Legendary swim coach Laurie Lawrence issues warning to Aussie Swimmers a year out from Tokyo Games
He’s the man behind some of the biggest underdog moments in Australian swimming history, but Laurie Lawrence has issued a warning for Australia’s swimmers, hampered by the Tokyo delay — don’t look back in anger.
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Master motivator Laurie Lawrence has warned Australia’s swim champions not to fret over what lies ahead – the true challenge is coming from behind.
And if they don’t rise to it they will, figuratively speaking, get their leg bitten off.
The eccentric mentor on Thursday released his autobiography Stuff the Silver, We’re Going for Gold at Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley Pool.
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Given the title, it could not have been a more appropriate venue for it was there, 50 years ago, he took a silver medal off 13-year-old freestyler Helen Gray in the Queensland titles and threw it over the fence and onto a railway track in disgust (only to sneak over and pick it up later).
Lawrence drove underdogs Jon Sieben and Duncan Armstrong to Olympic glory and has a feeling the year delay in the Tokyo Olympics will see changes in the pecking order of Australia’s squad where desperate up-and-comers will surge from the depths.
“These are desperate times,’’ Lawrence said.
“Here they are on the cusp on going to the trials and they say no trials. Those young kids had their hands on the prize. Champions have something indefinable inside them. Thurston had it.
“Those young kids who had it will be back but you know what, it will be tougher for them because they have a whole bunch of young kids who were just underneath them.
“They won’t be snapping at their heels, they will be biting at their legs and clawing to the top.
“That is what is going to happen. Other names will come through. The mental challenges for the kids is enormous.’’
A galaxy of Olympic stars turned out for the launch and everyone had a Laurie the Loony story, even beach volley baller Natalie Cook.
“Laurie taught me swimming when I was in Townsville but I was so scared of him I gave it away and took up beach volleyball,’’ Cook said. “But he is a great motivator. He’s old school but I like it.’’
The sight of Armstrong spinning old yarns prompted Lawrence to tell how he used to put a weight belt around the young Duncan and make him kick in the water for 20 minutes with his hands in the air.
“It is a very good exercise – if you don’t kick you drown,’’ Lawrence said.
Even Gray turned up to relive the silver medal story.
“Laurie would stand at the steps and you would go and see him after a race. He said to me “Helen, no-one remembers the silver’’ and off went the medal over the fence.
“But that’s Laurie. He is always trying to find ways of motivating you. Motivating is a very important part of swimming. Training can be boring. He would always entertain you.’’
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Which, of course, was precisely what he tried to do.
“I am not in the coaching business. I am in the theatre business. To have kids come in and do 160 laps with your head in a bucket of water. No sensible person would do it so we as coaches have to entertain them.’’
But beneath the routine which is part tub-thumping motivational guru part Three Stooges there lies a committed man and hard one too, a man who played for the Australian rugby union side with one lung.
“I have had a good life – I have been very fortunate. I have chlorine in the blood. My dad managed a pool. I had a lung taken out as a kid and the doctor said you have to swim.
“My dad was a publican in Winton and got burnt out. He was a chook farmer on the banks of the Ross River and got flooded out. He had a home at Magnetic Island that got ravaged in the cyclone but he got up every time.’’
The Olympics were always about far more than simply a swim meet for Lawrence and he proudly owned up to being the best performed at sneaking athletes into venues for which they did not have tickets, something that triggered a series of embarrassing arrests when he was absent in Rio.
“They needed me at the least Olympics – I would have got them in. I think I got 150 in to the hockey at Greece. That was the masterpiece. They were amateurs in Rio.’’
*Book available from Amazon, both hard cover ($25.40 delivered) and eBook ($11.99 on Kindle). It’s not in book stores.