Coaching at Meets

I sometimes wonder about the different ways people coach at swim meets. When I began coaching, it was kind of like I wanted to prove to everyone that I am a real coach. I did a lot of coaching at meets, and tried to fix things during warm-up, made sure we did dive starts, and various other things to "cram" information to the swimmers before the races began. I also talked a lot more about each race. I only had a few swimmers at the meets normally, so I had a lot more time, but I spent a lot of time going over all the details of the stroke and strategy.

I have changed a lot now. I think reading John Wooden's Book over again helped with this process. He talked about doing the practices to be fully prepared for a competition. I go through possible things to cover at a practice now for quite a bit of time now. I think about the prior weeks, and all that I have covered, and what we have done recently as well. I figure what I want to focus for the day using reminders like my notebooks and the Wiki. From there I build workouts based on that focus, and also having periods of time where I drift away from the focus, so it doesn't seem like we are doing the same thing for an hour and a half (try to not make it too repetitive, as training for swimming is quite repetitive by nature).

Now at swim meets, I don't have this overwhelming feeling like, "I need to fix this, and I need to work on that before they do this particular race." Instead, I focus on reminding them to prepare their bodies: Stretch Out, then get muscles working, and then to get the heart rate to rise. We've prepared the body to perform during the warm-up, but I stay away from going over too much stroke things, as I feel like we've prepared at practice, now it is all about performance. I've noticed a much more calm feeling at meets, and think that the swimmers have picked up on it, and have performed. I have a sense of confidence that they are ready to swim fast, and I am not projecting a feeling that we still need a lot of work, and we aren't completely ready.

A Swimmer needs to be relaxed to be ready to perform. I feel like a calm coach helps the swimmer to be relaxed. I try to get them to not look at goals at meets to also not add the stress to their performance. I hope that their high strung parents don't stress them out too much to perform or remind them too much about what they need to be doing. (Parents don't like the idea of not being in control, and probably why we see parents have such a hard time with being sports parent, as the end result is up to the athlete, and not the parent. In this same sense, the coach can only hope that their athlete performs, and it is truly out of your hands once you get to the performance.) We help with the preparation. We provide the practices to help them be prepared. That is why coaches get so upset about kids missing practice, despite if there is a excuse or not. Our preparation is designed by the athlete not missing a workout. One missed practice throws a X Factor into the mix, as now we hope that they don't miss the next time we cover something, as we can't repeat all the time, and not continue to make progress with the group.

Watch the coaches who have been around for awhile, the ones who have not burned themselves out of coaching and have been successful at developing swimmers. Most of them have a sense of calmness to them at swim meets. Most of the time they are just enjoying watching their swimmers, and taking mental (or physical) notes on what they may need to cover at future practices. It is hard to make the transition, but I can see how I have made that transition along my coaching path.

About making hard sets look easy

After practice I talked to the kids about the last two meets. I pointed out to of the swimmers and their achievements at the meets. I also recognized that those two individuals had looked great at practices leading up to the meet. I talked about how we did some sets that I thought would be hard for the group, but they made the set look easy. Although they were working hard, the extra speed they put into the set is what made the set look easy.

"They had practiced fast," I emphasized again, as I had done the prior two weeks. The results: they swam fast at the swim meet. "Your body will go to what it has practiced when it is tired or your mind slips. So, we need to start working on swimming fast at practice."

Today's practice: I can tell who took this to heart. They were giving a totally new effort at the practice. They seemed to actually be enjoying it more now than when they were not putting forth the effort. Really excited that some of the swimmers stepped up and took on the challenge of trying to make sets designed to be hard, look easier than planned.

I'm not one to single out swimmers, but here I did and added why I was recognizing them. It wasn't for a great meet, but doing the preparation at practice to be ready to have a great meet. Most of my swimmers had two really good meets, but those two individuals definitely had swims that were stand out performances.

Let's see if the group continues to push like this, and see what comes of it at the May Buena Meet.