Just a tangent

Like I said on my first post, I have no idea what the purpose of this blog is, but I would just add stuff to it as I go. Some of it may be useful while other posts are purely just thoughts. Who is my target audience? I don't know. I kind of like looking back though to see some of my thoughts and things I did. I wish I kept a log like this when I was younger, so that I could look back on it and laugh at myself, as many things I once did and were probably not right and were quite off base. I am wondering if this blog will just be good for me to look back on to help myself to evaluate myself and improve, as that is something I try to do after every season.

Now to the tangent,

Its crazy to think back on the past and where it all began. I listen to young coaches, and some of them have no idea what some other coaches have done. I couldn't imagine what some of the coaches had to go through before me.

I started coaching club swimming at 18 years old as I was attending Junior College with no aspiration of being a swim coach. I coached one hour for three days a week with kids who ranged in ability by quite a bit. I think I had 8 or 9 kids at the Kingsburg Pool. My first Paycheck from RCA after taxes was less than $80 for the month of September. Crazy thing was that I loved it. I had some fast kids in Sammy and Bianca, but most were just ok, and then I had Zack who was the kid in the group that I kicked out all the time, and seemed like his whole purpose was to drive me crazy.

Before Club Coaching I had coached the Aqua Bears, a summer league team. At 16 I got my own Age-Group to coach, the 11 - 12 boys and girls. Around 28 girls and 11 boys on that team. 39 kids all to myself to coach with 3 lanes. I had kids who were Top 8 finalist at Finals going around a 26 low in the 50 free, and then I had kids like Walter, the kid who could barely make across the pool, and his first 50 free was around 1:30.00 I believe. Talk about range in ability inside of a group. Walter ended up going under 55 seconds in that 7 week season, and Bradley did win the 50 Free at Finals.

Despite how difficult it was to try to make a workout to help all of those swimmers, and the low amount I got paid, I loved it. I hear young coaches complain about stuff telling me these things as though demanding me to feel bad for them. Yeah, I may feel bad for them, but I understand it. Sometimes you have to go through the grind to make it where you want to be.

Simple message to beginning coaches. The job may seem stressful and that you aren't making a lot of money, well those are probably both true, but if you love it and you can make it work in your lifestyle, then the job is awesome. I'm sure I didn't have it that rough compared to some others. I will say this though; that the journey has not always been easy, but I sure have enjoyed it so far.