Keeping It Simple

We are at the American Swimming Coaches Association Annual World Clinic where many of the leaders in our sport gather to learn and share. The collective wisdom is inspiring. The collegiality is motivating. This is such a unique profession in that to our knowledge no university offers a degree in swim coaching. Yet it remains a very valuable pursuit in that swimming actually can save your life and swimming competitively teaches so many life lessons. And every 4 years there is an enormously high profile event that showcases the fastest in the world.

There are more ways than you would think to train a competitive swimmer to reach her/his potential. Nine coaches were nominated for the annual Coach of the Year Award. All nine of them had swimmers who won individual gold medals this summer in London. None of the nine swimmers trained the same way, and yet they actually followed a similar script...thus today's title...keeping it simple.

You must have excellent technique. The person who can hold their technique the longest, along with their tempo, wins.

To do this you must be in excellent physical shape. There is any number of ways to achieve "excellent physical shape."

You must have confidence. Period.

You must be competitive. Period.

End of story...see you at the pool.

Ps...message to our team...be ready on Monday!