Off Season

We have come to the end of our season and now it is time for every coaches nightmare, the off-season.  I coach at the Division III level where we are not allowed to work with our athletes once the season is over. When I was younger, I hated this and felt I needed to be in control and tell my team what to do or they will go backwards.  Now that I am more experienced and have seen many off-season, I like putting the ownership on the athlete because we are ultimately training for the game of life, and life does not have an off-season, rather, staying fit and healthy takes consistency and discipline.  You won't have a coach anymore.

I think the key's to a successful off-season are taking pride in your conditioning, making it fit, and being yourself.

1.  As an athlete, there is a sport season, but you never take a break from being an athlete.  In other words, and athlete needs to maintain their conditioning, strength and flexibility, and their skills year round.  This does not take as much as most think, but it does take consistent aerobic conditioning, maintaining or building strength and flexibility, and spending time working on drills.  We live in a culture where it is easier to brag about how much we are not doing versus how much we are doing.  Be proud of your conditioning, maintain your strength, and work on your skills.  Even if you do them in smaller chunks than you do during the season, it will make a difference.  If you do the next two steps, you CAN be an athlete in the off-season.


2.  Be creative with your schedule.  I have athletes doing a little of everything out of the season.  We have some athletes fortunate enough to swim with a club, but many are doing internships, or working long hours to pay tuition.  Find a schedule that works and compliments your internship or your work schedule.  Sometimes you may have to get it done in the morning, or at other odd times, but it can be done.  This is a good lesson to learn for later in life.  Eventually you are not going to have a 2 hour time slot devoted to swim practice and a coach telling you what to do.

3.  Be Yourself.  We have our swim-aholics, our cross-trainers, and our triathletes, and there is no right or wrong approach as long as you are working hard and enjoying what you are doing. I have had All-Americans come from all 3 categories.  Bottom line is, there are many ways to stay fit, do what you like to do and be an athlete.  What works for some, doesn't work for others, find something that keeps you moving and working hard and like the saying says "JUST DO IT!"

Common Denominators in Great Performances

We are in the midst of championships season, with a few swimmers still training for NCAA's next week while a majority of the team is done and in the evaluation process.  As I look back on the season, we always have a lot of great swims, but I am always looking for what separates the "JAW DROPPING, WHERE DID THAT COME FROM" swims from the typical end of the year time drops or even an off meet.

Here is what I believe to be the common denominators.  This is assuming your athlete does the work during the season and yes, there will always be athletes that defy the odd's.

1.  All the flowers in the garden are blooming!  The athletes that I see have the best performances have many flowers in their personal garden and they are all blooming.  If you ignore academics, your relationships, your faith, your garden will not be complete.  When we step up to compete, we compete as the complete person.  I have had several swimmers come out of high school too one dimensional, in that life is just about swimming.  This can only last for so long because life is not one dimensional.  Make sure your athletes are growing all the flowers in their garden, and make sure they are all blooming.  You will be surprised how well they will perform in all area's of their life.


2.  The Need to feel valuable to the team!  Without a doubt, the level of importance an athlete feels to the team is critical.  When an athlete feels valuable to the team, they have a much better chance of finding that jaw dropping performance.  This is nothing new, it's the performing for something bigger than yourself concept, it works.  As you watch your team compete during the big competitions, ask yourself, Does everyone feel valuable to the final product?  Some athletes will sense this just by where they rank on the team with their speed, however, to have everyone feel valuable it takes work from the coach and attention to the relationships built throughout the season.


3.  No Fear of Failure! If I look at the jaw dropping performance over the last few years, it is kind of ironic that the athletes that accomplished them are the athletes that would have handles failure the best.    It's not that they don't care, because they care a lot, it is a big part of their life.  I guess it comes back to having several flowers in the garden and realizing this is only part of the big picture, and that sometimes failure is part of getting better and growing up.