A Lesson From Literature Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Mother Night, tells the story of Howard Campbell, infamous Nazi propagandist and...

It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. When considering skill acquisition, this remains true as well, often in ways we fail to...

Momentum. Whether in training or racing, we’ve all seen the swimmer who can do no wrong, as well as the swimmer who can do no right....

Previously, I have advocated for a technical approach that relies heavily on full stroke swimming and the use of tasks that nudge...

Everything starts at the top. Assistant coaches and athletes will mimic the head coach’s (HC) attitude, work ethic, commitment,...

Inputs and outputs. Both are critical to performance. The energetic cost of swimming is tightly related to velocity, with velocity being...

Stabilization Having acquired the desired technical skills, it’s time to make sure those skills are robust enough to hold up under the...

Channeling Skills During the first stage of the skill acquisition process, a large amount of variability was introduced. At this point,...

Destabilization As described in the introductory article, facilitating technical change is best effected through a 3-step process where...

As any coach can attest, technical change is a very difficult process, particularly in older age group and senior swimmers. The typical...

In a Ted talk, the title of which I cannot remember unfortunately, the speaker made a very interesting statement that continues to...

On several occasions, I have argued that the appropriate implementation and creation of training tasks is a superior approach to...

The Riddler was a famous nemesis of Batman, known for constantly posing riddles to anyone who would listen. While the Riddler’s...

In the sport of swimming, most coaches are familiar with the concept of ‘good kids’. We know exactly what it means if another coach...

In several posts, I have described an approach that relies less on verbal coaching instruction. I have also advocated for an approach...

Boredom is a real problem in training. Bored swimmers are not psychologically engaged and disengaged swimmers will certainly not benefit...

Anatoliy Bondarchuk was an Olympic Champion in the hammer throw (1972). He coached ALL 3 Olympic medalists in the hammer throw in 1976...

As coaches, we want to develop technically robust swimmers who are able to execute their skills in any context. Better swimmers are more...

When considering the complexities of performance, one of my goals is always to distill big, messy problems down to simple underlying...

Swimmers tend to swim a certain way for a reason. Coaches intuitively understand that a 5’0” female with size 1 feet can’t swim like Ian...

For those fortunate enough to grow up playing Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and the like, you’ll remember that some of those games were hard....

Without stress, there is no adaptation. Without challenge, there is no growth. In the first case, there is no physiological change,...

‘Every day, athletic stars are honored for their success. TV monitors broadcast their faces across the world. To create international...

As described in the first part of this series, the creation of appropriate tasks is the first step when enhancing effective skill...