Issues & Advice

The phase of the season, the match and the personnel. My role, typically, is to maintain stability, so the tone is typically calm and action oriented. Player development is high on the list of coaching responsibilities. Hours are spent crafting practice plans that help athletes improve. But coaches must remember that their own skill development […]

Close races, comebacks, back and forth relays. These types of things make the race itself compelling. Uncertainty about the outcome throughout makes a race exciting. Last Friday, SwimSwam published our Swammy Awards Top 10 Swims of the Year. The number one race was the men’s medley relay at the Asian Games. In a year when so […]

Just buckle down, get after it and remember every expert was once a beginner. But it’s only the dedicated beginners who become an expert. One of the most intimidating things we can do as human beings is start something new. Especially when that something has been around for a while like, say, fastpitch softball. We […]

To challenge and therefore grow processing and decision-making skills, coaches often need to stretch the athletes. The three most common and easiest to use stressors are: space, time and numbers. I have been writing a good bit about how sporting actions are preceded by a movement or skill choice. In the article “The vision-decision-action cycle […]

“To inspire swimmers and test limits successfully, you have to create a group culture looking for certain goals.” Inspiration and motivation to complete a task in swimming, indeed life, can come from many different sources. It can come from within, a family member, coach, teammates or some other external source. Once swimmers are inspired to […]

If they are not growing in the most competitive environment, it would help for them to see what’s out there. Has the question, “these kids have too much” ever crossed your mind? Or, things are “too easy” for these kids? In this article I will share my thoughts of what I learned in my career […]

After all, no one ever created an innovation by continuing to do the same old thing. I know the headline sounds like an ad for a diet product or a health club, but there really is something to taking advantage of the turn of the calendar to start making improvements in our lives. As humans […]