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Every week over 40,000 families receive the Swim Parents Newsletter through their head coach.

It is such an easy and inexpensive method for parent education.  For less than $.50 a week, every week we will send you an article you can actually use “as is” to help your parents understand more about our sport and ease your role in parent education.  Receive it, Open it, Review it, and with a couple of clicks forward it to your whole team.  Easy.

One of our most praised articles, “The Awesome 8 Year Old,” was recently published and I would like to present it as an example of the type of article we send out.  You can view it here for free.

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Thought for the day

Balancing School and Swim Practice

Nothing is more important that good performance in academic work in school for our young student-athletes.

Every practice, as children leave, and say goodbye, I say “Study hard, get smart, become an intellectual!”. Its done in a light-hearted way to remind them that after practice, that’s “what’s next” in their life, or should be.

Now we’re closing in on the end of school year, with upcoming tests and related “due dates”.

At the same time, we’re at the beginning of the long course season. The work we put in in the pool NOW, is paid off in July at various championships. Without consistency NOW, there is no payoff later on.

For the 60 years that Age Group Swimming has existed, it has been proven for literally millions of swimmers that they can uphold their commitment to training AND study well and get good grades. Its an exception in swimming when a child does NOT get good grades. Partially because there is real URGENCY to study when you can when a few hours each afternoon are taken up in training. When swimmers are NOT training, they get the attitude of “oh, i have all this free time now..i can goof around for awhile and get to studying later”. That never works out very well.

Everyday I ask children about their homework. Sometimes I hear, “I don’t have any.”  My response is always the same “YES, YOU DO.”  Get your books out and WORK AHEAD…even if you only comprehend 10-20% of what you are reading, that’s a 10-20% jump ahead rather than seeing/hearing it in class for the first time. When you’re in school, you ALWAYS have homework…open the book and “get ahead.”  Study is like any other habit….do it 2 hours a night EVERY night, and you’ll avoid having to be up and working at 11 PM or later on some of those nights……steady, consistent work is the key, in school and in swimming.

Homework EVERY DAY for all ages. Study Everyday. Swimming practice consistently as well.  Studying ahead removes anxiety and keeps the student on the leading edge of the class, not the trailing edge.

“Study Hard, Get Smart, Become an Intellectual!”  DAILY. Lets be equally consistent with both practice attendance and daily study. It’s hard work…but it’s so much better than being unprepared, anxious and upset later.

Parents, please share this with your children.

All the Best, Coach John

Swimming Psyche Outs: How to be in control, confident and composed when faced with psyche outs (and how to use them to your advantage!).

Swimming Psyche Outs. How to be in control, confident and composed when faced with psyche outs (and how to use them to your advantage!!). Part One.Posted: 17 Mar 2011 12:08 AM PDT by Wayne Goldsmith “The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it but what they become by it.” John Ruskin How many times do you hear a football player or baseballer or basketballer say something like “It was tough out there today. The other team really psyched us out”. Sportspeople talk about the psyche out as something someone else did to them – that someone somehow did something mystical or magical that impacted on their performance. Lots of people talk about psyching out…………..so what is it? What is a psyche out? A psyche out is the words, actions and behaviors of another person trying to increase pressure on you and as a result try to negatively influence your performance. Pressure is a misunderstood concept in sport. Pressure is not the race; It is not the crowd; It is not the gold medal; It is not the opposition. It is something you put on yourself – it is something you create: it is something you generate. The psyche out has one goal – to convince you to put more pressure on yourself. Even the best swimmers will perform poorly if they lack confidence and can not deal with the pressure of competition. Think about swimming in your home pool on a warm summer morning with your friends. It feels great. It feels relaxed. It feels comfortable. Now imagine 50,000 people sitting in the stands around the pool watching you swim. How do you feel? Nervous? Tense? Uncomfortable? Under pressure? Why? The pool hasn’t got any longer. The water hasn’t changed. The only thing that has changed is you – and your perception that swimming in front of 50,000 people is different (and more pressure) than swimming in front of a few moms and dads. Pressure is something you generate in response to your perception of the situation. Why do some people try to psyche out others? Nothing impacts on performance like pressure! The main reason people try psyche out others is to artificially create pressure by increasing doubts, fears and insecurities in their opposition and try to erode their confidence. Remember this…………Pressure places people in positions for poor performance. Why are psyche outs such an effective strategy? Your attitude and your confidence determine your destiny. Anything that impacts on your attitude and destroys your confidence is potentially damaging to your performance. The psyche out is a tool some people use to attack attitude and kill confidence to get you to increase pressure on yourself. What kinds of psyche outs are there? Psyche outs come in two basic forms – the Dirty Downers and the Positive Power Plays. Dirty Downers (DD) are those psyche outs which focus on bringing people down through criticism, sarcasm and down right meanness. Positive Power Plays (PPP) are psyche outs which give you strength and confidence without putting anyone else down. Dirty Downers: Where do they happen? Dirty Downers can happen any where – the locker room, at the end of the pool during warm up, in the ready room, in the marshalling area, behind the blocks…….you name it, the Dirty Downer can hit you anytime…anywhere. Who does them? Thankfully not many swimmers are Dirty Downer Do-ers! Dirty downer do-ers are often swimmers who lack confidence in themselves and decide their best tactic (and their best chance of winning) lies not in developing their own confidence and self belief but in destroying the confidence of others. Make yourself psyche out proof. Here’s the secret……………………..psyche outs only work if you let them! It’s not the psyche outs that are the problem – it’s how you respond to them. Dirty downer do-ers can find fault in your appearance, your clothing, your hairstyle, your club, your friends, your family, your coach, your training program, your swim gear, your body odor, your dog………but the important thing is to learn to control how you respond to the comments and criticisms. A Dirty Downer Do-er is trying to get you to lose confidence and get you to create pressure on yourself by making you feel inadequate in comparison to them. Forget comparing yourself to other people – compare yourself with how close you are to your own full potential. Some of the best (and worst) psyche outs: A few leading swimmers were asked to talk about the best and worst psyche outs they have ever heard. Here are some real beauts! “Is that swim suit really small or have you just put on weight lately” “Are you still swimming? I heard you gave up a long time ago” “You look really tired – are you ok?” “Those goggles are really old. I can’t believe you still wear them” Regardless of the psyche out – remember the secret – the psyche out only works if you respond to the pressure it is trying to create! What they say and what they mean…………………………. Often the Dirty Downer Do-er will give hints about how they really think and feel in their psyche outs. If they are feeling a bit flat, tired and fatigued, they might try to hit you with a “hey you look tired and worn out” comment. Listen to what they say but also listen to what they mean: For example: They say: “I have been doing 10 sessions a week and I am in the best shape of my career” . They mean: “I am not really sure how i am going to go today” They say “We’re swimming through the meet. We’re not even tapering for this meet” They mean: “I need an excuse in case I don’t swim well today” They say:“We’ve just done a hell week” They mean: “I am really tired” They say: “We’re doing 50 miles a week” They mean: “I am really tired” They say: “I’ve just done a huge pb in the gym” They mean: “I need to make you think i am stronger than i really am” So………what do you do when a Dirty Downer Do-er strikes?????????????? Read Part Two later this week which starts with Ten things you can do to respond to a psyche out-er! Wayne Goldsmith

The Champions on Your Side

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Resistance is the enemy to great work, says author Steve Pressfield. But with enemies come allies. Consider, who and what will push you through the dips and help you do the work that matters.

Here’s an excerpt from Do the Work about the champions on your side:

1. Stupidity

2. Stubbornness

3. Blind faith

4. Passion

5. Assistance (the opposite of Resistance)

6. Friends and family

Stay Stupid

The three dumbest guys I can think of: Charles Lindbergh, Steve Jobs, Winston Churchill. Why? Because any smart person who understood how impossibly arduous were the tasks they had set themselves would have pulled the plug before he even began.

Ignorance and arrogance are the artist and entrepreneur’s indispensable allies. She must be clueless enough to have no idea how difficult her enterprise is going to be—and cocky enough to believe she can pull it off anyway.

How do we achieve this state of mind? By staying stupid. By not allowing ourselves to think.

A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.

Don’t think. Act.

We can always revise and revisit once we’ve acted. But we can accomplish nothing until we act.

Be Stubborn

Once we commit to action, the worst thing we can do is to stop.

What will keep us from stopping? Plain old stubbornness.

I like the idea of stubbornness because it’s less lofty than “tenacity” or “perseverance.” We don’t have to be heroes to be stubborn. We can just be pains in the butt.

When we’re stubborn, there’s no quit in us. We’re mean. We’re mulish. We’re ornery.

We’re in till the finish.

We will sink our junkyard-dog teeth into Resistance’s ass and not let go, no matter how hard he kicks.

Blind Faith

Is there a spiritual element to creativity? Hell, yes.

Our mightiest ally (our indispensable ally) is belief in something we cannot see, hear, touch, taste, or feel.

Resistance wants to rattle that faith. Resistance wants to destroy it.

There’s an exercise that Patricia Ryan Madson describes in her wonderful book, Improv Wisdom. (Ms. Madson taught improvisational theater at Stanford to standing-room only classes for twenty years.) Here’s the exercise:

Imagine a box with a lid. Hold the box in your hand. Now open it.

What’s inside?

It might be a frog, a silk scarf, a gold coin of Persia. But here’s the trick: no matter how many times you open the box, there is always something in it.

Ask me my religion. That’s it.

I believe with unshakeable faith that there will always be something in the box.

Passion

Picasso painted with passion, Mozart composed with it. A child plays with it all day long.

You may think that you’ve lost your passion, or that you can’t identify it, or that you have so much of it, it threatens to overwhelm you. None of these is true.

Fear saps passion.

When we conquer our fears, we discover a boundless, bottomless, inexhaustible well of passion.

Assistance

We’ll come back to this later. Suffice it to say for now that as Resistance is the shadow, its opposite—Assistance—is the sun.

Friends and Family

When art and inspiration and success and fame and money have come and gone, who still loves us—and whom do we love?

Only two things will remain with us across the river: our inhering genius and the hearts we love.

In other words, what we do and whom we do it for.

Professionalizing the Coaching of Swimming

by John Leonard

Coach Peter Daland frequently reminds me that swim coaches evolved from the old days of “bath attendants,” who spent all day at the (overheated) pool, in their bathrobes, providing towels to patrons. Naturally, since these gentlemen (no ladies to our knowledge) spent all day observing the motion of humans through water, they became a source of information on how various people succeeded or failed in doing so. Hence, the birth of swim coaching.

Not very glorious.

This humble beginning, combined with a recent conversation with an ASCA member, led me to consider the concept of a “profession.”  I know, intuitively, that swim coaching is a profession.  And, we know, intuitively, that we are professional coaches.  But, under objective standards, is coaching a profession?

Here’s what I found:

The word profession comes from the Latin professio, meaning “public declaration.”  Historically, when a person made a commitment to a profession, they were automatically branded a member of a religious community, by openly declaring a faith or an opinion.  Sound familiar?

Nowadays, various things have been tacked on to that original concept. Today’s common understanding of a professional are individuals vocations requiring a highly specialized body of knowledge and experiences.  Another factor in the definition of a profession today is its universality.  Coaching swimming is indeed a global profession, with people practicing it on most of the continents.  Additionally, the idea of a profession is imbued with the concepts of a “discipline” and an “order” to the vocation.

How do we measure up against this standard? What has ASCA provided that helps us meet those expectations from the public we serve?

First, is there a common philosophy?

I would say yes, there is. Quite simply, we are in place to assist those who wish to swim in a more satisfactory fashion. This can range from learning to swim, to setting world records. We exist to serve our clients. Within that context, multiple philosophies of “how to” exist, largely to the benefit of the public we serve. Diversity provides a learning process and improvement process for everyone we can touch with our collective efforts.

Second, is there a common body of knowledge?

Yes, we’re improving. Within ASCA’s five required Certification Levels and 14 additional Enrichment Schools, ASCA has created and continually improves and evaluates and expands, the skills and abilities of its members. Globally, we are moving towards agreement on the foundational concepts of swimming and forming the basics of a common body of knowledge. Already, with international clinics, and the communication and learning possibilities of our digital age, information and education is increasingly accessible to any individual who really wants to be a swimming coach.

Third, is there a formal Education Process? Yes and no.

In the USA, thanks to our partners at USA Swimming, we have “required” education for our newest coaches before they get a coaching license. Above Level 1, education is required only for certification by the ASCA. The good news is that 12,000 (and growing daily) coaches have committed themselves to certification and the required education process it includes. This VOLUNTARY association clearly is superior to any forced mechanism we can create. The market for our profession – our clubs and employers – have a way to require and demand continuing education from our profession.

Fourth, are their standards of entry?

Yes.  All new coaches, within one year of starting to coach, must complete the Level 1 Coaching School through ASCA and USA Swimming. Unfortunately, no such standard exists for NCAA coaching assistants or high school coaching (though individual states have some requirements for HS coaches).

Fifth, are their guidelines for behavior?

Yes.  In 1991, the ASCA passed the first ever Code of Ethics in Olympic Sports coaching. (Since that time, twelve other sports have followed suit.)  And, USAS requires coaches to pass a background screen, which is a key protection for those whom we serve.

Sixth, does the profession have consistent communication mechanisms in place?

Yes! With the American Swimming Magazine, the ASCA Newsletter, and the Journal of Swimming Research, we provide information from the anecdotal to the rigorously scientific, on a monthly basis, in addition to 18-20 live clinics a year.  USAS conducts regional clinics, sends regular email communications and engages in on-site visits with coaches and teams.  Both the ASCA website and the USAS website are forums for thought leadership and fast communications of ideas.

Seventh, do we have leaders who serve as mentors and role models and are they active in leadership roles both formal and informal?

Yes, the ASCA Board, and more recently the ASCA Fellows Program, provides a set of mechanisms to evaluate past efforts, think about and plan for the future of the profession and then pass on accumulated wisdom to future generations of leaders. Our leadership role and individuals are highly active, highly visible, and provide key links from our past into the bright future.

The work of creating, maintaining and improving a profession is never done. But daily, the collective coaching community is committed to doing what we do, and believing in what we say, and envisioning what will come.  So, hold this close:  As a coach, you are part of a profession…The Swimming Coach.

(evaluated from Crain’s Chicago Business Journal, “What defines a profession?”)

Innovate the Steve Jobs Way: 7 Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success

A brief summary of the new book about Steve Jobs, written by journalist Carmine Gallo.

The Steve Jobs Way — principles you can adopt today to “think different” —

Coaches: Sign up for ASCA’s Swim Parent Newsletter Today

Coaches — Add another tool to your arsenal today with an annual subscription to the Swim Parent Newsletter!

The Swim Parent Newsletter is a weekly publication coaches can use as a parent education tool.  Each week we publish a topic we think will be valuable to your swim team parents.

Recent titles include:

“Do We Really Want our Children Drinking Energy Drinks?”

“Guidelines For Going On The Road,”

“2 a Day Workouts for 12 and Unders?”

“Resolving Conflicts with the Coach”

“The Praise Craze”

“The Nature of Stroke Work”

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