A few days ago a bombshell exploded in the sporting world. On Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014, German broadcaster ARD aired a segment called "Top-secret Doping Dossier: How Russia produces it's Winners". It included a tremendous amount of evidence and on-camera testimony from Russian officials, coaches and athletes on massive and systemic doping, coverups and corruption… Continue reading Is Russia the New East Germany?
Author: Rick Madge
Here's my life in a nutshell.
Husband to a beautiful wife
Father of 3 amazing, grown-up children.
Electrical Engineer (hey, it pays the bills and keeps my mind busy)
Swim coach (this is where my passion lies)
Attributes: Ridiculously curious. Introverted. Pretensions of creative abilities. Reader (books not minds. at least, not that you know). Athlete (reduced primarily to swimming and cycling now). Collector (of weird, old and interesting items). Writer (primarily of boring technical reports and overly long About You blurbs)
Swimming By the Numbers: Women’s Elite 400 Freestyle Strategies
This is a continuation of my series on how the elite swim various races. In previous posts, I've analyzed all of the 200 races. There is no question that the 400 is a distance-oriented race, and so we can expect distance-oriented strategies. The purpose of this analysis is to determine which strategies are used by… Continue reading Swimming By the Numbers: Women’s Elite 400 Freestyle Strategies
Open or Closed Fingers? A Review
Recently the question of closed versus open fingers came up on the Facebook Swim Coaches group (what an incredible collection of coaching minds!), and it amazed me as to the diversity of opinion on what I thought was more or less a closed question. So I went looking to not only find out the present… Continue reading Open or Closed Fingers? A Review
More Than You Want to Know About the New Backstroke Start Wedge
More Than You Want to Know About the New Backstroke Start Wedge In keeping with my "More Than You Want to Know" series, I'm including some backstroke and backstroke start history. But take a look, there's some fascinating stuff and some really old Olympic backstroke videos. After that we'll discuss the new backstroke starting systems.… Continue reading More Than You Want to Know About the New Backstroke Start Wedge
Funniest Things Heard on a Pool Deck
Every once in a while, we have to remind ourselves that swimming has its lighter moments. Please feel free to add your own funny stories in the comments. At a Practice Coach: It's supposed to be kick. Why are you doing breaststroke? Swimmer: Because I'm trying to improve my sculling. Coach: ... Coach: I'm… Continue reading Funniest Things Heard on a Pool Deck
Can Short Swimmers Compete at the Highest Levels?
I know this is a provocative title, but it's a serious question. I often get approached by parents asking if their relatively short child has a future as a swimmer. And of course I say yes, because every swimmer should strive to reach their potential. But there is a deeper question buried in there. Can… Continue reading Can Short Swimmers Compete at the Highest Levels?
Some Useful Sports Nutrition Information for Swimmers
Last week I wrote about the apparent lack of interest in sports nutrition in the swimming world (here). It surprised me that I received far more than the usual number of comments (in person, on various discussion forums, email, etc.) about this post. Most were agreeing with the situation, while a couple were providing me… Continue reading Some Useful Sports Nutrition Information for Swimmers
Swimming’s Incredibly Backward Approach to Sports Nutrition
I'll start off right away by saying that I'm not a nutritionist, dietician or an expert in food in any sense other than I've been eating my whole life. Clearly that is NOT enough to make my nutrition opinions count. That's why we have a team sports nutritionist. And to tell the truth, our team… Continue reading Swimming’s Incredibly Backward Approach to Sports Nutrition
What is a Swim Team?
Every year, usually once or twice, I have to sit one of our groups of swimmers down and explain to them what it means to be on a swim team. Many times it's because the aggressive and cliquish attitudes from school migrate over to the pool, but often it's just that swimmers don't understand what… Continue reading What is a Swim Team?
Michael Phelps, and the Star – Role Model Problem
Everybody inside and outside of the swimming world will have probably heard of Michael Phelps' latest DUI problem. I'm not going to talk about that other than point out that Phelps is just another example of a star who is also a flawed human. And now, a dangerously flawed one. This raises the whole issue… Continue reading Michael Phelps, and the Star – Role Model Problem
Coach Rick - Mighty Tritons Swimming 