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ATHLETE & PARENT RESOURCES
"My goal is not to be better than anyone else, but to be better than I used to be." - Wayne Dyer
This page is important for athlete and parent support. I may post thoughts on the college recruiting process, nutrition information and helpful thought on how to support the loved ones in the sport. I'll update this frequently so please stay tuned.
SWIMMING WORLD RECORDS IN TOKYO
August 2, 2021
I had a friend text me after Caeleb Dressel won the 100 freestyle and it went like this.
“I get that he’s excited about winning a gold medal and breaking the Olympic record but he didn’t go his best time. Shouldn’t he be a little upset?”
I love Rowdy Gaines and Dan Hicks but this is the thing that needs to put out there. The Olympics are a gauntlet of pain, anxiety and stress. Many world records are set outside of the Olympic Games and here’s why.
For one, most high level meets are a three to four day affair. And, it is more yardage (for the top athletes) than they’ll ever do. Prelims are in the morning, finals are at night and most events are contested only once or twice. Longer events are timed finals (think distances of 400 or longer) only swim once. Katie Ledecky will swim five straight days with four of those days racing over 1,000 meters. She had to swim the 800 AND 1500 twice. Add in the warm ups, cool downs and quick spikes before races and she’ll be doing workouts, not tapered swims, over the course of five days. I tell my personal athletes that the toughest gauntlet they’ll face is as an age-group swimmer for the Junior Olympics.
Second, most athletes tapered down for Trials just a month before. The “tapered out” feeling is real. Athletes break their base and have a tough time building “it” (their yardage and fitness level) up to get truly tapered back down again. The flat swims are unfortunately a result of this.
Third is the stress component. Carson Foster went a full second and a half five weeks after his tapered 400 IM swim. He notoriously was out-touched by Jay Litherland to place third, denying him of an Olympic position in that event. Weeks later, he then went a time that not only would have placed him on the team BUT would have won gold! He holds to fastest time in the world but didn’t swim in the Olympics! Carson is young and will get better with race strategy and swimming under pressure. However, the pressure of being in front of millions and representing your company is enough to tighten up the best athlete.
Fourth, we’re comfortable racing in comfort. In other words, we swim better in the confines of what we know. For many athletes, this is their first time in another country outside of North America. Think about that. You’re sent off to race in the biggest meet of your life, eating food you don’t know, dealing with a time change that throws you off and being coached by people you don’t know. How comfortable and confident are you driving across the country to attend a conference, vacation or do something somewhat passive? Imagine what it would be like flying for 20 hours and competing!
Fifth is the extra year. I can’t get used to the announcers calling this the 2020 Olympics when it is 2021. The younger swimmers get one more year of familiar training with their club coaches. College athletes had many, many restrictions with pool space and time (so if they can’t train, they’re not as fit). Pro swimmers were making this their last meet so they can mentally and physically move on to their professional careers. Pushing it one more year was not something they bargained for.
Finally (and there are so many other factors) but this is big. In these games, the buzz is absent. Families are not permitted to be there. The fans aren’t in the stands. You are truly swimming fast off of your adrenaline. As a former collegiate swimmer, I can say that nothing gets you up and racing more than seeing your family and friends in the stands.
The stats are the stats. At the time of me writing this (with a day to go), the breakdown is this.
2020 – 3 WRs
2016 – 8 WRs
2012 – 9 WRs
2008 – 24 WRs (with the “cheater suits” – full body polyurethane)
As the competition intensifies and just making the team becomes more difficult, we will see the numbers continue to lean out.
So, Caeleb should be emotional. This was a big moment for him, his team and his country. Sometimes it’s not about the time on the board or the broken record but the journey it took to get there. And, that’s something we’ll never know about.
#Caelebdressel #Tokyo2020 #Tokyo2021 #Speedo #swimfast #sprintswim #usaswimming #worldrecord #goldmedal #swimmer #swammer #perfectstreamlineswim #perfectstreamlineswimming #perfectstreamline #100fly
WAVE 2 OLYMPIC TRIALS HOT TAKES
June 19th, 2021
Just like any sports, there were surprises and upsets. People will point to Simone Manuel, Zane Grothe and Madisyn Cox as athletes that struggled. Carson Foster, for most, was one of top favorites in the IM. And, Ryan Lochte won’t be riding off into the sunset with another medal this quad. It is all heartbreaking! Have empathy – these athletes worked their tails off to be in this position. The mental grind this past year was not easy. For each of these cases, comes triumph for someone else. I’m predicting Regan Smith will be the name we all remember coming out of Tokyo. Lily King is obviously another athlete to watch. She’s dominant in the 100 breast. Michael Andrew and Kieran Smith are newcomers in the general public’s eyes but not to swim fans. The Hunter Armstrong 100 backstroke was so great! He was a recent transfer in to OSU from WVU (Dover HS grad in Ohio). As we know, there is no overnight success in this sport.
We’re not worthy. Seriously. The top tier of swimming is in a different species than the rest of us. And, we should all be taking note (especially those looking to take their craft to the next level). Ledecky’s 1-2 beat kick in the mile. Ryan Murphy’s deep push offs and six kicks off each wall in LCM. Caleb’s freestyle stroke overhead (instead of skewering, he’s winding…it’s interesting). Regan Smith’s hand position as it enters the water on fly – fingertips down with a relaxed arm recovery. Kieran Smith’s cadence on the 400 free with his 6’5” frame…1.1 cycles per second. Michael Andrew’s body line in breaststroke is incredible. Are you taking note? To improve in this sport, you have to take note of what the elite are doing.
This isn’t a hot take. The US has some weaknesses heading into Tokyo. We knew that with the retirement of Michael Phelps and the aging of Ryan Lochte and Nathan Adrian, the guys have some holes to fill. I love what we have in the 200 fly with Zach Harting but it will be the first time in a long time that we’re not earning a medal in that event. We need to slip in with a medal in one of the breaststrokes. The 100 will be much easier than the 200. And our relays are looking rough. The 800 free relay right now (based on aggregate times) is about 3.5 seconds off the top time. We don’t have a swimmer under 1:45 in the 200 free. However, I predict our 400 medley relay will be in the mix for gold. On the women’s side, we’re a bit better. Ledecky is the best swimmer of all time and I see Regan Smith getting her WR back in the 100 back. Lily King won’t be touched in the breaststroke. However, there are some holes with depth on the women’s side. Also, our freestyle relays will be in trouble without Simone Manuel. On both sides, we will win the medal count (and the gold medal count) without a problem. If our second swimmer in each of the individuals can medal at least 25% of the time, we should be in good shape.
Look at our young talent! I’ve already mentioned some of the young names that will be competing in Tokyo but some of the ones that just missed will be exciting for the next quad. On the guys side, it doesn’t get any more heartbreaking than Carson Foster. The teenager was just out-touched by Jay Litherland in the 400 IM and he’s amazingly versatile. Personally, I’d like to see what he can do in the 200 backstroke. No one captured my eye more than the ONLY teenager in the finals with the 200 breaststroke. Remember the name Matt Fallon. In the semis, he split his 200 breast with a 1:03/1:05 to take the heat (after being 8th at the 100). This is insane! I can’t wait to see what he does at UPenn. David Curtiss could be a 50 freestyle qualifier in four years but you’ll hear plenty about him in the next year when he dominates the pool in SCY. On the women’s side, how can you top Tori Huske’s 100 fly AR and her partner Claire Curzan? In fact, with Walsh in the mix, teenagers rule! So, I’m going deep for the next quad. Distance swimmers don’t get much love or publicity but Mariah Denigan will be one to watch. She was a hair off of her bests but within the last couple years, has changed club teams. No doubt she’s a hard worker and could be one to watch in the OW and distance races. Gabi Albiero is 19 now but she will be at the top of her game in four years. Her fly will only improve and I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up on a freestyle relay. And, finally, Claire Tuggle. She’s 16 and has been tearing it up for years in club swimming. If it’s not in 2025, it will soon thereafter. She’ll be the next great one.
And the swim of the meet belongs to….the one that no one watched! Obviously, many people know that our athletes still need to hit a minimum qualifying time to compete in Tokyo. We never talk about it because with a country of our size and the robust programs we have, the US never comes up short. The trials are for placing – just get in the top two. For some reason, the men’s 400 free is a tough cut to get. Not many athletes go faster than 3:46.48. Kieran Smith crushed it but at finals, he was the only one. Enter Jake Mitchell. The former Carmel Swim Club swimmer and current Michigan Wolverine time trialed the 400 after finishing 3rd the night before. I call time trials the trail of tears because NO ONE does well. Jake Mitchell broke the spell as he slipped under the qualifying time of 3:45.86. May your summer be just like Jake’s! Enjoy the games in Tokyo!
#swimming #olympichopefuls #USAswimming #YMCAswimming #perfectstreamline #perfectstreamlineswim #perfectstreamlineswimming #ifitaintbroke #swimtowin #omaha #Tokyo2021 #NBC #Rowdygaines #tapertime
WAVE 1 OLYMPIC TRIALS HOT TAKES
June 19th, 2021
I thought the splitting up the OT qualifiers into two separate waves was brilliant. Basically, it reduces the crowd (especially in the warm up/cool down area), allows the athletes on the slower end of the standards get a second dip at night for an expensive travel meet, and introduces us to some new swimmers that would get lost in the action with Wave 2.
I love that if a Wave 2 swimmer obtains the time standard for Wave 1, they can swim the following week! The time standard was based on the 41st fastest time from the previous quad.
There were too many great races to highlight. The difference in the women’s 200 free came down to a hundredth of a second (Rausch over Haebig) and both women moved on to Wave 2. Carl Bloebaum’s 200 fly was incredible – his time would qualify for the semis in Wave 2. Colby Mefford won the 200 back and his brother (later we’d find out) qualifies for the Olympics in the same event. Pretty cool!
By the end of Wave 1, we had plenty of people moving on to Wave 2 but not all competed. It’s tough to swim tapered out. Hopefully, these swimmers will do it just for the experience (however, it can’t be cheap staying an extra week in Omaha).
Finally, I love the hype around it. The officials, coaches, fans and leadership treated this like it was Wave 2. Events and opportunities will continue to build this sport up after many teams had to shut down due to the pandemic. We will get back to full pools and meets soon and I can’t wait.
#swimming #olympichopefuls #USAswimming #YMCAswimming #perfectstreamline #perfectstreamlineswim #perfectstreamlineswimming #ifitaintbroke #swimtowin #omaha #tokyo2021 #NBC #Rowdygaines #tapertime
THE SELF-ASSESSMENT OF A COACH
May 13, 2021
One of the hardest skills to develop as a #coach is the art of #self-assessment. Long ago, I took everything personal. When talented #swimmers left my team because I couldn’t provide the resources necessary for them to become elite, I became angry. However, my anger never led to an exit interview on what I could do differently to keep them. When my athletes performed brilliantly at a two day meet but fell apart at a four day competition, I became infuriated. However, my emotional distress rarely led to a brainstorming session with my coaches to figure out why. When my supervisor didn’t hand us more pool time upon request, I became resentful. I never dug deeper to figure out why. A valid reason could have made me fully understand why I was denied.
In each case, getting emotional and defensive was my guttural response. Self-assessing each situation with a fine-toothed comb would have been the best way to respond in each situation. Separating the objective gunk from personal feelings is important and here’s why.
1 – You’re good but not great. When you realize you have the potential to #improve, you question your #greatness. Did I fail? #Failure is never fatal. Contrary to popular belief, failure and success are on the same team. In fact, failure is essential to success and feeds it. Learn that feedback is a gift. Be open to receiving it (much like a birthday gift). You’re not great (and that’s okay) but you’re not a failure either.
2 – Your way won’t work forever. Do you know who found this out the hard way? Department stores! Amazon pushed everyone out of their way and made e-commerce a thing! I want cheap, convenient and fast. Amazon did it! What is Zillow doing (or rather attempting to do) in real estate? They’ve engineered a way to bypass the real estate agent to save you time and money. What do agents have to do knowing Zillow is doing this? Come up with a way to service their clients better than Zillow will. I provide you with these examples for one reason. If an athlete leaves your team for another one, chances are your methodology is stale. The “We’ve always done it this way before” cliché gets old. However, it’s the truth! Step back, have an out of body experience, and assess what you’re doing versus what is needed. Self-assessment could help you #evolve.
3 – You could be #wrong! Telling someone they’re wrong is almost as bad as telling them they’re a bad person (see point #1 about failure). Finding out you’re wrong hurts to the core. What is your self assessment tool? A tool that refines you improves process, efficacy and professionalism.
Coaches think they have all the answers so it’s essential you open yourself up to #critique. In fact, you should seek it out. When I looked at myself at the end of the 2012 season (one of our best seasons ever), the deep dive into my year yielded some big things. First, here are the tools I used.
Primary level tool – Survey to the team (what can we improve on with swim meets, meet entries, fun activities, practice times, etc.).
Secondary level tool – Coaches’ input session. We did this as part of our end of season coaches’ meeting.
Tertiary level tool – One hour of time writing down my personal failures and concerns (an honesty check). Which goals did I fall short of? What complaints have I fielded regarding my shortcomings? Why have I not improved at the rate of others? Were our numbers lower than last year? Financially, how are we doing?
After compiling a master list from the self-assessment, I started to solve each problem (honestly and objectively). Here are the top five complaints and shortcomings followed by initial corrective reaction (also known as taking immediate action).
The older girls didn’t swim well on their second taper (fall/winter season) – After self-reflection and conversations with collegiate coaches, I realized that we needed to keep the yardage high between tapers, incorporate longer aerobic swims, continue to lift at 80% max load, go with dryland until the end and finish with a drop taper on the second taper. I was not sold at first but it worked well the next season. My old school mentality was killing my second swims. I can’t believe I let them down.
Build a better, well-rounded lifting program to support strength and power gains – Our program was generic and at a minimum, supported the work in the pool. I tried to fudge the regimen in order to save time and money. We had Jonathan and Ehren at our service to provide a high-level lifting program at a discounted price for the team. I always worried about cost but it shouldn’t have deterred me from putting the best program together for my athletes. Our next season was fantastic and we made plenty of raving fans out of that bunch.
Practices aren’t fun. We continue to do longer sets without enjoyment – This one hit me the hardest because I prided myself on being a fun coach. Unfortunately, these long sets led to athletes quitting the sport or leaving the us for a competitor. I met with two colleagues who had low attrition at their clubs. Certainly, if they’re keeping swimmers, they must be doing something right. They both gave me their training plans and ideas on how I could work in games to improve speed, increase endurance without the yardage, and create activities outside of the pool to boost morale. The changes made a difference. After the following year, we had the lowest number of athletes leave our team EVER.
We need to prepare for long course and a short course pool wasn’t cutting it. The Sea Wolves got destroyed in LCM – Access to anything other than a 25 yard pool is tough. Heck, we didn’t even train in a 25 yard pool. Being creative was no longer cutting it. I reached out to several long course facilities but only one had availability. We were so lucky to get into the University of Cincinnati twice a week. Not only did it boost our athletes’ confidence but it also brought all three of our sites together. Teammates and coaches from across town were able to see one another and bond. That summer, we ended up getting our highest finish ever at a summer Junior Olympic meet. We qualified 37 athletes and had three gold medal swims.
Our Fairfield site continues to struggle financially and there are threats to shut it down – The conversation of shutting down our Fairfield site came up every year because we were financially breaking even for a for-profit health club that needed to pay the bills. The price of the facility’s membership kept rising, the value of membership declined, and the staff’s pay rate wasn’t competitive with the other teams in our area. We were losing swimmers and coaches at a high volume. The easiest thing to do would’ve been to shut down the operation. However, the coaches and I developed a short-term, boom or bust business plan. We lobbied the Healthplex to lower the programming fees. If a Sea Wolves team member wanted to join, they could opt into a junior membership over a family membership. And, swimmers would receive a discount on personal training, massage, or swim lessons. Not only did these concessions end up saving the team and site but it also increased the facility revenue by 3% (which doesn’t seem like much but our site was 28 swimmers out of 2400 unique memberships). We made an impact! Two years after the HealthPlex agreed to make these changes, we finally hit 50 swimmers at the site! It was the only time our numbers exceeded 40 athletes in a season!
Self-assessment only works if you’re open to critique. Get onboard with a system that keeps you in check and evolving all at the same time!
TAPER TIME TIPS FOR PARENTS & SWIMMERS
March 12, 2021
For many swimmers, February through April is championship time. I have two messages to our athletes this time of the year.
The first is to trust the training. All of the work done is done. The training has hardwired them to execute and deliver at the meet. Unfortunately, you can’t make up the time lost due to illness, injuries or setbacks. However, those objections normally are easy to overcome in the fall/winter season. Set a game plan leading up to the meet (extra goggles, snacks, bedtimes and travel accommodations). Listen to your coaches and trust in their preparation for the moment.
The second thing is just as simple as the first bit of advice. Go on instinct. Analysis equals paralysis. A few years ago, I had an athlete who was a nervous ball of stress leading up to the high school state meet. So, I did what any coach with basic math skills would do and I calculated the number of lengths he did in backstroke for the previous six months. I showed it to him and told him if he could do thousands of laps of backstroke, getting in to do four lengths fast was going to be cake. Everything I do during the day within my activities of daily living is intentional instinct. How do we get our swimmers to believe in this? Simple! Act on instinct!
WILL YOU RAISE YOUR CHILDREN TO LEAD FROM THE BACK, MIDDLE OR FRONT?
January, 19th, 2021
Effective leadership is a lost art, mainly because leaders are unwilling to improve or update their techniques. Most “natural leaders” are effective managers secondary to DNA, upbringing, resources, support and personality. As a swim coach, I’ve read over 50 books on leadership. I try to be the best coach, boss, and teacher I can be. Recently, I read books on leading from the back and the middle. Both seem reasonable and I’ve followed fantastic leaders who are exceptional using both styles. I feel that I’ve always lead from the back.
Leading from the back does a couple of things. For one, you can see everything that comes your way. You’re not giving up power in the back but merely, seeing the entire problem, challenge, etc. with them. Secondly, you empower the frontline to make decisions (and not just lower level ones). Engaged people often stay involved and excited. Third, you’ll always be part of the struggle. When you think leadership, you generally think about someone who is there for the good stuff and not the bad. Being a part of a steering crew (a leadership team) is better than one woman or man doing it all. The struggle is part of the success.
As you think about your child, will you mold their leadership style? Or, will you allow society to influence their style for you?
BE INTENTIONAL, BE GREAT
November 29th, 2020
Years after my collegiate swimming career was over, I found a pair of goggles and an old competition suit inside a duffel bag at the foot of my bed. The stale smell of chlorine sent a shockwave of memories through my body.
At the time, I was attending graduate school at Marshall University. I had Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons off and desperately needed to get back in shape. In addition, I wanted to compete again and to match one of my times from college. The pool was a three minute walk from my apartment and convenient to the library for me to study before dinner.
When I first started swimming that November, I was one of only two people in the water. About the third or fourth week of afternoon swimming, I noticed a few guys down in the end lane. They had the fancy gear. The mesh bag. The split fins. The hi-tech paddles. The works!
Two of the three men appeared to be newer to the sport but in good shape. The other guy was fit, tall and swam with flawless technique. He was impressive. The three men swam for an hour each day, mixing up strokes, taking short breaks, and finishing practices with race pace training. I watched them for a couple weeks before I made my way over to say hello.
I dipped under a few lane lines, waved and smiled at the guys as they put their paddles on for the next set. Before I could introduce myself, they asked me to join them. I guess they noticed me also.
John, who was the fast guy (I found out later that he was an Olympic Trials qualifier, a masters national record holder and one of the top swimmers above the age of 40 in the world), led the lane. I pushed off second, followed by the other two. We were pumping out repeat 100s, descending by effort and time. I turned around to one of the guys behind me after number 12 and said (gasping for air and life…)
“How many more do we have?”
The guy quickly responded, “As many as John wants us to.”
We ended up cranking out a few more. I hurt as bad as I ever did in a pool. I looked at the other three guys and they all had big banana smiles hanging off of their faces. I gave them a small smirk.
John said, “I’d ask you your name but I don’t want you to throw up on me. Are you swimming for fun or function?” Finally, I caught my breath.
“Both.” I wheezed a bit more. “I want to get back in shape and be ready for a meet next season. But…maybe I need to reevaluate my plans.” One of the other guys chimed in.
“Train with us and you’ll find both fun and function. John convinced me to swim with him because our workouts are action oriented. I didn’t know if I’d like training this way. However, I was never intentional about my workouts. I was like you over there (he pointed a finger to the lane I was in). You’re just going through the motions.”
Then the other guy, who only muttered a total of five sentences to me the entire time I trained with them, said this.
“If your day doesn’t start with intent and action, then it never starts.”
I was truly humbled. He was right. I ended up training on and off with them until I graduated. At the end of the eight months, I competed in two swim meets. In both competitions, I was right on my best times. In fact, I bested one of my times from college! I was more intentional with my training and it paid off.
Do your goals require intentional action to yield the results you want? Or, do you go through the motions, hoping to evolve into greatness?
STRUCTURING YOUR TOMORROW
November 25th, 2020
How much of today did you set aside to plan for tomorrow?
I had coffee with three people who have a seat on my life’s board of directors (you can read more about this in my book). During our conversations, I asked them about their process for scheduling the following day and week.
One of my directors is a highly successful account manager for a large tech company based out of California. She spends ten minutes each afternoon drafting up a to-do list for the next day. Included on this list are follow-up calls, action items, and points of improvement.
Another person works in human resources. He was employed for ten years at a hospital before launching his own clinical recruiting company. Two things matter to him. He invests 25% of his time connecting with those who currently do business with him and the remaining 75% finding new business.
The third person is an amazing swim coach and person. He’d be embarrassed if I mentioned him by name. Coaches notoriously have a white board in their office to write up workouts and directives. He uses his board to document the three things he learned today and how he can implement these nuggets tomorrow for greater success. Many of his stroke drills, practices, and methods of engagement all came from this activity of reflection.
As we wrapped up our conversation, I asked him a question.
“When was the last time you didn’t use your board?”
He smiled, paused in thought, and said, “I can’t remember.”
Get better tomorrow by using the lessons you learned today.
QUICK THOUGHT FOR ATHLETES
November 11th, 2020
How often do you self-reflect on your practices and practice habits? I've talked to several elite swimmers and one thing they do so well is address the areas that they can improve on (getting in on time, stretching, asking questions, etc.). Of course, be honest and truthful with yourself!