Decisions and transitions have shaped Vlastimil Cerny’s life.
As a teenaged swimmer Cerny made the decision to defect from the Czech Republic and make the transition to living in Winnipeg.
After swimming for Canada at the 1988 Olympics Cerny made the transition from being an athlete and made the decision to become a coach.
In all the changes swimming remained the constant.
“I always knew that I was going to stay in the sport,” said Cerny, who will be part of Swimming Canada’s coaching staff at this month’s Tokyo Olympics. “I love swimming. I loved it as an athlete, the work and the training. It’s not a nine-to-five type scenario.
“I tried different things after I retired from swimming but coaching and the sport was always been my passion.”
Cerny, 58, has spent over 30 years as head coach of the University of Manitoba Bison’s swim program. He’s been the Swim Manitoba coach of the year in four different decades.
Prior to Tokyo Cerny coached at the 2000 and 2004 Games. For him, the learning process never ends.
“I have a kind of growth mindset,” he said. “I keep an open mind all the time
“You learn from every experience at this level. You learn from your own mistakes and you learn from others. I’m always looking for new things.”
Swimmers, even veterans, need to be constantly stimulated or they become stale.
“They need to improve, better technique, better psychology, better programming,” said Cerny. “You always try to improve what you’ve done the past year.”
Cerny has coached Kelsey Wog, a first-time Olympian, since she was 10 years old. He’s also guided Rhiannon Leier and Michelle Lischinksy to spots on past Olympic teams.
“Manitoba is a really small province population wise, we’re not a hub like a training centre or anything,” he said. “We work with the athletes that we get. We’re fortunate we’re putting people on the national team.”
Cerny was born in Vyskov and grew up in Ostrava, a city in the northeast part of the Czech Republic. He spent three years with the Czech national team and swam at the 1981 European championships before deciding to defect as a 19-year-old.
“At 19 you kind of don’t think of any consequences in the future,” he said. “It wasn’t easy, especially with my family being a world apart.
“When I started to travel on the Czech team, started to see the differences in cultures, particularly between the East and West, I said I didn’t want to have my life in this regime. I don’t regret my decision.”
He spent a year in West Germany before coming to Canada in 1983 when a family offered to sponsor him.
Cerny swam for Canada from 1983 to 1989, specializing in butterfly and freestyle. He won silver medals at the Commonwealth and Pan Pacific Games and represented Canada at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He held national records in both Canada and the Czech Republic.
He also was one of the pallbearers at Victor Davis' funeral.
Cerny swam competitively until he was 30. He started coaching full time as an assistant with Calgary’s Cascade Swim Club then joined the University of Manitoba in 1993.
The transition from athlete to coach was “a learning experience.”
“When you start as a young coach you basically rely on what you were taught as a swimmer, try to incorporate that,” Cerny said. “As you go, you develop your own techniques, your own philosophy as to what coaching should be.
“I’m not the same coach now that I was 10 years ago or 20 years ago.”
In his early days Cerny focused on the technical side of the sport. Over the years he’s learned the importance of communication and building relationships.
“When I first started the sport science was what I really hang onto, learning the physiology, learning how to design training sets based on physiology,” he said. “But as I got more and more into the sport I’ve really figured out that the art really triumphs the physiology.
“Don’t get me wrong, I think you have to have a sound knowledge of physiology, but you also have to know how to deal with the athletes. The relationships you develop, especially at this level, is really what will create the performance at the highest level.”
High-performance swimmers come equipped with a gift. They feel relaxed and comfortable in the water.
“The talent becomes the work ethic, how hard can they push themselves,” said Cerny.
“Not every athlete is great at everything. You work with their strengths, but you try to hone and improve their weaknesses. There’s always something to work on. The hard work is required to get here, and the physiology is really kind of the final piece.”
A successful coach has to read his athletes and learn what motivates them.
“I learn form every situation,” said Cerny. “To coach to this level, you really have to coach the athlete and every person is different.
“You have to adapt and grow with that.”
Any team is a mixture of egos and personalities than must blend together to find success. Cerny said the same holds true when a group of coaches with different ideas and philosophies form a staff.
“The best way to do it is check your ego at the door,” he said. “There’s a ton of experience on the pool deck here from the coaching perspective.
“We kind of work together and learn from one another.”
Wog just missed qualifying for the 2016 Olympics. She overcame her frustration and disappointment to punch her ticket to Tokyo.
Cerny takes pride in being part of that journey.
“It hasn’t been a straight line,” he said. “There’s been ups and down.
“What really make me feel good is I could help her progress. She always came back stronger. It’s not even about the results, it’s about the that she goes through. That’s going to last her for the rest of her life.”