As I write this, my thoughts are centered on Track & Field, but coaching education is important in every sport. I was fortunate to be the first graduate of the UCSB Coaching Minor program in 1969. The professors who developed that program put together a curriculum that has been my model for the ensuing 41 years. They recognized and taught us that the coach was the foundation of the sport system. [...]

If you are an overhead athlete, a thrower, tennis player, swimmer, volleyball player etc. you need to use strengthening exercises that involve overhead movements. This is another myth that seems to pervade the exercise community and has definitely sprinted in to the athletic development community. You need to pay close attention to how you get overhead. You must get hip to the shoulder. Cheat and [...]

The concept of continual adaptation is something I have been working to get my arms around since we all met to plan the Michigan Women’s swim dryland program this past September. Jim Richardson, Women’s swim coach at Michigan got me thinking about this. Continual adaptation is not continual improvement. Continual adaptation is a viable concept because different physical qualities adapt at diff [...]

Why are people not creating a buzz with Japanese training? You would think the hype would be huge as the 4x100m went 38.03 and that is faster than the Soviet record. With wins in swimming and other sports such as wrestling, cycling, and gymnastics why do they get shafted? It doesn't matter but I think we need to embrace everyone's methods and not gravitate to the Yuri lemmings. Right now I am co [...]

The following is from Jim Richardson, Women’s swim coach at University of Michigan. I have had the pleasure of working with Jim in an advisory capacity for the last six years as he has evolved and fine tuned his total program. It has been a great educational experience for me to work with a coach like this who is a true professional, willing to share and keep innovating. I know if I were a young [...]

A change that I have seen over the years is a transition from the generalist coaches of my generation to the specialist coaches of today. I am not sure this is a positive trend. If I have choice of hiring a coach I will always lean toward the generalist. I know most of my colleagues, the ones that I lean on the heaviest, are consummate generalists. Certainly the coaches that changed training and c [...]

“If you don’t test max’s and lift heavy weights then how do you evaluate results?” In essence this was the question posed to me by a “Lost generation” strength coach. My answer was simple – I just pointed to the pool (In this case the sport was swimming).The ultimate judge of an Athletic Development program are the results in the competitive arena. First are the athletes healthy and [...]

Phew! What a week. Spending six days with coaches eager to share ideas and learn was very uplifting. I am a bit overwhelmed with trying to put it all together. At Carmel Swim club they are beginning a journey of structuring their dryland training from 8 to 18. The challenge with the developmental age groups is to progressively improve physical literacy so that when they reach the senior level they [...]

Come on Bob Bowman, a long time ago I learned that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. You didn’t complain last year when your swimmer was wearing last year’s fastest suit. Is turnabout fair play? Your guy lost, the other guy swam faster – give credit to the swimmer like credit was given to Phelps last year. I could not agree more that the suits have made a mockery of the spor [...]

Richard Quick, former UT swim coach, diesWednesday, June 10, 2009, 10:26 PMFormer Longhorn women’s swim coach Richard Quick died tonight in Austin at age 66, his family said.Quick had more recently been the head swim coach at Auburn and was diagnosed in December with inoperable brain cancer.At Texas, Quick’s teams dominated the late 1980s, winning five consecutive NCAA titles from 19 [...]