Those of you who watched the recent World Championships results were probably as shocked as I was with the Day 1 news that both the US and Australian Men's teams missed making finals in the 4x100 Freestyle relays. Both did as they always do – swam 4 slower swimmers in the heats to rest up… Continue reading Is the Swimming World Catching Up to the US?
Tag: coaching
The View From Mount Stupid
As coaches we are often expected to act as mentors, technical experts, motivators, physical diagnosticians, nutritionists, strength trainers, statistical analysts, etc. There are an incredible number of roles we play, and there is no conceivable way we can be experts in all of them. And yet, we have to take on these roles to do… Continue reading The View From Mount Stupid
Deconstructing Fly-Dive Butterfly
The FISU Men's 200m Butterfly video from a few weeks ago quickly make the rounds for a quite surprising reason. The 2nd place finisher from Japan, Yuya Yajima, basically swam a legal version of the Fly Dive drill. If you haven't seen it, it's best if you view it (here) before reading ahead. Yajima is… Continue reading Deconstructing Fly-Dive Butterfly
Team Culture: How Do You Handle Mistakes?
In the last few weeks I've read two excellent pieces about how organizations handle mistakes, and they came from two complete different worlds. The first is a fascinating book, Creativity, Inc., by Ed Catmull, President of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation. He talks a lot about company culture, and how it's critically important to the… Continue reading Team Culture: How Do You Handle Mistakes?
Elite 50 Freestyle: Are We Swimming This Wrong?
I have to admit, it took me a long time to figure out how to analyze the Long Course 50 Freestyle. After all, it's basically a maximum effort sprint with no turns. That's not a lot to work with. I actually got my break while I was analyzing underwater speeds (Underwater Kicking: Some Numbers) and… Continue reading Elite 50 Freestyle: Are We Swimming This Wrong?
Underwater Kicking: Some Numbers
These days everybody knows about that underwater kicking is a fast and necessary aspect of swimming. And we all know that the fastest swimmers generally have incredible underwater kick speeds and distances. But what surprises me over and over is the general lack of numbers involved with this knowledge. How fast is it? How long… Continue reading Underwater Kicking: Some Numbers
The Lazy Way to Get Faster
I still remember this phrase from my university coach in my freshman year. It's such an appealing idea. The Lazy Way to Get Faster. Who could argue with that? I have to admit that I distrusted the idea at first. Swimming is known for fast freshmen, and of course being teenagers we already knew everything.… Continue reading The Lazy Way to Get Faster
Warm Weather, Dehydration and Swimmers
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
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
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
Coach Rick - Mighty Tritons Swimming 