"It wasn't immediately accepted, not warmly anyway. It got mixed reviews. Some thought that is was not the he should go and others were quietly wondering what would happen," Clark said.
The pair silenced critics at last year's World Championships in Atlanta when Baggaley became a world champion after placing first in the 500m single man kayak finals. According to Clark, it was then that the once bemused coaches in the Land Down Under realized that the long distance training regime in preparation for this year's Olympics "wasn't going to do him any harm."
"[Baggaley] is what I'd call a highly evolved athlete and I didn't think of myself as his boss as much as his mentor and someone to bounce ideas off," said Clark. "This was a special deal leading up to the Olympics and the time period we set for the Olympics meant that travel wouldn't have been easy."
TAS allowed Clark some leave time to return to Australia for the National Championships and the Olympic trial regattas, but a vast majority of the training regime was transmitted via cyberspace. In order to ensure that the kayaker get the most from his long distance training, Clark set about doing something that coaches are not known for. Rather than getting in his pupil's face and yelling instructions, Clark began to spend many hours in front of his computer creating monthly training programs.
Baggaley would in turn e-mail Clark back with outlines and results of each training session on water, out-of-water and in the gym. These e-mails came in the form of breakdowns in which he would specify how he felt and what was happening at certain stages throughout the races and training sessions.
In addition to Baggaley's data, Clark also received information pertaining to his stroke and heart rates during races which had been monitored by the AIS.
However impersonal the offbeat form of personal training appeared, the mass of online communications and long-distance telephone calls gave Clark enough information to be able to fully understand the kayaker's needs.
"Obviously it is ideally best for a coach to be on the water with him everyday, but we know each other very well and I knew what his needs were," Clark said. "I could tell what was going on by looking at the spread sheets and data, just like a baseball coach can look at the stats of a game on tell what
happened."
With Clark still "really happy" over the success of his charge, his future as an Olympic coach remains on hold for the time being, as Baggaley is currently enjoying a well-earned break.
"We haven't discussed future plans. We got to Athens and did the best we could, but the future will depend on where he wants to go," said Clark. "He's taking a break at the moment and I'm sure he'll contact me when he's decided where he wants to go from here."
Talk of a return to the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 might be on hold, but Clark is already planning to make his mark in the world of rowing at a locale much closer to his home in Tianmu. TAS' Dragon Boat team hasn't wasted anytime calling on the talents of the Olympic winning coach in order to help it take the top spot in next year's Taipei City Dragon Boat races.
RSS