Three R’s of TEAM

As a coach of what may be known to outsiders as more of an individual sport (swimming, and something I would argue btw), I’ve spent my entire coaching career focused on creating the best TEAM environment possible. It all started like most of us coaches start, based on my own personal history. I had incredible bonds with my TEAMmates at both my club and then college showed me what an entire TEAM could really be. So when I took over as head coach on my club, TEAM is what I thought I could offer all, and be able to put our top athletes in the best position possible to reach their potential at the same time. It’s really a win-win, but it takes daily focus and full commitment.

It is also important to define a bit more of what TEAM is and what it teaches along the way, if we want people to be able to have that feeling of belonging to something bigger than themselves. While it would be easy to go on about TEAM, it’s advantages, requirements, and so much more, I wanted to share what I believe to be 3 core principles to TEAM.

Respect – This is all about the character of the athlete, coach, parent and all involved. In a TEAM environment, respect is required from every member towards every person they come in contact with when they are a part of that TEAM. That respect should be shown through all communication and especially when conflict arises of any kind.

Responsibility – This is the nuts and bolts of the sport. Those demands of the sport, whether it be training, technique, or any other part of the process that become a requirement of doing your part for the TEAM. Being a part of something bigger than yourself is an incredible feeling, but it also requires taking the personal responsibility to give your best efforts at all times.

Resilience – And the crown jewel of TEAM. Competition and chasing one’s potential are going to lead to hard times. Unfortunately, it’s just the way it is in life, if you are chasing something big, you will most likely be challenged before you see the reward, but without resilience, you never reach that reward. In a TEAM environment it becomes that much more important because it takes everyone to keep the culture, but only a few to spoil it. Resilience is the piece that will allow TEAMs to continue to grow and succeed, overcome obstacles, both TEAM wide and individual, and be stronger because of them.

Whether you are the one trying to build the TEAM culture or one that is committing to be a part of a TEAM, I encourage you all to focus on these three leading principles, especially when challenged in any way. Your consistency to your approach will lead to consistency to TEAM environment, and these are 3 anchors that will allow everyone to stay focused on their TEAM environment instead of the challenge in front of them. Go TEAM!

A note to Rose Bowl swimmers on preparing for Championship Meets

As I was preparing to talk to the National Group about the remainder of the season yesterday, it dawned on me that this really goes beyond just my group and where we are currently. So I wanted to reach out with a friendly challenge to all of our swimmers.

We are currently 4 weeks (Pacific Finale meet) and 5 weeks (Pacific Committee Champs and Stampede Meet) from major championship meets for our TEAM, and beyond what you have all put into the water so far, I want you to try something a little different than normal for the next few weeks and at those meets.

First off, what I am going to ask starts now (today), in order to be prepared for the upcoming meets. Any time you think of swimming and your races coming up, I want you to try to think in the terms I ask for below, instead of what you normally do.

1. Forget about the “times” or “cuts” that you are going for at the meet. Let those things come along the way. If we put them in front of us at meets, we often times fail to race the way you have trained to race. We set  specific expectations of ourselves, which then leads to us having more pressure to perform. Take those expectations away at meets. The time to use them would be workouts, but we can discuss that later.

2. Commit to your best races every time you are on the blocks. Too often we assume best times to be the only marker as to whether a race was good or not, and that’s just not the case. Not only is a non best time swim not necessarily a bad race, but a best time doesn’t mean that you did your best race on that day either. Instead I want you willing to give your absolute best “focused effort”  each and every time you are in the water to race.

By “focused effort” I mean that you are willing to race the way you and your coach have worked to get you ready to race. So it has to be more than just effort, as we see people “over-swim” races all the time, but there’s no focus when that’s done.

All you can and should expect of yourself on that given day is to do your absolute best, on that day. If you can allow yourself to do that, then your times will be as fast as you are prepared to go on that day. From there, then it’s time to adjust what’s done daily to be better, but for now, adjust what you can and be ready to give your absolute best “focused effort” in each and every race.

3. Forget about how you “feel” at the meet. Instead go back to all those times you didn’t feel good in practice, yet you pushed yourselves to fast swimming. Just remember the goal, “focused effort”, and paying attention to how you feel should have no impact on your effort, unless you let it.

4. Push the second half of races beyond what you currently believe you can do. In short, get out of your head when that pain starts to set in (and yes, if you are racing correctly that pain will set in) and push yourself to give the absolute best efforts you can. You are capable of more, accept that you have that control and learn how to push to new levels by just letting yourself go.

As part of this finishing push, commit to attacking your walls. Too often when we get tired, we also let our turns slow down, but they don’t have to just because we are tired. They don’t take nearly as much energy as swimming, yet because of that we treat them as rest. Be different, be better, and attack those walls to beat people and be that much faster than you were last time in the water.

5. Focus on the efforts, be confident and above all else, remember to have FUN.

I put this one last because I think it’s the most important piece. Don’t get me wrong, I am as competitive a person as I know, and this may seem to go against that piece, but it’s actually how you will perform your best and yet still get the most out of this sport in and out of the water.

Focus on your efforts - In the end that all you can do, and guess what, there’s not a single person reading this that can say they gave it their absolute all every single time they did something. It’s just not that easy. That said, effort is the greatest focus as that is what you have control over. You don’t have control over the clock, that’s for sure. You never know how fast someone else will swim, that’s a huge mistake to judge success off of someone else.

Be true to yourself and push yourself to the best efforts you can give. When you are done you will then know whether you actually gave it everything in the pool or not, and you may also come to know that you gave it everything, had a great race without the results you wanted, and it may be time to take a look at what you do every day in workout, but that can all be done after the meet is over.

Regardless the result, remain focused on your effort every single time you step up on the blocks.

Be confident - It’s such an easy thing to say, but so hard to find when it’s not there for you. Just remember this when you start to get nervous. Do you consider yourself a better swimmer right now, than you would have when you went your best time? This doesn’t mean that things needed to go perfectly all season to be better. This only means you believe that you are a better swimmer now. Maybe it’s by training, or stroke technique, or knowing better racing strategy, or better mental game, or maybe just even the fact that you know you are more willing to push when it gets hard than you were before. It could be anything, but you have to believe that you are ready.

HAVE FUN! - Here’s the deal, this whole thing is a process, and the earlier and better we can learn to truly enjoy the process, the better. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be “fun” all the time, but you can enjoy it all the time. It also doesn’t take anything away from the competitive drive, it only reminds us that this should all be fun.

Don’t let the scoreboard determine if you enjoy this sport. I shared this with my group yesterday and will share today as well. While when I was growing up I had pretty balanced reactions to my results I think, I remember a specific time where it just all hit me. My senior year in college I made a goal that I was going to win every single 200 fly event that I swam that year and it started out pretty good. In December I won US Open for the first time. Every dual meet 200 fly was a win. Then came Pac 10’s, went in second and took the win in finals. Then came NCAA’s and the finals. My last collegiate race would be my opportunity to sweep my senior year. I had qualified 4th in the morning and was ready for finals.

The race came and went, and it was one of those races that I don’t remember much at all, snapshots at best, with little captions. I remember thinking as I went into a turn how I needed to really attack the walls. Then another flash of just reminding myself to push, that I had more. It was the race I needed to have, but in the end it just wasn’t enough. I touched the wall 2nd place, just 3 tenths from first and 2 tenths from the USC record at the time.

Now, I know how I might have reacted in the past. Nothing dramatic, just allowing myself to be bummed and lose that moment. I can’t tell you exactly why it happened this time, but things changed for me seconds after I saw my time on the board and that annoying “2” by my name. In starting to get that bothersome feeling of having “lost”, I looked over and saw my teammates going crazy on the side of the pool and it all clicked for me. Fight on signs being thrown in the air, cheering, and just overall excitement. I had done everything I could all season long. I had committed myself to a goal, followed through with it, and raced to the best of my ability, so why would I be down? In an instant, I was given the gift to enjoy that time and my final race, regardless if it wasn’t the storybook ending I had hoped for that year.

This sport is much bigger than times. It’s about learning, challenging yourself to the end of your limits and recognizing just how much that means when it’s all over. So don’t get so caught up on times that you lose the bigger picture. Focus instead of challenging yourself to push harder, learn more and improve yourself along the way, and the crazy thing is, I’m willing to bet your performances will be even better than you may think possible right now.

Thanks all and let’s go have some fun!

Go Rose Bowl!

Jeff

35 years and swimming continues to give back what I put into it…

As many of you have probably seen on Instragram posts or otherwise, Kristine and I just got back from Beijing, China, where we had the pleasure of running a camp for a local team. Now I sit here “battling jet lag” and I can’t stop thinking about our experience there and swimming in general. So, for those “attention challenged”, I’ll sum it up very quickly here, as I know that many will not get through this potentially long blog post. One of the reasons I love this sport so much is that it will give back to you everything that you are willing to put into it. Focus on working hard and putting your heart into it, and swimming will likely surprise you in what it has to offer. The sport is about more than just times and goals (even for the most competitive, in which I think I would qualify), but if you take time to take a step back and really see how much the sport is offering you and your family, I think you will understand what I am saying. Enjoy the sport for everything it can offer, see the bigger picture and I’m willing to bet things begin to unfold in even better ways than you can imagine. To kick us off, I want to thank everyone for your comments and very supportive thoughts expressed in the pictures that were posted on Facebook during our trip. I was able to post those through Instagram and connect to Facebook, but China having different rules on the internet, I could not see Facebook itself at all. So, it was very nice to come home to see all of those well wishes. I apologize for not being able to see/respond at the time though. With a large portion of these coming from my “swimming family”, it’s just the start of what swimming has meant to me. Okay, this isn’t going to be a recap of everything that swimming has meant to me. Instead I wanted to share our incredible experience in China over the past week and the thoughts that have come up because of it. Kristine and I have run camps and clinics for years now, but this was our first venture internationally and we didn’t know what exactly to expect. Luckily, one of the families that helped get this set up and now live there, used to swim for us at Rose Bowl. An incredible family, we had an amazing time seeing China, enjoying great meals and sharing stories with them over the course of our trip. Thank you! Our host coaches were also very welcoming and excited to learn as well. It was refreshing to see their openness to learn and interesting to hear about the swimming scene there in Beijing. The camp itself was as fun as always, to really get to work with some excited swimmers over a 5 day period. Now, don’t get me wrong, we have a TEAM of incredible swimmers and families that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Life, having a way of making the “day-to-day” feel so “normal”, can give you the feeling everything you put into something is sometimes lost by those that consider it just to be the “norm”. More often than not, we hear from those that are no longer a part of the program for whatever reason, just how much it all meant to them. Please understand, this isn’t an insult on anyone that we’ve worked with, as I fall victim to this thinking from time to time as well. Anyway, this camp gave us a small peak into the impact and enjoyment that can be found in our efforts to share the love of this sport with different swimmers. There are plenty of small stories, just in this camp alone, about the smiles that were on the swimmers and parents faces. It was a lot of fun from start to finish. All that said, I wanted to share a short story that Kristine and I will never forget and means so much to us. Two of the swimmers were 7 year old boys; Li Fu (who’s mom runs a foundation that helped sponsor the clinic) spoke perfect English and Peter, who spoke very little English, both were early in their swimming development. Kristine had these swimmers in her group and she built a connection that should be inspirational for any coach. To start, Peter always referred to her as “Teacher” anytime he wanted to get her attention. Then, early in the clinic, asked his mother if he could get “Teachers” phone number so that when he’s an older and faster swimmer and goes to the United States, that he can call her to let her know how far he had come. Are you kidding me? So fun to hear stories like that, but that’s just the start of these incredible young swimmers. Li Fu was Peter’s buddy all camp, translated everything for him and lead him to where he needed to go every time. He didn’t need to, as Peter’s mom was there to help the entire time, but he did it without ever flinching or losing sight that his friend would need assistance. This is a 7 year old boy we’re talking about here, but clearly showed the compassion learned from his mother, who’s foundation works with blind kids and has Li Fu involved in those events as well. He was a very impressive little kid. All that said, I am only getting warmed up. If this doesn’t touch your heart, I’m either not very good at story telling or maybe it’s just a coach thing that goes beyond the pool. Anyway, we are on the 5th day of the clinic and these boys are getting very tired. This is the most they have swum over in their lives in that short a period of time. Peter even took it upon himself some days to get in the water early to “warm up” for the camp. So, now it the last day and we’re in the last session in the water. Earlier in the week we had seen Peter start to push that limit of fatigue and getting upset, which is a heart breaking thing to see by the way. He decides he just can’t do it and tells his mom he can’t do relays to finish that day (4th). “Not a problem, get some rest and let us know if you want to get in later.” Well, that lasted only as long as it took to divide up teams, no way he was going to miss being a part and told his mom he wanted to be a part of it. So on to the relays he goes. :-) With that background, we are really in the last session of camp now, and we see Peter upset again. Kristine is talking to his mom to be sure that everything is okay, and the mom proceeds to explain why he is upset. After 5 days of a swimming clinic, he was in tears because he was going to miss his “Teacher”. A swimmer that really couldn’t understand English, would likely be in Drills for Skills (part of our pre-competitive team), so it was about more than just swimming skills, and could still see and feel the excitement, commitment and love of this sport that drives Kristine to do what she does. This, to me, is one of those stories that keep the hope and dream alive that you are truly making an impact in peoples lives. Don’t get me wrong, we love our “day-to-day” job, and when we step back and see the bigger picture, understand fully that we likely hear the positive from our TEAM members as much of more than anyone out there. I fully believe that our TEAM (in general) understands just how much this means to us, and this is one of the reasons we have been able to build what we have over the years. In fact, one of the conversations we had with our friends out in China was about just that sort of thing. We discussed the fact that great organizations are lead by people who consider it more than just a job or even more than just a professional calling. It’s a passion for something bigger than a paycheck. Leading our TEAM is deeply personal to us because it is truly an extension to our family. We deeply want to make a lifelong, positive impact on our swimmers lives, and sometimes that’s hard to see when you are right in the middle of things. So, to go about things in the same way for a 5 day clinic and see the connections that can be made in that time, is an amazing feeling and, for me, is motivational to continue to strive to offer everything I can to every swimmer and family that I have any small impact on through my job as a direct coach and/or the head coach of a program. So, that then gets me thinking about things that are probably too often overlooked by myself. I don’t say these things to “tout” myself at all, as I tend to feel I can do better more than I think I’ve done great things, but it all goes along with taking that step back and really seeing the bigger picture. The conversation about “great corporations” was with someone at a level in the business world that just plainly puts me in awe, and we’re talking about the TEAM being lead in that same way. That wasn’t the first time either, whether it’s been being recognized for the full change in culture by a professional successful in working with companies to do just that, or the support and drive from someone who had lead three start ups through to the sale of them, or the thought that someone in charge of leading a TEAM of thousands in efforts “out of this world”, thinks about the TEAM leadership on Rose Bowl as he leads his own TEAM or the willingness of someone who’s resume again makes me chuckle when wanting to take a position in supporting me because I probably wouldn’t make it up if I was told I could as it just wouldn’t seem real, believes in the leadership of this TEAM as much as anything they have seen in their experience. All that, from people who have seen great success, and it’s still often too easy to get caught up in the negative. I seem to have the ability to dismiss, while absolutely appreciating, those things way too easily. The negative comes up, as it always will in any situation, and it’s taken personally and leads to loss of sleep and some amount of self-doubt. I’m not good at stating the positive in what I do, so that’s really not the point here, and it’s not about “asking” for more either. Rather, just wanted to share what this clinic had helped me see once again, share what I have to believe are common thoughts of coaches from time to time (as we don’t do this for the “money”, so to speak), maybe open some families eyes out there in how much your coach may do in an effort to give as much as possible to your swimmers, and then, last but not least, to remind coaches to take time to step back from the “grind”, don’t allow yourself focus on the negativity that will invariably arise and really see how much you offer in what you do. So, to bring it back around to how I started this blog, swimming continues to give back to me in ways I don’t always realize. The experience of being able to travel to China was incredible, and created memories with Kristine and I that we’ll never forget. But the real gift is the ability to see, one more time, how what we do can make such a big impact on swimmers lives, even in only 5 days. Without a doubt in my mind, if you have made it all the way to this point in the blog, you have played a roll in my swimming career at some point, in some way, and I thank you all for being a part of it. I never hid it anyway, but swimming is my life. It’s a love that was instilled in me by my mom and drives me daily to do my very best. I wouldn’t trade it for anything and I do sincerely thank all of you for being a part of this incredible sport (past teammates, Rose Bowl swimmers current and past, parents, etc, etc) and also those that my not have been directly involved but have supported me along the way. Swimming being the “Funnest Sport” doesn’t actually do it justice. It can give you a lifetime of memories and lessons that will never fade, and hopefully instill a love for the sport that can live on in your forever. It’s not the “Funnest Sport”, it’s quite simply the “Greatest Sport”. 

Sacrifices... Choices... Commitment...

Sacrifice - something given up or lost

Choice - act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities

Commitment - an engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action

Do you sacrifice for the sport or have you made the conscience choice to truly be committed to your swimming? The difference is one of mindset. Do you consider how much you have lost by doing this sport (sacrifice) or do you instead consider how much you get out of this sport (choice)?

Where in the spectrum of commitment do you fall? We all know the time requirements of this sport, but that doesn't show true commitment. True commitment is shown by the choices you make when the situations are the most difficult.

The question to start the season is if you can honestly tell yourself that you have made the choice to commit yourself entirely to reaching your goals? Make that decision, commit entirely and give yourself the best opportunity of reaching your goals!

Go Rose Bowl!

#WorkTheProcess

As many of you that read my blogs may now already, I’m a big believer in “working the process”, and this season is going to be a big push with our entire program to see if we can’t raise the process level and understanding of all of our athletes. Everybody wants success at the meets, but season after season we don’t see the swimmers make the connection of the overall process and the results that they want at the end of the season. As a coach, if you see things missing all season, changes not being made and swimmers just doing the same things as they did last season, it’s hard to be surprised when they don’t achieve their goals (even though it doesn’t always make it easier to handle as a coach). It comes down to that old saying, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” We need to move our process forward first, on a daily basis, and only then can we truly expect to reach our goals/potential. When a coach and athlete can work together to do this, then we can truly: #EliminateTheQuestion By this I mean erasing all doubt in your mind that you are ready to be faster when the meet comes. If you have improved your overall process consistently over the season, then you should also be able to stand up on the block with complete confidence in what you can do in the race. You have control in getting ready for that time, but it needs to start now. So what does “process” really mean? The best analogy I can give is to think of it like a puzzle and each piece of your swimming that you improve in a given season, you get to add that piece to your puzzle for the season.

The more pieces you are able to focus on and at a minimum maintain or ideally improve, the better the picture will come into focus at the end of the season. You can’t just become overly focused on one aspect and expect huge things. For example, our team has a large focus on the technical aspect of swimming, but it can’t be the only focus. Sometimes we see swimmers become overly focused on that aspect and it can then take away from training and racing. Instead we should be focused on the entire picture. You coach can help you prioritize, but always keep the larger picture in mind so you can always improve something over the season. So let’s go through some of those puzzle pieces that should be focused on to improve your individual process: Consistency - Consistency isn’t about just being there, attendance is only the first step in establishing consistency. Just as consistency doesn’t need to be 100% attendance when a swimmer is developing. The goal here is to be consistent in your process. Your attendance, your focus, your training levels and speeds and everything else you commit to in your swimming. Commitment - Author Kenneth Blanchard put it perfectly, “There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when it's convenient. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses - only results.” People say all the time they are committed to something because of the overall amount of time they put into it, but in reality they are only “interested” in it, as when they are tested by outside influences they allow themselves to be distracted and sacrifice greatness in the process. Your commitment will be shown when the decision is the toughest. You cannot “justify” your commitment levels at the top end and the earlier you learn that, the better for your long term success. Focus - Improve your ability to know what you are doing, how well you are doing it and if you are able to improve it. Workouts can be a great social opportunity with your friends, but that does not have to impact your ability to focus. As soon as you put your head in the water, you need to be completely focused on what you are doing on that set. Improve this aspect and you will make great jumps in your process. Stroke Technique - Improve your technique, both in form and utilization of strength, but don’t get overly focused on it. This is one of those crucial steps, but also one that seems to get people “too focused” on it. Any number of reasons this happens, whether it be perception as the “main” goal or because it’s the “easiest” in terms of efforts,  but the key needs to be that you see this as a piece of the puzzle, learn to do something correctly and then learn to do it at race speeds. Do not sacrifice other pieces of the puzzle to only focus on one. Skills - Your skills come from focus in workouts. It’s easy to do a “turn set” and have good turns, but the challenge becomes if you are willing to focus on that when you are in the middle of the hardest set of the year? Focus on your skills when you are most tired and they will come around fastest. Use every opportunity to improve your skills and you will improve. For example, during warm up and warm down, do you allow yourself to do lazy turns? Do you forget about underwaters when you are tired or going “smooth”? Improve your skills 100% of the time and start to have weapons against your competition. Training Levels - Expect more form yourself. If you believe that you give everything possible in every workout, then you are fooling yourself. I have known some incredible trainers throughout my career in swimming, and those that worked the hardest always had the most expectations of themselves and believed they could be faster. “Trying” is not enough. Find a way to challenge yourself more. Learn how to not only avoid fearing workouts, but actually enjoying the challenge of workouts and pushing yourself beyond what you believe to be your max efforts. Rest - 8 hours of sleep at night, naps, more isn’t always better (talk to your coach before adding additional training), not every workout will be hard, but you can get equally as much out of it if you remain focused on doing things correctly Nutrition - fuel your body for performance, whether that is a meet or workout, you need to prepare your body to be pushed to those levels you expect. In order to do this correctly, understand the timing of nutrition that is best for you and your body. Avoid ever skipping a meal. Never focus on weight, but instead focus on getting the fuel you need to be an athlete. Hydration falls under this category as well, and understanding the impact that dehydration can have on your body. Sports Psychology - In my opinion, this should be the number one focus for all athletes, but it’s also the most individualized piece of all of them. The range of tools, positive impacts, potential negative impacts and everything else is astounding. In the end though, it’s accepting the importance of this aspect and deciding that you are in control of turning things around. I grew up with one of my favorite poems on wooden plaque in my room. It’s origin isn’t completely known and has slightly different versions out there, but here’s “Thinking”: If you think you are beaten, you are If you think you dare not, you don't, If you like to win, but you think you can't It is almost certain you won't. If you think you'll lose, you're lost For out of the world we find, Success begins with a fellow's will It's all in the state of mind. If you think you are outclassed, you are You've got to think high to rise, You've got to be sure of yourself before You can ever win a prize. Life's battles don't always go To the stronger or faster man, But soon or late the man who wins Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN! Decide what you want to chase, believe that you can do it, never let hurdles, heartaches or perceived “failures” take away from that dream, and you will achieve great things in your life. Recovery - Swimmers try to get away with things because they perceive them only as “rules” set by coaches. Warm down isn’t there to just make you swim more, it’s there to allow you to perform your best throughout the entire meet. Even in the face of a bad swim, warm down is crucial to giving yourself the best shot to swim fast in your next race. Gatorade after your race isn’t there because we know you’ll be thirsty, we want you to refuel while your body is most prepared to do it efficiently. Stretching out, ice baths, putting your legs up on a wall, massage or whatever other tools may be available to you, understand how important recovery will be to your training and racing. Take some time to prepare yourself the best for the next workout or race, and that need starts immediately after the prior workout or race. Meet Preparation - Learn how to best prepare yourself for a meet. This starts up to a month out for some, but the idea combines a number of different aspects. How you swim shouldn’t change, you should already have trained the way you would like to race. How you eat hopefully doesn’t need to change much (although, you should eat based on caloric needs, so taper would be less overall), because you know the importance of fueling your body properly for training as well. Expectations, goal times, pressure, fears and everything else that can just get in your way needs to be thrown out the window. Be confident in what you can do in the water and be excited to race. Find the best way for you to get into that confident, excited mode, and train that at every meet. As you do, ensure that these are things in your control at all times, as they need to be flexible to account for unexpected things that come up, meet procedures being different or anything else that can attempt to throw you off. So we’ll aim for the following: confidence in yourself, excitement to race, drive to push yourself in races, relaxed enough to handle any curveballs thrown your way and ready to just have FUN. Race Strategies - Learn these in practice first, practice at in-season meets and implement at the focus meets. While it’s always good to talk to your coach before races, the real goal there should be just to touch base. The better you understand your race strategy going into the meet, the more prepared you are to implement that strategy without having to think about it. This isn’t meant to be overwhelming at all, but it is meant to open your eyes and see the big picture. You won’t be able to focus on and improve every aspect of your process in one season. That said, when you don’t understand what it all means and the impact that it can have on your performance, you will often times let things slide without knowing it and your results won’t be what you want based on some of the aspects you lost sight of during the season. The hope is you understand the entire process, focus to improve those key aspects that are seen by you and your coach, and then make sure the other pieces just don’t slip. The last piece, but potentially the most valuable is to understand this “process” doesn’t change for anyone. This isn’t just for the elite, nor is it only for the developing. Everyone has their own individual process and everyone still needs to move things forward if they want to improve. Too often people dismiss this as being for the “elite” swimmer or those wanting to achieve that level, but in the end the only difference is in the individuals own process. While growth and other factors may play a role, the majority of people do not plateau for any other reason than they are not willing to step their own process up to the next level. They don’t change what they are willing to do for their activity (in this case swimming, but this is a lesson that will be valuable forever) and the result equals staying the same or even getting slower as they get older. It’s your decision on what you want to do, but understand that you have control of your swimming. Also remember, while the process is the same, the focus points in the process will grow and develop as athletes get older and mature. A younger, developing swimmer does not need to be focused on all of this, but they can still learn about different parts (ie. training, stroke technique, racing strategies) and develop their process along the way as well. There’s your snapshot of “the process” and what can be focused on to ensure that each swimmer is reaching their potential in the water. It’s not about 100% improvement, but instead just another reason it’s best if you are truly working with your coach and understanding there are multiple focus points to watch in the process. Okay, so now it’s time to evaluate your last season vs. your best season and see what needs to happen this next season to reach your goals. Work with your coach on that process (this is what true goal setting is about) and let’s see how far we can jump this coming season. Good luck to all on your upcoming season.

The Best Advice A Coach Can Give… That Is Too Often Dismissed

COMMIT TO TRULY WORKING WITH YOUR COACH (swimmers and parents) The title states that it is dismissed because I think it is too often that swimmers and parents commit to working with the coach as long as they share the same opinion or things are “going well” in their opinion. This isn’t actually working with them and trusting them, but rather just looking for someone that will do what you believe to be best. Your coach is a professional and while I am sure every profession has people that will fight things rather than trust them, I can tell you, without fail, that the best long term results I have seen come from those swimmers and families that are willing to truly commit to working with and following a coach’s direction. So, I like to start with the arguments to this idea first. Yes, I am a coach and in attempting to deliver this message could be seen as being self-serving to make things easier for me. In truth, it is self-serving for every coach, as it will allow us to perform our job to the best of our ability and get the most out of these student-athletes, both in and out of the water. We want the exact same for the swimmer as anyone else (swimmer or parent) and when that’s continually questioned (yes, there is a difference between asking a question (to learn process) and being questioning(to argue process)) or challenged, it makes it very hard to continue the process that worked well enough to get you excited about the sport in the first place. Every decision made by your coach is done with the best of your swimmer in mind. For our program we focus on the TEAM approach, but that doesn’t mean that we sacrifice anything for an individual. The goal is to develop that athlete, within the TEAM, to be the best they possibly can be both now and in the future. The “now” is too often that focus, rather than the overall development (a whole different blog). The other resistance I’ve heard in the past is “I’m not going to blindly follow.” That’s fair enough and I 100% agree. A large part of a coach’s job is communication, and this should be able to take care of it. I try to live by (and ask our coaches to as well) the idea that we should be able to answer any question asked of us and feel stronger about the answer after we talk through it than we did before we started talking about it. If we can do this, then this policy/plan is exactly what it should be; if not, then maybe we need to reevaluate things. That doesn’t mean the parent or swimmer will agree, but the best we can do is live by what we believe is best for the swimmer and those that are willing, will see the results (this blog just explained in a couple lines). So, here’s my advice if you don’t want to “blindly” follow someone:

If you do believe in the things above and are willing to do what is asked (within reason of what we are talking about here of course), then you will see the best results possible. Anything other than that will take away from the swimmers enjoyment of the sport, overall development and in the end impact their performances in the water. Yes, I say, “in the end” because it may not happen right away, but trust me it will happen at some point.   Trust that your coach is there for the best of the swimmer, period. Be willing to work with them to achieve the best results possible (in and out of the water), and you’ll see big things. I know that not every coach is perfect, but if the system is in place, then the coach will be able to fit in and benefit from that as well. Sometimes I hear about favorites of coaches, and sometimes that is truly an issue. Most of the time though, it’s no hidden fact that a coach will have favorites, and those favorites are going to be those that listen, are willing to make changes, ask questions to understand rather than fight and have a great process in and out of the water. In the end, they perform the best, and this is where the “favorites” perception comes in because they are the fastest in the group. Imagine that, those that do what the coach asks (more often than not) end up performing the best. Then all of the sudden you have swimmers/parents complaining that they get the most attention because they are the fastest. This job isn’t perfect, there will be times that as much as the coach may want things to come for a swimmer they will not have the “perfect” season, but rest assured, what those swimmers get from this sport will be equally as valuable when they have long since “dried off” and can take the process they learned in this sport into their profession. I ask all swimmers and parents to work WITH your coach and not against them. Since you’ve read this far, hopefully you understand my ask, so I am going to give some hints to parents and swimmers and hope that you won’t take this the wrong way.

This blog was attempted to be directed at both swimmers and parents, and I hope that I can help at least a few change/improve their process. Here’s my short and sweet goals from this blog:

Work with your coaches, “help us, help you” and the best results will come, I can promise you that. I’ve seen it over and over, and just wanted to share those thoughts for anyone willing to listen. One last thing, this blog isn’t even being written in a negative manner at all, even though it may seem like I am addressing specific issues. I see this as our “next step” on my own program, in order to help all of our swimmers reach new levels, and just thought I would share my thoughts. Thanks all for reading, I hope it helps (selfishly and altruistically).

Embracing swimming first, then improving from there

I’ve seen things discussed for a while now, but over the past few months I’ve had more and more things come up that concern me in regard to our approach to the sport of swimming and our leadership of the sport that we love. As I thought about it, there seemed to be more and more to talk about, but I am going to do my best to only hit the main parts. As always, these are my opinions on the matter, so take them as you wish. I also want to make sure that it’s understood that I absolutely do believe that there are adjustments that can be made to improve our sport and retain/attract more families to be involved. That said, I also believe that from most of the conversations that I hear about it, that goal seems to be to change our sport to be more like others. That is a huge mistake in my opinion. Since I like numbers, let’s look at the trends in the sports that I have heard, numerous times, that we need to compete against. Between 2008-2012: Participation statistics (6-18yo) Football - down 5.4% Soccer - down 7.1% Baseball - down 7.2% Basketball - down 8.3% Swimming - up 17% (add in 2013 and we go to 32% increase) No, we are not the biggest sport in the nation, but I also believe that it’s a mistake for us to attempt to be. While striving for increase interest by the nation is fantastic for the sport, we are not going to become the number one sport in size. Our focus needs to be who we serve and what they really want in the end. And I write, “really want” for a reason. Take away the immediate asks of “shorter meets” and those complaints that some of you may hear a lot of, as I don’t think that’s the most important, nor do I think it needs to end up a negative or, even worse, drive kids/families out of the sport. At least not those that would otherwise have endured the lifestyle that swimming demands. I guess that’s it, swimming isn’t just a sport, it’s a lifestyle, and that lifestyle is not going to be for everyone. Let’s not try to fit that square peg in a round hole. I don’t want to compete against other sports. Instead I want to create the best swimming that we can. Swimming takes time, effort, commitment, hard work, time management, long term TEAM support, competitiveness and so many more that I’ll just cut it there. So, instead of looking for the “easy” fix, let’s look at some other things that we need to take responsibility for in our leadership roles within this sport. Time spent at meets isn’t driving people out of the sport, or maybe I should say it doesn’t have to if they have a leadership that supports them and makes it fun. Weather or tough situations don’t drive people out of the sport (I guess more outdoor environments here), how many of you remember meets that you thought were absolutely horrible at the time but you now take a sense of pride for what you endured for your sport? Okay, maybe that’s just me, but I have a feeling that’s a trait of those that swimming is a great fit. Anyway, let’s discuss some things that I believe to be a more important focus than purely focusing on the amount of time spent at a meet. Meets: Let’s start on this topic. > Length of meets - I’m not saying that I like to sit around a marathon meet any more than others, but I think we need to accept that some meets are going to be long and move forward. That said, there are other things to think about in the process. >> Hopefully not every meet needs to be those long marathon meets. I’m not going to pretend that our set up is perfect (yet) and I am not trying to just promote what we do, but there will be some things that make sense to bring up. Since I started coaching I wanted to do different types of meets. Dual/tri meets was going to be a huge focus of mine. While that focus has fallen off a bit, I still like the idea for some meets. We now run a large number intrasquads throughout the year. This allows our swimmers to get some racing in, but also leaves the rest of the weekend from 11am on Saturday as their weekend. And this has been great, but it can’t be the only type of meet that people attend. These also work well to be only meet focus for developing swimmers. >> 4 hour rule for regular age group meets is great. Yes, I understand it’s still long (and even longer for coaches), but this is that next level meet for our swimmers. >> Championship meets need to be viewed as special from coaches first, then that leadership will extend to parents and swimmers. Why are we so rushed to shorten days at these meets? Trust me when I say this, I am not trying to call out an individual meet here, as I see it go on everywhere, but I have recently heard disturbing things about Far Westerns (age group meet in Northern California). Now understand, I never lived in the area, so I may put a more special feel to that meet than most, but Far Westerns has been one of the premier age group swim meets in the country. I traveled there as a kid and now we take our top age group kids on there first “big meet” travel trip. And while the meet is huge and runs two courses in prelims to get it all in, it was something special for a swimmer. This year though, the “coaches”/meet admin voted/decided (sorry for the vagueness, but our coaches were only told the plan, so I don’t know details) that they were not going to announce finals. They were only going to run heat to heat, just like the prelims session. What? Excuse me? I think I missed something here. Are we really more worried about the hour (I think I am being very generous with that timeframe btw) than we are about what those finalists deserve? We need to stop being so worried about timelines and more worried about creating the best experience we can for the swimmers. That’s what keeps them in the sport. The experience > Meet styles - Improve things, mix it up, have some fun, but let’s do it on the foundation of which we are built. I don’t think we are at a spot that we need to knock everything down to rebuild. Intrasquad meets, dual/tri meets, lotto meets (random events drawn for all swimmers, buddies and I have done this, it was a blast), find ways to make it fun. Then build to those longer meets as exciting, instead of tedious. > Competition Programs - We can’t do everything for everyone. In an LSC of our size, we battle this all the time. We worry about cuts getting faster for those top end meets, but also want to have the best competition possible. Can’t have it both ways. We don’t want to be told what meets to go to (the idea of a max time at meets), but we say we want to take care of that up and coming group. I think we need to look at the best developmental levels along the way and make sure we develop a system that supports that approach. From there, coaches always have options. From day 1 of coaching, I have never followed a single set competition path. I’ve changed and adjusted based on what I believed best and I would continue to do that going forward. But as leaders of the swimming community, we can’t design a good developmental system with that same mindset. It’s our responsibility to design the foundation that coaches them build on and around. Oh, and did I mention I don’t feel the need to focus too much on timelines when creating the plan. Coaches: Just some thoughts on the leadership component > Earn your leadership role. Your title or position do not make you a leader. Work on leadership traits and your team will respond. The more the team responds, the more a part of something people feel when they join the team. That connection keeps families in the sport. > Coach with a passion for the sport. Now obviously coaches will struggle, get frustrated with the job, etc, but in the end there needs to be a passion there to do this job. If your excitement and passion is there, it becomes contagious to those around you. Helping keep families excited about the sport. >> Embrace the tough things, so that your swimmers and parents can as well. We recently had a championship meet (for our developing swimmers, their only chance at a prelim/final meet, but I believe should be run to the same standards, in terms of offering a great competitive experience), that was in horrible weather all day. Near the end of the prelims session, they made the decision to call the meet due to prior lightning stoppages. In my mind, “bummer, but let’s see what we can do to still offer the experience (in this case a finals swim) to those swimmers that were so excited about it even during the rainy prelims”. From some of the coaches at the meet though, there were cheers. They cheered the canceling of a championship meet. Can you imagine all the coaches at nationals cheering at the canceling of a meet because they just wanted to leave? It’s not about “wanting” to sit out in the cold and rain, but is entirely about leading with the same drive and excitement that you would like from your swimmers. > Like it or not, we are what makes this sport fun for a swimmer. A coach’s leadership of the team and groups forms that connection with the sport. Find that balance of making hard work, fun. Fostering the TEAM feel, that can stick with them forever. We can be a better TEAM sport than any other. Where else do you get to be involved in one TEAM with hundreds of athletes? Where every swimmer is connected, on the same TEAM and can look up to the best on the TEAM and say “I’m on that same path.” Build that connection in your program and families will happily stay. Teams: We need to limit the ability for teams to pop up anywhere there is a pool. Don’t get me wrong, I love competition and fully believe that competition is great for the sport. Saturation of pools with teams, is not good for the sport in the end. Allowing fracturing of teams into already dense areas of teams is detrimental to the sport. It waters down the swimmers training together at the top end. It also waters down the coaching levels for these athletes. Let’s face it, not every team will have the same coaching focus and at some point the number of teams just gets to be too many. Coaching Clinics: I mentioned earlier that I think the coaches are tasked with the job of making swimming fun. We need to create environments that swimmers and families want to be a part of, even if they didn’t know it at the time. With that in mind, I’d love to see more of the talks offered at clinics based on coaching/leadership. Not coaching/leading swimming necessarily, I’d like to learn more about the profession of coaching. We can learn a lot from those in other sports and those that study the profession. The more we teach that, the stronger our sport becomes. In the end, this sport is so much more that just a sport. What we offer is lifelong lessons and memories that no other sport offers. No, I’m not saying long meets are the key, but I also don’t think they are “bad”. Face it, our sport is different. We should just truly embrace that fact and work to improve what we do rather than trying to change it. Here’s how I see it. While we should always strive to improve as a sport, I think it’s more about knowing that our sport offers so much to families and just trying to figure out how we teach that to new families. I learned my love for this sport from my mom. The question for us is how do we help others find that passion for our sport?

Early Specialization in Youth Sports… The Bigger Picture

As I mentioned in my first blog, I’ve been seeing more and more articles out there talking about “Early Specialization” and the downfall of athletes that do so. I’ll start off with saying that I absolutely agree that young athletes should participate in multiple sports. So, why write this then? Because we need to look at the bigger picture. I think it’s a mistake to look at only “specializing” in a sport as the cause or influence on the commonly expressed issues. So, I’d like to discuss some other thoughts along those lines. The general ideas that I have seen tend to follow these same four main issues that I just recently read in Daniel Coyle’s blog (author of The Talent Code, as well as others). 1. early specialization increases the chance of injuries 2. early specialization creates worse overall athletes 3. early specialization makes kids less likely to participate in sports as adults 4. early specialization creates a falsely high barrier to participation, eliminating kids who might otherwise succeed in a more open system. In our program we do encourage athletes 12 and under to play other sports, then somewhere in the 13-14 age group start to focus more on swimming. While most of those writing on the subject encourage waiting as long as possible to specialize, this age range also tends to fall along the lines that is encouraged as a time to specialize. So as you can see, we live by this same idea of what is best for young athletes.  Now, all that said, we also don’t hold swimmers back from specializing, if that’s what they would like to do. I’ll come back to this in a second, but the schedules offered for workouts are a minimum of 5 days a week, then moving to 6 days depending on age and ability. On the younger side of things we really encourage a commitment from the swimmer, more than a required attendance at all workouts. With a true commitment to 2-3 days a week by a young swimmer, we then believe it is the coaches job to develop that athlete and continue their progress forward. If those athletes can learn to stay committed to their schedules, develop their stroke technique, understand what working hard means and communicating with coaches on schedules, then those athletes are developing the perfect process.

Now, I know this may start to sound like I am a proponent of specializing early, but I will say again, I am not. I believe 12 and under’s should play other sports. I believe in teaching them proper form before pushing training as the main focus as well. Long term development of these swimmers is priority one. I just also believe that there are more things to consider when you look at specialization, and I also don’t believe that it is necessary to force young athletes to play multiple sports either. If a 12 and under has multiple interests in sports, then I fully believe they should play those sports. Beyond that belief and allowance on a team, I also strongly feel there are other topics to address developing the best and safest athletes possible. Developing long term athletes: > Build a program that is aimed at developing the entire athlete. That goes beyond the sport itself and includes well-rounded skills as well. > Teach parents how to be the best sport parents possible. All parents believe fully they are doing what is best for their children, but as coaches, we are responsible for helping everyone understand the “why’s” behind what we do and not just expect them to follow us because we are the professionals. > Burn out comes from a lack of enjoyment and understanding. Find the balance of fun and work. In fact, find a way to make the work fun and you can all but eliminate burn out. Now, that doesn’t mean no one ever leaves the sport, but rather those that love the sport, continue to love the sport. Even as they get older. > Train Smarter. Don’t do what’s always been done, just because it’s the traditional way. It’s not less, just to do less, but it is all about being smart in what we ask our athletes to do. > Some sports are different. Now, obviously I am biased because I am a swim coach, but a sport like swimming is different. It’s not on land, it’s in a completely different medium. That “feel” of the water isn’t just a made up thing, but rather an important aspect of swimming fast. Consistency is important. Now, I’m not saying 100% attendance is required, but year round swimming is a big step in developing to one’s potential. Given that need for year round commitment, then it’s that much more important that we strive to provide a program designed for the full development of the athlete and not only the elite performances for those that survive the system. > Along these lines, avoiding long breaks (seasons) is important. I’ve seen this over and over in athletes. The “burn out” becomes a fear of parents, who then try to protect their child by giving them a “break” from the sport. The majority of times we have seen this leads to an attempt later to get back in the water, but never gets back to where they were in the past. This then leads to  full burn out of the sport because of frustration of the athlete. So, yes, I will absolutely continue to encourage our younger athletes to play other sports. I think it is great for them. My focus then will also be to develop the best overall program I can, so that when we have athletes that know they love the sport from a very young age can go through 100% of the program without fear of those issues that have been shown in other programs where specialization has occurred. My opinion is the same as any other hurdle in life. Accept that there are issues, and then work to improve those things. Trying to avoid them by delaying a specialization in sport won’t eliminate most of these issues, just delay the onset of them. Be committed to developing the best, most well-rounded program possible, and then you are truly addressing these common concerns.

Starting a new blog in order to voice more thoughts…

Not that I am so on top of the RoseBowlNationalGroup blog that I just needed another outlet, but instead just creating a vehicle to discuss things that go beyond the National Group training and racing. This blog is definitely focused on swimming, coaching, leadership and everything else involved in the sport, but just gives my opinion and thoughts on things beyond coaching the group. My first real thoughts here are going to discuss my thoughts on “early specialization” in sports. I’ve seen a number of articles recently on this topic, then received an email from a parent asking about it, so it got me thinking. Obviously I am not an expert on the matter, but I have been involved in this sport (which would have been one of the first that started this trend, if only by accident) for 33 years, did play other sports when I was younger, studied exercise physiology as an undergrad and coaching as a masters and now seen a whole different side of the sport by coaching in a different direction than I grew up in as a swimmer. Hope you will enjoy reading my thoughts, and take what you enjoy and forget the rest.