When I started this post, it had a completely different focus. Four times I tried to address various aspects of Short Course vs Long Course swimming from the point of view of swimmers and national swimming organizations. And every time I ended up in the same place - that different countries handle Long Course in… Continue reading Inclusive or Exclusive: The Surprising Ways Countries Handle National Championships/Trials
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)
Age Problem in Canadian Swimming
Back in November, Swimming World published my article on the Age Problem in Canadian Swimming in their subscription-based Swimming Technique magazine, with the agreement that my article would eventually appear on their free Swimming World site. My intent was and always has been to get the widest possible audience concerning this important subject. Soon after… Continue reading Age Problem in Canadian Swimming
Why We’re Not Going To The U.S. This Year For Our Annual Swim Team Trip
For the past few years we've joined a small but growing number of teams from the Toronto area who have boycotted the overcrowded meets here in late June/early July, and happily headed south to outdoor 50m meets in the US. It's not hard to find meets that are perfect for our team, and the welcome… Continue reading Why We’re Not Going To The U.S. This Year For Our Annual Swim Team Trip
A Really Big Problem With A Really Big Meet
Something needs to be done about the Central Region Championships in Ontario, Canada. Swimming does not seem to be the priority. We just finished Central Region "B Championship" meet held at the Etobicoke Olympium on the weekend: basically the big meet for the first half of the year for those who didn't quite… Continue reading A Really Big Problem With A Really Big Meet
I’m Tired. Do I Still Have To Warmup?
I'm sure that all coaches have been asked that question near the end of a long meet. This last weekend I had a great opportunity to let the kids answer that question for themselves. We were at our 'big' meet for the first 3 months of the year - a 2½ day meet starting on… Continue reading I’m Tired. Do I Still Have To Warmup?
A Tweak to the Weight-Forward Start?
Last year, I was thinking about the weight-forward start, and how there has to be a way to get the body moving much more quickly than through simple muscular force. This thought eventually lead me to this lever-type concept. We spent much of last year working on it, and a few of our swimmers are… Continue reading A Tweak to the Weight-Forward Start?
Runners Have the Ground, Skaters Have the Ice, Swimmers Have ???
I would imagine it's the same with all swim coaches. I'm always being asked by parents and swimmers why swimmers need incredibly strong cores in order to swim fast. Much stronger core strength than land-based sports. And it's true and obvious from watching the sport. Swimmers need to have incredibly strong cores. It took… Continue reading Runners Have the Ground, Skaters Have the Ice, Swimmers Have ???
A New Way to Teach Young Swimmers
FLOW NARROW QUIET About a year and a half ago I wrote about a new coaching technique I'd developed to handle a specific situation with special needs swimmers who trained 2 consecutive days a week, and had 5 days off (The Importance of Simple Concepts - here). Before we introduced this new approach, the… Continue reading A New Way to Teach Young Swimmers
6 Rules (and a Vision) For Becoming a Better Swim Parent in a Post-Olympic Year
The Olympics are still fresh in our minds, and a new sports season is starting. This means that untold thousands of eager children are joining sports teams for the first time, with visions of Olympic medals dancing in their heads. And with swimming continuing to be one of the premiere sports in the Olympics, this… Continue reading 6 Rules (and a Vision) For Becoming a Better Swim Parent in a Post-Olympic Year
Are Swimming Performances Starting to Stagnate?
This is not a question that comes up much with our sport. In fact, we're so used to continuous improvement that it almost seems disloyal to even ask it. Are we starting to see a plateau in swimming performances? Track and field has been plagued with stagnating performances for a long time. Despite the publicity… Continue reading Are Swimming Performances Starting to Stagnate?
Coach Rick - Mighty Tritons Swimming 