Several weeks ago I teased that changes were afoot in my career. Today, I’m proud to finally announce what the heck is going on. On September 1st, I took on a new role with Jersey Wahoos Swim Club in Mount Laurel, NJ.
The first part of the job, much to my delight, will be coaching. I will be responsible for coaching a group titled “High School”, consisting of swimmers of high school age and with a fairly wide range of abilities. We will have later training slots (primarily 8-9:30pm) and considerably less time than high school aged kids in the “National” group.
I’m pretty excited about both sets of circumstances. It’s been five years since I was head coach of a team, one where I found myself with all the pool time I could ever want. But I’ve always felt more comfortable working within some limitations. I like the challenge of having to figure out how to accomplish something worthwhile in less time. I like the idea of turning something that people may not be thrilled about (swimming late at night, for example) and turning it on its head.
Also, quite frankly, I’ve found over the intervening five years that while I like coaching very fast, very accomplished swimmers, I love coaching swimmers of all ability levels.
The second part of my job is equally exciting, particularly because it’s going to be a space to innovate what a swim club provides. Within the club, I’ll work as Director of Personal Development. It’s a role that takes a lot of pieces of what i’ve been doing at Chris DeSantis Coaching and put them into one institution.
Right now, it will mean several things. First, a year round curriculum for athletes and parents built around Positive Psychology. There will be 12 themes with four weeks per theme, giving a 48 week a year program to follow.
Information will be tailored for different users, as parents and athletes need different tools to apply it. For coaches, I’ll be crafting a 1:1 personal development plan with the goal of enhancing the physical and mental well-being of each of the team’s lead coaches. Coaches will also get the chance to do some personal goal setting/reflection as they go through their work.
Finally, the program will also provide some in-house college recruiting advice, which has never been more fast moving or tumultuous in my memory. I plan to write in a little bit about the troubled landscape of program cuts, including the most recent devastating cut of William and Mary. It’s a program I have no connection to but has been basically a coach development powerhouse for decades.
Finally, you can continue to expect me to write here, sharing my mostly unvarnished opinions on things. My new employers are familiar with my work and it hasn’t scared them off thus far. I look forward to sharing new insights that I get as I return to coaching and start this new project.