The time that I progressed the most

Again, this is more for coaches, but may interesting to others.

The period of time that I progressed as a coach the most was very early on. My brother and I were both coaches, as we both are still today. In the summer, he'd come home and coach the Summer League Team that I was Head Coaching. Summer League in the Central Valley is crazy. You have the swimmers for about 2 to 3 weeks. Club swimmers wouldn't come to Summer League Team practices, but they'd compete at meets. These practices were crazy. All these kids not knowing much about swimming, and others who have swam summer after summer. The Season would then start, and we'd have meets that went from 5:00pm to after 10:00pm. This would be every Tuesday and Thursday night. Practice was only Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

My brother and I one summer would drive home from these meets that ended at 10:00pm, grab dinner on the way home at a drive thru, and get home around 11:30pm - Midnight. We'd hang out and talk about our summer league swimmers. We'd review many of the performances and our opinions on how they could get better. We'd talk about the club swimmers also. We'd figure things out many times, and we'd argue with each other. We both had opinions, and we were both hard headed and were willing to argue with each other. Funny, we either came up with solutions or we finished with the belief that we were just going to disagree. Either way we ended the argument we walked away with another perspective that we could think about later. We'd finally go to bed around 1:00am or 2:00am, only to wake up at around 6:00am to drive to morning workout for the club swimmers.

When my brother returned home we were able to argue even more. The schedule wasn't so crazy, but we'd still have plenty of time to argue and chat about swimming. My perspective on swimming changed a lot, even his perspective changed. We both grew to realize the value that each of us had to give to one another, even though our worlds in swimming were so different.

Going from Central California to Southern California has allowed me to progress even more. I learn different things by observing my fellow coaches and other team coaches. Dealing with swimmers in this cut throat environment. I feel bad for them sometimes because of how the entry point is so difficult down here. The things that I learned early on in discussions and arguments have been huge for me to accept that things can be different, yet you can adapt to make it work. Open-mindedness. That was what helped my brother and I develop, even though we were willing to make the counter point at times.

His world has changed as well, going from NAIA to NCAA Division 1. I know he is still developing and learning on his journey. Still talking and at times arguing, but using each other to continue to grow is now a habit for us, and as our worlds have now grown, we can probably again have that great time of progression as coaches.

Easy Swimming at Practice develops habits

I talked to my group about how Easy Swimming at practice develops habits. Many times we do recovery type swims in practice, or stetch out aspects of the workout. In this time is where swimmers will develop their habits.

Good and Bad habits are frustrating. The bad need to be broken, the good need to be honed. Easy swims or stretch outs is where the swimmers are relaxed and have not a lot of things to worry about. This leads to them just flopping in the water at times. Broken Strokes due to no focus. The idea of these are not to relax the mind, but to relax the body.

My talk today was more of a lecture. Watching the swimmers execute skills that we have talked about practice to practice, and meet to meet. Easy Swims, this is the best time to think about these corrections. No clock to worry about. No care if people pass you. No interval to have to make. No drill motion to be sure to be doing. Just simply swimming. After some time of telling this for 300 Freestyles between sprints I ended practice with a 200 IM (Long Course). I told them that they need to think about at least one thing that I always talk to them about. That is all they need to worry about the entire lap. They were to take a few seconds on the wall to then think about the next stroke, and then swim the lap with only the one aspect in their focus.

It was some really good strokes. Less frustration on my part because they were all working on things that I have become tired of repeating on a regular basis. I decided they knew what they were to work on, and now I'd just setup the time for them to just focus on those things that they know they are working on. You've repeated this stuff enough times for them, I just finally gave them a chance to work on it on their own. It looked pretty good.

The Journey as a Coach

I was thinking the other day about my time as a coach. I feel like I talk to people about all the accomplishments and the good times. My warnings have always been more about things that happen all the time, and not the hardest of times. Letting people know the problems that arise, and don't worry they happen to all of us.

There are the things that coaches who have done this for awhile might have been through. My events are not necessarily mirror images of what others go through, but just the concept that tough times do happen.

23 years old, and I have had the opportunity to be a Head Age-Group Coach. The team is very small at this point. Each swimmer is a large part of what is keeping the club afloat. I give my all to this small group of swimmers. Physically, Mentally, and Emotionally. The honeymoon period has faded, and like anytime the honeymoon period for a coach fades; people begin to find the flaws. This Spring I had a few swimmers dropped out, more than normal, and I took it very hard. They were swimmers I had since I was just the Age-Group Coach. I found myself parked in a parking lot at about 10:00 at night crying, and making the phone call to quit. My club president didn't let me.

Years later, I had swimmers decide to leave my team to go to another team. Swimmers I had from a very young age, and had built them into fast swimmers. Again feeling very connected I found myself again in an empty parking lot crying and on the phone. This time it was a little different because I also had the stress of being unable to find a job after college and all the savings I had done while in college had now gone to almost nothing. I wasn't quitting after this incident though. I had become stronger.

I have a feeling of being an imposter. The feeling that I wonder if I am only an imposter swim coach. Early in my career this would keep up at nights. Now it becomes nothing but motivation to look and learn for more. I am not afraid to realize that I am wrong. I fix it, and make myself better. Reinvent myself. Realize what I do to be a good coach, and the things I can do to become better. Keep the good and develop that which is not.

The journey is hard, not because of the time put into it (even though theose can add up at times), but because we put our passion and emotion into what we do. They are not merely bumps in the road, but true obstacles that test your desire to be a good coach. Overcome them, and you become better. Leave coaching, and then you pursue your next endeavor, as the next person will come to try the journey out for themselves.

Keeping up with learning

Last weekend I went to a coaches clinic my brother was putting on for new age group coaches. I was more of an off to the side observer, but still listened in.

Even though the target was for new coaches, I found myself thinking like at other clinics. Taking in the information he was saying and seeing if there things he is saying to help me become better, or a way to say something different that can help solve a problem that I have been having.

I took away the concept of finishing the fly kick and a drill I haven't used for years. I plan to use the drill again now to help develop this with my swimmers. A description of where the body should be at highest point of the dive. These are things that aren't new, but there was a reminder and new terminology that can help me become better. 

Education continues, even in places that may be at a lower level, or higher level as well. The accumulation of knowledge. The drive to always be learning. That is how people become good coaches.

Keeping a swimmer in the sport

I was asked about this the other week, as their swimmer is younger and they saw some of the senior swimmers lose their focus and some, their desire. 

It's a hard question to answer as a coach. There are reasons for each individual, but I just read an article that laid out an idea that occurs in youth sports now a days; and I think I can make connection to the question that I was asked.

Young swimmers love to succeed as they see how much joy it brings to the adults in their lives (parents, coaches, friends, and relatives). These people tend to show their support by becoming active in their development. This happens in all youth sports. In adolescence these kids begin to look for autonomy. They want something that is theirs and theirs alone. This puts activities like youth sports at risk because of the activeness in development from the earlier years on the adults part. It's hard to be highly active I their growth, and then step back and allow them to take the reins of their direction in a sport. 

So, we have the athlete now that doesn't enjoy the sport because they have that parent who wants to coach them, or put their two cents in to their training and development. This can also be a coach who tries hard to push them, and doesn't wait for them to make the decision that they want to be good. Here the sport becomes the coaches and not the athletes. The athlete must choose they want to be good, and then the coach can make a bigger difference. As a coach we say things sometimes to envoke this desire, but it is still the athletes decision.

We must allow the sport to belong to the athlete. Yes, some are still going to stray, but those will be reasons not because of parent or coach. 

It is also hard because to be an athlete you must live in the counter culture. That's why there aren't a whole lot of great athletes. To be an athlete that highest level is not easy nor normal. This is the other reason why some drop out. More on the counter culture in a future post.

Building with numbers, prestige, and some fast swimmers

Big Clubs tend to develop fast swimmers. Why is this? The idea that kids swimming within a large group have a better chance of having training partners. You have more swimmers pushing them at practice, so every swimmer working hard is one more piece of the puzzle to making your team faster.crowded lanes and choppy water. It's harder swim in that condition. Think about how great they feel in the race when they have a lane to themselves. Big clubs also have the ability to handle drop out. Retention is not 100%. Kids choose other sports; or just decide that they can't push themselves harder than before, so their times become stagnant. Sometimes a late bloomer feels like they will never catch up to their peers, or a early developed swimmer gets frustrated because everyone is getting closer to their times. Retention is hard for clubs, but a well developed team keeps the kids in the water to continue to keep kids pushing hard to achieve.

Our club will be hosting our Junior Olympics for the 4th time this summer. Our Head Coach and myself believe that that is an indication that we are a developed and organized club. We have things together to develop fast swimmers. This prestige of hosting such a meet, carries into the mind set of swimmers. A belief that we are a top teir team. We believe that this has been a contributor to our development in our team. We take pride that people like to attend our JO's and we always get compliments for a well ran meet. (These comments despite our team realizing all the missteps that we have taken. We are more critical of our execution of a meet.)

In building the team, a team recognizing the swimmers reaching the high levels. These swimmers train together along with others and they should be pushing each other to reach the level of the fastest swimmers in the group. My coaches growing up always coached towards the fastest swimmer, and then we were to try our best to hang in with them. We all became better swimmers trying to keep up with our fastest swimmers.

Big numbers. Hosting big meets with pride. Training towards the top of the group to develop the entire group in general. You build this, and you have yourself a machine. Swimmers come in, they get fast because of what has been laid before them. You need to build it and that takes time, but it does create fast swimmers.