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.
One of the most fascinating conversations I had with Dirk Marshall this past weekend was about college recruiting and humility. Humility is an admirable trait, although modesty is often mistaken for it. But does it have any place in the world of college recruiting, where you are explicitly trying to convince young people to choose your school over all other options?
Sommers is a trainer and coach who works day to day with both Nations Capital Aquatic Club’s Georgetown site as well as Rockville Montgomery Swim Club. He also trained and continues to provide support to a certain female swimmer who may be slightly better than her peers.
I’m going to highlight some of the major points from my Tuesday podcast with University of Houston Swimming and Diving Head Coach Ryan Wochomurka.
Bear with me though, this post might take around 15 minutes to read. Here are three big points from the conversation:
Punitive measures will only get us so far in breaking the cycle. We must have mechanisms for giving coaches behaviors and actions to replace the harmful way they were coached in the past. It’s not just “the bad guys” who need this. Pretty much all of us are hanging on to some harmful coaching practice from our own athletic experience.
Eva was at the most recent Senate hearing where leaders from USA Weightlifting, U.S. Figure Skating, USA Swimming, and USA Bobsled and Skeleton. Those of us advocating for change have put a lot of hope in the hearings, but there is a growing divide between the rhetorical bluster of those attending and what actually happens.
This past week, the annual gathering of USA Swimming’s voting class took place in Jacksonville, Florida. A select few representatives made the decision for the rest of us on an even narrower list of USA Swimming decision makers.
