Swim Coaching Brain » Swimming Clubs and Swimming Associations

Creating a Winning Swimming Club Culture – excellence, environment, everything, everyday, everybody.

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:56:57 +0000

: Children Playing from Crestock Royalty Free Images

Every swimming team has a unique culture.

Some teams have a culture of fun, enjoyment, family and friends.

Some teams have a culture of hard work, discipline, dedication and training.

Some teams are based at schools, colleges and universities and their culture is a reflection of the culture of the institution.

The culture of some teams comes from their location, the ethnic background of the people in the team, the climate or the city they live and train in.

Every team is unique and every culture is special.

But for many teams, there comes a time when the coaches, swimmers, families and supporters decide they want to become a winning team. They decide to set some serious competitive goals and work together as a team to achieve them.

And to become a winning team requires the development of a winning culture.

What is a winning culture?

It’s about environment and opportunity.

A winning culture is one where everyone in the team – coaches, swimmers, families, staff – everyone – is committed to creating a performance focused environment. A performance focused environment provides the opportunity for the team and every individual on the team – to win.

Developing a winning culture doesn’t mean you stop having fun. It doesn’t mean that swimming isn’t enjoyable. It doesn’t mean that people can’t hang out and be friends.

It means that the primary goal of the team and everyone associated with it is the development of an environment of excellence for everyone.

How do you develop a winning culture?

Empowerment and ownership: culture comes from within:

A winning culture grows from within. It cannot be imposed from the outside. The culture of the team is something which comes from the team members: you own it: it is part of you.

With many clubs, particularly those older established clubs with long traditions, there can be an attitude of “this is the way we do it here” or “that new idea will not work here because we’re different”.

In developing a winning club culture these barriers to success must be broken down. The swimmers, coaches, officials and families need to embrace change and to seek to be the best of the best in all aspects of swimming. Everyone needs to be committed to improving and accelerating team progress – at the same rate and in the same direction.

Respect the history and tradition of the club.

Respect and remember the great performances of the teams and swimmers of the past. But also strive to progress and improve on them. The greatest honor you can do for any club is to make it successful.

Practical Tip One: Before the beginning of the season, bring everyone in the team together for a day of sharing ideas and opinions. Give everyone a chance to speak and share their views. Provide the opportunity for everyone to be heard with respect and dignity. Allow the current team members to feel their views matter and the club is theirs – they are the current custodians of the club – and they are the people who will lead the club into a successful future.

Winning vision – a statement of success:

“if you don’t stand for something – you will fall for anything”.

A Team Vision is a statement which represents the views and opinions of the team which clearly states “this is who we are, what we want to do, where we are going and what we want to achieve as a team”. It is your team’s trademark!

For example:

“our vision is to work hard together and to strive to provide every swimmer the best possible opportunity to achieve their best”.

“our vision is to be the leading swim team in the state by consistently working hard, encouraging and supporting each other and doing everything possible to ensure all swimmers in the team have the opportunity to achieve success”.

Practical Tip Two: Once the team comes up with a team vision, write it up on the team room wall. Have every swimmer write it down in their training diary. Get it printed on t-shirts. The closer you stay in touch with this vision, the more the vision comes to life. The most successful teams in world sport are frequently those who compromised the least on making their vision become a reality.

Winning culture values:

Having a great vision is one thing: bringing it to life is another.

Values are a set of words that team members develop to provide a guide on how to act and live and which help you and your team realize your vision.

For example:

Team vision: our vision is to work hard together and to strive to provide every swimmer the best possible opportunity to achieve their best.

Values to support the Team vision:

hard work (“work hard” from the team vision);
passion (“strive” from the team vision);
team spirit (“together” from the team vision);
unity (“every swimmer” from the team vision);
respect (“every swimmer” from the team vision);
excellence (“best possible” and “best” from the team vision).

These six words become the themes for the team for the season and the guidelines for everything the team does.

Practical Tip Three: Use the values as “code words” for team practices. For example, when things get tough towards the end of a hard set, team members can use words like “passion” and “spirit” to encourage and motivate each other. Living the vision means living the dream.

Winning culture behaviours and standards:

In a perfect world, everyone would live the team values, everyday. However, just as there are “road regulations” to provide a set of rules for people to drive cars and “laws” to provide a set of rules for how to live as part of society, swim teams need to have a set of team rules to provide a framework for how to act and behave at training, competition and other team activities.

Team rules or behavior standards need to be developed and enforced by the people the rules and standards apply to:

The swimmers: team rules should grow from the team vision and team values and be a practical set of guidelines for how the team will behave in a range of situations and circumstances.

For example:

Team value: unity.

Team rule: all swimmers will have equal opportunity to train and compete.

Team value: hard work.

Team rule: all swimmers who have committed to swimming at national championships next season must complete a minimum of seven sessions per week.

In addition to team rules, a set of consequences for breaking team rules should be developed by the team. These are a set of clear, fair, just, reasonable and equitable “laws” which the swimmers in the team believe best represent how they want to be judged and punished for breaking team rules.

For example:

Team value: respect

Team rule: all swimmers will show respect for each other as people and for each other’s property.

Consequence for breaking team rule: team room cleaning duties for two weeks.

Practical Tip Four: Form a leadership group from team members which can be elected by team members or selected by a panel of team members and coaches. The leadership group should consist of swimmers of varying ages and levels of ability so that the views of everyone are listened to, respected and represented. The leadership group needs to be empowered to make decisions, to implement team rules and to administer the consequences of breaches of team standards of behaviours. From leadership comes culture….from culture comes performance.

Living excellence – “not every four years……..everyday” (US olympic training centre motto):

Lots of teams come up with great slogans, team visions and cool team rules. But very, very few teams actually develop winning cultures. Why? Because words which say excellence are easy to come up with – what makes the difference is living excellence.

Practical Tip Five: Develop a team war cry or song which is based on the team values and triggers everyone to start thinking and acting like a winning team.

At the start of every training session, someone in the team should lead the team war cry and everyone joins in signaling the start of training and the commitment the team has made to each other and to excellence.

Keep it relevant – continuous improvement:

Winning once is tough. But a winning culture means you are working to ensure that winning is sustainable – i.e. the culture that you have created is a positive, winning environment which provides ongoing opportunities for swimmers and coaches to perform at their best season after season after season……year after year after year.

It is important that the team sits down at the end of every season and reviews how things went and makes a new commitment to improving, changing and progressing.

Why? Because success in swimming is a moving target. What works this season may not work next season. World records are always getting faster meaning that if you stand still…….you will be left behind.

Practical Tip Six: A simple way of reviewing your performance as a team is to brainstorm the season using three questions:

What are we doing that we should keep doing? or what is working?
What are we doing that we should stop doing? or what is not working?
What are we not doing that we could introduce to improve our performance? or what are some new things we can do that will work?

Ask tough questions, get honest answers and you will lay the foundation for a successful future.

Summary:

Creating a culture of excellence and developing a winning culture does not take a lot more money, facilities, time or resources;
It takes a common desire to work hard and to create an environment where everyone has the optimal opportunity to perform at their best – consistently;
It’s not for everyone – but for some, being part of a winning team which has grown from a winning club culture can be the stuff that swimming dreams are made of.

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

How to Put Together a Great Championship Program – 50 ideas for a Positively, Powerfully, Perfect Program – Part One.

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:14:44 +0000

: Swimming Pool from Crestock Stock Image

Club championships programs are not easy to put together – after all, you are usually racing the same people you see day after day after day after day after day……. (you get the idea).

Many clubs lament that their Club Championships are not well supported and are generally disappointing in terms of attendance and commitment from swimmers and families. Well guess what??? It’s your – (as in the organisers of the event) – fault!

If people don’t want to buy the “product” you are selling, sell something else! If people do not attend your Club Champs – don’t blame the people – don’t blame other sports – don’t blame the economic crisis – change what you are selling!

If you want a really great Club Championship program, the trick is to combine the four Ps:

Performance – Club championships are- after all-about racing.
Parents – Get them involved and get them wet! This is the one chance all year to have some family fun.
Practice – Club Championships are not the end of the story….for many swimmers Club Championships are the beginning of the competitive season and it’s a great opportunity for practicing skills, strokes, technique, dives, starts, turns, finishes, warm ups, cool downs, stretches, race day diet, mental skills and other racing skills.
Party – have a really fun day with the families, friends and other fantastic people who make swimming the wonderful sport it is!

And, here are four really dumb things to avoid unless you want to have a really rotten Club Championship program – the four Cs:

Coaches – as in leaving them out of the planning of Club Championships. Big mistake. Coaches must be an integral part of the Championship program committee so that the program reflects what they are trying to achieve with their overall planning and periodisation strategy;
Change – as in “don’t change”. Some Club Championship committees just keep rolling over the same program year after year then wonder why people stop coming! Make it different, interesting, innovative and enjoyable by throwing in some new ideas every year;
Catering – as in offer junk food. Big challenge for all Clubs is to raise money for things like equipment, coaching fees, competitive travel etc. But try not to do it by taking the easy options like providing junk food at Club Championships which might be great for profits but sends the wrong messages to swimmers and parents;
Competition – as in don’t make it one! The greatest challenge in creating a great Club Championship program is balancing fun with fast racing. It is important that Club Championships are really enjoyable but make sure they also provide the right environment for real competition and challenge swimmers to produce their best. Don’t award frivolous prizes just for attending the Club Championships – it devalues the hard work and effort of swimmers who really want to achieve something.

Here are the first 15 of 50 ideas to help you create a Positively, Powerfully, Perfect program:

Radical relays – boys vs. girls, older swimmers vs. younger swimmers, dads vs. mums, coaches vs. swimmers………..millions of relay ideas.
Make sure your CLUB championship program mirrors the program of the next level meet, e.g. If the next level meet is your State Championships, try to make your Club Championship program the same – i.e. same events, in the same order – so that your Club Championships are preparing your team to be successful at the next level.
Have parents’ races!
Have parents and kids relays!
50s of each event.
100s of each event.
200s of each event.
Fin races. i.e. race fly, back and free with fins on.
What about throwing in some Kicking races?
Invite qualified, experienced State or National level race starters, judges and officials to make sure the quality and standard of your meet is the best it can be. And ask them for a written report so you can fine tune skills and techniques before your swimmers race at high level meets.
Change your Club Championships program and format EVERY year. Nothing turns off swimmers and families more than having to sit through the same races, in the same order for the same prizes year after year.
Make everyone welcome. Parents and families who are new to the Club and who are attending their first ever Club Championships should be made to feel like old friends and part of the swimming club “family”.
More is less………don’t be tempted to make the day longer just because you can! Families are busier now than ever and if you want them to keep coming back, make Club Championships enjoyable and short! Leave them wanting more.
Make awards relevant for age groups. Another big mistake Clubs make is to award the same medals, ribbons and certificates to 6 years olds as they do to 16 year olds. This is a guaranteed way to push your teenage swimmers towards other sports! How about DVDs as prizes? Or gift vouchers for cool clothing stores? Or Nintendo Games? Or gift vouchers for the I-Store (if you don’t know what this is, you are in real trouble). Or gym memberships? Or training equipment?
Combined events scores, e.g. add together each swimmer’s times for their 50s in each stroke and compare it to their 200 IM time. Whoever gets the 200 IM time closest to the 4 x 50s wins a prize, e.g. 50 fly time plus 50 back time plus 50 breast time plus 50 free time added together compared to 200 IM time.

See Part Two and Part three of this Post.

Wayne Goldsmith and Helen Morris

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The Swimming Coach Score Card – a must for all coaches (and swimmers and parents).

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:14:40 +0000

: Man with several telephones from Crestock Stock Images

Coaches – ever wanted to know how you rate as a coach?

Swimmers – ever wanted to know how your coach rates as a coach?

Swimming Parents – ever wanted to know how your kid’s coach rates as a coach?

Then look no further than….the Swimming Coach Score Card.

This score card is a little different. Instead of being awarded points, you lose points for poor coaching standards and mediocre coaching behaviours.

Are you ready?

OK – your starting score is 100 CCs – that is 100 coaching credits.

Take off 5 CCs if you have been late to training in the past month;
Take off 10 CCs if you coach from one end of the pool all the time and another 5 CCs if you ever sit down during workouts;
Take off 5 CCS if you have not given each swimmer in your team one on one quality coaching in the past week;
Take off 20 CCs if you have used a mobile phone during workouts while on deck in the past year (except in emergencies);
Take off 5 CCs if you allow swimmers to breathe inside the flags in free and fly;
Take off 5 CCs if you allow swimmers to finish poorly on the wall at the end of fly and breast;
Take off 10 CCs if you talk to parents, swim club committee, non swimming swimmers and pool staff during workouts;
Take off 20 CCs if you don’t take time to write down the work the swimmers actually completed during the session, i.e. as opposed to what was scheduled to be done;
Take off 10 CCs if you made up the workout on deck as the swimmers walked in to the pool;
Take off 5 CCs if you didn’t give each swimmer in your team at least five quality instructions and / or pieces of feedback during your most recent session;
Take off 100 CCs if you still throw kickboards, fins or pull buoys at swimmers to get their attention;
Take off 20 CCs if you don’t give each swimmer one on one feedback after each race they swim at Meets;
Take off 10 CCs if you don’t wear team gear to training and / or competitions;
Take off 5 CCs if you don’t attend Club Nights;
Take off 15 CCs if you don’t know the first name of each of your swimmers within 2 sessions of them starting training with you;
Take off 50 CCs if you don’t have an individualised plan for each swimmer in your team for the next two seasons;
Take off 10 CCs if you have never scheduled time to meet with the parents of each of the swimmers in your team (i.e. away from the pool deck and outside of training times);
Take off 30 CCs if you have not completed at least 50 hours of professional development, learning and personal improvement in the past year;
Take off 5 CCs if you don’t ask swimmers “how did that feel” (and really listen to their views) after they try new skills;
Take off 30 CCs if you don’t have an outstanding dryland program which engages the total commitment of every swimmer in your team;
Take off 10 CCs if you don’t include mental skills development activities in every session;
Take off 5 CCs if you didn’t smile at least ten times during the team’s last workout;
Take off 50 CCs if you smoke and or / drink alcohol in front of the swim team (i.e. junior swimmers);
Take off 20 CCs if you don’t regularly practice “performance under pressure” – i.e. making training more challenging and more demanding than any competition could be;
Take off 20 CCs if you don’t encourage and embrace recovery during and after every workout.

So, how did you do?

Swimming Coaches Scorecard key:

90-100 CCs: Wow – Amazing. Please stop reading this blog and my articles. Start writing your own – I want to learn from you O Coaching Master.

80-89 CCs: Outstanding work. Do they call you SUPER COACH? If not, they should!

70-79 CCs: Great stuff. Some things to work on but generally you coach like a basketball – plenty of bounce and well rounded.

60-69 CCs: Not bad. Keep working on the little things….the funny thing is that when it comes to poor coaching and the little things…there are no little things.

50-59 CCs: Danger – danger – warning – warning. You need to improve and fast.

40-49 CCs: How did you find this site? Were you looking for help to save your job? Or were you looking for Coaches Anonymous?

30-39 CCs: Have you thought about taking up football coaching? It’s still challenging coaching but at least there is no danger of people drowning.

20-29 CCs: Have you thought about another career? Something not too brain taxing where your unique skills will be appreciated - maybe an Economist at Wall Street? A Government Advisor on the Environment?

10-19 CCs: I think I need to type slower so you can read this….S.T.O.P. C.O.A.C.H.I.N.G!!!!

1-9 CCs: The only job for you I can think of for you is something that requires no skill, no brain power and no effort…Congratulations Congressman!

Zero (or less) CCs: Please return your coaching card to your national swimming authority. Do not go anywhere near water…ever. Stop bathing. Stop shaving. Ask for help when drinking a glass of water. The further you keep away from water the better for all of us.

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Complementary Carnivals: Why Swim Meets Fail.

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:14:35 +0000

: Track & stands from Crestock Free Stock Photos

Ever wondered why the Grandstands and bleachers at your Club Swimming Carnivals and Swim Meets are empty?

Ever wanted to know how to get lots of people to come along to your Swim Meets?

Ever wanted to know how to get the support of Coaches so that they actively support your Swim Meet and send large numbers of their swimmers along to race?

Then design and deliver Complementary Carnivals!

The simple answer to all these question is this: Design your Swim Meet program to reflect the needs of the swimmers and coaches you are hoping to attract: Complementary Carnivals (i.e. as in the dictitionary definition - acting as or providing a complement – something that completes the whole.

Too many Clubs, Regional Associations, State Swimming Associations and even National Swimming Associations conduct swim meets which are designed around the four Cs:

Cash – using Swim Meets as Cash-cows and designing a program to deliver the maximum possible financial return rather than the best result for swimmers and coaches;
Convenience – making the Swim Meet fit into the schedule of the Administration rather than the optimal fit into the training and competition cycles of swimmers and coaches;
Continuity – repeating the same program over and over again, year after year;
Committee – doing what the “committee” or Board think is what’s best for swimmers and coaches rather than consulting with them, collaborating with them and asking them what they really need from a Swim Meet.

Too many times we hear these three comments:

From Coaches: “I am not going to send my team to that Swim Meet because it does not work in with our training or competition goals”;

From Swimmers: “I am not going to that Swim Meet. The events are always the same, it’s boring and I get sick of going there every year to do the same stuff” and then…………….

From Swim Meet Organisers: “Why aren’t swimmers and coaches supporting my Swim Meet?”.

Well, duh!

The secret to success in Swim Meet organisation is to design and deliver a program which provides swimmers and coaches with the opportunity they need to enhance their training and competition goals.

There are two ways of doing this.

At Club and Regional level, design and deliver Swim Meet programs which complement the training and competition goals of the swimmers and coaches;
At State and National level, design and deliver Swim Meet programs which reflect the competition schedules and competition formats of the next level meet, i.e. State Level Swim Meets should replicate and simulate the competition conditions swimmers will face at National Level Swim Meets and National Level Swim Meets should replicate and simulate the competition conditions swimmers will face at their targeted International Level Swim Meet.

Swim Meet organisers have to think in reverse to make this happen.

Instead of thinking “let’s put together a program which generates the most possible revenue for our Club or Region or State” , they need to think, “what is it that our swimmers and coaches need from a Swim Meet that can best help them improve and realise their performance goals?”.

At Club level this concept is critical. If the Club’s coach is working hard on developing the swimmers’ endurance, improving their aerobic capacity and building the team’s stamina in training, then it makes sense to help the coach and the swimmers by delivering a Club Night racing program which is based around endurance, aerobic capacity and stamina!

This should be a no-brainer: the Club competition program should reflect and support the Club’s training program. Again…well, duh!

This is not a hard concept to understand folks – so why do so many Swim Meet organisers get it so wrong?

All over the world, Swim Meet organisers are coming together to discuss and plan their next competition program: format, structure, order of events, timing etc etc.

The smart ones have consulted the swimmers and coaches they represent and have designed a Swim Meet program which delivers something of real value and relevance.

The not-so-smart ones have just rolled out the same program they have used since 1961, thrown in 200 extra events to try and milk every possible cent out of swimming parents and created the whole Meet to suit their own timing, own needs and their own agendas.

Smart or Not-So-Smart………..which one are you?

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Message to Swimming – you still don’t get it!

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:14:32 +0000

: Old wall from Crestock Creative Images

Six years ago I wrote an article called “Changing Times” about the Sport of Swimming and the challenges it faced all over the world.

You can find the full article at numerous sites (or just email me for a copy).

In short, I challenged the swimming community to work together, to strive to create new, exciting, interesting training and competition environments, to put away petty political and personality conflicts and work together in the best interest of kids, athletes, families, coaches, Clubs and the sport.

Now, Six years later…..Most of You still don’t get it do you!

A few weeks ago I was at a famous Aquatics complex in a major capital city. As usual, I was drawn to watch the swimming programs in the pool – the coaches, the athletes, technique, skills, performance levels, attitudes….I am passionate about swimming and want to see the sport succeed.

This is what I saw.

A young coach working with about 50 junior squad swimmers, aged 10-14 in very crowded lanes.

He stood at one end of the pool for the whole hour of the training session, most of the time with his leg up on the starting block in Lane one. He yelled workout instructions to the whole group and did not provide any swimmer with individualised feedback. All swimmers – all ages – all levels of ability did the same workout.

Skills and drills were performed poorly and received with little feedback. The feedback that was given was general feedback to the whole group.

The following week, I was at a similarly famous Aquatics complex in another capital city in another country. Again, I spent time observing a junior swim squad in training. Again I saw the same lack of engagement, lack of creativity, lack of passion and lack of quality coaching I had seen previously.

The next week I went to a local swim meet – again out of interest and love of the sport. Guess what?

Swimming is still offering 65 heats of the 7 and under 50 backstroke, still providing little or no interesting competition opportunities for swimmers over 15 years of age, still awarding those stupid colored ribbons to all swimmers from 5 years of age to 25, still being over zealous with breaststroke rules, still doing little or nothing to engage parents, still offering mostly junk food at the shop…………………..I thought I was in a time warp and it was 1973 all over again.

Put yourself in the position of being a swimmer in one of those squads.You have a choice. You can train for football, outside, with your friends, emulating your heroes and enjoying the team environment. You can stay at home and spend time on your computer engaging with your friends and the web. You can play other sports, play music, just enjoy lazing about with family and friends or…

“I can be pushed and driven up and down a pool with no engagement from my coach, receiving no feedback, learning nothing and being bumped and bruised in crowded lanes”.

Put yourself in the position of being a parent of a swimmer in one of those squads. You are paying money for your child to receive professional coaching. You have had to change your work, social and family schedule to be there. And what do you see?

“My child is receiving no quality, individualised instruction, is gaining no learning and receiving no feedback, is swimming mindless lap after mindless lap, bumping into other kids, the end of the pool and the lane ropes and I am paying for the privilege”.

Or what about the parent going to the Meet?

“I sit there for two days to see my kid swim four events, either in stinking heat or inside breathing in chlorine gas, giving up my precious weekend time and paying through the nose to get in to the facility, buy food and for race fees”.

And then the kid drops out of the sport in their mid teens and we all scream “What’s wrong with kids today?” – rubbish: the reason kids drop out of swimming is totally the responsibility of the people who coach, administer and organise swimming training and competitions. Kids and families will stay in swimming if it is engaging, enjoyable, exciting, educational and embraces excellence in all things.

We are offering mass mediocrity, outdated competition formats and inferior coaching quality and expecting people to continue to accept it. Well, have a good look at your registrations, Meets and bottom lines……..people are not accepting it.

The sport of swimming – like many other Olympic sports – is at the crossroads. The very existence of competitive swimming hangs in the balance like no other time in its history.

Now, more than ever we must provide quality, engaging, interesting, enjoyable and challenging training and competition experiences or swimmers and parents will no longer support the sport.

Why would a talented young swimmer, with so many choices available in sport, in social activities, in study programs, in social media and in life, waste time ploughing up and down a black line in a boring, repetitive, monotonous, poorly coached program?

Why would a parent with limited time and limited money pay for a child to be part of a sport which offers mediocre coaching and dull, boring, tedious competitions which typically offer the same events, on the same day, in the same order year after year after year?

If you consider just these coaching and competition issues – without even thinking about the child abuse allegations which are all too common around the world, the swim suit debacle and how that made the sport a laughing stock and concerns over the long term dangers of swimming in heavily chlorinated water and we are in crisis.

To all my friends and foes in swimming around the world – wake up! This is now a matter of great urgency.

Improve coaching standards - do not accept mediocre coaching anytime / anywhere from anyone;
Provide more engaging, interesting and enjoyable training environments;
Create new, interesting, stimulating and enjoyable competition formats;
Stop trying to force all kids into pathways designed to make them Olympic champions - give each individual what they need to realise their potential at all levels of achievement;
Put “fun” before “fast”;
Embrace parents into swimming programs as partners in swimming performance and stop treating them as lepers who pay fees;
And most importantly, stop this “we are different”, “those things will not work in swimming” and “that’s not the way we do it in swimming” thinking that is killing the sport around the world.

C’mon – we can do this!

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Swim Shop – Now Open

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 22:15:22 +0000

The Swim Coaching Brain has Opened a Swim Shop.

In response to the overwhelming demand for more information on swimming topics, we have put together a series of swimming books for you to download and enjoy.

The first book in the series: Longer and Stronger: Stretching and Strengthening for Young Swimmers is available now!

More books will be added regularly.

Make sure you bookmark the Shop page and visit it regularly to check out some of our great new swimming products.

How to Put Together a Great Championship Program – 50 ideas for a Positively, Powerfully, Perfect Program – Part Three.

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 19 May 2011 01:47:36 +0000

: Swimmer jumping into water from Crestock Stock Photos

Part three of How to Put Together a Great Championship follows….almost immediately:

The next 15 ideas on a great club championships program:

36. Dads’ dinner – How about getting all the “swim dads” together at the lunch break for a bbq and give them a chance to catch up?

37. Mum’s make over – Why not ask a local beauty salon to come in and offer “swim mums” a makeover while they watch the swimming?

38. Club spirit awards – award prizes and give recognition to the swimmers and families who embody all the positive qualities about the sport, e.g. friendliness, encouragement of others, supporting other team members, humility in losing, etc.

39. KPS races – Swimmers have to race 100 kick, then 100 pull. Add their 100 kick time plus their 100 pull time and compare the combined time to their 200 swim time!

40. Stroke count / speed award – for the swimmer who improves both their PB time and decreases their stroke count – i.e. awarding both speed and stroke efficiency.

41. First 15 award – a prize for the swimmer in each age group who has the fastest first 15 metres, i.e. awarding starting and underwater work – critical in developing fast sprinters.

42. Iron man / Iron girl award – for the swimmers who complete the most races or the greatest distance over the Club Championships.

43. Double up award – for the swimmers whose times at each distance are the closest to the “double up” – e.g. If a swimmer swims 35 seconds for a 50 metre event, DOUBLE IT = 70 seconds (1:10) as the goal for their 100 metre event. The swimmer who gets the closest to their double up time gets a prize.

44. Finish the day with a party – celebrate swimming and being a Club together!

45. Excellence Awards – if someone breaks a Club record – recognise the achievement – loudly and proudly.

46. State / National / World record attempts – lots of fun. Pick a tough record, e.g. Michael Phelps 400IM world record. Have 8 senior swimmers swim as a relay team (swimming 50 metres each) to try and break Phelp’s record as a team.

47. Organise cheer squads – have each age group organise their own cheer squad. Award prizes to the loudest, best organised, most original cheer squad.

48. State and National awards – award prizes to the swimmers who achieve times closest to the State and National records in that event.

49. Hold Club Championships on (or close to) special days – e.g Mother’s Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanks giving, etc and make the day the theme of the Club Champs. For example if you hold them on Mother’s Day, all moms get a rose and some chocolates. If you hold them around Easter, everyone gets Easter Eggs and organise an Easter Egg hunt for the little kids.

50. Ask the coaches to award prizes to the swimmers whose training and preparation has been outstanding. Club Championships are a great chance to recognise the swimmers who work hard all year and give total commitment to improving.

Summary:

Club Championships programs should be:

Fast – create an environment where swimmers want to compete and race fast;
Family orientated – embrace families like they are part of your own;
Fun, fun, fun – make the day the most enjoyable fun filled day of the year.

It is easy to roll out last year’s Club Championship program and simply change the date on the front cover!!

But with a little effort, a lot of creativity and some passion to make it work, you can have an outstanding Club Championship program – every year!

Wayne Goldsmith and Helen Morris

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

How to Put Together a Great Championship Program – 50 ideas for a Positively, Powerfully, Perfect Program – Part Two.

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 07:09:01 +0000

: swimming-pool from Crestock Creative Images

Part One of this Post covered a lot of ground – (or water) – enjoy part two!

More ideas to make your club championships one to remember:

16. Do the same thing but with 100s / 400 IM.

17. Personal Best prizes, e.g whoever does the biggest PB for the meet, wins a prize.

18. Invite a local school band to play for the beginning of the evening / day. It will set the tone of enjoyment and fun.

19. Give the senior swimmers a 25m race. They’ll love it and the younger kids will love watching them.

20. Award the medals / ribbons / prizes after each race. Everyone loves immediate feedback.

21. Music not medals…..Give the older swimmers one song I-tunes download for third place, two songs for second place and three songs for first place.

22. Ask a state or national level swimmer to attend for a short time to present awards and make a short speech to the club.

23. Invite the local member of government or state member to attend for a short time – tell people what a great club you are.

24. Turn awards – give prizes for the fastest turns. Time swimmers from the time their heads go under the flags on the way in to the wall until their feet get to the flags on the way out.

25. Stroke technique prizes. Appoint a judging panel (the head coach, team captain and a former great club swimmer for example) who award points for the best technique in each stroke, the best turns, the best dives, the best racing skills, the best finish, the best underwater work……award technical excellence not just winning times.

26. Encourage multi eventing. Award special prizes to swimmers who do PBs in more than one stroke.

27. Big kid / little kid relays. Grab a swimmer over 15 and another swimmer under 10. Add their ages together, e.g. a 16 year old plus a 9 year old = 25 year team. Add their PB times together and the combined age of their year team, e.g. 30 seconds plus 41 seconds plus 25 years = 96 seconds. The winning team is the team who beats their overall score (in this case 96 seconds) by the greatest margin.

28. Family relays. Mom, dad and all the family enter their best times for 25 or 50 metres. (They can even do time trials in the morning to get a time). Add all the family times together for a total family score. Then have handicap relay races between families.

29. Handicap races. Millions of variations. Use your imagination.

30. Brains and brawn awards – ask kids to enter a list of their most recent report card grades from school. Then add the number of PB swim times to A, B and C grades and award prizes to the kids who have improved their minds and their muscles in the past year!

31. Fancy dress – there are no limits to this idea. How about come as your favourite movie star? Or musician? Or athlete?

32. Talent challenges – each age group has to come up with some entertainment, e.g. 8 year olds could sing something mid morning, 10 year olds could perform a funny skit at the lunch break.

33. Form a Club Championships committee which includes a few swimmers – there is a big difference between adults putting together a program which they think kids will like and a program which kids will actually enjoy.

34. Even better – let the kids come up with their own Club Championships program (with a little help from the coach).

35. Use Club Championships to educate parents – why not organise lectures on sports parenting, sports nutrition, life / school / sport balance and use Club Championships as a learning experience for families.

Check out Part three of this great post……..coming soon.

Wayne Goldsmith and Helen Morris

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

101 Super Swimming Tips for Super Swimming Coaches: 101 Ways to Be the Coach You Want to Be and the Coach your Swimmers want to See.

Wayne Goldsmith — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 06:02:03 +0000

Never use your mobile phone on deck during workouts.
Smile – it makes a big difference.
Say one constructive, positive thing to every swimmer at every workout.
Be a master of technique: technique is critical in fast swimming.
Be creative – the best ideas win.
Bring parents into your program: parents are your partners in performance.
Understand the basics of swimming science: get a “PhD” – a “Practical Human Degree” – i.e. learn enough about sports science to work effectively with people.
Be comfortable talking about “winning”. It’s cool to talk about kids achieving their best.
Teach one new swimming skill every week. That’s about 50 new skills a year and around 500 over the career of most swimmers.
Walk workouts: never sit down and coach from a chair. It’s like asking the swimmers to train from showers.
Incorporate mental skills development in the design of every workout.
Engage swimmers and work with them: don’t coach at them.
Be committed to your own learning and development: the faster you learn, the faster they swim.
Review your workouts every day – what worked, what didn’t, what can be improved?
Swimming is an individual sport wrapped in a team structure. Think about both individual and team issues in your training and competition plans.
Remember that every swimmer is different and needs individual attention to detail. To a coach with a hammer, every swimmer is a nail.
Keep yourself healthy – continually work on your own health, fitness and well-being (physical and mental).
Use your imagination – every workout should include some new, exciting, stimulating ideas.
Stay calm, composed and confident at Swim Meets.
Inspire swimmers to want to give their best rather than trying to force them to what you want them to do.
Work hard – there is no other way to succeed.
Be yourself.
Believe in yourself.
Be different.
Be unique.
Speed is the most precious thing in swimming – don’t be afraid to work on it all year round.
Give feedback – often.
Include your assistant coaches in decision making, planning and programming.
Don’t just try to create fast swimmers: build outstanding young people with great self-confidence, values and passion and then teach them to swim fast.
Learn how to use Social media effectively to communicate with your swimmers and families, e.g. Face-book, Twitter, Blogs, and YouTube etc.
Have a clear coaching philosophy: if you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.
Get to workouts early and welcome the swimmers as they arrive.
Put sarcasm and cynicism in the rubbish bin outside the pool area and never take them to workouts.
Recognise and praise swimmers for improvement in skills and technique.
Have a clear policy on drugs and alcohol in swimming – Just Say No!
Be understanding of the commitments swimmers have away from the pool – e.g. school exams, other sports, family commitments.
Don’t categorise young swimmers as a “backstroker” or “freestyler” etc. Kids change, kids grow, kids develop and last year’s “backstroker” can be next year’s “butterflyer”.
Get out of the A.T. mindset – there is no need to drive kids at anaerobic / lactic threshold pace every workout.
Challenge kids to try one new thing or to accept one new challenge every day. It builds confidence and the belief that they can achieve anything.
Educate swimmers about nutrition – what they eat today, swims tomorrow.
Educate parents about nutrition because kids don’t shop and kids don’t cook!
Teach swimmers that rest, recovery, sleep and relaxation are as important as training and hard work.
Empower swimmers to make decisions, to become independent, to learn through problem solving and accepting responsibility for their own actions.
Regularly connect senior swimmers with junior swimmers in training and at Meets. Coaches coach but swimmers learn from other swimmers.
Plan.
Listen twice as much as you talk – that’s why you have two ears and one mouth.
Look like, dress like, act like the coach you want to be.
Be confident on deck: build a presence which says “I am a passionate, knowledgeable swimming professional who knows what I am doing and who loves working with swimmers”.
Have a clear policy on discipline, make sure all swimmers and parents know what it is and implement it consistently, fairly and with integrity.
Be honest.
Have a passion and interest other than swimming. It keeps your mind healthy, fresh and positive.
Get to know your swimmers – their birthdays, their schools, their favourite movies, their favourite food etc. They are kids who choose to swim with you – not swimming machines.
Teach swimmers to deal with disappointment and to learn from adversity: these are skills for life that you can teach better than just about anyone.
Don’t be a Stop Watch Watcher! Use the watch when you need to, but spend most of your time watching, listening, offering feedback and engaging with your team: the ”clock” will take care of itself.
Teach pacing – teach pacing – teach pacing: it is a critically important swimming skill.
Think long term but act short term: i.e. think about the long term development of each swimmer but ensure the quality of their training environment each day is the best it can be.
Have a sense of humour: life is short and after all it is just swimming.
Be unpredictable. Every so often write a workout up on the board but then do something completely different.
Meet with parents often but away from the pool deck and the training environment.
Have a team selection policy and make sure everyone knows what it is, what is means and where to find it.
Build great relay teams.
Lead.
Understand strength training and how, when and why to incorporate it into your training program.
Be flexible: sometimes you have to change the workout in response to the needs of the team and not try to force the team to respond to the needs of your workout.
Teach relaxation as a fundamental aspect of all swimming.
Do things for a reason and with a lesson in mind: be proactive not reactive.
Deliberately create problems and challenges for swimmers to solve, learn and grow through actual experience.
Encourage late developers (i.e. kids who are small for their age) to persist, to strive and to develop high level technical skills: they often struggle with sustaining motivation.
Develop a great social program around the team and empower the swimmers to make decisions about the social events they want.
Start every session with a race quality dive: it sets the tone for the rest of the workout.
Vary lane structures, e.g. Monday split up the team by swimming speed, Tuesday split them up by stroke specialisation, Wednesday split them up by gender, Thursday by age, Friday mix up the ages with older swimmers in the same lane as younger team members.
Encourage swimmers to drink regularly during workouts.
Encourage swimmers to stretch after workouts.
Encourage swimmers!!!
Make training more challenging and more demanding than competition: this builds “bullet-proof” confidence and self-belief.
Teach nervous swimmers how to stay calm, cool, relaxed and composed at Swim Meets…but teach them these skills in training well before the Meet. Just telling them to “relax” on Meet day does not work.
Attitude is everything – for both swimmers and coaches.
Don’t smoke.
Communicate with swimmers in the way they want to be communicated with: learn how to best connect with each individual swimmer in your team.
Encourage, praise and reward effort, hard work and commitment.
Build leaders: provide the opportunity for your swimmers to learn to lead and to help grow a winning culture in your team from the inside.
Keep on top of the political situation at your Club, the Pool and the local swimming administration. More than one great coach has failed because of ignoring what’s going on around them.
Use swimming equipment (e.g. fins, paddles, pull buoys) appropriate to the level, age and ability of the swimmer.
Avoid fads, gimmicks, tricks and trends: do it your way and avoid quick fixes, short cuts and instant solutions.
Educate parents on how they can help their kids be the best they can be.
Do your slow work slow and your fast work fast: kids respond well to endurance and speed work.
If in doubt, stick with the big five: Dives, Starts, Turns, Finishes and Underwater skills. Building your program around these fundamental swimming skills means your swimmers are always competitive when it counts.
Be the best kicking team in your district, your state and your country: fast kicking = fast swimming.
Find a coaching mentor and speak with them often. Challenge them to challenge you honestly and without compromise.
Review your own coaching regularly – you can always improve.
Take holidays!
If you have a family and or partner, love them, support them and include them in your life: there are far too many “swimming widows and widowers”.
Be a student of swimming – learn from the best coaches in the sport and…..do it better.
Know the benchmarks – know the local, state, national and international standards for all strokes, all ages and all distances: you can’t hit a target if you don’t know what it is.
Build a team of experts and professionals around your team who you know, trust and who you can utilise to help your team when you need to.
Enlist parents and others to raise money for the team: money does not mean medals but it helps with buying equipment, travelling to Meets, providing support services for swimmers etc.
Talk to the Club committee about aligning the Club Racing program and Club Night Competition program with your coaching program: it just makes good sense.
Be enthusiastic.
Be passionate.
Enjoy every moment on deck with your team: coaching is one of the most rewarding, exciting, challenging and fulfilling thing you will ever do.
Life is short: coach often, love being a coach and coach at your best every day.

Wayne Goldsmith (with thanks to the many outstanding swimming coaches and swimmers I have known over the past 22 years).

Talent ID in Swimming: the Talent Pool!

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:05:45 +0000

: swimming-pool from Crestock Photos

Talent is Harder to Hide than it is to Find.

When looking for the characteristics, traits and abilities that may indicate a swimmer’s talent, the most obvious things to look for are the physical ones.

However, swimmers with real physical talent are harder to hide than they are to find!

How many times have you been to a Swim Meet and seen the ten year old who is built like a fifteen year old blitz the opposition and break the Meet record? Finding physical talent in very talented swimmers is like telling people you discovered the Pacific Ocean-someone was going to find it sooner or later – hiding it would have been a far greater challenge!

And…ultimately, physical talent is only one indicator - and not a particularly good one - of performance potential.

It’s more than merely muscle.

Real talent is a far more complex thing than merely muscles, tendons, nerves, blood and ligaments. It’s an integration of mind, body and spirit: a combination of physical, mental, technical, tactical, genetic, cultural and personality factors that come together in a pair of swimming costumes that may one day break the World record or win the Olympic Gold Medal.

So what are the Top Ten Talent ID Techniques for Swimming: how do you find the most talented swimmers in the talent pool?:

Parents – (genetic material): choose your parents carefully;
Parents- a supporting, loving, caring environment, where parents or carers provide a swimmer’s core needs in nutrition, time management, sleep, rest, education and family support;
The Ability to learn fast – learn more in a shorter period of time = faster progression and improvement;
The Ability to deal with difficulty, adversity and change – the path to greatness is never straight or smooth. Many Olympic Gold medalists have had to endure set-backs, surgery, illness and disappointment and fight hard to achieve their dreams;
Physical talent- you have to have at least one “weapon” – speed, size, strength, power, flexibility….having at least one physical gift is useful;
Self confidence / self belief – they can who believe they can;
Passion – the love of swimming is the driving force of so many great swimmers and great swimming performances;
The ability to get along with other people - swimming is an individual sport wrapped up in a team environment. The ability to work well with team-mates in often tough, hard, high pressure situations, e.g when touring with a representative team, is a critical skill and a much under-estimated talent;
The ability to keep a sense of humour and balance about life – after all it is only swimming and you are so much more than just a swimmer;
Time availability – whilst not strictly a measure of talent, the amount of time available to train, prepare, rest, recover and compete are critical determinants of the level of swimming you can achieve.

Or if you like…

Talent is….
Attitude to train to your full potential everyday;
Love of the sport;
Enthusiasm – particularly in the tough times;
Nurturing – unconditional love and support at home from a family who cares;
Toughness – being able to persevere and keep giving your best when your feel so tired you can barely lift your arms;
Inherited characteristics – choose your parents carefully;
Desire – never give up.

Putting it all together.

So when looking in the talent pool for talent in the pool, keep your eyes, ears, heart and mind open.

It’s a lot more than just being the biggest, the strongest, the tallest or the fastest…..talent is a total package: a combination of factors that, when combined with consistent hard work, dedication, commitment and an uncompromising devotion to perfect preparation, turns potential into performance.

Wayne Goldsmith