SARASOTA SWIM ACADEMY Head Coach Ira Klein, has coached 6 OLYMPIANS and over 40 USA, YMCA and COLLEGIATE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS.
He is an ASCA-certified Level 5 Coach, the highest level attainable with the American Swim Coaches Association. He was the first coach in the country to attain that level as a Senior, Age Group, and YMCA coach. He has more than four decades of teaching experience and coaching excellence.
Coach Ira Klein is from New York, graduating in 1975 from Queens College with a BA in Physical Education. He then did his graduate study in Exercise Science at the Univ. of Massachusetts. At Queens College Coach Ira lettered in both swimming and water polo.
Coaching has taken him around the country, including four years in Colorado at the Olympic Training Center creating a new Club Services department for USA Swimming. When he was ready to return to the coaching deck he decided to turn down all offers and return to Sarasota where he earlier headed the YMCA program for five years.
AMONG HIS COACHING CREDENTIALS ARE:
100% of all program graduating athletes have entered and attended college 65% of all program graduates attending college have received scholarships
Five time USA National Team Coach
Two time past President of the American Swim Coaches Association [ASCA]
Past Vice President of USA Swimming
ASCA Coach 'Gold Medal' Level; received for more than 20 years, as a National ‘Coaching Excellence’ award recipient.
Coached over 100 USA Swimming National, NCAA Collegiate, YMCA National, National Age Group and Junior Olympic; individual and team champions!
When asked what he enjoys most in swimming, the singular answer is "the ability to watch a young person achieve something, at any level, that they had never done before and learn that all is possible if they are willing to work for it."
Coach Ira can be reached at 941-928-SWIM (7946)
coachira@sarasotaswimacademy.org
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Timeline for this episode
00:01 – Disclaimer
00:24 – How to be a Great Swim Parent
01:23 – Ira Klein on swim parenting
03:48 – Eddie Reese book
04:18 – Introducing Ira Klein
04:43 – Sarasota Tsunami Swim Team
08:35 – Cindy’s Sue Nami Swims
09:07 – Hurricanes
11:00 – USAS Club Services
13:15 – Coaching up the parents
17:25 – USAS staffing
22:47 – Team USA trials & camps
27:35 – Looking within for a CEO?
28:33 – Going coach-owned?
31:24 – AAU to USAS w/ASCA
32:33 – Professional attire
33:50 – What isn’t new?
36:36 – Terry Laughlin
40:20 – Ira’s coaching journey
43:55 – Create the best environment
50:04 – Surviving the long haul
54:04 – Wrapping it up
