Lehigh — Blog — Chris DeSantis Coaching

March 20, 2025

Chris DeSantis

Confrontation is a life necessity. If it wasn’t, I’d guess that most of us would hardly ever do it. Constitutionally, I think human beings are designed to be confrontation averse. That is, we are all more or less “pro-social”. Our extent as a species rely on the fact that we have found ways to cooperate with each other at a very high level.

February 27, 2025

Chris DeSantis

Fat Tailed Coaching

I’ve often spoken about “Fireman Mode” coaching, where you find yourself running from place to place putting out fires. Most of the time, it’s in the context of the mental health of the coach. Fireman mode is very detrimental over the long haul of a coach’s career, as you begin to anticipate (with considerable worry) problems popping up and having to react to them.

February 19, 2025

Chris DeSantis

Coaching Coaches: Head Honchos

I remember vividly when I first became a “head“coach. In early July of 2013, I was standing on the pool deck of the Danish National Championships. I was embroiled in a bitter “contract dispute” with my current employer. Some time after warmup I was handed an envelope by the club’s board chairman with a contract inside.

February 12, 2025

Chris DeSantis

Actually Addressing Coach Behavior

Today I woke up to this article on Swimswam. To summarize, a ten-time conference coach of the year, and her assistant coach, is abruptly let go one week ahead of their conference championship. A terse statement from the school says everything and nothing about what actually happened. In the comments section, another career reputation is circling the drains.

February 6, 2025

Chris DeSantis

Make Up Your Own Mind

Having recently completed a trip abroad, I’m struck once again by how small the swimming world is. Even in Sweden, with nominally a completely different group of coaches than you would find at your average gathering of American swim coaches, connections abounded.

There are many benefits to a small community. One which I continually benefit from is that by virtue of that community being small, my modest presence online nevertheless affords me a lot of familiarity on many pool decks world wide.

Lehigh

Chris DeSantis

June 20, 2017

Commentary

This Job Posting from Lehigh Is Awesome

Chris DeSantis

June 20, 2017

Commentary

Yesterday, Lehigh University put up a job posting with a typical title "assistant coach". What was inside that posting was anything but typical. It avoids many of the pitfalls typical job postings make and speaks to some innovative thinking going on in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.