Soichi Sakamoto (August 6, 1906 – September 29, 1997) was an American swimming coach who pioneered training methods that have now become standard throughout the sport. Many of his students went on to have great success nationally and internationally. He was inducted into the International Swimming, Hawaii Sports and American Swimming Coaches Association Halls of Fame, and is a member of the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

Sports Circle of Honor. Maui-Puunene-School-oblique

Sakamoto was a sixth-grade science teacher at

Puunene School The Puunēnē School, also known as Puunene School, is a historic school building in the community of Puunēnē in the central part of Maui, Hawaii, United States. Built in 1922 by the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company (a division of Alexand ...

in Maui,

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

, and initially knew little about swimming.Readable article
/ref> Nonetheless, he established the Three-Year Swim Club in 1937 for the children of poor sugar plantation workers. The name of the club reflected his goal of getting his pupils on the Olympic team in three years. While his students did indeed qualify, the

1940 Summer Olympics The 1940 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XII Olympiad, were originally scheduled to be held from September 21 to October 6, 1940, in Tokyo City, Empire of Japan. They were rescheduled for Helsinki, Finland, to be held from ...

were cancelled due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. However, his team won the 1939, 1940 and 1941

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national outdoor team championships. He was the swimming coach at the

from 1946 to 1961 and an assistant coach of the US Olympic Swim Team from 1952 to 1956. Beginning with the 1948 Summer Olympics, Sakamoto achieved his goal; a number of his pupils not only competed in the Olympics, they were medalists. He was the first to use

interval training Interval training is a type of training exercise that involves a series of high-intensity workouts interspersed with rest or relief periods. The high-intensity periods are typically at or close to anaerobic exercise, while the recovery periods invo ...

in the sport. Lacking a pool, he had his students train in irrigation ditches, swimming against the current, a form of resistance training. His students include: * Takashi "Halo" Hirose - national 100-meter champion in 1941, NCAA champion, and three-time All-American * Thelma Kalama - a member of the winning 1948 Olympics women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay team * Evelyn Kawamoto - 1949 national champion in the 300-meter individual medley and 200-meter breaststroke, two-time bronze medalist at the 1952 Olympics *

Keo Nakama Keo Nakama (May 21, 1920 – September 8, 2011) was an American swimmer. Nakama was born in the town of Puʻunene, Hawaii, on the island of Maui. He was one of a group taught by Soichi Sakamoto at the Puʻunene School His swimming career in ...

- world record holder for the mile * Bill Smith - double gold medalist at the 1948 Olympics and world record holder in four events In October 2015, Julia Checkoway published her book ''The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui’s Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory'' (Grand Central Publishing, 2015, ), a ''

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'' bestseller according to

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakamoto, Soichi 1906 births 1997 deaths American swimming coaches Schoolteachers from Hawaii Hawaii people of Japanese descent