Coach Sikkel to attend workshop in Australia

Saipan Swim Club coach Richard Sikkel, second from left, poses with assistant coach Ally Pourmonir and the CNMI swimming team that competed in the 2022 FINA World Championship in Budapest, Hungary.(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Before he leaves for the 2022 FINA Junior World Championships in Lima, Peru with Jinie Thompson and his daughter Savita, Saipan Swim Club coach Richard Sikkel will be flying to Australia to attend a coaching workshop.

A total of 14 coaches from Oceania were invited to attend the Oceania Coaches Workshop and Duel in the Pool (Australia vs USA) from Aug. 19-21, 2022. The workshop is supported by the Oceania Swimming Association.

“I want to thank the Oceania Swimming Association for supporting the federations and coaches from some of the smaller nations that fall under Oceania to attend this workshop facilitated by expert high performance coaches. I also want to thank the Northern Marianas Swimming Federation for recommending me for this opportunity. As a coach I am always looking to learn and grow. Having hands-on experience under the guidance of coaches who coach at the highest level in the sport will hopefully allow me to replicate some of their methods and techniques and raise the level of swimming in the NMI,” said Sikkel.

The objective of the three-day event is to further develop and enhance the capacity of swim coaches from the member federations by supporting them to attend a development workshop, SwimCon and Duel in the Pool.
The workshop is designed to incorporate Oceania coaches attending SwimCon and will be facilitated by Haydn Belshaw from Swimming Australia and a number of other expert swimming coaches. The workshop will include a range of theory and practical activities for attending coaches.

SwimCon is also a leadership and innovation conference, bringing together experts and leaders from across the industry to present on key challenges and opportunities facing sports. 

Further, it brings together experts in technology, coaching, and culture development, athlete health and well-being, inclusion and the pathway to 2032. SwimCon is intended for coaches, managers and administrators in the sport of swimming.

For its part, Duel in the Pool is an elite swimming competition which is a duel meet between the best swimmers from Australia and the USA. Oceania coaches attending this event will get first-hand exposure to a high-performance competition environment with the two best swim teams in the world going head-to-head.