SWIMMING GOLD

By Wayne Goldsmith

This is without doubt my favorite story to tell when I do Club visits, swimming parents workshops and coaching clinics: The 5 a.m. In A Swimming Household story.

Please share this with every swimming parent you know.

It is a funny story - but in my experience - having done hundreds of swimming club visits all over the world - it’s also very very true.

The bottom line - the key message to all swimming parents is this: STOP HELPING YOUR KIDS.

What I mean by that is continue to love them unconditionally, support them, accept them for who they are and value them the same regardless of their swimming performances BUT - stop:

* Packing and unpacking their swim bags

* Filling and cleaning their water bottles

* Washing and drying their towels and swimming gear

* Setting the morning alarm in your room and letting them sleep in

* Carrying their swim bag

Believe me - please trust me - you are NOT helping them by doing these things. I know you think you’re helping them. I know you love them.

But please stop doing it.

We want your kids to be independent, self-responsible and accountable.

Want more information - check out my book:

The Talent Myth: Why Character Beats Genetics Every time

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Wayne Goldsmith

By Wayne Goldsmith

I’ve been to over 1000 swimming pools.

Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Fiji Islands, USA, South Korea, Zimbabwe, South Africa, England, The Isle of Man, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Greece and Italy - and a few more places I’ve probably forgotten.

And the “default” version of coaching swimming is the same in 90% of the places I visit: Coaches standing at the end of the pool yelling numbers and orders at kids!

“1:20, 1:23, 1:21”….

“Take your marks GO, Take your marks GO, Take your marks GO”…..

“44 strokes, 39 strokes, 41 strokes”….

“Finish on the wall, don’t breathe inside the flags, stop pulling on the lane ropes”….

It’s like we’ve decided that there’s only one way to coach swimming and it’s replicated over and over and over all around the world.

Coaches - here’s the great news: You don’t have to do it this way.

You don’t have to be just another “telling and yelling” coach standing at the end of the pool screaming numbers at kids and calling it coaching.

What is it the coaches do?

WE COACH!

And what is coaching?

It’s connecting with, engaging with and inspiring the hearts and minds of everyone we coach.

In this video I talk about how you can coach more effectively, more engagingly and have a lot more fun - and success in the process.

Wayne Goldsmith

Coaching is moments that matter.

I was coaching a 14 year old.

He looked sad and flat and tired and I asked him how he was going.

He said, “I’m ok. I just wish I was more talented like Steve. He doesn’t train much and yet he keeps kicking my butt in races. It’s not fair.”.

I replied, “From where I’m standing, when I see you I see a tough young man, who never gives up, who always tries his best, who encourages his team mates, who turns up even when he’s tired and who works harder than any athlete I’ve ever known”.

He just smiled and walked away and started training.

25 years later I received a letter.

“Coach Wayne. You may not remember me but when I was 14 and was about to give up swimming, you told me how amazing you thought I was. I never really thanked you. You were the only person who believed in me. I have never forgotten you or your words.”.

My friends - THIS IS COACHING. We change lives.

We are all focused on helping kids to learn, to improve, to get better and to be successful in sport. That’s the nuts and bolts of coaching.

But do you know what’s even better?

Having the opportunity to say to a kid “I believe in you”.

In my long experience, sometimes you might be the only person in their lives who is giving them that message.

You might be the one person in their entire life who makes them feel that anything really is possible if they just believe it is so.

Have you changed a life today?

Wayne Goldsmith

I was in Zimbabwe doing a swimming clinic in 1996 for WORLD AQUATICS - FINA as it was.

The hosts took me to a local swimming program.

Run down pool, no lane ropes, no backstroke flags, no starting blocks. Cold water.

The sides of the pool had green scum on them.

One of the kids told me they were toad eggs and they had to be careful not to swallow them.

Coach - a very good guy - was a butcher - very limited high level swimming coaching knowledge but a very decent, hard working, dedicated coach.Overall pretty terrible environment.In one lane however was an 11 year old skinny little blonde kid. She just plowed up and down the pool relentlessly.

She swam like she was angry at the water: she just worked and worked and worked. In between repeats she smiled, laughed, joked with her friends - then boom - back into it - lap after lap after lap to a standard that would have seen her fit in nicely to any age group program in Australia, USA, UK - anywhere.

At the end of the session the coach introduced her to me and me to her. “Coach Wayne. I’d like you to meet Kirsty Coventry”.

That’s Kirsty “First Woman IOC President, 7 medals (2 Gold, 4 Silver, 1 Bronze) across five Olympics (2000-2016)” Coventry.

Environment doesn’t make champions. Character does.

Toad eggs, green scum, no lane ropes. Seven Olympic medals.

Tell me again that being great at sport is all about facilities.

Wayne Goldsmith

By Wayne Goldsmith

ir Alex Ferguson would stop training to talk one-on-one with players. In that moment, they were the only person who mattered.

Laurie Lawrence told me: “Don’t put heart rate before heart.” If you see a moment to inspire an athlete — grab it. They can always do more reps later.

Phil King, Olympic gold medal coach, put it this way: think about the impact of missing coaching opportunities.

Three coaches. Same message.

Physiology matters.

Periodization matters.

But none of it matters more than the moments when you can truly connect with an athlete and change the way they see themselves.

Who cares if their heart rate drops for two minutes?

That conversation - just swimming coach and swimmer - might change their career forever.

Stop training. Start coaching.

How do you balance the science with the human moments?

Wayne Goldsmith

There are two types of swimmers: Pacers and Racers.

Alex Popov — multiple Olympic Gold medalist, world record holder — told me this years ago. It stuck.

Pacers train to hit a time. They race to a plan, trying to control the controllables.

Racers learn competitive skills that equip them to meet any challenge. They change pace, adjust technique, adapt to whatever the race demands.

If you’re training athletes to WIN when it matters, train them to be Racers.

Which are you coaching?

Wayne Goldsmith

One of the most common questions I get from coaches: “How do I motivate my swimmers to work harder?”

My response: “You can’t. Don’t try.”

You can’t motivate anyone to do something they don’t already want to do. It’s not your job to make them do it — it’s your job to create an environment where they can be all they choose to be.

In this video, I’ll show you how to connect with, engage with and inspire the hearts and minds of every swimmer you coach.

Wayne Goldsmith

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By Wayne Goldsmith

One of the most confusing parts of learning about swimming coaching is training zones.

When you attend your first ever swimming coaching course or when you open a swimming coaching textbook for the first time, you’ll see a table full of words like “alactic” and “aerobic” and “anaerobic” and percentages, sample heart rates and effort ratings.

Often there will be six, seven or even more different training zones listed on those tables and the course presenter will tell you that it’s important you learn the training zones and apply them in your training programs precisely to help your swimmers develop specific physiological adaptations like speed, endurance, VO2 max etc.

The current models of training zones are impractical, overly complex and most importantly not workable for the majority of age group coaching programs where one or two coaches are coaching 10, 20, 30 or more swimmers at any one time.

Coaches - it is unrealistic - bordering on impossible - that you, me or any coach - can know for certain what training zone 30 kids are working in at any one time with any degree of accuracy or precision.

When I teach training zones to swimming coaches, I start with big, simple, easy to coach zones e.g.

* EASY, RELAXED, WARM UP PACE

* AEROBIC PACE

* RACE PACE

* SPEED DEVELOPMENT / MAX SPEED PACE

I then encourage coaches to “play” with the precision of the zones and add training zones if / where they need to make the training paces and workloads more accurate.

In this video - a must watch for all swimming coaches - I suggest an alternate way of applying a common sense approach to training zones in your coaching programs.

Wayne Goldsmith

COPYRIGHT WAYNE GOLDSMITH - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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By Wayne Goldsmith

Every swimming coach will tell you that kicking is important and that they include kicking practice in all their practice sessions.

Every swimming coach will also tell you that it’s difficult to inspire kids to complete kicking practice with a high level of engagement, intensity, accuracy and precision.

I was talking with an elite coach over a coffee and he asked me an interesting question “How do you make kicking practice (in his words)“sexy”?

TO BE VERY CLEAR - in this context using the word “sexy” - he meant how can swimming coaches make kicking practice interesting, engaging, enjoyable and fun so that they do it well: so that they do it with the same accuracy and precision as they complete their swim sets.

Today’s video is all about making kick practice the highlight of every swimming workout.

In short - use the C.I.C. (Kick) model:

* Competition specific;

* Intensity relative to a goal;

* Competitive.

If you’ve got other ideas about making kicking practice “sexy” that work in your program, please share them with our Swimming Gold Community in the comments.

Wayne Goldsmith

COPYRIGHT WAYNE GOLDSMITH - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

By Wayne Goldsmith

One of the most common questions I get asked by coaches is how to inspire swimmers to complete their workouts with the precision, accuracy and attention to detail that the coach feels is important - i.e. don’t count the laps, make the laps count.

My answer is YOU DON’T AND YOU CAN’T.

What I mean by that is, you are wasting your time if you believe you can stand at the end of the pool yelling at your team and make them / force them / motivate them to do the workout exceptionally well.

A far better option is to coach the swimmers to look at THE workout and choose to make it THEIR workout.

In this video, I share a story about the late and great coach John Carew and the lessons I learnt from him early one morning while he was coaching the brilliant Olympic Gold medalist, World champion and World record holder Kieren Perkins.

The bottom line is this colleagues: Coach your swimmers to choose to swim their practice exceptionally well - make it all about them - and inspire them - believe in them - to take ownership of and responsibility for the standards of their own workouts and your world - and theirs - will change forever.

Wayne Goldsmith

COPYRIGHT WAYNE GOLDSMITH - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

SWIMMING GOLD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.