This past weekend, I attended the Magnus Cup at Cleveland State University. I was there in my capacity helping the Vikings, but also had the chance to observe and hear about a lot of teams that I’ve never seen before.
I’ll get into those observations later on. Before that, I want to share some of the thoughts (fantasies?) I had while watching the teams compete. What if I became head coach of a mid-major program, trying to stand out and survive in the tumultuous world of swimming? So far, athletic directors aren’t beating down my door to hire me. Maybe this post will change that! Probably not.
I believe that one of the disadvantages of power conference programs is they tend to hew conservative in terms of how they train and compete. There is little room for error at the top. Lower levels give you greater opportunity to experiment and try new things.
So without further adieu, here is a list of “crazy” things I would try if I were head coach of a mid-major program, Div II or Div 3 program.
Shave and Suit Up For Every Meet
I hear a lot of people gossiping this fall about Missouri supposedly suiting up for every meet. To head coach Andy Grevers and his staff I say “BRAVO”. Why not take it one step further?
Now, for many what Missouri has done is already transgressive enough. There is a belief most fervently held in American swimming that there is great risk in suiting up or otherwise shooting for your best possible result in every meet you compete in.
This is despite their being little objective evidence that somehow “saving up” for a couple meets e year is really good.
I say go one step further than suiting up for every meet. SHAVE FOR EVERY MEET. Go all the way. Train your athletes in a way that doesn’t put them in a deep dark hole and just go for it every meet.
Obviously, you’ll want a little bit of space between competitions in order that your athletes don’t lose the great sensation of a fresh shave. But honestly, a couple weeks should be enough.
Avoid Recruiting Phone Calls
College “coaching” is somewhat of a misnomer, given the value that recruiting has for college programs. Conventional wisdom is that one of the most effective ways to recruit is to brute force phone communication, keeping touch with as many prospects as could potentially help your team and wooing them with snore-inducing small talk like “how has practice been going?”.
You know what? I meet few if any prospects that enjoy talking to college coaches on the phone. What if instead of competing with everyone else to see who can be better at something no one seems to truly enjoy, you figured out what ways recruits actually wanted to be communicated with and did that instead?
There might be times when the phone is still necessary. Nailing down details of a visit, or making that scholarship offer that you can’t make in paper until the fall of their senior year. But moving away from the phone call as the predominate touch point, even with top recruits, might actually give you an advantage over the dedicated phone callers.
Hire Middle-Aged Parents That Haven’t Coached For A While
One hiring strategy I would absolutely try to employ would be to hire coaches in middle age, particularly those with families who left coaching to raise their kids, but now find themselves with additional time as their kids go to high school and/or college.
So many people say that coaching a college team you treat your athletes like family, but how come there are so few coaches with actual experience, y’know, raising a family? Part of me didn’t even want to include the “haven’t coached for a while” part of this one.
I mean, your average mom with 3+ kids has more experience sorting out many of the problems you may run into on a big college team than most. So why not employ them to do just that?
Practice* Less Than 20 Hours a Week
There’s some crazy overtraining going on in the sport of swimming. Many well meaning coaches athletes overtrain. Take it from someone who mistakenly overtrained many folks as well as himself!
When the NCAA sets a limit, the assumption is that you should use all of that time and maybe push the limit to a little bit more. As someone who routinely got scorned for turning in 18.5 hour weeks during my time at Georgia Tech, I might take it a step further.
Or not. I could see an argument for still using up the time, but instead of lifting weights, throwing medicine balls or swimming, having some structured time to talk, to purposefully build supportive bonds between athletes amongst themselves and coaches.
How to win with one hand tied behind your back
No matter what, being in a situation where you are disadvantaged tests your ingenuity and creativity. The worst thing you can do when you’re dealing with 1/10th (or less) the resources of some of your competitors is try to play their game. You will lose.
So maybe these ideas aren’t that crazy, and people are in fact doing most or all of them To them I say congrats, and lets chat! I want to hear how it’s going.