Getting Grit with Caroline Miller

On the brief this week, Caroline Miller. Caroline is a published author and renowned speaker, with her latest book "Getting Grit"  being named by Live Happy as one of the ten books that will change your life.

Caroline and I go all the way back to the beginning to her experience swimming as a kid and a young woman, and how she re-found the sport fifteen years ago. We talk about some of the growth of Positive Psychology and some of the ways it can be dangerous if you apply knowledge without deeper knowledge of the concepts. Caroline also talks about some really crucial concepts in goal setting, there is so much you can get out of this listen. Enjoy

Talking Long Swims

Another pod with my number one guest and curious swim coach Nico Messer.. Nico and I start talking about long distance training, especially longer repeats. What is it exactly? How do we define it? Then we go through some of the best arguments we've heard for longer repeats but also some of the worst, including a discuss of long term development models. 

The Wild Man

Coley Stickels is currently an associate head coach at Indiana University, who's teams vaulted to high rankings, including #1 for the men, after some big dual meet victories over the weekend. We talk about some of the different ways he looks at training swimmers and his perspectives from both the college and club world.

We also have a discussion of the unique legacy of Doc Councilman at Indiana University and some of the ways a coach can leverage that working there.

How to Solve All The World's Problems

This week on the Swim Brief: Sue Chen. Sue is an incredible coach that currently works for Nations Capital Swim Club in their Georgetown site alongside Bruce Gemmell. We talk a lot about how she's navigated a successful career up to this point, her partnership with Bruce, how to be an ally to women in coaching, and more.  

Personalized Goggles and Long Term Development

Have your goggles ever leaked? Do you care about the long term development of athletes in the sport of swimming? If the answer is yes to either of those questions, you should listen to this podcast.

On the brief this week, Niklas Hedegaard. Niklas is a swimmer I've coached who continues to swim at age 27, and we talk about his journey through swimming up to this point and what keeps him motivated to keep pushing forward. We also talk about his new venture with his friend Rasmus Barfoed in Denmark, TheMagic5, which makes personalized fit goggles using facial mapping. 

TheMagic5 on instagram

TheMagic5 on kickstarter

Inclusiveness Matters

On the brief this week, Rick Madge. Madge is a swim coach, yes, and he's got some opinions on that. We also talk about some of the long form articles that he's written, getting into the data of what is going on the swimming world. Inclusiveness is a big theme of what he has looked into, and we talk a bit about how family life fits into being a competitor.

If you want to read the articles that we referenced in the blog, go here.

What Makes a Good Clinic

The return of friend of the brief Nico Messer! Nico has just criss-crossed the country in search of swimming knowledge, attending clinics and looking in on one of the top swimming environments in America. Nico and I talk about- what makes a good clinic or learning opportunity for coaches. 

We also talk about some non-clinic resources for continuing education and preview some of what may be to come in that area.

Streamlines Are Bad With Joel Rollings

Is it time to reconsider the streamline? Joel Rollings thinks so. We cover that and other topics, including: is your dryland accomplishing anything? What athletic things do we unlearn as we get older? What is the meaning of life? Ok we don't quite get there, but we do talk about how there are no "big time" swim coaches.

This conversation is free-wheeling but ultimately we get to a really good place. Enjoy:

Taper Talk with Nico Messer

Welcome back to my partner in Briefs, Nico Messer. Nico and I talk taper- that's right, we're talking taper in September, which is probably the least likely month to taper in. That's why its the best time to discuss it! We talk about the ways in which the word "taper" itself has become a dirty word, make some book recommendations and share some taper time stories of our own. Enjoy!

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Change is Coming: John Bradley

This week I am joined by my John Bradley, the head senior coach of the Rochester Swim Club Orcas. John educates me on what it's like to get involved volunteer governance on all levels of USA Swimming, from your local team all the way up to the National board.

John also shares a few takeaways from a recent conversation with new USA Swimming Executive Director Tim Hinchey. Finally, we talk about how to make swim meets a little bit more fun.