I’d like to return to the idea that small changes in language can have big impacts on coaching practice. I originally explored this...

As coaches, we have a lot of influence on the individuals we work with on a daily basis. They will begin to believe what you believe, if...

It’s commonly accepted that the more disciplined athletes are, the more successful they’ll be. Swimmers are often encouraged to ‘be...

One of the most under-appreciated skills in coaching is that of being a great actor. Who do I need to be right now to get done what needs...

As discussed in Part I, pre-loading can be an effective strategy to create novel stimuli while also accomplishing multiple training tasks....

When a swimmer has been exposed to a particular type of training, that type of training loses it ‘training potential’. In short, the...

As coaches, particularly in the collegiate and professional setting, we are typically working as part of a team that supports the...

Periodization, performance planning, preparation periods. Macrocycles, mesocycles, microcycles. Anaerobic and aerobic capacity,...

The impact of slow losses in critical training components was discussed previously in Bleeding to Death. I would like to shift the...

As has been touched upon before, coaches are constantly engaged in identifying, engaging with, and solving complex problems. To combat...

As discussed in great coaching, the X Factor in coaching is separating the important from the unimportant. In a vast sea of choices, the...

‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ -Peter Drucker From professional sports to business board rooms, from amateur sports to non-profit...

As discussed in PART I, the effects of training can operate at divergent time scales, with the positive and negative impacts of a given...

One of the biggest challenges in coaching is managing training over long time scales. In other words, the effects of your decisions...

As discussed in part I, life stress can significantly impact performance and health. In part II, we discussed how coaches can manage...

As discussed in part I, life can have a tremendous impact on the training program, including the rate of improvement, injury risk, and...

As coaches, we tend to be very focused on the importance of our training sessions and training plans. We feel that the specifics of the...

At its essence, coaching is a simple process. It is a series of decisions based upon information that is presented to the coach on daily...

The use of technical drills has been a central part of teaching movement and skills. As described here, there are more considerations as...

One of the fundamental concepts of swimming training is the critical importance of developing a ‘base’. As the name implies, a great base...

In previous articles we explored the impact of autonomy and expectancies on performance. To wrap up the final aspect of the OPTIMAL...

In part I, we introduced the OPTIMAL theory of learning, which suggests that emphasizing autonomy, expectancies, and an external focus of...

As a coach, I am always looking for different ways to view the training process, new ways to understand how performance emerges, and new...

Improvements in training come from overload followed by recovery from that overload. This process results in an adaptive change* that...