For example, someone “has” confidence, or they don’t. Another person might “have” motivation, or not. When I coached in Denmark, I noted several swimmers when quitting or contemplating quitting would say they had “lost” their motivation. It was almost as if it were a set of keys they had left under a couch cushion and had given up on finding.
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.
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.
Yuri Suguiyama is the new head coach at Wisconsin. The first big hire of this already insane college hiring season is in place. I want to congratulate Yuri, but not on the job.
No, the comments that Suguiyama's hiring inspired on Swimswam are pure gold, and something all coaches should aspire too
On Friday evening east coast time, USA Swimming sent out a letter to members. It was their first communication addressing "Safe Sport" since Executive Director Tim Hinchey wrote a letter two months ago.
It has been nearly two months since Hinchey's letter, and each passing day begged the question "what are they actually doing?".
Unfortunately, the answer is not much
Yesterday, Swimswam posted an article speculating who might get hired at one of the most coveted jobs in swimming, head coach of Auburn University. This is shaping up to be an epic college hiring season and I applaud the article. It is fun to speculate about this kind of thing.
I would make only one significant edit to Swimswam's list. It is made up entirely of men. That's not entirely Swimswam's fault
When USA Swimming allowed child molester Everett Uchiyama to "resign" from his post in 2006, Pat Hogan was the man who helped Uchiyama get a new job with access to kids down the road at the Colorado Country Club with an over the top recommendation.
Which brings us to yesterday. According to this facebook post sent anonymously to the blog, all the members of USA Swimming's club development staff were tagged in a post celebrating the retirement of their "boss
The second time I was introduced this past weekend at the Gulf Swimming Coaches Clinic, I became painfully self-conscious about part of my bio.
I am proud that I was coached two Danish Junior National teams. Humbly, I realize that Denmark, as a country, is far smaller than Gulf Swimming. Not only in terms of population but in the number of competitive swimmers.
I'm living the dream.
I'm writing this from my hotel in Downtown Houston. I'm down in the area for the third time in the last six months. Whereas my two previous visits have been solely focused on working with Bridge Bats, this time I have a dual purpose
Instead I am echoing what I have heard from victims of abuse. Part of their story that I hear over and over again is the fact that many people had the ability to say or do the right thing to help them but did not.
I am trying to communicate to them that I will not do the same, and also encouraging them to hold me accountable to that promise
One of the questions that I often field from coaches goes something like this:
"What do I do about (athlete x)? They are struggling and they blame it on (laundry list of small things). I don't think that's really what the problem is".
This is a frustrating and common problem, one that can even get a bit infectious under the right conditions on a team. Often it leads frustrated coaches to challenge the athlete on the validity of their claims.
On February 28th I submitted a report via the online form on Paul Bergen. I only reported what I knew from publicly available information, including Deena Deardurff Schmidt speaking directly to the camera about it in 2010
All this is putting the horse before the cart. Especially kids (but also adults) need to feel safe to be their most confident, brave, adventurous selves. They need to FEEL, not just rationalize, that if they fail they will still be safe. They will have the support of their coach and their teammates. Their parents will love them.
