Coaches Clinic

This last weekend I was home for my cousins wedding, so I put on a coaches clinic for coaches in the central valley. Low attendance, but that didn't matter; it was fun and I think everyone enjoyed it.

It is the 3rd coaches clinic that I had ever done, and it was the first time I didn't have notes. Not on purpose though, I left them in my printer in Simi Valley (3 and half hour drive away). Ok, so I showed up really early and took some quick notes. I think I covered most, but I did forget something, and it wasn't big, but it is something that I think some have misinterpreted from what I have said before. Here is my clarification of my old philosophy that really allowed to become better, and continues to somewhat serve me now.

"Coach like you know everything; Study like you know nothing." This is how I began coaching. So, I grew up in a swimming family, but really I didn't no much about swimming at all. I knew more about basketball than I did swimming. You can't create confidence in your swimmers that they can be really fast if you don't show confidence though. So I would show up and coach, and I talked like I knew everything there was to know. I would then go home and continue to study to make myself better. Now I don't have to act like I know what I am talking about because I know a lot, but I continue to study. I think that once I decide I can't make myself better is when I am no longer a good coach.

I have heard others say my philosophy in different words, "Fake it, until you make it." This is not the same though. This implies that you fake knowing everything, and sooner or later you become a good coach. There is no implementation of the most important aspect, "Study like you know nothing." This it truly the part of my early philosophy that helped me become better. Was there some faking it in the beginning? Yes. But I felt like I was a good coach because I was willing to spend the time to study, and learn about the sport of swimming.

The philosophy also implies that you study with an open mind that what you thought was true was possibly not true, and what you might have deemed wrong, may not be wrong after all. This is how I have evolved to be the coach I am.