Louise Sauvage: elite wheelchair track and field coach
Issue: Volume 29 Number 4
Louise Sauvage, Australia’s most recognisable and successful wheelchair athlete and now elite coach of two years was recently sitting in a wheelchair track and field coaching forum when a convener spotted her in the audience and asked, ‘what are you doing here?’.
‘I’ve been around too long,’ Sauvage laughs. ‘They all know me [as an athlete] and they forget that I’m a coach.’
It’s one of the more humorous moments in Sauvage’s burgeoning coaching career. Best known as the wheelchair racer who has brought home nine Paralympic gold and four Paralympic silver medals and a score of world championship titles and marathon wins – Sauvage retired after the Athens Paralympics, but had been planning her further involvement in the sport for some time.
‘I knew I wanted to stay involved in the sport and to give something back because it has given me so much professionally and personally, so I applied for a coaching scholarship in 2003/2004 through the ASC and received it. I thought I would at least give it a go and see what I could achieve. I did a post-graduate degree in applied science (coaching) through the University of Queensland over that year. I’d never been to Uni before, so that was pretty cool.’
After juggling training and studying, Sauvage finished her racing career with two silver medals at the 2004 Athens Paralympics, then secured a part-time coaching position with the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS), working with her own coach, Andrew Dawes who heads the NSWIS Wheelchair Track and Road Program.
Far from feeling awkward about the change in their relationship, Sauvage says it has brought her a new appreciation for the level of work and commitment that Dawes puts into training his charges. ‘I’ve certainly got to see more of the political side now. As an athlete, I knew that it existed but I didn’t really want to know about it. He’s away at the moment and I’m much more exposed to the day to day things that he has to do and I understand more about the decisions that have to be made, particularly about funding.’
That said, Sauvage points out that she is not moulding herself in Dawes’ likeness. ‘I’m quite a different person to Andrew.’ One major and quite obvious difference is that Dawes is an able-bodied coach coaching athletes with disabilities. Sauvage says her own experience as a wheelchair athlete helps her ‘connect’ with other wheelchair athletes. ‘I think they can connect with me because they know that I know how they’re feeling. They know that I understand what they need.’
Sauvage is coaching promising racer and former training partner Angela Ballard, a bronze medallist at Athens in the 100m. They are, says Sauvage, good friends, and she was delighted when Ballard asked her to become her coach. ‘We communicate really well,’ says Sauvage. ‘I’m confident that Angie feels she can tell me just about anything.’
While they’ve now been working together for two years, Sauvage says she still feels like she’s ‘really new at it’, but the early days were particularly nerve wracking. ‘In the first three or four months of coaching I really didn’t want to screw it up and ruin things for Angie. I asked for lots of advice from lots of different coaches and having the resources and skills available at the New South Wales Institute really helped. Paul Angel coached a number of athletes and went to Athens. He has a different spin on things, so I often asked for his advice as well as Andrew’s. I then weighed everything up and came up with my own answers.’
Already Ballard is seeing results. Shortly before the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games she broke one minute for the 400m. Recently she broke 59 seconds. ‘I think Angie has so much more to give and I hope to see her go even further. Every small change makes it worthwhile. We have our ups and downs, but we just reassess and move on to the next milestone.’
When asked to analyse her coaching style, Sauvage says that one of her strengths is her experience and knowledge of the sport. ‘I’m able to talk tactics. I can look at a race and pick out what is likely to happen there. ’
She is also relentlessly focused on her athlete’s goals. ‘I demand back from them as much as I give to them. If I’m putting in time and effort I expect that back. If I’m being punctual and it’s raining and cold and I’m still out there, I expect them to be too. I demand that respect.’
She confesses that one of her weaknesses is her reaction while sitting on the sidelines. ‘I have to work at not freaking out as I’m watching Angie race. I suppose it’s about not being in control. I tend to sit away from other people.’ Sometimes she unconsciously finds herself pushing her own chair as Ballard starts off.
Ultimately Sauvage says she’d like to coach a Paralympic athlete to a gold medal, but admits she has much yet to learn as a coach. ‘I want to get more confident and I don’t think I’ll ever stop learning.’ She says she gained much from being a staff member on the 2006 World Championships team in Holland. Coincidentally, it was at the IPC Championships in Holland in 1990 that Sauvage first represented Australia. ‘Most of my life I’ve spent being an athlete on these teams where, really, you are pretty focused on yourself. This time as a staff member I felt part of a team. I want to learn more about being a better team member dealing with athletes who are not my own.’
Meanwhile Sauvage is channeling her energies into Ballard. A typical day starts at 7am with an hour to an hour-and-a-half track training at Homebush. She’ll then go home and return to her Homebush office to make some phone calls, continue program preparation and manage the paperwork. This is followed by another session at the gym with Ballard. Sauvage will usually hand cycle while Ballard works out ‘to keep my own fitness up’.
She says there’s not a lot of downtime but she continues to do good work through her Aspire to be a Champion Foundation and plays basketball in National Women’s Basketball League, but says she has no thoughts of becoming an Australian representative in a new sport. ‘There’s no way I ever want to train that hard again. I enjoy it because it’s different for me. It’s very different being part of a team.’
While there are few female coaches of wheelchair track and road athletes, Sauvage says early pioneers Jenni Banks and Kathryn Periac were inspirations. She points out that having a disability is definitely not a pre-requisite for coaching athletes with disabilities. ‘There’s nothing to be feared [from getting involved] at all. If you want to become involved it’s the most challenging, exciting and rewarding thing.
‘When I first started competing (at nine) I had no idea about the Paralympics. I didn’t know you could represent Australia. Then, I started travelling to competitions … and got to the Paralympics. It opened up a whole new world. My entire life became based around [the Paralympic] four-year cycle,’ she laughs … ‘and as a coach, it still is.’
