USA Swimming interviewed Paul for 20 Question Tuesday!

Here it is:

He’s one of the up-and-coming coaches in the world, and North Baltimore’s Paul Yetter has a lot more goals on the horizon. He talks about his top swimmers, staying at the top of his game, and why he seems so much more low key these days in this week’s 20 Question Tuesday with special correspondent Bob Schaller.

1 In your mind, how did Worlds go for Katie Hoff?

Paul: I think Katie performed great. The expectation going into the meet was that she’d do well. She performed well in several events, and that’s a tough test.

2 Aren’t you more geared toward 2008?

Paul: We certainly were going after this meet in Melbourne as an experience in itself, not as a stepping stone. That being said, though, everything is a stepping stone. We just take it one day at a time. Katie always goes out to swim as well as she can. It doesn’t matter what day it is or where she’s swimming.

3 I remember a huge buzz when Katie turned pro. In hindsight, it seems more like a no-brainer and that she made the right decision, doesn’t it?

Paul: Katie is a pretty unique athlete in a lot of respects. I’ve always thought of Katie as someone who has a lot of potential, and we both know she can continue to progress as she matures athletically.

4 I had a great talk with Dan Madwed, who joined you at NBAC somewhat recently, and he said he really likes how you let the kids have input. What do you think of that?

Paul: We’ve got a lot of talented kids. In particular, Dan – who is unbelievable at technique and picking up things – doesn’t need a lot of guidance to do things well. I think everybody is different, so I treat them the way they need to be treated. Whether it’s Katie or Dan or whoever, they really all are unique individuals.

5 Even though a couple of your top swimmers are getting a lot of well-deserved attention, looking at other results, you really have a deep program, don’t you?

Paul: Well, at our short course sectionals we won the combined team championship and at Spring Champs we won the combined team championship with separate squads of athletes swimming in each respective meet . So we do have a deep team, and a lot of coaches are doing a great job. It’s just that great tradition of NBAC. Our senior training group has six No.1 ranked swimmers, which is a tribute to everything that has been put into North Baltimore since 1968. I’m the lucky one to be in place to coach these kids. They see pictures of Olympians on Meadowbrook’s wall. We have a swimmer who is 12, who 2 years ago looked up at our wall during practice and said, “We’re going to run out of room.” (Laughs) That’s the attitude we bring. It’s normal to reach the top.

6 You seem to have really mellowed a bit the past two years – true?

Paul: I don’t know (laughs) if I’m the one to comment on that. If it’s true, I guess it’s great to hear. I’m not sure how to answer that. I guess it’s a good thing to be relaxed, that’s for sure. It’s been, what, about two years since we talked? Everybody changes in two years, regardless of age. And change can be good.

7 How great was coaching the U.S. team in Montreal?

Paul: There’s no doubt about it, yes, it was a good experience. To be there around all the National Team coaches and athletes was just ideal. I feel I can do a great job in those situations, whatever team it is, whoever is in charge – whatever coach (Mark) Schubert decides, I’m ready to go with it.

8 How is Katie able to be so consistently good?

Paul: It’s her consistency that makes her who she is. Consistency is what you think of when you think of Katie. At U.S. Open she does well, and at the Grand Prix events she swims well, and then does another great job at Worlds. That’s part of her deal. That’s who she is.

9 So do you coach every kid differently?

Paul: I feel like I coach in a lot of different ways. I try to find what works for each athlete. Certainly, with a group of athletes, there has to be a certain degree of uniformity with what you are doing, because there are only so many lanes for so many athletes. So we’ll do things together, but then we’ll do different things with different people. Not everyone always needs to be doing the same thing, but there are some parts of the program that are uniform.

10 How much fun was it coaching that U.S. team with Georgia’s Jack Bauerle?

Paul: That was a great team. My most memorable moment – and I think (laughs) he’s going to get mad at me for this – was when Coach Bauerle almost got eaten by a subway. You’ll have to ask him about it (laughs). That’s all I can say, but it was funny, and he won in the end.

11 A lot of college programs would love to get you to run their teams. Any interest from your end of it?

Paul: Let’s put it like this: I feel like I’m coaching the best group I could ever be coaching here at NBAC. I’m coaching who I want to coach, and I’m focused on this group. We’ve not only got people aiming for 2008, but also for 2012. We are continuing to move forward through the quadrennia and always thinking ahead. So NBAC is a great place to be, and I’m fortunate to be helping continue the tradition.

12 Your program does so much IM training. Why?

Paul: We think it is a great training tool. Certainly if the IM is at least one of your good events it can be a motivator, to do things other than your best stroke. At the age-group level that is very important. It’s a great thing for growing kids because sometimes they get better at one stroke and not at another, but then the next year, it’s another stroke that develops. So I think it’s important for the kids to have that option of getting better in other strokes, plus the IM is so good for training in general.

13 When Katie turned pro, I asked if she was going to pick up the tab at lunch with you. Has she?

Paul: I’m not sure (laughs) we’ve done that!

14 I’m sure a lot of people see your job as glamorous, coaching Olympians at such a high profile program. But aren’t the hours quite long?

Paul: I’d say it’s as much as I create it to be, or as much as I need it to be. I spend a lot of time “working” but I don’t spend all day at the pool just staring at it. I write a lot of workouts at home.

15 Someone told me you have a huge legal pad of workouts. True?

Paul: I have over 50 legal pads full of workouts. I have almost every workout I have ever written, and certainly every single one since 2001, at my house. I have Paul Bergen’s workouts from certain months when Tracy Caulkins was training in Nashville!

16 Speaking of Tracy, looking back, how amazing was she?

Paul: Looking at what she did, to have the American Record in every stroke is just unbelievable. Right in front of me, I have a month of her training from Paul’s 1978 notebook from the months before she dropped from 4:47 to 4:40 in the 400 IM to break the world record in 1978. She had the American record at the time, not the world, but then she broke the world record by two seconds – a full body length.

17 Last time we talked, we were both doing a lot of cycling. My career ended when I got creamed by a car last year. Please tell me your cycling’s gone better.

Paul: I haven’t done a lot of cycling because it was unseasonably cold this year.

18 What was the trip to Montreal like outside of the pool?

Paul: The food was good, and it was definitely French Canadian. The breakfast was fairly American one day, in terms of what they were serving, then it was French Canadian the next day. That’s the thing with the trips that make them fun – learning to roll with punches. Last month during a trip, I had a rule for my team at a hotel in Long Island that we all had to have a little bit of everything. It’s important to be able to eat when you’re in a new or foreign place.

19 Everyone is excited about Beijing for different reasons. What are you most looking forward to about China hosting the 2008 Games?

Paul: I’m just excited to see some fast swimming. Every coach wants to see that, and we’d like to do even better than we did this year as a team. So even though it’s exciting to have the Olympics in Beijing, it’s still a task-oriented experience.

20 How amazing was that relay at Worlds – Katie, Dana, Lacey and Natalie – were so far ahead that when I turned on the TV in the middle of the race I couldn’t see anyone else.

Paul: That’s what you get when you put Natalie on the front end of the relay. That’s a tribute to Natalie, who had an unbelievable meet. To have Dana and Lacey in the middle and then Katie was great because they are all fast and great relay swimmers. It was quite impressive.

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