A few listeners have written inquiring about the status of the Swim Brief, my erstwhile podcast. The last one was recorded just before everything went to hell and then released in March. So to the loyal listeners/readers, I will explain that and a few other ongoing announcements about Chris DeSantis Coaching.
Swim Brief on Pause
At best, the Swim Brief is on a long hiatus. The reason is pretty simple and I’ll be 100% transparent about it. I record all episodes with remote guests from my “home office” in my apartment. Previously this was pretty much any room in my apartment.
Since schools and daycares closed in Jersey City, both of my kids have been home 24/7. As readers of Dad Stuff will recognize, I have extensive childcare duties that have grown exponentially as a result. On a typical day I am lucky to get 1-2 hours of kid-free time.
Recording a podcast under the best circumstances takes one hour, and editing and posting 30-45 min if i am efficient. I simply am not willing to give this time, nor do I think it would be a good idea for me to do. WIll it return? Maybe.
I have to admit, I do the podcast and the writing as much for myself as anyone else. If it doesn’t make sense for me, I’m not going to do it, especially when I have always kept both pieces of content free for this time.
Back to Coaching?
One thing that this crisis has made clear for me is that I would like to do more coaching. I am coming up on nearly five years “out in the wilderness”. There have been huge positives during this time. I learned how to run my own business. I learned that I was capable of a lot more things than I thought.
However, being forced home has stripped me of nearly all the things I enjoyed about the work I had created. And again, if I’m being perfectly honest, what I enjoy more than anything else is coaching. Showing up day to day and helping people is what fills my cup. I want to do more of it.
Right now, what form that might take is highly ambiguous, but I am out there looking for something that will more effectively meet that need.
No Matter What Chris DeSantis Coaching Will Go On
Another lesson I’ve learned throughout this time is to be more flexible and less rigid with my path forward. So, while right now I am looking to coach more, that doesn’t mean that I will stop doing many of the things I do here, nor does it mean that I may even end up coaching more.
In a prior life I would just snatch up the best job I thought I could get. These days, I am content to say no to a lot of things because my life has plenty of worthwhile things to spend time on, like two lovely children and a wife to start, and even with a downturn mirroring the greater economic trouble of the country, I do not currently NEED to coach.
All of it comes back to my own personal why, which doesn’t change regardless of whether i am 100% independent or working within an institution. That is, I want to make the sport of swimming better for everyone involved. I want coaches’ jobs to be more enjoyable, less stressful and better compensated. I want parents to feel like their kids are much better off having their kid in the sport. I want athletes to have experiences in swimming they will carry with them (positively) for the rest of their lives.
Right now I think more time spent on deck would enhance that mission. I also think it is important that as you work as a “consultant” that you don’t become a pure consultant and keep in touch with what it is actually like to teach the sport. What it is like to interact with parents day in day out and what it is like to show up nearly ever day and coach.
I hope that for all reading that you have gotten some time to reflect on what is important to you, why it is important and how you might do things differently on the other side of this when you get the chance. I think it is well worth doing.