No Plan B

We caught a fabulously entertaining interview this week with a person who is arguably the most successful radio personality of the last 40 years. He was discussing how he became so successful after so many initial failures. Cutting to the chase he said he never had a “Plan B”. He went on to talk about folks he knew or had met who had every intention of being successful in any number of ventures only to fall short and then “go to plan B.”

He said that when you ask someone what they want in/from life they will tell you all the stuff they have been taught to say – the grandiose dreams, the BHAG (big hairy ass goal). If you look at them skeptically they often confess that “Well, if I don’t get what I am after there is also Plan B.”

And he said, as a way to understand human behavior, if someone makes a bold statement he will then ask them “So what if it doesn’t work out?” Invariable they say, “Well I have a fallback position” (Called Plan B)

In our sport right this moment there are any number of swimmers who have their eye on Omaha and Tokyo June 2020. Some will make it; most will not. While 4 years may seem like an eternity to a 20 something year old, in the grand scheme of life it’s not that long. If you are 22 and miss in Omaha but you still fiercely cling to the ambition of being an Olympian, you have 4 more years to “get it right.”

Many college age athletes are figuring out how to “keep up” with their peers, educationally and professionally. Having said that, most if not all of those peers aren’t taking a serious crack at an Olympic berth.

We say, stop making excuses and go for it…unabashedly, unashamedly and unfettered by Plan B. You have the rest of your life to do all the other stuff. Seriously…

Who Owes Whom, and What?

Saturday we were doing a kick set before we got rolling on a set of 200’s. We did a simple 4x150/2:30 kick with lap 3 being a buildup lap and lap 6 being a fast lap. On the fast lap we did our standard deal which is to kick all the way to the touch pad, no arm pull into the wall. We do this for the obvious reasons but primarily to get them accustomed to kicking all the way into the wall. When they get in a race they will do what they do in training so – kick to the touch pad.

Zev on #2 pulled the last stroke on lap 6. We reminded him of the “kick to the wall” goal/requirement. On # 3 he did the same thing. We said, “Ok Zev you can make that one up after workout. On # 4 he was fine, kicking all the wall in on lap #6.

After workout was over he reminded us, “I owe you a 150 kick”. We said go for it and he did, kicking all the way to the wall.

Case closed…but not exactly. Today we were thinking about that exchange and realized that Zev didn’t “owe us anything”. Zev owed himself another 150 kick. And this made it even clearer to us that Zev owes Zev, not us the coaches. And that is because Zev is in charge of his own bank account of skills, conditioning – the list is endless. He doesn’t kick FOR us. He kicks FOR HIMSELF…because it is his race, his training, his commitment…the list goes on – maybe forever.

So when we see Zev tomorrow we will reinforce that he is kicking for himself, not for us, and that he doesn’t actually owe us anything. However, he owes himself the very best that he can muster on any given day, on every given race, on every given set, on every given repeat.

What do you want? What are you willing to do to get it? The choice ultimately is yours and yours alone…very powerful concept if you can grasp it. The coach’s task is to get the swimmer/person to grasp that.

Have an awesome day at the pool – make a difference to someone (or two) today!

Finish What You Start

One of the most impressive lessons our sport teaches all participants (swimmers, coaches and parents) is the value of finishing what you start. What you start is your goal. What you finish is your personal victory…measured by you based upon what you set out to achieve – your goal.

We are working with our high school seniors right now. They have a 2+ month window for their high school season (California has swimming as a spring sport). And then they need to decide what to do with their summer training and racing block. If they plan on pursuing swimming in college – and thankfully most do – then the most important thing they can do is train and race this summer. If they do that, then they set themselves up for a good shot at transitioning into their college team and that season. If they punt the summer away (“I need a break, I’ve been swimming my whole life. I want some summer fun” – sound familiar?) Then they enter the ranks of college swimming a couple of steps behind. And college swimming is much more demanding than most of them have done before…finish what you start.

Let’s say you swim a 200 free in 1:45+. Your goal is to go 1:42. How can you get those next 3+ seconds? (The GREAT coach Jon Urbanchek says that at the big meet you need to be thinking about a 1 second drop per 50) The way you get those 3+ seconds is to go 24.0 – 26.0 – 26.0 – 26.0…= 1:42.0. You need to really sharpen your focus on training so that you are physically prepared for the task. Then you need to sharpen your emotional skills so you are able to handle the challenges of the race itself…then you finish what you start.

As a coach, you have goals – yes, you need them just as your swimmers need them. Whatever your vision is for your team, your season, your career…define your path and then stay on it come hell or high water and finish what you start.

You are a parent and you want nothing but the best for your child. First define, as specifically as possible, what for you constitutes what the “best for your child” means. Then map out a path and stay on it. A coaching colleague of ours – who is also a parent – remarked the other day that once you have a child you have made a 20 year commitment; the child comes first. That means all the usual sacrifices but more than that it means at all times under all circumstances putting the young one first. Oh, both parents need to have the same mindset on this one…if that is possible.

Great ones – not simply Olympic medalists – finish what they start. We’ve been coaching for decades and we still have this mantra in mind…we finish what we start.

See you poolside…as Dave Krotiak says, “Have an awesome day!”

Why We Coach

Hi Don,

I have been following what you guys have been doing at some of your meets and it seems like you have a lot of people doing some great stuff over in California! I was so impressed with how everyone swam at the Super League meet in Davis especially!

Just finished my first season of college swimming, which is crazy because I feel like I was just swimming at RESLs. I had some doubts about Dartmouth initially, but I am certain I am at the right place. I like my coaches (although full disclosure you and Ken were a little more fun) and I love my teammates. My season didn’t end as well as I had hoped; unfortunately I got very sick and was unable to swim for a lot of the month prior to my meet.

This reminded me of your Michael Phelps analogy with the thimble and the ocean where you build a cup during the season and during taper you fill the cup. I was really frustrated because I had worked really hard this season to build a cup, but was unable to fill it. Although I still had some fun at the meet and I loved watching my friends do so well, I didn’t go to the meet just to have fun.

College swimming is hard because not swimming well is no longer a personal problem, it also hurts your teammates and all the hard work they did. I was seeded in the top 8 for the 50 free, but instead placed 20th. We only beat Columbia by a few points, and the rest of the meet I couldn’t stop thinking that if we lost to Columbia, had I placed 8th instead of 20th we would have beaten them.

I was thinking about all this on the bus ride back from Princeton when I got a text from someone from my high school asking when I knew I wanted to swim in college. And to be completely honest, at that point I wasn’t sure if I was glad I was swimming in college. Staying up until one studying for midterms and writing papers (yes I actually do homework here, shocking I know), only to wake up at six to walk to practice in negative five degree weather is hard. Swimming/lifting four hours a day almost every day is exhausting. All of this to add 2 seconds in a 200?

When exactly did I decide to do this?  Then I realized I never decided, the thought of not swimming in college just never even occurred to me.

I joined North Bay my sophomore year because I wanted to see where swimming would take me. Swimming has taken me to Clovis many, many times, Las Vegas, Seattle, and Orlando. It was like when Ken asked if I wanted to go Orlando for relays my junior year. It never crossed my mind to not go because I wanted to see what I could do in Orlando.

When swimming took me to Dartmouth, I didn’t go because I wanted to go to Dartmouth; I went because I wanted to see what I could do there. I’m not sure what else I want to get out of swimming, but I want to continue to see where it will take me. My team doesn’t have a competitive spring training program, but I have talked to some girls on my team and my coaches about doing some long course training with hopes of giving myself a chance of qualifying for Olympic trials in the next two years. I have no idea how realistic this is, but two years ago I would have never believed swimming would take me this far, so I am optimistic for what the next two years will bring.

Thank you to both you and Ken for all you have done to help me get here, and I wish you best of luck with your upcoming meets.

Thanks, Zoe

P.S. This is for Ken too but I don’t have his email for some reason.

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