BELIEVE IN YOURSELF – SERGIO LÓPEZ MIRÓ
Sergio López Miró, a Spanish native and the coach behind swim star Joseph Schooling (Schooling beat his idol Michael Phelps by winning Gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 100m Butterfly) was in Sri Lanka last week on the invitation of the Rainbow Swimming Academy to conduct a number of coaching clinics. The sat down for an exclusive chat with this world renowned swim coach and former Olympic Bronze medallist...
Q How did you get into swimming initially?
I honestly don’t know – I started when I was three years old. The thing that I know is when I was three my father left us so my mother had three kids and from day care, the next thing (from there) was the swimming pool. So while my mum worked I spent a lot of time at the swimming pool so that’s how I grew up – School, swimming pool, school...
Q And for what reason did you get into the pool?
I think first probably to learn and then for safety. My mum did not know how to swim and secondly because there was no other thing! If I had been next to a soccer field maybe I would have been a soccer player. There was no other “Oh wow, let’s try to be an Olympian!”... and my mum was not into sports, she did a couple of jobs all the time – So there was no like, Oh it’s a family of athletes.
Q So it was just by chance?
Yes.
Q How did it progress from being in the pool at the age of three?
I swam between the ages of three to 28 – growing up I wasn’t a very good athlete and swimming was nothing in Spain, soccer was everything – and I was born in 1968 so that was the last 10 years of the dictatorship that we had (we had a dictatorship of 40 years), so it was not a very good time to practice sports and then the transition was very interesting – it was the place to be.
School – I studied but I never cared much about school – I wasn’t a very good swimmer so I slowly got better and then by the age of 18 I competed in the World Championships in Madrid (1986) and then this famous coach, from America – James “Doc” Counsilman – he coached Mark Spitz – many people liked how I swam so through a friend of mine he called me up and offered a scholarship to go to America to study. So I talked with my mum and packed my bags and moved to America. I didn’t speak English – I had French (I studied French because at that time in Spain you were not allowed to study English) – You had to study French. I worked in a kitchen, washing dishes, learning English, teaching English to myself until I got into the school – I studied in America, I got my degree and swam.
Q Where did you study in America?
For the first three years I studied at Indiana University in Bloomington and then I transferred to a small school in Washington DC called the America University. When I transferred, I transferred because even though the coach was very good, he was very old and had Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and he was getting sick a lot and I felt – in the 1988 Olympics I was Bronze Medallist is the 200 (Metre) Breast Stroke and I had to take part in the Olympics in my home town, Barcelona (1992) so I felt that I was losing my swimming because there was not much of guidance so I had to find another place.
In 1992 I wanted to go back to Spain because you think your country is THE place so I moved back to Spain and lived there for two years, and then I lived in Budapest for almost 10 months – that’s a funny story because when I moved to Spain, I’d been with my wife for two or three years at that point and I changed clubs – you know the big rivalry in soccer between Madrid and Barcelona and I’m from Barcelona so I set up a business with my wife when I was training in Barcelona and the president of the Catalan Federation told me that if you sign for a club in Madrid, we’ll close the pools for you, so you won’t be able to swim and sure enough, the day I signed for the club in Madrid, they closed the pools and I couldn’t train. So I moved to Budapest (Hungary) and I trained there. Then after 1996, I retired and I tried to become a coach in Spain.
Q So your career progressed in to coaching?
Yes. In 1996 I stopped professional swimming and then in July 1996 I finished – I started my life.
I always wanted to be a coach, since I was a kid
I think, the fact that, I didn’t have a dad – so swimming made me feel strong. It made me feel like I had a purpose
Q What made you want to be a coach as a kid?
I think, the fact that, I didn’t have a dad – so swimming made me feel strong. It made me feel like I had a purpose, even though I was a very bad swimmer growing up, I always liked talking about swimming with my friends and helping them out. I could see more about their swimming, why they were not swimming well – so I always felt I wanted to help somebody.
My goal was to help somebody win an Olympic medal. It changed later on though because once you grow up and you realise that your goal as a coach shouldn’t be to win a gold medal – it should be to make a holistic person to help that person become a good person – like a good lawyer, a good doctor, a good father, a partner – whatever it is. Because I think a lot of people in life don’t find any talents – we all have many talents – that’s the way we are constructed so anybody who crosses my path, if they have been in swimming for four or five years – they understand that they have some talent and talent doesn’t mean how good you are.
How many times have you written something, like a passage, but nobody has read it but you’ve been so satisfied and you go take a shower and you feel like the king of the world so it’s kind of like (that) to teach kids at every age to recognise that so they can become good people.
Now the by product of that is swimming fast and (that’s) my job, if I don’t produce people I shouldn’t be coaching.
Q And your success stories in coaching?
I coached in the last Olympics, Joseph Schooling who beat Micheal Phelps – I coached him from the age of 13 to 19. I’ve had a total of 14 medals in the last three Olympics from kids that I’ve coached directly in the Olympics. (In) the last three Olympics I coached people from different countries – from a 37 year old woman from Brazil to a 16 year old kid from Brunei. So I have been very lucky in that way.
Also one of the things that I like a lot in my coaching career is that I used to coach in a High School (The Bolles School) in the States – All my career has been in coaching in the States – I wanted to study in Spain but Spain is so screwed up so I left after six months but in America, in seven and a half years I was a coach of a High School and we produced four guys and three of those guys in the 2016 Olympics got six gold medals but besides that, 210 of my swimmers went to college, like Harvard, Princeton, Cal (California) Berkeley, Texas, and I think that’s what I’m most proud of. My daughter will be going to study at Princeton and she is a swimmer too so I think that’s a very fulfilling thing – So it’s about combining both things. You know, people think, academics are the most important thing but in life it’s not. You have to do it, because now you have to have some sort of degree but I think you can combine both at the highest level that you can
Q Who are the other gold medallists you have trained apart from Joseph Schooling?
In 2016 – Kevin Cordes was the gold medallist for the US in the 400 Medley relay
-Ryan Murphy, he won gold in the 100 Back (Stroke), 200 Back, and in the medley relay he broke the world record in the 100 Back.
-Caeleb Dressel won two medals for the US in the relays and then at the World Championships – He now has seven medals
-Charlie Hou Ching in 2012 he was a gold medallist with the US in the 800m relay
Q What does it feel like for you, when one of your swimmers performs so well at the highest level?
I think for me, one thing I learned, that’s why my thought process changed – It feels the same when a kid swims at a State meet and performs at the highest level and nobody even knows it but they are so happy but the Olympics Games, the only thing that changes is the status – the status is the big thing. If you win a medal if you perform very well at the State Meet only your parents and grandparents know that but if you win in the Olympics everybody knows so that’s the only thing. So the feeling of watching Joseph Schooling – I helped him grow up and I walked him to the room when he beat Michael Phelps is very special
Q What did he say when he beat Phelps?
Oh he was just – I don’t remember what he said – there was so many media (personnel) and he was so excited but you know, I remember – I always walk him to the room – and this year is the first year at the Worlds that I decided not to go to Worlds – and I gave him a hug and he said, ‘Sergio don’t worry, I got this!’ You look at the picture from the medal stand – it has a meaning which is unbelievable – you have Joseph Schooling a young kid on the top and then you have Michael Phelps and then you have Chad Le Clos the guy who beat Michael Phelps and then you have Laszlo Cseh, he is an old guy, from Hungary he has always been chasing – these three guys are the history of swimming and they tie against (each other) – and they got beaten by this Asian boy – so it’s very interesting, you look, for something that has a meaning like that picture is unbelievable.
Full name: Sergio López Miró Born: August 15, 1968 (Barcelona, Spain) Has coached swim sensations Joseph Schooling, Kevin Cordes, Ryan Murphy, Caeleb Dressel and Charlie Hou Ching
Q What is your approach to coaching?
I think there are certain things that are professions and certain things that are vocations – being a teacher is a vocation – the only problem is that many people become teachers because it is the only thing that they can do and it pays well (in America for example) but many teachers are horrible because they don’t care they only want the pay and the job and they don’t care. There are so many kids that are problem kids – then there are some kids who do their syllabus... they don’t get into trouble. But as a coach for me I feel it is a vocation and my job is to be truthful to what swimming has given me. I am here right now, I came from a broken family with nothing and I am here (in Sri Lanka) right now giving a clinic to people to be excellent so you cannot turn your back to that so my approach would be to try to teach people to appreciate the opportunities they have because when you are young and when you train and some kids are 16 years old and they go to school and they train 20 hours a week for 30 seconds of the flight and then they touch the wall and they miss qualifying for the championship by one tenth of a second – that’s SO tough. If you can teach a kid to understand that whenever they grow up when they have a family and they get home and their husband (has) lost their job or their kid (has) broke their arm and they cannot pay their rent or their mortgage – that kid is not going to flinch – that woman might go to the bathroom and cry for five minutes but after five minutes of crying she’s going to go and fix that because that’s what it is – I think you can teach so many life skills.
Represented Spain in the 1988 (Seoul) and 1992 (Barcelona) Summer Olympics and won Bronze in the 200m Breaststroke (1988 Olympics)
Q So for you coaching is about life skills, it is not necessarily about a medal?
Yes. But let’s put it like this – I work at a university and the university wants to win, so if I don’t produce, I get fired. But I think the best way to produce for the long term too is when you take care of the people. Because people like people and in life you fall more times than you stand up even at the top so you need to understand that and not treat the kids like numbers.
For examples for the university I can recruit – every year I can have new kids but if I recruit you and after two years if I throw you away, because I think you are not worth it anymore, it would be such a disservice to people. And I think that karma, that energy, comes back to you. So you have to be as truthful as you can, as dysfunctional as you are – I mean, I’m not perfect, I’m dysfunctional – you have your own dark world – you (have to) find a balance between what goes on in your head but you try to do the best you can. The by product of trying to help somebody be the best that they can be (in swimming)
Q So how do you see the Sri Lankan coaches having met them through the clinics?
I think I have met over 140 coaches, very nice people a lot of them understood what I was trying to tell them (and) I think the one thing that worked for me out of the nine or 12 hours that I spoke with them – we talked a lot about taking care of the person – about the core package – about the kid who is 12 years old and how you can develop him to a 20 – 21 year old and adapt to the person – teach them how to understand their parents. Everybody, every coach is afraid of parents – the parents think they know everything – ‘Our kid our child is the best and you cannot tell me that my child did something wrong’ – but many parents understand excellence for the kid so if you can explain to them the process and try to teach them how to think that way or show them (then you have done well).
Q Do you think they understood your point of view?
I think, I’m sure they will take something out of it. Culturally each country is different so that is a little tough.
I coached in Singapore for two years and the first six months I didn’t try to change anything – I tried to understand the culture of that country – how people eat, how people talk, how people sleep – and then because there’s things that I said to them – they can think of ways to try to do something similar – something they can adapt to – it’s about taking care of somebody – it doesn’t matter the culture.
I don’t believe in God – I was forced to be Catholic in Spain – and the first time I went for a wedding, I listened to a priest and I thought, ‘This guy doesn’t even believe what he says’ – so for different experiences that I had – I believe in something, I believe in myself I believe in some sort of energy – I’ve coached Muslims, Catholics, Seventh Day Adventists, Jews, Orthodox Jews – you (have to be) honest with them.
My daughter wanted to find out about God – we took her to church for a couple of years – she was happy until one day (we never talked about it) – one day she decided yes or no – because (the) most important (thing) was teaching to be good people – and that’s the base of everything.
Q Do you think you made a difference?
I think genuinely some coaches really appreciated me because you can see it in their smile. My way is not the perfect way – I told the coaches that what you need to do is have your own thought process and the athletes, the people, they have their own talent and you have to learn from them – you cannot be afraid of adapting to them and changing. It’s like with a child, you learn from them and they come to this world to teach you to navigate and change and you don’t realise it but they’ve taught you how to educate (them) so it’s the same thing with a swimmer.
Q What do you think Sri Lankan swimmers/coaches are lacking in terms of producing a medal?
Well I think if you compare with the United States, it’s a totally different environment – Julian was telling me that you guys have the facilities but also I don’t think it’s a very rich country – like in Spain for example, a lot of their good coaches, struggle living from coaching, they have to do other jobs, so it is stressful so I’m not sure how much of a professionalism these guys can have, so they can develop, that’s the hard part but for 140 coaches to come and spot them out and teach lessons to be curious – I think that’s a very good thing because I think curiosity is the first step towards learning and towards being excellent.
I told them that what’s important is to have a dream. You have a vision and you have to be able to sit down and think, ‘Ok, what do I want to do?’ – And it doesn’t matter that other people don’t believe you, you just work towards that. If people do that, people will be moving up and up. PIX BY KANISHKE GANEWATTE