By Matt Grillo, Swimming World College Intern
Pierre Lafontaine is looking for another challenge in his nearly 40-year coaching career.
As the newly appointed head coach of the Club de Natation Gatineau [CNG], Lafontaine took over April 1, 2015, leaving his position that he held for two years as the CEO of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport [CIS].
Building A Team
“It’s very good for swimming, it’s very good for Quebec swimming and I think he’s going to bring a lot of enthusiasm back into the sport,” Michel Bérubé, the former head coach at CNG and now the director of performance and development at the Quebec Swimming Federation, said.
Lafontaine was the CEO of Swimming Canada from 2005 to 2013. Under his guidance, Canadian swimmers won four medals at the Beijing and London Olympic Games.
“I think the potential for a great program here is in the books because we’ve got a beautiful facility,” Lafontaine said. “I kept in touch with Michel for a long time. He started telling me that he was looking at maybe leaving the club and I said ‘if it ever happens, I would love to be considered for the head coach job.'”
Prior to taking over at Swimming Canada, Lafontaine was the head coach at the Australian Institute of Sport [AIS] from 2003 to 2005. Six medals were won by AIS swimmers at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
Lafontaine will be bringing his experience not only as a head coach, but will also provide CNG with a great sense of organization.
“The number one key is to create a great structure and a really good governance club,” Lafontaine said of his plan. “To build on really good coaches and work on educating our coaches so they become some of the best.”
Additionally, Lafontaine wants there to be great communication between what he’s doing and the people involved at CNG.
“To have a clarity in communication with the members. After that, it’s a clarity on how you move from group to group,” Lafontaine said.
Mental Engagement
The final piece to the puzzle is keeping the swimmers of the club entertained and engaged in what they’re doing.
“Offering really exciting practices, it’s crucial to keep kids in the water. We have a problem with retention in some of my pools and so for us it’s raising the level of retention from group to group, it’s keeping kids really excited about swimming,” Lafontaine said.
Having not been a coach for almost a decade, Lafontaine is confident he has come back a better coach than he’s ever been. Even though as CEO of Swimming Canada he wasn’t coaching swimmers one-on-one, Lafontaine was on deck and was able to learn from some of the best coaches in the world.
“I think I’m a better coach today because of all the work I did with all the coaches around the national team and around the world,” Lafontaine said.
However, Lafontaine’s return to club coaching won’t come without its challenges. Lafontaine is looking to constantly create fresh workouts for his athletes, something that doesn’t come easy in a sport where two practices per day is expected.
“Probably the biggest adjustment is to make sure that my every day practices are exciting and innovative,” Lafontaine said. “Inventing sets, they don’t come as easy as when you’re on the pool deck every day for years. I had to go back to my log books and also the work I did with the national team.”
Expanding Horizons
Lafontaine plans on using this training and further developing other parts of the club to help the senior swimmers experience international competition.
“I think we need to build a booster club. That will help the senior swimmers travel internationally,” Lafontaine said.
Lafontaine also plans on bringing international competition to Gatineau.
“We need to create memorable events in Gatineau. We need to bring the world to Gatineau, so for me to build an international swim meet every year is crucial. That might help with a bit of my contacts around the world,” Lafontaine said.
Additionally, Lafontaine said he is looking to create an “exciting development program” for para swimmers, which would also help expand CNG.
With all these goals and projects in mind, Lafontaine remains excited to be back on the pool deck and coaching swimming once again.
“I can tell you this club has got a lot of potential,” Lafontaine said. “With all the pools I have there’s no reason why I can’t have a really world-class program.”
This guy’s coached/directed more programs than Carter has pills.
Good luck, Pierre, get some kids on the Maple Leaf’s team for Rio and beyond.