Don Swartz
Don Swartz is an American swim coach who was inducted into American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2013 in recognition for 20 years of innovative and successful coaching. He is currently coach at North Bay Aquatics.
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Coaching Career
Swartz began his club coaching career in 1967 as an age group coach with George French at Ladera Oaks Aquatic Club in Northern California. After a stop in Davis, California he moved to Marin County to become Head Coach of the Marin Aquatic Club. From 1970 to 1976 he coached several swimmers to Olympic, World Championship and Pan-American teams including several world record times. One of his swimmers, Rick DeMont, became, in 1973, the first person to break the 4 minute barrier in the 400 meter free while winning the World Championships in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
The Marin Aquatic Club had numerous high school All-Americans and regularly placed in the top 10 at the AAU National Championships. Don was a Board member of the American Swim Coaches Association and a featured speaker at several World Clinics for ASCA. He was a coach on the 1975 World Championship staff and on the 1977 National team staff for the dual meets in East Germany and Russia.
In 1977, he founded the Creative Performance Institute and for eight years specialized in teaching the mental side of the game to coaches and athletes. His workshops covered topics including: goal setting, risk taking, anxiety management and visualization. His clients included many high school, club and collegiate teams. He also worked internationally in Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Sweden and Ireland.
In May of 2005, he re-entered the active coaching world as a member of the highly regarded North Bay Aquatics program under the direction of Ken DeMont. North Bay Aquatics is a rapidly developing program with senior swimmers at the Sectional and National level.
Commitment
My goal is to provide the best coaching possible by continuing to expand my potential. I am still growing as a coach. Since I no longer coach in a vacuum my capabilities grow each week.
ASCA Hall of Fame Introduction
by Rick and Ken DeMont
Don Swartz's ASCA Hall of Fame Acceptance Speech
USMS Honors
He received the 2011 Kerry O’Brien Coaches Award, an annual award given by U.S. Masters Swimming, named to honor the Walnut Creek Masters (Pacific) coach who embodies the passion, dedication, and heart that USMS coaches bring to the pool deck and open water.
