Skills win races. Faster swimmers are better swimmers. It makes sense to work to improve these skills in training. Coaches often take...

Almost uniformly, coaches tend to drive the learning process. They have the answers and they provide swimmers with those answers. This...

In part I, we explored the vaunted high elbow catch. Heralded as technical perfection, we took a look at some of the nuance actually...

You got to have a high elbow catch. Swim like you’re wrapping your arm around a barrel. Create an early vertical forearm. These are all...

‘If I am not managing my athletes’ physiological responses, then what am I doing?’* The above is a quote from a track and field coach of...

Most attempts at facilitating technical change are inherently reactive in nature. Coaches see a problem, make a comment to the swimmer,...

While I can imagine how the title alone will lead people to make assumptions about the nature of this discussion, as well as the...

Coaching is challenging because one is operating in a complex environment with many variables, delayed feedback, and uncertain outcomes. ...

Anatoli Bonarchuk is a Russian Hammer Throw coach, widely regarded as one of the best coaches ever, in any sport. I’ve written about him...

‘Think in practice so you don’t have to think in competition.’ This is a sentiment that’s used fairly often to encourage swimmers to...

Sculpture is an art form where the artist works in three dimensions. Classically, one could perform sculpture by carving (removing...

In part I, we explored the idea of the feel for the water, and how difficult it is for coaches to teach it to swimmers. Rather than...

The feel for the water. Often spoken about with great reverence by coaches around the world, the idea of feel for the water is as central...

As coaches, we love information and we love data. More is better, and the more we have the more confident we are in our decision-making...

‘Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.’ -Henry Ford Clearly, this is no less true in swimming. Swimmers don’t...

Successful coaching requires navigating and solving complex problems. There are so many variables that go into each performance, and...

Gary Hall Junior and Anthony Ervin both won two Olympic Gold Medals by a combined 2/100th of a second. They tied each other for their...

As time is the ultimate arbiter of performance, practice environments necessarily focus almost exclusively on time. From the time it...

Swimmers and coaches put a lot of time, energy, and work into achieving better performances through training. Literally years of effort...

In part I, the concept of Plan D training was introduced. In short, swimmers are going to get injured and we need to have options for...

Swimmers get injured. Whether these injuries occur because of bad luck or bad training, they happen. It's at this point, good coaches...

Sometimes training mistakes are made and the consequences must be dealt with. Sometimes everything is done right, then a swimmer gets...

The premise of the ‘Can’t Coach It’ series is that there are some skills that aren’t going to be impacted by words. You can’t really...

Some skills are critical to performance yet resist improvement, particularly through coach-led initiatives. We often describe...