It was one of those times that reminded Ben Titley why he likes being a coach.
During Swimming Canada’s Olympic team training camp held recently in Vancouver, several members of the High Performance Centre - Ontario were heading back to their hotel. Kylie Masse, an Olympic bronze medallist and two-time world champion in the 100-metre backstroke, looked out the window of the vehicle she was in and saw her former eighth grade teacher walking down the street.
Masse, who grew up in Lasalle, Ont., called to the teacher. The woman recognized Masse, blew her kisses, and wished her good luck at the Tokyo Olympics.
The brief exchanged showed what it means to be an Olympic athlete.
“That will stick with them forever,” said Titley, head coach at the High Performance Centre _ Ontario. “They will forever be able to call themselves an Olympian.
“Their moms, dads, brothers and sisters will say my daughter, son, brother, sister, are going to the Olympics.”
Titley believes the pride and prestige of being an Olympian belongs solely to the athletes. His role as a coach is to motivate and develop swimmers, but he doesn’t bask in the glow of the Olympic flame.
“For me, it really isn’t about going to the Olympics,” said the 44-year-old. “You’ll never see me wearing my Olympic ring, ever. I just think it’s part of my job, it’s what I do.
“I get a lot more pride and satisfaction out of helping athletes achieve what they want, and I enjoy seeing how that affects the people around them.”
Titley will be part of Swimming Canada’s coaching staff in Tokyo. It will be his fifth Olympics. He was head coach of Canada’s team at the 2016 Rio Games and also part of Britain’s swimming staff in 2004, 2008 (when he was the head women’s coach) and 2012.
“It means a lot to be selected as an Olympic coach, it’s an honor,” he said. “There’s not many coaches that do get that opportunity. I’m very thankful.”
To be successful, coaches must believe in themselves and what they are trying to teach their athletes.
“It becomes a selling job at some point,” Titley said. “You’re working with people who want to feel confident in what they’re doing. If you’re in any way shaky about what you’re doing, that can maybe come off as something that’s not going to give an athlete the confidence to really go after what it is they are trying to achieve.
“I think it’s the courage of conviction . . . in what you’re doing, that you believe in what you’re doing. That’s not to say you don’t adapt, it’s not to say don’t change over time. When you present something to the athletes it’s sold in a way with confidence, with belief.”
By explaining boundaries and expectations coaches establish trust and respect with athletes.
“Most people want to have someone that has their interests at heart and know they’re following a plan from someone who will be there when the chips are down,” Titley said.
A lack of trust and structure can derail an athlete’s performance, especially in a high-pressure atmosphere like the Olympics.
“Pressure starts to mount and plans then start to change at the last minute,” said Titley. “That just spins into doubt for the athlete.
“That lack of confidence can then be seen in the performance.”
Simply telling someone to do something won’t work anymore. Today’s athlete wants to understand why they are doing a specific training technique and how it will benefit them.
“We live in a world now of pretty much instant gratification for these young kids,” he said. “If they want to find out something, they have an implement in their hand which will give them the answer in three seconds.
“Part of coaching now is understanding young people learn a little bit differently than we used to when we were in school and try to adapt to that. We need to set good expectations, explain and communicate to the athlete what we expect from them.”
Titley was just 16 when he began coaching.
“I was just intrigued as to what was happening,” he said. “At the time there were things I liked about swimming. There was travel, staying in hotels.”
In 2003 Titley coached James Gibson to become the first British male world champion in 28 years. He also coached at six FINA World Championships, four Commonwealth Games and other major international events.
In 2013 Titley was hired as the Ontario centre’s head coach. He had a couple of reasons for taking the job.
At the time he was married to a Canadian woman who wanted to return to Canada. Also, after 16 years of being head coach at Loughborough University, located in the northernmost part of the county of Leicestershire, he wanted to move to a larger city.
“It’s a small university town,” said Titley. “While it’s great for sports, when you live there for 16 years, there’s not a single thing or person you don’t really know.
“I wanted to live somewhere where I can go to different restaurants, where I can go watch sports events.”
Of the 26 swimmers named to Canada’s Olympic team 10 train at the Ontario centre, including Masse, Penny Oleksiak, Taylor Ruck, Finlay Knox, Josh Liendo, Summer McIntosh and Sydney Pickrem.
Titley’s Olympic goal is for his swimmers to have the best experience possible.
“It doesn’t hold the same mystique and the same excitement for me personally that it did the first couple of times,” he said. “I get that the Olympics is the pinnacle. Every year there’s games or world championships, European champions or Pan Pacific Games. For me they just kind of keep rolling into one another.
“I’m very much more about the athletes and trying to achieve things when we do get there so they have good memories of that time in their lives because it will stick with them for a long, long time.”
Titley compared developing a swimmer into an Olympic talent to being a chef. If you have the basic ingredients you can make a great dish.
“I do think that great coaching will find a way to make even mediocre talent (successful) if it works hard enough,” he said. “If it has the support to achieve a level of success, maybe they could become an Olympian.”