When parents get it right.

So many times I’ve heard coaches say they wish they were coaching a team of orphans. It is a cry to the fact that quite often parents, although well intentioned, get in the way of their children’s development. Recently though, I was lucky to see good parenting skills put in action. It was a great display of how powerful parents can be when they are prepared to support others who have their child’s best interests in mind, regardless if they completely agree or understand it. On to the story:

At a swim meet in early January, my group was really not following directions, especially with regards to pre race warm-up/post race warm-down. After a full day of telling the kids to do those tasks properly several times over, frustration set in. So, the next morning, I warned them that I would no longer talk, but instead would have a pretty harsh punishment for those who were still not on task: they would be told to go home! The rationale was that if they were not taking care of their bodies during the weekend, they were not there to race well anyway.

The real intention was, off course, to have them perform the tasks they were there to perform in the first place: warm-up, race, warm-down, hydrate, refuel, repeat! Socialize in between those things rather than do those things in between socializing. It went well for our prelim session, and up until almost the very end of the finals session. With only relays to go, I turned to two boys who had been out of the water for a while, about 10-15min before their relay, and asked: “When are you warming up?” At that point, they were already breaching our agreement, but I wanted to be proactive. They both stalled, sat around for a few more minutes, and by the time they got up it was “too late” for them to warm-up, so they headed straight behind the blocks.

I figured there was an opportunity for a lesson to be learned: on being responsible, accountable, and following through. I also thought learning this was more important than any race they could swim that or any other weekend. When I told them they were not allowed to race the next day, to say they were upset would be an understatement. Since these were teenagers, anger was the emotional response. Now, in come the parents’ role:

One of the parents thought the punishment was too harsh, despite it having been agreed to. Let’s just say she stood by her kid. The other told me “I’ll support you 100% with whatever you decide”, followed by some stern words to her kid regarding his behavior and reaction. In addition, the kid was told he was going to come to the meet the next day and support his teammates (yes, the parent was going to drive him there for that!). The next day, this boy came in, apologized for not doing what he was supposed to, and was pleasant company throughout the day, supporting his teammates. I’ve had many great, proud moments as a coach before, at meets and in workouts, but few will ever match watching this kid, recognize he made a mistake, accept the consequence, apologize, and move on. And I’m sure that was only possible thanks to his parents.

Fast forward to our championship meets in late February and March. Guess which one of those boys had better end-of-season meets? Well, let’s be honest, it is not a guess. The boy who’s parents “stood by him” made very similar mistakes with regards of taking care of his body through the rest of the season, including at our last meet, and while he enjoyed time drops (he does work pretty hard in practice, which makes his conduct at meets that much more puzzling), he fell short of his goals. The boy who’s parents helped him realize his behavior and attitude needed changing had one of the best seasons I’ve ever seem, going from not having state cuts to state finalist, swimming 100% best times at the championship meets, and in fact swimming so well we had to re-define his goals for the summer (the ones from January became obsolete within a couple months).

Many would focus on the parents that stood by their kid, and how they almost stood on the way of their child learning an important lesson. However, I can say there is no way the 2^nd boy would have taken the lesson to heart if it weren’t for his parents. Therefore, rather than wishing a team of orphans, I with I had a team full of parents who ‘get it’. That might seem like wishful thinking, but it really is up to us, coaches, to keep doing our share of parent education. We might fall short in many cases, but I can say with conviction that the few times in which we get the kind of support we (coaches and swimmers) need from parents will more than make up for every shortcoming.

Fired up and ready to go!

After a whole week in Las Vegas, NV, for the ASCA (American Swim Coaches Association) World Clinic September 3rd-8th, last week our team hit the water for the beginning of the season. I mentioned this after attending the clinic last year, but it is amazing how much talking to other coaches and exchanging ideas can re-energize coaches to go back and start the season with a lot of excitement! That is on top of the incredible ammount of knowledge that is shared by all presenters.


This year's clinic once again highlighted how important it is to treat kids not just as swimmers, but as growing human beings. It is a comon comment by all coaches who worked with elite level athletes that their proudest accomplishments are on seeing how much those they work with grow as people over the process. Perhaps my favorite moment of the whole week came in an informal conversation with one of the greatest coaching legends out there - Jon Urbanchek

left to right: Gilberto M. Silva Jr (BEST-PA), Urbanchek, me, and Alex Pussieldi (Davie-FL)

The conversation with Jon was another reminder on how much swimming, even for those that have been at the sport's pinnacle, is just swimming. In his words, he considers himself a lucky man for not ever "having to go to work", but "having a great hobby" instead. Quite a refreshing statement to hear from someone with his credentials. We kept going back and talking about people, rather than the sport, and the biggest lesson I took away was to take swimming issues lightly, and focus on the people instead.

Back at home, it's been great to see those who are already committed to their season goals (one of the best quotes from the clinic: 'peaking starts on the first day of practice'). So far, there's been several swimmers who are showing levels of commitment unlike ever before, and how could a coach not look forward to the next day of practice when that's going on? I'm feeling a great season is ahead of us, but most importantly, I'm ready to help the kids I'm working with grow personally through it. After all, when all is said and done, it's all about the people!

Gearing up for a new season

Last week we resumed activities with all the kids. We have a fairly long SCY season (all the way to the last week of March), and so we take things pretty lightly when we first come back. Up until labor day, our practices are a little shorter than the usual, and we use most of our time to play a game (mostly ultimate frisbee, but I also have plans to teach some gymnastics movements - hand stands, cart wheels, some tumbling, etc.), touch on swimming basics, and play some water polo. It is a great way to get the team back together, start shaking off some cobwebs, and teach them some general athleticism. On top of that we'll still have 28 weeks in our season when we 'officially' start (with a better general conditioning than if we just prolonged our break).

This is also the time for everyone to be getting ahead in their other tasks - that is schoolwork for the kids, and planning for the coaches. Before planning a season, I believe it is important to reflect back on how the previous season played out. So this post is an attempt of doing that in writing.

I remember when, before this season started, I wrote on how excited I was about it, giving that our push at the end of our SCY season was simply great. Early in the season, in our first team meeting, I shared with my swimmers what I consider to be the 'secret' for success: doing little, mundane things, consistently well! The key word there is consistency. Everyone can (and probably will) have a great day here and there, but it's what you make of all the other days, all the days you don't feel at your best, all the days that the skill being worked on and required is not one that you thrive in, that really count.

I believe that conversation resonated with the majority of the kids. I also have to mention Vern Gambetta's 3-step ladder YouTube video. This video was played at the start of every team meeting we had this past season, and I believe the message sank in. My greatest joy of the season was to see the transformation some of the kids went through when they started putting in that consistent, honest work, and see the results. At a point in June, when we had our mid-season rest and swam lights-out at a meet, some of the kids looked mesmerized, as if they were finally realizing "I can actually be good at this"!

After that point, it was pretty much smooth sailing, and when it came time to really rest for our championship meets, it was clear they had put it the work and were ready for it. As a coach, there is little more you can ask for in a season than reaching taper time and thinking "we did everything we could up to this point, now it's up to me to not mess it up". I was lucky enough to be at that point, and that makes it for what I consider a successful season!

Some of the highlights:
- We had our highest finish at the 14&U State meet in years, just one spot shy of getting our first trophy since reconvening the team 8 years ago (we are coming for that trophy next!). It was our highest finish since moving to our current location;
- We had every relay score at the State meet, which had not happened in the past 8 years;
- Two swimmers combined for three State Championships;
- Three swimmers took down as many team records in the Age Group side;
- The Age Groupers also helped push our Senior swimmers, who also combined for our highest finish at the Senior State meet since moving to our current location, with swimmers taking down two team records;
- Team-wise, the most important marker of all: we had our first Jr. National cut in three years! It is certainly another sign of how things are moving in the right direction!

As a coach, I'm very proud of the results we got this past season, but even prouder of the way we got there. I also believe we set a great standard for this upcoming season, where we'll not only try to outdo our results, but do so by putting in even more quality work! The message stays the same: doing little, mundane things, consistently well! And here's to a great season!

Mel Stewart to all Swim Parents

Mel Stewart, or Gold Medal Mel, as he is known in swimming circles, posted a heartfelt tribute to his father on his website, SwimSwam (easily the best swimming site out there today). It is a fantastic text, that needs to be read by all swim parents out there (and parents with kids in other sports, too). I could try to add to the text, but really, nothing could make it better.

Barbell Shrugged

Memphis, TN, feels like home away from home for me. Whenever I have an opportunity, I drive my way there. On top of the list of reasons I still feel connected to the land of Elvis are the friends I made there during the two years I attended Grad School at the U of M. I still have a couple of great, very close groups of friends back in my hometown, and a few ones spread across many states in the US and even Europe and Asia, but the folks I know in Memphis are very, very special to me. Not only are they great friends - those with whom circumstances can make you go several months, or even years without close contact, and when you see each other you pick it back up as if you had never been apart - but they also make up one of the brightest brain collections on earth, equally great for chatting about meaningless topics, or for draining substantial knowledge on areas of interest (training, nutrition, business, lifestyle, etc).

During my last trip there, I was invited to be the guest for Barbell Shrugged, the podcast being ran by the FactionSC crew. If you have not been following it, you're missing out. Although this is only the 9th episode, each one before it has provided a lot of food for thought, along with plenty of funny interactions between the crew and guests. Mike, Doug, and Chris, as well as producers and occasional hosts James Cheney and CTP, all bring in great knowledge in a wide array of areas, and the casual conversation also draws the best out of each guest. This was a lot of fun, and I can say it was a great learning opportunity for me, too. As we dug into the area of strength training, I knew these guys were all capable of providing a lot of good ideas and comments, as they did, regardless of their (lack of) swimming background. I hope people watching can enjoy it as much as I did.

Warning: the casual conversation style of the show also means adult language is used as often as the situation calls for it. It is not over the top, or done with the intention of being offensive, and largely outweighed by the good content, but it is there.

http://www.fitr.tv/swimming-sport-specific-strength-training/

The importance of failing

Plenty of people have written on how failure is part of the development process. Simply put, in order to achieve success, you have to be willing to step outside of you comfort zone, and from time to time that will cause you to fail. What is really important is how you react to failing. Most will tumble, and many will never try again. The success histories we hear about, all involve those who stood up right away, ready to try again!

This swimming season, I was lucky enough to be involved with some failure, and most importantly, with addressing the mistakes, polishing the attempt, and succeeding after another try. The group I work with had a fairly disappointing state meet (with only a couple exceptions). Going in to it, I knew the season had not been good enough, that we had not been training at the level we needed to in order to succeed. In time: I believe this was due to shortcomings from both the kids (who had been successful under a different coaching style before) and myself (who had been successful with a different group of kids). What followed that meet, though, was extremely important and positive: we sat down and talked about our shortcomings. The kids listened to me talk about how we had not been meeting my expectations, and I listened to them talk about what they thought was missing.

I was reminded of a video that has great importance to me (it helped me personally at a time I thought I was 'failing'). You can watch it here.

So what did we do following our conversation? Luckily, we still had one big meet to go, so we got right back at work, and what I saw was a completely different work ethic in action. On my end, I made some small changes on both coaching style and practice design, while on their end they responded by giving me the kind of focus and intensity that had been missing up to that point. With just a couple weeks to train before we started resting, we hit outstanding workouts, one after the other, and by the time taper time came, I was very confident we had done everything we could in the little time we had. The results of our second taper and shave meet were a clear contrast from the State meet, and in many cases the time drops were bigger than they had been for the entire season up to that point! Simply put, I believe we made more progress in four weeks than we had in the 24 before that!

I'm convinced that without the disappointing results of the State meet, we would still be in a limbo, trying to adjust, and perhaps making small gains here and there. Thanks to that failure, we were able to really work together, which resulted in a great leap in performance! Now everyone's looking forward to what the Long Course Season will bring. I have no doubt that we'll be able to keep the lessons learned fresh in our minds, and can only imagine how exciting a full season with that kind of intensity will be!

Lessons from Tennis

I've recently become a huge follower of Vern Gambetta's blog. This happened after a friend lent me a copy of his book "Following the Functional Path." I highly recommend anyone involved with sports (especially coaches) to get a copy of the book and read his blog quite often. They are both full of ideas that will make you question the way you do things. Basically, great food for thought. Ultimately, you will either decide changes are needed or feel even stronger about the way you structure and do things. Either way, you win.

Vern's book and blog are not, however, the subject of this post. In one of the articles from the book (titled 'The System', on page 129) he refers to an article from Play Magazine (NY Times' sports magazine). The article, by Daniel Coyle (author of the best seller "The Talent Code"), is titled "How To Grow a Super-Athlete". Curious, I searched the web after it. The article deals with possible reasons to explain why certain places or clubs seem to produce a high quantity of elite level athletes. Its centerpiece is Spartak Tennis Club, in Moscow, a small tennis club with remarkable success. How remarkable? To quote Coyle's article:

"...this club, which has one indoor court, has achieved eight year-end top-20 women's rankings over the last three years. During that same period, the entire United States has achieved seven."

One thing that stood out to me was the fact that Spartak's 'athletes' are not allowed to compete during their first three years of training! The rationale seems to be that they want to first focus on technique, and don't want early competitive success to get in the way of developing a solid technical foundation. I must be honest: I'd like to be able to pull the ultimate experience, and structure a swim team very much like Spartak structure's. However, I'm aware that would certainly be fated to failure. Generally speaking, copying programs and implementing them somewhere with a completely different culture will never work. The culture of the area where the program was first implemented is one of the things that make it successful there.

So, what lessons can we still take from Spartak and apply to swimming? In one of my previous posts I wrote about how important I believe technique to be in swimming. Reading about Spartak made me feel even stronger about it. While I can't keep young swimmers from diving into swim meets and trying to cut time or win (Oh, the glory of being an 8-yr-old champion!), I can continue to educate parents and swimmers on how technique is a much more important benchmark at certain stages of development. If they understand it and make the commitment to improve it, regardless if it makes them faster or slower today, then they are much more likely to be successful in the long run!

Great Article from SwimmingWorldMagazine.com!

I've again been struggling to find both time and inspiration to write on the blog. I'm actually brainstorming around a topic, so I'll get to it soon. Meanwhile, I just read this article out of Swimming World Magazine's website, and it certainly deserves to be shared! It is amazing how much everyone involved benefit when coaches from different team can sit down and work together to move swimming forward in the whole area.

The article cites a number of situations in which some of the best coaches in the US left their egos at the door, and simply worked together, challenged each other, and made all swimmers and clubs involved better! I also feel the need to remind people of something the article does not talk about: you need get involved at the LSC level! If your LSC gets better, you, your club and your swimmers will have to get better too! Last, but certainly not least, I want to emphasize the portion of the article that reminds how important it is for coaches to have an uncompromising philosophy towards doing what needs to be done!!! There will be times when you will have to go against the will of the parents, swimmers, and board of directors in your team, but you must remember you won't be doing anybody a favor if you choose to compromise.

Now, do yourself a favor and read the article!

Is average good enough for you?

This post has been in my head since getting my GoSwim weekly e-mail update earlier in the week. I had been trying to find inspiration to write something, but struggling to find something that really hit home, until reading Glen's article on Steve Jobs' and Al Weatherhead's life examples and how they can also apply to swimming. He does a great job on showing how these two can inspire coaches and athletes to overcome mediocrity. First of all, read his article! Here's my personal take on it:

In my experience as a swim coach, I have never had an athlete sit down with me to discuss goals and say "I just want to be average". However, I've seen too many athletes paving the path to mediocrity daily during practices. In my last stint of goal meetings, I've asked athletes to think beyond their goals, but to also define, and write down, what they are actually willing to do to achieve them. I've called it an exercise of honesty with themselves.

When people marvel at accomplishments, the path it took to get there is too often overlooked. After Beijing, what made me admire Phelps' accomplishments was not so much the 8 golds, but fact that, according to all accounts, he had practiced all 1,461 days in the 4 years leading to it! The background stories on projects Steve Jobs headed show the same type of intense, relentless dedication to minute details. Basically, there are no great accomplishments without a background of true dedication toward a goal.

Back to swimming, if your answer to this post's title is no, then you need break from the pack, and practice daily according to what you want to achieve. If being mediocre is not your goal (and again, I never heard anyone with that goal), then you need put in quality work that matches your goals! While there are no guarantees to fast swimming and achieving goals, there are ways to increase the likelihood of those happening. This includes quality, focused drills, attention to details (turns, breakouts, etc), embracing and looking forward to pain during hard sets and dryland, and a positive attitude about doing it all again the next day!

How many are willing to practice daily according to the standards they set to themselves? I hope you are one of them!

Technique comes first!

So, first of all, it seems like the swim season is starting to pick up. I say this not because we already had our first meet, but because my last post here was nearly 2 weeks ago! Keeping up with all the coaching duties has been steering me away from being writing. But, finally, here I am!

Our first meet went great. The kids I'm working with were significantly faster than last year at this point of the season, which shows we are set to swim much faster when the season-ending meets approach! We also had about 50% of lifetime bests, which for a season-opener Intrasquad meet is quite impressive! Looking at the bigger picture of the club, the Senior swimmers were also much faster than last year, and the younger age groupers got a higher percentage of lifetime bests, which shows the whole club is improving. Now, that's a good place to be!

Back to the title of this post. Last night, I had to throw away my original plans for practice, and spend a large portion of it revising drills. The original plan was to spend just about 20-30 minutes of practice with stroke drills, and then hit a challenging set. However, it seemed like the swimmers were thinking about racing and swimming fast from the begining of practice, and were just going through the motions during the drill set. While the racing mentality is important, I felt like making sure we understood the drills and stroke mechanics, especially for developmental swimmers, should stay at the top of the totem pole.

Simply put, I had to remind them that swimming is a technical sport. When you are not being efficient, putting more effort against the water will just get you tired and slow you down. Learning propper mechanics just cannot be emphasized enough. Then, this morning I received my weekly GoSwim! updates, and amongst those was a link to an old article Glenn wrote, which deals with the importance of mastering technique first! While the article addresses more directly the importance of having swimmers aged 8 and below to focus solely on technique, I believe it can also help understand why developmental swimmers - and swimmers that haven't even reached HS yet ARE developmental swimmers - should still focus a large ammount of their work on technique. My way of thinking of it is: Technique comes First! It needs to be mastered before any real 'training' can occur.

So, we'll keep dedicating a good ammount of our practices toward drill and stroke work, and I'll keep that challenging set in my pocket. The swimmers can be sure it will hit them at some point, when they are technically ready for it!

Body position on Butterfly

This video from Go Swim! compiles a lot of short snipets at great swimmers performing the fly, during the hand entry phase. They reffer to it as keeping the hands soft at entry, wich is one way to look at it. I especially like the video because it gives great shots at the body position during this phase. Many swimmers tend to enter the water with a 'dive', which drives their hands down and never allows them to get the stretch of the lats, prior to the pull. On the video, you can see how all the swimmers shown press their chest and head into the water, while keeping their hands high in the water, which causes the arms, and especially the lats muscles, to stretch prior to the pull, generating a much more power full pull, due to the use of elastic energy, or the strech-shortening-cycle.

How a champion faces practice

Nick Brunelli's blog is filled with articles that show the kind attitude towards practice someone who aspires to be great (not only in swimming, but in any sport) needs to have. In his last post, "Filling the 'Bank'", he once again shows the mentality it takes even for a Word Champion and former American Record Holder to stay in his game.

Nick is still a full time swimmer, and is currently training towards his goal of making the 2012 Olympic Team. Even though he has already been at the top, many of his posts are great reminders of how much sacrifice and dedication it takes to stay (or get back) there.

The Importance of Mental Toughness

Swimming World News has a great article written by Chelsea Howard, who currently swims for Penn State. The article is yet another good one written on the important role the mind plays in swimming. As I mentioned in an article below, we often forget that the mind controls the body, not the other way around. Recognizing that, and spending time understanding how the mind works and how to make it work to a swimmer's advantage seems to be highly overlooked.

In the article, Chelsea provides good advice on how to use the power of your mind to your favor. If you are already putting in time training your body, I highly suggest you spend the next 3-5 minutes reading the article, and then put those suggestions in practice! As it is pointed out, the difference between a good and a great swimmer is usually not on training hours, ability, or other physical factors, but in how both athletes utilize their minds.

So, do you want to be good or great?

State of the Sport Address

The transcript below is from the State of the Sport Address, given by USA Swimming CEO, Chuck Wielgus, during the USA Aquatic Sports Convention last week, in Jacksonville, FL.

"Thank you all for being here this morning. I hope you have found your time so far at this year’s U.S. Aquatics Sports Convention productive and enjoyable. Each year on this occasion it is my responsibility, and my privilege, to provide you with a general overview of the state of affairs within USA Swimming; and with this I also think it important to offer some perspective that connects the work of our organization to the larger world of youth and Olympic sports.

Over the past year, USA Swimming has continued to grow, to improve and to become better prepared for the future. In fact, USA Swimming has been on a steady upward climb since first being formed in 1978; from being a committee of the old Amateur Athletic Union into what many consider to be among the finest youth and Olympic sports organizations not only in the United States, but in the world.

The programs, services and infrastructure that have been established during USA Swimming’s first 30 years of existence are a tribute to the leadership and dedicated efforts of countless volunteers, staff and partners. Some of these same early visionaries remain active in USA Swimming today and their experience, history and wisdom are constant touchstones for us.

Back in the late 1990’s, USA Swimming adopted a business plan constructed around three primary objectives: build the base; promote the sport; and achieve international competitive success. By remaining true to these evergreen goals, and consistently aligning resources and measuring progress against these aspirations, USA Swimming has been able to build an incredible resume of: predictable membership growth; quality membership programs and services; targeted programs and support for athletes, coaches and clubs; broad and effective social media platforms; corporate engagement and sponsorship; television coverage that has become the envy of the U.S. Olympic NGB Family; and support for our National Team athletes that is acknowledged by the USOC and other NGBs as a model for the future.

I’d like to comment on some of our newer and emerging initiatives.

America’s Swim Team: This national branding campaign was launched in 2010 and will be a cornerstone for our promotional efforts in 2012. Ryan Lochte continues to be the face of the campaign and he has been an awesome partner and participant. Among the new aspects of the program that will be rolled out in the coming year will be providing member clubs with the opportunity to create customized marketing materials and merchandise, with club logos co-opted with USA Swimming and America’s Swim Team marks. We have continued to receive wonderful feedback about the online new member welcome message that is linked to the America’s Swim Team campaign, and for those of you who may have yet to look at this link; I’d like to share it with you now. Each message is customized, so in this example I have inserted the name of our President, Bruce Stratton.

(SHOW VIDEO #1 – New member Welcome)

Athlete Partnership: This year, together with the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Swimming launched a new Athlete Partnership Program that was made available to all National Team athletes. The program provides $3,000/month in direct funding support to athletes who qualify and opt-in to the program. The concept is to provide elite-level athletes with a baseline of funding support that will allow them to really concentrate on their training for international competition. Of the 38 athletes who qualified and signed the partnership agreement, 25 won medals at an international competition this summer. Participating athletes are required to make appearances that help to promote either USA Swimming or the athlete’s own charitable cause; and so far more than 70 appearances have been made by our athletes at events all across the country. This is not only good for enhancing the image and reach of our sport, but it is also providing opportunities for our National Team athletes to be seen as caring and positive members of society. It’s a program of which we should all be very proud.

Athlete Protection: During the past year-and-a-half, USA Swimming has also sought to address some serious challenges related to athlete protection and providing safe training environments. Specifically, we have done the following:

• Revised our Code of Conduct and made the process for filing complaints more personal and user-friendly;
• Developed enhanced requirements for background checks and initiated a pre-employment screening program for clubs;
• Published a list of individuals who are suspended for life from holding USA Swimming membership;
• Hired a full-time Athlete Protection Officer;
• Established a volunteer Athlete Protection Committee to continually monitor our efforts and recommend improvements;

As important as each of these things are, we have come to believe that our greatest long-term impact on this important subject will come as a result of efforts to provide a strong ongoing educational program. We have spent much of this past year developing this educational program in partnership with Praesideium and other industry experts on abuse prevention in youth organizations. We are excited to have kicked-off our education this week with the release of an online course available free to all coaches, officials, volunteers, athletes and their parents We will continue to focus on identifying opportunities to promote awareness and prevention around safe sport and athlete protection.

Digital Splash: We launched a digital version of Splash Magazine this year. We plan to continue publishing the printed version, but in the future we will give people the opportunity to opt-out of receiving the printed version and over time this may help us realize savings with our printing and postage expenses. In 2012, we also plan to introduce an iPad version of Splash Magazine. If you haven’t taken the opportunity yet to surf through the digital version of Splash Magazine, I encourage you to try it.

Deck Pass: If you watched any of the television coverage of the ConocoPhillips National Championships on NBC last month, you may have noticed several commercials we ran promoting pre-registration for a new program called “Deck Pass.” This program was conceived by a number of our younger staff members last spring, and after presenting their concept to the senior staff, we gave them the green light to go-ahead and build out a full proposal. They did so, and this proposal was then presented to the Board of Directors last May, where it received approval. The program, which is currently being rolled out to the membership, is a cutting edge social networking activity in which athletes can earn patches for a wide range of accomplishments. Some of you may remember the old days, when young swimmers wore jackets on which they displayed various patches that they acquired or won. Deck Pass is built off this concept, and we have created literally hundreds of different opportunities for athletes to be awarded patches. The program also has a component that ought to be extremely exciting for coaches, who will be able to create and award their own patches to the athletes with whom they work. We see Deck Pass as an incredibly innovative and exciting way to further engage young athletes, and we also believe there is a strong motivational component as young athletes will seek to set higher goals and improve times in an effort to be rewarded with new patches. Here is a short 30-second commercial that we’ll be using to help promote Deck Pass on our NBC broadcasts.

(SHOW VIDEO #2 – Deck Pass)

iHigh.com: Another exciting new online program that we will be offering to clubs in the coming year is a partnership with iHigh.com. Through this partnership, every Zone, LSC and member club will have the unique opportunity to webcast their own events. It’ll be as simple as having a parent with a video camera filming the meet and then uploading the video to the site, where it can be accessed by families, friends and fans. LSC’s and clubs will also be able to sell their own advertising on their customized site and retain 100% of these revenues. This is really an incredibly exciting opportunity for LSC’s and clubs to have a new way to promote their own activities, webcast their regional and local events, and generate new revenue. Following is a short video that shows how the iHigh.com program will work for USA Swimming member clubs.

(SHOW VIDEO #3 – iHigh.com)

Club Support: We are continually searching for ways to help our member clubs. This year we have conducted 49 Club Leadership Schools that involved 383 member clubs, a single year record. 266 clubs applied for this year’s Club Excellence Program and we awarded a total of $330,000 in grants to Gold, Silver and Bronze teams. And our field services staff has been on-site with more than 420 member clubs throughout the year. It has also been inspiring to see so many of our clubs and LSCs participating in the Fitness Challenge program on which USA Swimming and the U.S. Navy SEALS have partnered.

2013-2016 Television: Over the past three Olympic quads, USA Swimming has built a wonderful partnership with NBC. Our sport has received more television coverage in this quad than at any other period in history. This coverage has included the World Championships, ConocoPhillips National Championships, AT&T Winter Nationals, Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool and the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Additionally, via Universal Sports we have been able to provide broadcast coverage for 4 of the 7 Grand Prix events, as well as Prelims coverage of major events. With NBC/Comcast recently securing the U.S. broadcast rights for the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games, we fully anticipate that we will be able to continue to build upon the foundation and the relationships that we have worked so hard to establish over the past decade, and this will result in the continued expansion of our television reach.

Financial Position: While organizations, businesses and governments have struggled mightily in these turbulent economic times, USA Swimming has been able to navigate the challenges, and our financial position has continued to remain strong. Our quad budget has grown from less than $45M in the four-year period leading up to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games to our operating budget of more than $109M for this quad. The reasons for this are easy to identify: membership has continued to grow at a steady and predictable pace; corporate sponsorship has been extraordinary; and the U.S. Olympic Committee has continued to be a great partner for our National Team program. Additionally, I think we can point to excellent quad business planning, stable management, and responsible board oversight; all of which allows us to build and improve from one year to the next and maintain a steady course.

Sponsorship: USA Swimming has more corporate partners and greater engagement from these partners than at any time in our history, including the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. This involvement is a clear indication of our sport’s continually growing stature in the youth and mass market sports marketplace. Though I have no new sponsorship announcement to make at this precise time, I can tell you that we are engaged in some very serious negotiations with several new prospective partners and we hope to be making some exciting announcements sometime in the coming months.

In addition to these specific activities, there are other efforts to which USA Swimming remains fully committed, the impact and results of which will be generational.

Diversity and Inclusion: Several years ago, USA Swimming initiated a determined effort to reach out and find ways to engage under-represented segments of our population in our sport. This has been both a challenging and rewarding undertaking, and it will certainly continue to be both in the future. What is extremely important for us to understand is that this commitment must be perpetual and in time I believe we will truly see USA Swimming become more representative and in-line with the changing demographics of our country. In fact, we now have statistical data indicating that over the past five years USA Swimming’s Asian membership has increased by 54%; our Black and African American membership has increased by 34%; and our Latino membership has increased by 24%. We still have a long way to go, but these increases are significant and important indicators that our efforts are making a difference and reflect the sustained efforts of many people at the national, LSC and club levels. We are making diversity and inclusion training a regular part of our staff development and educational efforts. USA Swimming’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is also being recognized by many other organizations; and most recently we have been highly engaged in a leadership role to help the U.S. Olympic Committee develop a strategic plan for increasing diversity and inclusion efforts for the USOC and within its entire NGB family.

USA Swimming Foundation: Our Foundation is now being led by a new team of leaders at both the governing and staff levels. President Stratton appointed a team of USA Swimming past-presidents and athlete representation to serve on the Foundation board. Bill Maxson, who you heard from earlier this morning, serves as the Foundation’s president and he is doing an extraordinary job of helping to better focus the Foundation’s mission and direct its resources. Likewise, Foundation Executive Director, Debbie Hesse is bringing much needed enthusiasm and experienced professional staff leadership to the effort. The Foundation’s mission of “Saving Lives and Building Champions” is wonderfully simple and appropriate, and just as we are working to integrate greater diversity and inclusion into our culture, so too are we through the USA Swimming Foundation, evolving our commitment to philanthropy and helping others. I urge each of you to consider including the USA Swimming Foundation when you consider contributing to organizations and causes that are making a difference in the lives of others.

Before closing, I want to point out that we have now begun the official countdown to the 2012 London Olympic Games, and I’d like to share some information about how USA Swimming is positioned for the Olympic year.

For starters, our National Team turned in an outstanding performance at the recent FINA World Championships in Shanghai. The team won a total of 25 medals in Olympic events and the balance between the men’s and women’s teams gives us much to be excited about. Our men won 14 medals, 8 of which were gold; and our women won 11 medals, 7 of which were gold.

The mix between experienced veterans and the emergence of exciting younger athletes should give us all reason for great excitement and enthusiasm for the coming year. I think it is safe to say that we are also going to see athletes who represented the U.S. at the recent World University Games in China, and others who will represent Team USA at the Pan American Games in Mexico next month challenging for spots on the 2012 Olympic Team. And who knows who else might emerge from the junior ranks or a past Olympian Champion making a comeback. To date 1,500 athletes have qualified to participate in next summer’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Omaha and the excitement and the media story lines are simply going to be spectacular.

Our Head Olympic Coaches are the continuation of a long line of exemplary leaders. Our point person will be National Team Director, Frank Busch, assisted by Lindsay Mintenko. The Head Men’s Coach will be Gregg Troy; the Head Women’s Coach, Teri McKeever; and the Head Open Water Coach, Tim Murphy. What an in incredible Hall of Fame line-up.

Our planning for the Olympic Team Trials has been underway for several years now and we can promise you that as great an event as the Trials were in 2008, it will be an even better event next summer. Ticket sales and hotel bookings have already exceeded our expectations. We are also working with our broadcast partner NBC Universal and anticipate that all eight nights of Finals will be broadcast live. I encourage each of you to find a way to be in Omaha next summer to attend a sports event that for eight days will captivate our nation.

Another important part of our Olympic year programming will be providing a national recruiting initiative, designed to help clubs attract new members. You are familiar with our Splash Bash program, which is reaching more than 500 clubs per year and more than 1,000 clubs in Olympic years. We will be adding to that, including a Google search campaign, promotions on Facebook and a PR campaign using Olympic legends to talk about how to get involved in swimming. All promotions will lead to our club finder at usaswimming.org, where we will track exactly how many people search for clubs and the actions they take. An education program for all LSCs and clubs will soon be made available in how you can participate and be ready.

This past year has indeed been another year of learning and progress for USA Swimming. We have continued to grow, to promote, and to achieve international success. We have also instituted enhanced and important efforts to provide better training environments for young athletes. None of this would be possible without a strong and engaged membership comprised of athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers, organizational and corporate partners and a dedicated staff.

In closing, I’ll leave you with a short video highlight from Team USA’s performance this past July at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Shanghai.

Thank you very much for your time … and Go USA!

(SHOW VIDEO #4 – World Championship Highlights)"

Back into Training Dryland

Strength and Conditioning Specialist Mike Mejia has a good list of dryland exercises which work on CORE, Mobility and Flexibility, ideal for anyone getting back into training. Check out the link and use those exercises to gradually build your strenght while correcting possible imbalances from previous training!

Problem-Solving Swimming (from GoSwim!)

I will never refrain, from 'stealing' great content from other sites and posting it here! Always giving the credit to whoever comes up with it, though (which makes citing, not stealing). This time, Glenn Mills, from GoSwim! posted a great, thoughtful article on how swimmers should try to approach a new season (and everyone thereafter).

I've been a fan of all Glenn's articles for a while now, since he always manages to bring in relevant points, and come up with solutions and suggestion in a very clear and concise manner. In this specific case, I've had many swimmers in the past that could benefit from backing off from 'hard work' a little, and putting in more 'smart work'.

Don't get me wrong, every coach likes working with swimmers who are willing put their heart into a set, and ultimately a swimmer needs to put in a lot of hard work in order to achieve personal success. However, many times swimmers (and other athletes) forget that the mind controls the body, not the other way around! Thinking about your swimming, analyzing your own strengths and weaknesses, and coming up with solutions and ideas to improve is just as important as pushing through that third quarter of the set (and race)!

Check out the link for more on how to do this!

Have you ever paid attention to your hands during your swimming?

Here's a link to a great article regarding how your hands should be during the pull portion of each stroke, under water. Gary Hall Sr., of The Race Club, explains it better than I could, so just follow the link below.

What do I do with my hands while swimming?

ASCA World Clinic

I just returned from the ASCA World Clinic in San Diego, CA, and I'm getting ready to start a new season, with a new club. This was my second year attending the clinic, and I really want to make it a priority to attend it every year, as long as I continue to coach. The clinic is a great way not only to get ideas from some of the best swimming coaches in the US, but also to get motivated for the upcoming season. Just like last year, it has helped getting me really excited about swimming again!

One part of the clinic that a lot of coaches choose to forfeit, and I think that's a mistake, is the ASCA Awards Banquet. The reason I think attending the banquet is worth it is because some of the acceptance speeches are very inspiring, and this year's was no difference. The take home message from those speeches, in all cases, seemed to be that for every coach that was inducted to the ASCA Hall of Fame, while the criteria for the selection involves high level accomplishments, helping young people to grow was far more satisfying than medals and awards.

The sport of swimming is fantastic. It is one of very few sports that offer participation for people of all ages, really. As soon as a kid can get across the pool, he/she would be cheered on in any meet. And participation continues all through life, with Masters records being set for older and older age groups. But in the end, swimming is just swimming. What really makes it so valuable are the lessons that can be learned through the sport. The patience needed to improve a stroke, the hard work, commitment, focus and dedication, all needed to achieve success.

I started swimming competitively at a very late age, and certainly didn't have the physical attributes that would help me making it big in the sport. And yet, it has changed my life. It thought me to set goals and work towards them, all while enjoying the process. It has put me in touch with great people, and ultimately gave me a career for which I have a passion I would not find in other areas. All I can hope to do as a coach is to help swimming touching and changing lives of others, as it did mine. Sure, I still want to see fast swimming as much as I did before, but if I'm lucky enough to one day accept any kind of honor as a coach, I hope to be able to talk about how I helped boys and girls grow as people more than as athletes.

I'm looking forward for a great season!

Good UW videos of side kicking

During my 2010-2011 SCY season with ACAC-IA, side kicking became one of my favorite drills. The more we used side kicking and other drills that would basically be progressions of it, the better distance per stroke (DPS) our swimmers would get, without slowing down. In most cases, they would be significantly faster if we followed a side kick set with some Freestyle swim.

The link below has some great underwater (UW) shots of side kicking. Although I would tipically tell my swimmers to have their fingertips pointing down, in a position with shoulders above elbow above wrist (which I think helps them being ready for the catch phase quicker), you can see how much this swimmer 'grows' on his side so that he gets a better DPS. In addition, I really like the comment on how you should allow the weight to build on your lead hand, and if you do it correctly it should feel like you snap from one side of your body to the other. Check it out!

GoSwim Heavy-Hand Side Kick

Paul Yetter has a blog...

... and it is awesome!!!

As this blog moves away from being oriented towards the goals and achievements of one team, I think linking to this specific article is a great first post! I'll be sure to keep linking articles and other swimming info here, with the hopes of helping kids to continue striving and working towards greater goals. Be sure to check back!

Lucas