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.
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.
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.
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.
One of the problems I have consistently encountered is that when terminology goes viral, it often loses it’s true meaning. Today I want to talk about empathy, which I find has become a buzz word in a lot of contexts, but has also started to lose a cohesive meaning in the process.
I want to offer, to my audience of coaches, parents and athletes, a definition of empathy. At the same time, I want to distinguish it from some of the perversions of the term I commonly see.
Swimming has a free rider problem. In a sport where the only objective measurement of progress and development is the clock, a lot of swimmers are getting some of that regardless of what they put in. Which swimmers? Young swimmers, riding for free through puberty (and for boys, sometime beyond), getting better all the way.
One of the biggest obstacles people face is finding a place to swim, especially in an unfamiliar area. One of the greatest websites in the world exists to solve this problem. It is called swimmersguide. Simply type in your address and swimmersguide will give you a comprehensive lists of pools you may be able to get into.
I believe in aI believe in a fundamental rule in the long term development of athletes. I see it broken all the time, across teams at all levels. I believe athletes ought to choose their sport, but oftentimes are never given that choice. fundamental rule in the long term development of athletes. I see it broken all the time, across teams at all levels. I believe athletes ought to choose their sport, but oftentimes are never given that choice.
