The "ferryman" for swimmers in Nghe An.

Coach Le Xuan Cuong equips children with swimming skills to prevent and combat drowning. Photo: Duc Anh

Ignite the passion

Before becoming a coach at the Nghe An Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center in 2016, Coach Le Xuan Cuong was a swimmer and diver for the province. During his competitive career, he won numerous medals, both large and small, at competitions organized by the Vietnam Swimming and Diving Federation. Thanks to his outstanding achievements, the coach, born in 1982, was directly admitted to the Tu Son University of Physical Education and Sports. His path to becoming a professional coach began from there.

In all sports, training and guiding a student to achieve success is extremely difficult. For swimming and diving, it's even more challenging. Due to the unique nature of this sport, recruiting truly talented individuals is no easy task.

Coach Le Xuan Cuong shared: “Swimming is different from all other sports; we have to select children at a very young age (from 7 to 9 years old). Nghe An is a province with a large land area and a large population, so there is no shortage of athletes. However, due to living conditions and beliefs, many families do not want their children to leave their parents' care at such a young age. Therefore, even when we have identified an athlete, convincing their family to let them pursue a professional sports career is not easy at all.”

Leading students from the tender ages of 8 or 9, few can fully comprehend the hardships that swimming and diving coaches endure. Caring for the children's meals and sleep, teaching them self-care and personal hygiene – these are the countless tasks that Coach Le Xuan Cuong has to manage every day.

Coach Cuong recalled: “When the children came to study at the center, they hardly knew how to take care of themselves. Besides teaching them swimming, we also had to guide them in everything from brushing their teeth and washing their faces to doing laundry. Many of them were so young, so we teachers had to make time to wash their clothes and clean their rooms, helping them have a clean living environment and avoid unnecessary illnesses…”

The coach, born in 1982, added: "Recruiting the athletes is difficult, but keeping them here to train is even harder. I remember one day, a new athlete who had just arrived at the center was homesick and missed her parents so much that she insisted I take her home. In the middle of the night, we had to stay with her, comfort her, and call her parents so she could talk to them and ease her homesickness. Feeling sorry for their child, the next morning her parents came to ask me to let her take a break from training to go home. No matter how much we tried to persuade them, they wouldn't listen, and all our efforts went to waste."

Training a truly skilled swimmer and diver is extremely challenging for the coaching staff in this sport. But with his love for the profession, Coach Cuong always motivates himself to overcome those obstacles and strive towards future goals for the province's sports.

Speaking about the difficulties, coach Le Xuan Cuong shared: “The weather in Nghe An is very harsh; winters are very cold, and summers are scorching hot. This greatly affects the training time of the athletes. Usually, in the cold season, the children mainly train on land, and in the summer, they have to wait for the heat to subside before going into the pool. Therefore, maintaining their performance and improving their results is extremely difficult. This is one of the disadvantages of swimming and diving in Nghe An compared to other provinces in the South.”

Coach Le Xuan Cuong's greatest joy is seeing his students always strive on the green track. Despite the weather and environment in Nghe An not being ideal, they have always managed to overcome their own limitations and reap the rewards.

Coach Cuong's contributions, along with the team of swimming and diving coaches, have brought remarkable achievements to Nghe An's sports.

This year, athlete Nguyen Tu Anh excelled, winning 3 gold medals, 1 silver medal, and 2 bronze medals in the large fins event at the 2022 Age Group Swimming and Diving Championships. In addition, many other young athletes have begun to showcase their talent and achieve notable successes.

Instructing students on basic movements before letting them get into the pool. Photo: Duc Anh

Promoting swimming as a sport.

Besides his main job as a swimming and diving coach at the Nghe An Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center, Mr. Le Xuan Cuong actively participates in providing free training for young children, teachers, coaches, and instructors at schools and swimming facilities in the province. This is extremely meaningful work, as the risk of drowning accidents has been increasing recently.

With his extensive experience in swimming and diving training, instructor Le Xuan Cuong has strived to find teaching methods that allow students to understand and apply the techniques as easily as possible. In his classes, he skillfully combines theory and practice, dedicating more time to peer practice. He emphasizes rescue techniques, emphasizing proficiency so that students will not be flustered or lose the opportunity to save a victim in emergency situations.

Under the guidance of Mr. Cuong and the coaches at the Nghe An Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center, most of the children were able to swim after about 1 to 10 days. Photo: Duc Anh

Teacher Cuong shared: “When teaching, we present scenarios and solve them in the most impressive way possible. This helps students remember the lessons more easily. For example, in a rescue practice, I intentionally made a mistake when approaching a victim underwater. Because the victim panicked, they clung tightly, which could easily be dangerous for someone inexperienced. But I resolved the situation by teaching them how to break the victim's lock. This situation made a strong impression on the students, helping them understand and remember the rescue lesson more deeply: that you must rescue from behind, and if you make a mistake, you must know how to break the lock.”