Top 10 Ways to Impress Your Swimming Coach

10. Don't miss practice. Want to be the best swimmer you can be? Showing up is a good start. As a coach, our primary chance to help you is at practice. If you are not there, we simply cannot help.

9. If there is a legitimate reason why you will miss practice, contact your coach beforehand, explain the circumstances, and ask how you can make it up. Connecting in advance of your absence suggests you care about the practice and more importantly, about your own training.

8. Show up on time. Don't be that swimmer who is perpetually late to practice. You'll anger most coaches and frankly, even perturb your teammates. If you think your fellow swimmers are forgiving of your tardiness, you're mistaken. Most dislike it or conclude you feel like you deserve special treatment or consideration.

7. Be prepared for practice. When the coach is planning your training, he is expecting that you will have the necessary items to perform as instructed. Not having your mesh bag, swimming equipment, water bottle, shoes for dryland, etc. is just plain sloppy and makes him wonder whether you really intend to improve or if you are just showing up hoping to get better.

6. Give your best effort consistently at practice. We are not asking nor expecting every swimmer to be a world-beater every day. We merely expect you to perform at your capability and be willing to push that boundary every once in a while. Your effort will determine your results. Even the best coach does not bring magic swim-fast fairy dust to practice.

5. Listen and ask good questions at practice. Coaches like swimmers who are attentive and focused. If your coach constantly has to repeat himself, it wastes your time and his. If you have a question, find the right time to ask it--not 2 seconds before you are supposed to push off the wall, but during the explanation of the set or after practice.

4. Understand that every day is an opportunity to improve and once it is over the opportunity has passed. Be sure to get the maximum benefit each day. Be willing to make changes and seek the coach's insight on how you can do this. Don't just keep doing what you're doing and hope that your hard work will overcome your other mistakes. We know that many of you dream of achieving at the highest levels of the sport, so we have to work together to get you there.

3. Set awesome goals. Make them reasonable yet challenging, clear but flexible. Not only are they important to help you focus your energies, but goals can also help inspire your coach. A good coach is motivated by a swimmer with high goals and the drive to achieve those goals.

2. Let your coach know if he's doing a good job. If the practice engaged and challenged you, tell him. If you enjoyed the new exercise you tried for the first time, let him know. If you're a better swimmer or person at the end of the season, send him a handwritten thank-you note. The flip side to this, of course, is helping him improve. Is he unclear in his instructions on a set? Did he misunderstand your question or put you on an easier interval than you are capable of? Is there something that you are missing in your training? A good coach is responsive to your feedback and will look to improve.

1. Be a leader and make your personalized contribution to the team. The best compliment a coach can give any swimmer is that "you made everyone around you better than they would have been without you." If you hear your coach say that, know this: we were indeed impressed. Be THAT swimmer.

This post was adapted from 10 Ways to Impress Your College Professor

The Promise

To: The Swimmers I Coach

If you give me a commitment composed of your presence and your effort. If in your effort you deliver determination and persistence. If your determination is driven by goals of achievement. If your goals are truly your own. If every day you strive to be the best you.

I promise my commitment composed of my daily presence and my intense effort. I promise my determination and persistence in the face of obstacles small and large, expected and unseen. I promise to steer you toward achieving your goals. I promise you a training program to give you confidence, preparedness, and unassailable fitness. I promise to strive to be the best me to help you be the best you.

Why You Need a Coach

Because coaches have wisdom gained from years of experience watching swimmers succeed and fail...because as an athlete, you only get one opportunity to reach your potential... because you need an honest voice to tell you how things are, not just how you want them to be... so that you have someone who has been there for every moment of preparation to share the excitement of victory with... so that someone who knows how bad you wanted it and how hard you worked is there to pick you up when you fail... so that when the days are long and hard, there is someone in your ear asking you to be better... because you do not really know the achievements of which you are capable... because the pool doors are locked at 5 a.m.... because deciding what to do every day at practice would take longer than you think... because where else would you hear the joke of the day?

The T-Shirt Watcher Rides Again

Here are some I've seen on the pool deck at this week's Junior Nationals in Federal Way:

"Those who have the right kind of character don't tremble at the first sign of adversity."

"Great thoughts coupled with intense actions produce unbelievable results."

"Resolve to succeed. The greatest discovery one can make is that nothing is impossible."

"A very clever brain can catch a heffalump, if only he knows the right way to go about it." -Pooh

"Hotter than fish grease."

"It is a sublime thing to suffer and be stronger." - Longfellow

"There's a choice you make
in every thing you do.
But keep in mind that in the end,
the choice you make makes you."
-John Wooden

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

"Fortitudine Vincimus" (By Endurance We Conquer)

"Wake early if you wish to take another man's life or land. No lamb for the lazy and no battles won in bed." -Hannibal

"When your heart is in your dreams, no request is too extreme."

"There is no point in saying, 'I am doing my best.' You must succeed by doing what is necessary." -Winston Churchill

"Bring it pansies."

Until next time...

Deciphering Bowman

Some fascinating quotes out of Rome at today's World Championships, particularly from Phelps' coach Bob Bowman after Phelps was drubbed by German Paul Biedermann in the 200 free in WR time. So I'm bringing out my magic deciphering device to help us all:

Bowman: "Probably expect Michael not to swim until they (restrictions on high-tech bodysuits) are implemented."
Deciphered: "We will not participate in another race that we aren't sure we can win. We are taking our ball and going home."

Bowman: "I'm done with this. It has to be implemented immediately. The mess needs to be stopped right now. This can't go on any further."
Deciphered: "Right now! Before we get egg on our face again!"

Bowman: "Does a 10-year-old boy in Baltimore want to break Paul Biedermann's record? Is that going to make him join swimming?"
Deciphered: "10,000 kids in Berlin just joined their local swim teams. Watch out for the German team in 2020!"

Bowman: "The sport is in shambles right now..."
Deciphered: "The world is upside down! Michael is human!"

Bowman: "...and they better do something or they're going to lose their guy who fills these seats."
Deciphered: "Ryan Lochte is going home too!"

Underdogs Watch This

Great motivational video. Gives me the chills.



Here’s the thing that makes life so interesting.
The theory of evolution claims “Only the strong will survive.”
Maybe so.
Maybe so.
But the theory of competition says “Just because they are the strong doesn’t mean they can’t get their butts kicked.”
See, what every long shot come-from-behind underdog will tell you is this:
“The other guy may in fact be the favorite.
The odds may be stacked against you. Fair enough.
But what the odds don’t know is this is not a math test.
This is a completely different kind of test,
One where PASSION has a funny way of trumping logic.
So before you step up on the starting block, before the whistle blows, and the clock starts ticking, just remember:
Out here, things don’t always add up.
No matter what the stats may say, and the experts may think, and the commentators may have predicted, when the race is on, all bets are off.
Don’t be surprised if somebody decides to flip the script, and take a pass on yelling ‘uncle.’
And then suddenly, as the old saying goes, ‘We’ve got ourselves a race!’”

How To Be Mediocre...

Set goals you can easily achieve...Count on luck to help you reach them...Count on your talent even more...Congratulate yourself for trying...Accept less than your best...Be inconsistent in your daily effort in training...Arrive late to practice...Blame others for your failures...Forget to thank others for helping you succeed...Speak every negative thought you have...Relish being a big fish in a small pond...Rationalize your results when you come up short...Let your bad habits persist...Let factors you cannot control get in your head...Avoid improving your weaknesses...Commit halfway...Take it personally when your coach says you CAN do better...Ignore the clock at practice...Draft instead of passing...Do NOT kick under any circumstances...Read this list again and say "That's not me - I don't do that!"

Folks, this list is intended to be tongue-in-cheek and it is far from complete. Do you have any more ideas we should add to the list? Obviously, EXCELLENCE is the object of our pursuit.