Over the years, I’ve done a couple of posts regarding International parity in the world of swimming. With the Tokyo Olympics over, I’ve analyzed the competition and compared it to Rio 2016 and a random selection of World Championships between 1973 and 2019. So the big question here: Are just a few countries dominating swimming?… Continue reading Swimming has a Serious Parity Problem
Tag: coaching
We Need COVID-19 Reporting by Sport
We’ve seen an unending stream of statistics regarding COVID-19 cases, deaths, recoveries, etc., all sorted by geographical area. This data can be incredibly useful when used by authorities for making larger social decisions. Low community rates may indicate it’s safe to open up, while spiking community rates may point to increased restrictions. However, we generally… Continue reading We Need COVID-19 Reporting by Sport
What Should We Do When We Observe Verbal Abuse By Other Coaches?
If you've spent any time on deck at a swim meet, you've heard it. A coach going well over the line when talking to a swimmer. Well past any reasonable form of criticism, and usually to the point where the (young) swimmer is crying. I realize this is a highly subjective issue. What's over the… Continue reading What Should We Do When We Observe Verbal Abuse By Other Coaches?
Abuse Policy Conversation with John Vadeika, Executive Director of Swim Ontario
Over the last few months, there have been some explosive revelations of sexual abuse of athletes and organizational coverups coming out of USA Gymnastics, USA Swimming, USA Volleyball, and other sports. Even a cursory review of those situations provides lessons on how we can improve our oversight and remove conflicts of interest. (If you want… Continue reading Abuse Policy Conversation with John Vadeika, Executive Director of Swim Ontario
Far Too Many Types of Pre-Race Talks
I'm always intrigued by how age group swimmers handle pre-race talks. Our standard procedure is that each swimmer comes to see me before the race, and we talk about race strategy, breathing strategy and general level of race aggression. And then after the race, they'd come back and we'd see how those strategies worked out,… Continue reading Far Too Many Types of Pre-Race Talks
Tips On How Not To Lose Count In A Distance Swim
Miscounting is one of those things that swimmers and coaches both hate in a practice (especially coaches!) But miscounting in a meet is guaranteed to get you a comment from pretty much every person you've ever known ... and some you don't. It's still very early in our season here, and I'm already seeing a… Continue reading Tips On How Not To Lose Count In A Distance Swim
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?
Age Analysis of Rio Swimming Finalists: Breakdown by Event
Swimming World Magazine has published the second in a series of my articles analyzing Rio swimming performances. This one is "Age Analysis of Rio Swimming Finalists: The Older The Better!", and involves a breakdown of ages by distance and stroke (see here). This post provides additional information on the age range of swimmers as broken… Continue reading Age Analysis of Rio Swimming Finalists: Breakdown by Event
Coach Rick - Mighty Tritons Swimming 