Athletes Over 70

After 17 years at the helm of Unified Team Diving I have passed the management of the company on to Director of Development Jay Gardner and Training Director Ben Bos. In this carcast I take a few minutes to look back at some of the history of UTD and how it impacted my life and, hopefully in a really good way, the lives of lots of scuba divers and scuba instructors.

The electrical engineers creed about soldering: "The bigger the blob, the better the job."

The rock climbers creed about rope: "If you don't know the knot, tie a lot."

These two sayings, unfortunately, summarize much of the recreational scuba training that is currently happening. Without an understanding of "why," instructors are showing students how to do skills and expecting them to fully learn those skills. That, however, is impossible.

In this short carcast, Jeff looks at the concept of proper education and its most vital cousin: retention.

For more information and to contact Jeff about coaching, click here for the website. 

How many dives do you have? I believe the answer to this question is the biggest lie in scuba diving. As instructors, we are trained to take this answer with a grain of salt. In this short carcast, Jeff takes a look at logging dives, logging flight hours, and some ideas about how to best log your dives.

This was originally published as UTD Scuba Diving Podcast Episode #103.

For more information and to contact Jeff, click here.

Who is brilliant? You? Or your students? Or both? What happens when you face an instructor or a coach who is more focused on their own brilliance than yours.

In this short carcast I take a look at a scenario where the brilliance got confused. Have a listen, let me know what you think.

For more information and to contact Jeff, click here.

Following someone else's dreams. This is something every scuba instructor has faced. A student brings a partner, who does not want to be there, into a class, usually Open Water. As instructors, we get to see this play out, sometimes in terror, sometimes in joy. What do you do when someone drags someone into your class? What is it like to successfully follow someone's dream? What is it like  to not want any part of someone's dream. In this short podcast I tell a few stories, some about me, some about my students, and look carefully at following your own dreams. 

For more information and to contact Jeff, click here.

One of the great things about me and Unified Team Diving is that I get to set the company culture around money, finances, student fees, all of it. I feel very strongly that financial transparency is critical to the health of any business. I also believe "free" does not serve anyone – us or you. Basically, I believe free has no value. In this short carcast I expand on my vision around UTD and money.

For more information and to contact Jeff, click here.

This was originally published as UTD Scuba Diving Podcast Episode #88.

There is much to unpack around how we run out instructor development program, how we train our instructor trainers, and how all that benefits the Unified Team Diving students and coaching clients.

Back in the car, Jeff takes a look at the mechanics of teaching teaching – education as a change in behavior, that change being worthless without retention, how we use levels of learning, and how we create common ground with our students. Grateful to Socrates for allowing us to take his principles and maneuver them into our program to teach scuba instructors how to properly teach scuba.

For more information and to contact Jeff, click here.

This was originally published as UTD Scuba Diving Podcast Episode #91

In any business one of the most important things is knowing who your clients are. And equally important is to know who your clients are not. In this carcast, I take an honest look at who we are for and who we are not for. It's a complex discussion about a very simple concept.

Are we for you?

For more information and to contact Jeff, click here.

This was originally published as UTD Scuba Diving Podcast Episode #84.

This short podcast is all about choosing a coach, staying with a coach, leaving a coach, and much more. But most importantly, how to apply what you learn in the UTD Scuba Coaching Program to not only diving, but to the rest of your life.

For more information and to contact Jeff, click here.

This was originally published as UTD Scuba Diving Podcast Episode #61.

Do you have goals?  In scuba diving? Sports? Work? In this episode Jeff takes a look at goals and goal setting and the process of training to reach those goals. If the point of the goal is just to get there, you run the risk of missing the most amazing parts of life. Listen to the episode, set some goals, and have some fun.

For more information and to contact Jeff, click here.

This was originally published as UTD Scuba Diving Podcast Episode #43.