In episode #114 we visit with Barry Healey from BC, Canada, to discuss building an athletic reform task force, navigating government roadblocks, and a clever way to fund a new public park. We also take a quick look at the VASA trainer’s retirement and its impact on swim training.
What you'll learn:
- How to design and launch a city‑wide athletic reform task force from scratch.
- Strategies for getting provincial and federal sport funding when councils push back.
- The “case of beer” pitch that secured a $13‑per‑household‑per‑month park funding plan.
- Engaging schools and universities in community sports development.
- Updates on the VASA trainer’s retirement and alternatives for swim‑erg training.
Heavy Or Not #114: Building Sports Communities, Selling the Vision and Pulling Your Own Weight
Heavy Or Not Episode 114 travels across three topics that may seem separate at first. Barry Healey talks about building a stronger structure for sports and recreation in his community in British Columbia. He tells the story of how a major public park became possible when supporters found a simple way to explain the cost. Then we turn toward swimming and strength training with a salute to VASA founder Rob Sleamaker.
There is a common thread running through all three.
Good ideas need structures that allow people to act. Good proposals need explanations people can understand. Good training equipment needs coaches who understand how and why to use it.
That is where leadership enters the picture.
Every Community Needs a Sports Council
Barry Healey has been pushing for stronger coordination of sports, recreation and community resources in British Columbia. His frustration is familiar. Clubs do their own work. Schools have facilities and athletic programs. Government agencies have programs and sometimes money. Recreation organizations have responsibilities. Yet there can still be a hole in the middle.
Nobody owns the responsibility for bringing everybody together.
Barry describes a community without a recreation board or sports council capable of coordinating the larger picture. His goal is to gather the clubs and begin designing that structure rather than waiting years for somebody else to create it.
Think about a local version of an Olympic committee. The Olympics bring many sports underneath a larger organizational umbrella while allowing each sport to retain its own identity. A community sports council can operate with the same spirit.
Swimming people can still run swimming. Soccer people can run soccer. Basketball, track, hockey, arts, recreation and other interests continue to develop their own programs. The larger council creates a place where those interests meet, communicate and solve shared problems.
There might be financial issues that cross several programs. There might be disputes over facilities or scheduling. There might be grant opportunities requiring cooperation. There might be opportunities for several organizations to share equipment, staff, publicity or expertise.
A community organization can help those pieces connect.
Barry's experience also illustrates a major challenge in public recreation. A federal representative can say that something belongs to local government. A provincial representative can say essentially the same thing. Local organizations can lack the structure or appetite to respond. Soon everyone can explain why somebody else owns the problem.
Meanwhile, the athletes, coaches, clubs and families are still standing there.
Barry believes the community needs a stronger voice capable of carrying those concerns to higher levels of government and asking for guidance, resources and support. He also points to opportunities that can disappear when a community lacks an organization capable of receiving or pursuing them.
That is an important lesson for coaches.
We spend plenty of time thinking about athletes, workouts, facilities and competitions. Strong sports communities also require organization away from the field and pool deck. Somebody needs to connect the pieces.
Schools Are Part of the Community Sports System
Schools deserve a place at that table.
Barry points out that schools in his community control many of the playing fields and gymnasiums. Their athletes participate in regional and provincial competition, including swimming and basketball. He has approached the school board because those facilities and programs have value beyond the boundaries of the school day.
That idea is worth remembering.
A gymnasium can serve physical education during the school day, a school team in the afternoon and community programming later. A swimming pool can host physical education, learn-to-swim programs, competitive teams, lifeguard training, fitness activities and community events.
Fields, courts, pools and gymnasiums are assets.
The strongest communities find ways to use those assets repeatedly and intelligently.
Sports organizations also give schools access to coaches, volunteers, officials, program ideas and community connections. When the school system and the recreation community communicate, both sides gain capacity.
Coordination is the multiplier.
Make the Big Idea Easy to Understand
The second story in Episode 114 comes from a park beside a lake in British Columbia.
Barry describes a large park with plenty of open space, beaches, camping and room for kids. The location has become a valuable recreational asset.
The interesting part is how supporters originally sold the idea.
They needed government approval and public support. Large public projects immediately invite a predictable question:
How much is this going to cost us?
Someone translated the expense into something ordinary people could immediately understand. The park would cost about $13 per household per month.
Suddenly a large public project had a human scale.
People could picture thirteen dollars.
Barry recalls that supporters compared the monthly expense with the cost of a familiar household purchase. The comparison made the proposal tangible. Instead of debating an enormous project cost in the abstract, residents could weigh a modest monthly expense against the prospect of gaining a large public park.
The idea passed.
There is a communications lesson here for every coach, recreation leader and sports administrator.
Translate.
Big numbers become manageable when people can place them into their own lives. Large projects become understandable when we explain what the investment buys.
A million-dollar proposal can sound enormous. The same investment spread across a population, across several years or across thousands of participants can tell a very different story.
Good leaders learn how to explain scale.
They connect the price with the outcome.
Here, a modest household investment helps create a park that serves families, children, campers, swimmers and visitors for generations.
Simple explanations can unlock complicated projects.
A Salute to Rob Sleamaker and VASA
The final portion of Episode 114 returns us directly to swimming.
After 38 years, VASA founder Rob Sleamaker announced his retirement and suspended the company's e-commerce operations. The VASA website remains available as a source for training and maintenance information, and VASA equipment continues to exist in clubs, training facilities, garages and the resale market.
Rob also authored Serious Training for Serious Athletes, a book that became familiar to many coaches interested in dryland and endurance training.
The VASA Trainer created something especially interesting for swimmers. It allowed an athlete to work against resistance while performing movements that resemble swimming.
Barry remembers using VASA equipment after coming to Canada. In his program, swimmers who were temporarily unable to swim could still come to practice and remain involved with the team. Training might include kicking or working on one of the machines. Attendance and participation remained part of the team culture.
There are practical limitations. Equipment costs money. Smaller programs need somewhere to store it. Deck space can be limited. Coaches have to move equipment, maintain it and incorporate it intelligently into training.
Those realities influence whether a piece of equipment becomes valuable or becomes something sitting against a wall.
The machine itself never writes the training program.
The coach does.
Pull Your Own Weight
The original VASA Trainer has an especially appealing concept behind it.
The swimmer pulls his or her own body weight.
That connects perfectly with one of my favorite training ideas: pull your own weight.
Swimming coaches constantly look for exercises that transfer into the water. General strength has value, yet swimming also rewards movements that resemble the actions an athlete needs to perform in the pool.
The VASA Trainer allows athletes to work through pulling motions that resemble freestyle and butterfly. Athletes can alter position and movement to explore other stroke patterns as well.
That gives the exercise specificity.
The athlete produces force through a swimming-related movement while controlling his or her own body.
That does not mean every swimmer needs one particular machine. It means coaches should understand the principle underneath the equipment.
Look at the movement.
Look at the resistance.
Look at what the athlete is being asked to control.
Look at how closely the exercise supports what happens in the pool.
Equipment comes and goes. Training principles have a much longer life.
The Coaching Lesson
Episode 114 starts with civic organization, moves to public communication and finishes with strength training. Underneath all three topics sits the same coaching habit.
Figure out what you are trying to accomplish, then build the structure that helps people accomplish it.
A community full of sports clubs gains strength when somebody connects them. A major park project gains support when somebody explains the investment in language families understand. A strength machine gains value when a coach understands how its movement contributes to an athlete's development.
Coaching reaches well beyond writing workouts.
Coaches organize people. We explain ideas. We connect resources. We find ways around obstacles. We take complicated situations and make the next move clear.
That is Heavy Or Not territory.
Sometimes the heavy thing is a piece of training equipment.
Sometimes it is a million-dollar community decision.
Sometimes it is simply the weight of getting people organized enough to move forward.
This version can drop directly into the LMS as the reading that accompanies Episode 114.
Barry Healy (BC) is rallying clubs to form an Athletic Reform Task Force before the Oct 1 meeting, building a recreation board from scratch.
He wants a simple, fast‑track process—no endless council delays—and is looking for tools like a Substack for updates and collaboration.
Funding fights: both federal and provincial ministries deflect responsibility to the council, leaving the community stuck.
He’s pushing the province for guidance so grants don’t fall through the cracks and the city can move forward.
To sell a new public park, Healy used the “case of beer” analogy—$13 per household per month—and got community buy‑in.
He also plans outreach to school boards to highlight that schools control most gyms and fields, urging them to think beyond campus limits.
VASA founder Rob Sleamaker retired, ending VASATrainer.com sales, but the equipment still circulates in clubs and resale markets, still valuable for swimmers.
Keywords
Athletic Reform Task Force, BC recreation, community park funding, case of beer analogy, public park assets, open water swim, school athletics, provincial sport grants, federal sport funding, municipal council challenges, substack publication, media outreach, CBC interview, VASA trainer, swim erg equipment, Rob Sleamaker retirement, Serious Training for Serious Athletes, swimmer motivation, bodyweight training, swim‑specific strength, community advocacy, policy navigation, grant acquisition, park development, athlete development, regional sports collaboration, public engagement, online publication, task force design, Olympic‑style committee, sports infrastructure, shared resources