A COACH’S PERSPECTIVE ON PARALYMPIC SPORT CLUB BOSTON SWIM TEAM
By KJPR Agency – Emerson College – After Sunday’s swim practice, we sat down with the coach of Paralympic Sport Club Boston’s Swim Team, Mike Prout, as he enters his 5th season with the team.
Mike won a Gold and a Bronze medal at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens at the young age of 18. “When I was growing up, I didn’t see any other athletes like me in swimming or other sports I did, so knowing that the movement is getting bigger is really fun to see” Mike said.
When asked about the relationship he has with these athletes, Mike explained “When you’re being coached by somebody who is able bodied and they’re telling you to do something that you don’t have the ability to do, it can be difficult. It is a lot easier when the athletes can look back at you and realize that you have gone through similar experiences as them, and move the same way as them. It leads to them trusting you a lot quicker.”
Mike described coaching the swim team over the years as “an amazing learning experience.” “Here we’re coaching the athlete, not just the stroke, where as with able-bodied swimmers, everyone swims the same way, so you’re coaching the stroke instead of the athlete.”
And Prout is no average coach. This summer he coached the USA Swim Team in the 2019 Parapan American Games and 2019 Para Swimming World Championships. He is among the USA’s elite Para swimming coaches.
Coach Mike Prout truly believes that Adaptive Sports New England is creating an inclusive and competitive environment for athletes with disabilities. “Our swimmers have told me that they like being apart of Adaptive Sports because of the community aspect of it, this is a place where they can come and not feel like they’re any different. Everybody is equal.”
