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...

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...

In part I , we introduced the idea of ‘saving a season’, and the idea that the decision-making process for helping a swimmer turn around...

Sometimes, it’s just not going well. A swimmer isn’t progressing, they seem to be struggling, or they might even seem to be regressing. ...

In part I , we explored the differences between learning environments and racing environments. The following characteristics can describe...

There are two productive forms of training, learning and performing, and they are both critical for developing competition day...

Ignorance is not bliss. For the coach, it can be incredibly frustrating. This is particularly true when you believe you SHOULD have all...

There was a Russian scientist by the name of Pyotr Anokhin  and he had an idea about how systems in the body worked. He called it the...

In part I , we explored the process of applying the ideas of skill acquisition to a specific skill, the breaststroke pullout. The...

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...