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Q&A with Orinda Aquatics Coach Steve Haufler
By Michael J. Stott
Thanks to his videos and ASCA World Clinic presentations, Steve Haufler is one of the country’s most visible and successful stroke technicians. Overlooked are his skills at developing young staff members and his enormous success in securing 19 consecutive Orinda Moraga Pool Association team championships in one of the nation’s most competitive (17 Olympians) summer swimming leagues.
Coach Haufler’s OCC teams have won the last 19 Orinda Moraga Pool Association summer league championships. As a swimmer himself, Haufler has recorded 85 individual Masters Top 10 finishes (1988-2020) and 21 relay Top 10 performances (1997-2005).
CREDENTIALS
• University of California Santa Barbara, B.A., physical education, 1974; Colorado State University (Fort Collins), M.Ed., 1978
• Masters thesis, “Survey of the Family Sports Environment and Attitudes toward Recreational and AAU Age Group Swimming”
• Director of Aquatics/Head Swimming Coach, Orinda Country Club, 1999-present
• Assistant Fall Coach, Orinda Aquatics, 1999-present
• Head Coach, Montclair Swim Team (Oakland, Calif.), 1981-96
• Age Group Coordinator, Concord Pleasant Hill Swim Team (now Terrapins), 1980-81
• Head Coach, Loveland (Colo.) Swim Club, 1978-80
• Graduate Coaching Assistant, UCSB women’s team, 1974-76
• Head Coach, Canyon Swim & Racquet Club (El Sobrante, Calif.), summers, 1972-76
• Owner, Haufler Aquatics Swim School (Oakland, Calif.), 1981-2010
• Featured speaker, American Swimming Coaches Association World Clinic, 2007-present
• GoSwim Productions, featured speaker on nine videos, 2008-16
• Group and team clinician in Dubai, Ireland, Iceland, Sweden, Peru, South Africa
• Senior team captain at UCSB
Q. SWIMMING WORLD: How did you get your start in aquatics?
A. COACH STEVE HAUFLER: As a swim instructor at age 14 at Canyon Pool Swim School in El Sobrante, Calif.
SW: Between your teaching, coaching and videos, you have helped thousands learn to swim. How did you learn?
SH: With a private instructor in my grandparents’ backyard pool at age 4. After that, I took lessons at various city programs until I started more advanced instruction when I was 10.
SW: Who were some of your seminal influences?
SH: Fred and Bill Brown were my summer league and AAU age group coaches. Fred continued as my high school coach. Later on, it was Jack Flanagan at Diablo Valley College and Rick Rowland at University of California, Santa Barbara. As a graduate coaching assistant with the women’s team at UCSB in 1974-76, I shared the pool deck with men’s coach Gregg Wilson. Gregg brought Nort Thornton’s teaching and training philosophy to UCSB. I had a front-row seat!
SW: You coached the Montclair Swim Team prior to taking over Orinda Country Club. Do you miss the (USA Swimming) club environment?
SH: Each fall, after my summer season has ended, about 40 of my more dedicated swimmers continue to train with me at Orinda Country Club (OCC). We register these athletes with Orinda Aquatics, and they can compete in fall USA Swimming meets and Junior Olympics if they qualify. So, I coach and train swimmers for USA Swimming events for three months out of the year. That feels about right.
SW: What differences do you see in coaching summer league vs. year-round swimmers?
SH: Summer league is teaching and sprinting. Year-round swimming is teaching and training for a variety of distances. However, even though our summer league events are 25s and 100 IMs for 8-and-unders, and 50s and 100 IMs for older kids, I find myself designing practices—at least for 9-10s and up—that prepare swimmers for the 200 IM.
SW: What differences in age group swimming do you see between now vs. the 1970s and 1980s?
SH: Coaches have come a long way in the understanding of optimal stroke technique and how bodies move in the water. Now preparation for competition is not just about maximizing hours, volume and doing the hardest sets. It’s become a more interesting sport for coaches and swimmers who want to pay attention to HOW they are swimming.
To read our full Q&A session with Coach Steve Haufler,
Click here to download the full May 2021 issue of Swimming World Magazine, available now!
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Swimming World May 2021 Issue
FEATURES
014 WOMEN’S NCAAs: A NEW NO. 1
For the first time in the history of the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships—since 1982—the University of Virginia finished first. It was also the first time it cracked the top 5 with its previous highest finish sixth in 2019.
- VIRGINIA’S ROAD TO HISTORY
by Dan D’Addona - NC STATE ADDS TO ACC DOMINANCE
by Dan D’Addona - THE TALK OF THE MEET: MAGGIE MacNEIL
by John Lohn
018 MEN’S NCAAs: THE PERFECT RETIREMENT GIFT
Days before their coach, Eddie Reese, officially announced his retirement from coaching after 43 years, the Texas men’s team won their 15th men’s NCAA national team championship.
- THIS ONE’S FOR EDDIE!
by Andy Ross - SCINTILLATING PERFORMANCES: SHAINE CASAS & RYAN HOFFER
by John Lohn - PATIENCE REWARDED: MAX McHUGH & NICK ALBIERO
by Andy Ross
022 NCAA D-II CHAMPS: SOME THINGS NEVER SEEM TO CHANGE
by Andy Ross
A year into the pandemic that has completely changed our world, Queens University of Charlotte brought about some stability to the 2021 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships by sweeping their sixth straight women’s and men’s team titles.
023 NO LIMITS!
by David Rieder
Claire Curzan has been swimming fast since she was a young age grouper and has continued to do so in high school. Last March, she came within 13-hundredths of the American record in the short course 100 fly, and in April, she found herself within 22-hundredths of the long course U.S. best. She’s versatile, she’s coachable, she has international experience, and she’s moved from a fringe Olympic contender to an Olympic favorite. Curzan is only 16, and her promising future couldn’t be brighter.
026 TAKEOFF TO TOKYO: WHEN IRISH EYES WEREN’T SMILING
by John Lohn
Ireland’s Michelle Smith—a four-time Olympic medalist in 1996 who received a four-year ban from the sport in 1998 for tampering with a doping sample—has been defined as being a poster girl for cheating, and by her willingness to cut corners and take advantage of performance-enhancing drug use to make the leap from an athlete of very-good skill to one of elite status.
029 50 SWIMMERS, 6 MEDALS
by Dan D’Addona
The Tokyo Olympics will mark the fourth occasion that open water swimming will be contested on the Olympic level, and even a 10-kilometer marathon race can bring exciting moments and dramatic finishes.
030 JOSH MATHENY: RISING STAR
by Matthew De George
From a middle-schooler newly committed to swimming full-time in 2016, the future looks encouraging for 18-year-old Josh Matheny, who approaches the U.S. Olympic Trials for Tokyo in June as a dark horse to make the team in men’s breaststroke.
032 ISHOF: THE ART OF SWIMMING
by Bruce Wigo
This is the story of Hero and Leander, Lord Byron and the birth of open water swimming.
035 NUTRITION: HYDRATION—BEYOND THIRST!
by Dawn Weatherwax
Hydration truly has a daily importance for all kinds of swimmers from age groupers to Olympians to Masters swimmers, but it tends to get more notoriety when the weather gets warmer.
COACHING
012 THE POWER OF POSITIVE COACHING
by Michael J. Stott
Relationships built upon honesty, trust and communication go a long way toward cementing a bond between coach and athlete. Coupling that with knowledge of the individual first and athlete second produces a positive working relationship that can last for a lifetime.
038 SWIMMING TECHNIQUE CONCEPTS: MAXIMIZING SWIMMING VELOCITY (Part 1)—STROKE RATE vs. STROKE LENGTH
by Rod Havriluk
Swimming velocity is the criterion measure for swimming performance and is the product of stroke length and stroke rate. This article explains how stroke length and stroke rate vary and how stroke time provides insight into maximizing swimming velocity.
042 Q&A WITH COACH STEVE HAUFLER
by Michael J. Stott
044 HOW THEY TRAIN CHARLOTTE SHAMIA
by Michael J. Stott
TRAINING
037 DRYSIDE TRAINING: THE IM DRYLAND CIRCUIT
by J.R. Rosania
JUNIOR SWIMMER
047 UP & COMERS: TEAGAN O’DELL
by Shoshanna Rutemiller
COLUMNS
008 A VOICE FOR THE SPORT
011 DID YOU KNOW: ABOUT THE MOREHOUSE TIGER SHARKS?
046 THE OFFICIAL WORD
048 GUTTERTALK
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