Can't Coach It- Breaststroke Pullouts Part I
Everyone has heard the expression ‘you can’t coach speed’ or ‘you can’t coach height’. In the swimming context, a common one is ‘you...
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Nov 26
Can Skills Change?
‘You can’t change a mature swimmer’s stroke.’ -Just about every senior age group and college coach I’ve always found this to be a...
Nov 19
The Most Stuf Part II
In part I , we talked about the idea of accomplishing as many performance objectives within a single set as possible. The key word here...
Nov 12
The Most Stuf Part I
Nabisco released a new version of the Oreo, ‘The Most Stuf’, which is obviously superior to its other version because it has ‘the most...
Nov 5
Stepping Back
Swimmers and coaches are greedy. They want to perform, they want to perform better than they ever have, and they want to do it all...
Oct 29
Principles Before Philosophy Part II
In part I , we explored the concept of foundational principles of fast swimming, and came to the following conclusions- Swimming fast...
Oct 22
Principles Before Philosophy Part I
Coaches are often asked about their coaching philosophy. In essence, they’re asked what they believe about training and getting faster. ...
Oct 15
Problem Labeling
As coaches, our success is largely determined by our ability to solve problems. These problems could directly relate to performance in...
Oct 8
Baggage Part III
In part II , we explored physiological baggage. Physiological baggage is usually evident to coaches, as we can see the changes in...
Oct 1
Baggage Part II
In part I , we introduced the concept of baggage and how it can potentially affect technique if coaches aren’t aware of the potential...
Sep 24
Baggage Part I
Baggage is the stuff that we don’t want that comes with the stuff we do want. It’s the extra we’d rather do without. In the coaching...
Sep 17
Lose the Battle, Win the War
In sport, there is often a focus on the immediate future, and swimming is no exception. How do we get results now, and what do we need...
Sep 10
Checking the Boxes Part II
In Part I, attention was brought to the need to consider planning training from physiological, technical, and psychological perspectives....
Sep 3
Checking the Boxes Part I
When designing training sessions, the goal should always be to optimize the opportunities to improve performance. We want to provide as...
Aug 27
Why Bad Practices Are Great
Over time, our performances reflect our averages. Meet performances are typically the average of our training performance. Championship...
Aug 20
Building 'Mental Toughness' Part III
Improving ‘mental toughness’ is critical to providing swimmers with the best opportunity to perform to their potential in training in...
Aug 13
Building 'Mental Toughness' Part II
Coaches love to talk about mental toughness, yet it’s not really clear what mental toughness even is. In part I, I sought to make the...
Aug 6
Building 'Mental Toughness' Part I
Coaches like to describe swimmers as ‘mentally tough’. They certainly like to coach these swimmers. While most coaches will understand...
Jul 30
Consciousness and Competence
I’d like to take a different perspective on one of the commonly accepted paradigms in motor learning. If we’re going to be effective in...
Jul 23
Investing for Swim Coaches
Coaching is all about investing. We invest emotionally, we invest intellectually, we invest our energy, and we invest our time. As all...
Jul 16
Technical Foundations- Part VII
PART I PART II PART III PART IV PART V PART VI In parts I-VI, we explored the three basic tasks of effective technical executions...
Jul 2
Technical Foundations Part VI
PART I PART II PART III PART IV PART V As described in part V, rhythm and timing is greatly underappreciated and seldom addressed in...
Jun 27
How To Ensure That Skills Continue To Improve
One of the biggest misconceptions is that skills are best learned at slow speeds without any pressure or fatigue. If you’ve ever bought...
Jun 27
The Secret For Getting Things Done In Practice
A big challenge in coaching is getting things done in practice. There are different aspects of physiology to train. There are different...
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