Change doesn’t always mean starting from scratch. After being the assistant coach, Dan Ohm has taken over as head coach of the Salem Boys Swim & Dive team after years of experience coaching. With a deep background in the sport and a strong understanding of what it takes to build a successful program, Ohm’s leadership marks an important step forward for the team as the swimmers look forward to the season ahead of them.
Ohm has been swimming since he was a child. During his years as a swimmer, he went All-American in high school and committed to Eastern Michigan University. In 1995, Ohm chose to start his coaching career. Since then, he has coached over 12 schools in all age ranges, and many of his swimmers have gone on to be podium finishers at the Olympics, NCAA, Big Ten, SEC and ACC championships.
Ohm has accomplished 10 Ironman triathlons and 15 half-Ironmans in his life, along with participating in long open water swimming, with his longest swim in competition being a 12k swim.
Because of this vast background in coaching swimming, Ohm has left an impression on the way the swimmers at Salem are being taught. Salem junior Ali Karar Al-Moussawi, who is currently swimming his second year on the team, said Ohm has helped him improve his swimming.
“I think that Coach Dan has helped me a lot with my actual stroke of freestyle and butterfly, pulling the water with my whole arm, and that’s just in the water,” said Al-Moussawi.
Ohm helps swimmers on land as well. “Out of the water, he’s helping me kind of get more comfortable with my races and setting times,” said Al-Moussawi.“And even if I set a goal and I don’t meet that goal, still kind of praises me for that, depending on how much I improved, whether that’s on an actual time on paper or just in general as a swimmer.”
Salem junior and third-year swimmer Truman Linkowski said that he thinks the coach’s training style, sets, and drills are more effective than in past years. The use of a monitor to show YouTube videos of past Olympic races and NCAA championships helps swimmers visualize how to perform certain strokes how to apply techniques as they swim.
Swimmers have also been introduced to a new tool to help them build power with the use of the Power Tower, also known as buckets. The instrument helps builds resistance to add drag to a swimmer’s strokes in the pool to help swimmers build their power and top speed in the water.
Another new type of drill added to Salem boys’ swim team practices includes wearing fins in the water to practice the power of their kicks. Whether it’s working on their starts or turns, these fin sets help the swimmers practice their lower body in their workouts. “I’ve noticed that things are a lot more lenient. And, I mean, it hasn’t gotten easier, just a better training style, and it feels more the sets feel more optimal,” said Linkowski. “Using a TV to show swimmers’ stuff is pretty interesting. The bucket stuff was pretty crazy, and a lot of fin sets.”
Al-Moussawi really likes the fact that Ohm is willing to put in time to work on things in practice that can help the team collectively improve by doing certain sets and drills, as well as if a swimmer isn’t getting something, Ohm works with those swimmers separately to find problems and fix them using in and out of water demonstrations.
Ohm says that his short-term goals for this year are to move up in KLAA, win more meets, and create the best swimmers he could have. He wants to instill honesty, trustworthiness, empathy, and to make sure that the team members care about each other. And in the next few years, he wants to beat the other Park teams and score points at states.
“I’m excited to see you guys reach your full potential. I think there can be a lot more instruction, and the more you know, the faster you’ll go,” said Ohm. “So, yeah, that’s what I’m excited about. Being able to do exactly what I want with the limited time we have.”
Salem senior Ty Monahan, one of the captains of the team this year, said that he anticipates this team going further this season. He’s already seeing improvements with great signs from both the coach and his teammates through different interactions as to what’s to come for competing on the team this year.
“I think the team is going to be maybe a little happier,” said Monahan. “I think I can see our improvements already, like a lot of our newer guys are getting better… at a faster pace than they used to, mostly because we’re just doing different stuff.”
Looking back, Monahan said the early practices revealed more than just a tougher training plan; they revealed a coach who is invested in pushing his athletes to reach their full potential.
“The first or second day of practice. After practice, [Ohm] said, ‘Hey, I’m sorry we’re starting out with so much distance [swimming], but I want to get you guys going a lot faster. I want you guys to be a lot better. I know you guys have that potential,’ So I think that was a really good sign,” said Monahan. “He’s invested in us and just really wants to just improve, no matter what.”
