Like many clubs, we have a rule. "No water bottle, no swimming." We still allow the ones without water bottles to do dryland for the whole practice (it's hard!), with trips to the drinking fountain every 15 minutes. But they aren't getting in the water to swim without a bottle of water or a protein/dextrose… Continue reading Warm Weather, Dehydration and Swimmers
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)
The Importance of Simple Concepts
I know this is going to sound like new-age jargon, but I can't emphasize enough the importance of coaching with simple concepts. This was really brought home to me this year with my volunteer coaching of a very special group of kids. They only train 2 consecutive days a week, 1 hour per day. And… Continue reading The Importance of Simple Concepts
So Your Swimmer Broke Their Arm…
Every coach goes through this difficult process. A swimmer breaks their arm, or wrist, and has to wear a cast for weeks on end. The swimmer inevitably thinks their season is over. But in reality it may be one of the best things that could happen to their swimming career. Assuming the swimmer gets a… Continue reading So Your Swimmer Broke Their Arm…
The First Long Course Meet of the Year
Our team is like the vast majority of swim teams in the world. We have no real access to long course training pools, and so we train short course all the time. This makes the transition to the long course season difficult, and it makes the first long course meet of the year very, very… Continue reading The First Long Course Meet of the Year
The Slowly Evolving Nature of the Breaststroke Pullout
In December I published a post about the Death of the Breaststroke Pullout (here) right after FINA changed the SW 7.1 rule. While the title was intentionally provocative, my feeling was that the breaststroke pullout was about to change in a big way. Almost four months later I can honestly say that it kinda, sorta… Continue reading The Slowly Evolving Nature of the Breaststroke Pullout
The Value of a Good Coach
This is a different sport, I know, but the lessons are the same. I was at a national wrestling championship over the weekend, and saw a stunning example of the value of a good coach. One of the wrestlers on my son's team was having a good day, wrestling the freestyle event with great focus… Continue reading The Value of a Good Coach
The Roles and Responsibilities of a Head Coach
There's not much that gets a head coach more animated or frustrated than asking them about their responsibilities as head coach. And this is probably because the job involves so much more than just coaching. After researching a lot of different sports, and asking swim coaches on an excellent Facebook swim coaches discussion group, I… Continue reading The Roles and Responsibilities of a Head Coach
6 Things I Don’t Miss About Swimming in the 1970s
There is no doubt that swimming in the 1970s was exciting. Goggles had just been introduced in the late 1960s, and this allowed swimmers to train as hard as their bodies would allow, instead of training as hard as their eyes would let them. As a result, swimming records of every kind were broken on… Continue reading 6 Things I Don’t Miss About Swimming in the 1970s
More Than You Want to Know About Shaving and Swim Performance
If you've been involved in swimming for any period of time, you know about the shaving tradition. This is where swimmer at big meets often shave virtually all available skin not covered by a bathing suit, with the exception of the eyebrows. Normally this includes arms, legs, torso, and sometimes even the head. The loss… Continue reading More Than You Want to Know About Shaving and Swim Performance
The Team Philosophy / Coaching Mismatch
If you haven’t been on many swim teams, it may be hard to imagine that every swim team is fundamentally different. And this largely comes from two aspects of the team: team philosophy, and the coaches. Ideally, the team philosophy guides everything that the team does, how its members interact with each other, and it… Continue reading The Team Philosophy / Coaching Mismatch
Coach Rick - Mighty Tritons Swimming 