be with the aspiring swimmers
                                                                                           not only from the DSA swim Team but
                                                                                           also other clubs from Malaysia. There
                                                                                           were swimmers from Penang and Johor
                                                                                           clubs who came to attend and learn from
                                                                                           his expertise.

                                                                                           The Clinic was two full days of tightly

                                                                                           packed events with both classroom

                                                                                           sessions and a lot of pool sessions. Bill

                                                                                           first started off with the refining of basic

DSA Swim Clinic with                                                                       techniques like
                                                                                           improving underwater
                                                                                           swims, to improving

Olympian Bill Kirby turnsandthenthe
                                                                                                                                        starts. During the
                                                                                                                                        course of the 2 days,
                                                                                                                                        swimmers were put
                                                                                           through their paces,

“Swimming is a sport of inches, you have to fight for                                      improving the little
                                                                                           areas to gain that

every single inch to be the best.” -Bill Kirby.                                            much of an edge.
                                                                                           The swim clinic was

Bill Kirby is an Olympic Gold                  2001 World Aquatics Championships in                                unique because it
        Medallist and Australian Institute of  Fukuoka, Japan, where along with Klim,      not only focused on techniques, but it
        Sport scholarship holder.              Hackett and Thorpe, he lowered the          challenged the swimmers to improve small
                                                                                           parts of their swimming skills. The clinic

                                               4x200m freestyle relay world record to      also included a game of water polo to

Kirby made his debut at the 1993 Pan           7m 4.66s. That record held firm for nearly provide an experience of team spirit. DSA

Pacific Championships before competing six years until United States relay team            coaches also attended the clinic and along

at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in              clocked in at 7m 3.24s at the 2007 World with Bill helped the swimmers further

Victoria, Canada and the 1994 World            Championships in Melbourne, Australia.      refine many finer points.

Aquatics Championships in Rome                 Bill, now a father of three, and with help  being an olympian swimmer
as a butterfly swimmer. Kirby’s last           of his wife, Saskia, and the rest of the    parent
international competition was at the           Kirby Swim Team focuses on offering the

                                                                                           The class room sessions gave the

                                                                                           opportunity for swimmers to learn and

                                                                                           understand the amount of training and

                                                                                           dedication Bill had to put in to become

                                                                                           an Olympian. Experiences were shared

                                                                                           also by Bill’s father, Bob, who talked to

                                                                                           the swimmers parents about their part in

                                                                                           supporting a swimmer to achieve their

                                                                                           goals. It was a very jovial atmosphere as

                                                                                           Bob had many anecdotes to share about

                                                                                           the early days which gave the parents

                                                                                           attending a lot of experiences to connect

                                                                                           with. As he said, the idea was to always

                                                                                           let the children perform their best, and

                                                                                           not solely about winning. As long as

                                                                                           they did their best and enjoyed what

                                                                                           they did, winning was not important. It

                                                                                           was a delightful experience in all for the

                                                                                           swimmers got to learn from an Olympic

                                                                                           Champion and hopefully they will benefit

                                                                                           from Bill Kirby’s experience which he

                                                                                           shared in these 2 days.

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