Charlie Sava

Charles Sava (June 6, 1910 – May 1, 1983) was a Hall of Fame American swimming coach, who led the women's team of San Francisco's Crystal Plunge Swim Club to 10 consecutive National AAU championships between 1944-1948. Sava's best known Olympic swimmers included 1948 two-time gold medalist Ann Curtis Cuneo, 1948 London Olympic diver Vicki Draves, 1948 London Olympic backstroker Barbara Jensen, 1968 Mexico City Olympic Silver medalist Lynn Vidali, and 1952 Helsinki Olympic freestyler Delia Meulenkamp Dooly. 1964 Tokyo Gold Medalist Donna de Varona, and 1972 Munich Olympic gold medalist Mark Spitz did some training with Sava, but also received essential training from Coach George Haines at the Santa Clara Swim Club. His birth date is taken from his last known driver's license and San Francisco city records, though he was highly secretive about his age, and some sources quote other dates.

An accomplished athlete himself, Sava is reputed to have swum daily for up to an hour in San Francisco Bay for 30 years.

Sava continued coaching at the indoor Crystal Plunge Pool on Lombard in downtown San Francisco until it was demolished in 1958. In the late 1940's, future Hall of Famer Coach George Haines, who was then serving at the military base in Alameda, was a frequent visitor to the Crystal Plunge pool while Sava was training Ann Curtis for the 1948 Olympics. For much of its use, the Crystal Plunge pool was large but not luxurious, in a basement, had mechanical issues, sometimes lacked warm water and featured the occasional cockroach. During his peak period between 1944-1948, Coach Sava’s women's teams just over 40 individual national titles. Coach Sava’s single greatest swimmer, Ann Curtis, won 35 National Championship gold medals. He coached Ann Curtis at a pool on San Francisco's Treasure Island around 1944, and several of his swimmers also swam at the Fairmont Swim Club's pool at the Fairmont Hotel, though he did not coach there. After 1980, he coached at the remodeled Larkin Park Charlie Sava Pool named in his honor.

Technique Sava was one of the earlier coaches to use repetitive intervals and resistance training with his swimmers beginning around 1949. Intervals, also known as sets, had swimmers perform a swim or a series of swims in a set time period, and served to drop swimmer's times and improve cardiovascular efficiency. He pioneered a more relaxed freestyle flutter kick from the knee to the hip, improving speed, and efficiency. He was aware that the legs should be kept straight with the proper degree of bend in the knees, and should move straight up and down with the hips as the source of motion. Sava was described, by his best known swimmer Ann Curtis Cuneo as both a brilliant innovator who implemented modern coaching methods. Cuneo also described him as a tough coach and taskmaster who expected strict compliance with his instruction, but such traits were common in early 20th century championship coaches. 1968 and 1972 Women's U.S. Olympic Swimming and Diving Team Head Coach Sherm Chavoor, in his early years as a coach, claimed he studied fellow Californian Charlie Sava's training techniques and was known as a demanding instructor himself.

Outstanding swimmers

Several sources site 50,000 as the number of swimmers Sava trained or taught to swim during his fifty year career. Sava coached swimming to Hall of Fame Coach Marion Olson Kane Elston, founder of the San Francisco Merionettes sychronized swimming Club, and one of America's most successful coaches in synchronized swimming.

In 1960, Sava he authored the book How to Teach Yourself and Your Family to Swim Well, published by New York's Simon and Schuster.

Death On February 16, 1983, Sava was driving to the Larson Park Charlie Sava Swimming Pool in San Francisco named in his honor, to begin daily swim practice at 6:00 am when his car hit a light pole on Holloway Avenue and he was sped to the Mission Emergency Hospital. The officer who reported the accident state Sava wanted to get to the pool and begin practice rather than be taken to a hospital. His injuries were reported as a broken arm, and possibly nose, and though his injuries should have been survivable, he suffered a fatal heart attack at the hospital. Sava was never married and had no children or known survivors. A memorial service was scheduled, but no funeral was planned at Sava's request.

Honors He became a member of the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1983, and was a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.