Written By: Ashley Graves Depending on where families took swim lessons they will be coming to your team with different levels of experiences and skill sets. Lesson parents will be used to certain things from the swim lesson experience that don’t always transfer to the swim team experience. Keep these 3 things in mind when communicating and onboarding them this season! 1. Communication. This is the biggest one. They are used to instructor feedback on what their child is doing well, what their child needs to work on at home, and having face to face interaction with an instructor at every lesso ..read more

Written By: Alexis Keto I'm going to address a wonderful and exciting topic that can also be one of the scariest years for a coach...there will be some dark secrets where I say the quiet parts out loud, and some really obvious moments where we both kind of roll our eyes and say, "well, duhhhhh." Let's start with one of those moments. The moment an athlete qualifies for Olympic Trials. Holy Heck, it's exciting. There's a rush of emotions. First, this kid made their goal, their dream, the BIG step. That's a lot of hard work paying off and the joy flooding the coach's body sometimes leaks out th ..read more

Written By: Ashley Graves Are we rethinking lesson program structures and skills taught as often as we adapt stroke technique changes? If you are not taking the time to redesign and grow within your swim lesson structure, you are hindering your greatest swim team feeder. If we take a moment to consider what goals parents have for their babies & younger toddlers when they go to a pool it may be important to change the structure of our lessons and create spaces for them within our team lesson programs. We all know that in most circumstances it's a lot easier to coach someone without a stron ..read more

Written By: Beau Caldwell This article began with me doing research on comparing costs of each LSC’s age group championship meet. The data is interesting and the variations of formats are intriguing to someone who has a knack for that kind of material, but that’s not where the real cost lies, and not where the burden is on the entry level families in our sport. It’s reasonable in all youth athletics that there will be some added costs; however, it’s our responsibility as coaches and those in a leadership role to respect the parents’ time and money. In our sport, the parents are footing most o ..read more

As three swim coaches who created SwimEval, we know that the first impression you make on new swimmers and their families is crucial. That's why SwimEval was designed to help coaches create a positive and professional first impression. With SwimEval, coaches can easily collect and manage data on new swimmers, customize evaluation forms, and send personalized follow-up emails to families. The app is fully customizable to meet the needs of any swim team, making the evaluation process easy and streamlined. Say goodbye to manual paperwork and hello to an easy, efficient process. SwimEval not only ..read more

Written By: Peter Verhoef Our coaches have been looking forward to Junior Nationals this week for a long time and we are excited for your athlete to compete at this level. In talking about the meet we realized we never share some of our thoughts and goals with parents, and watching this meet from the stands can be a new experience! We wanted to send some thoughts for you to process as we head to Greensboro that may help you enjoy the meet with your athlete. This meet is the first National level meet in USA Swimming’s progression. Futures is still a regional competition and while there may be ..read more

Written By: Ashley Graves This is a concept that I've seen be missed in many programs. These courses are not only a great way to keep connections with families that have graduated from your program and bring them back to the sport, they are also important to offer for the continuation of community water safety. In addition, it's also a chance to reconnect with a returning customer. At my swim school, this is how my refresher program works for families and how it is communicated: If your swimmer has not been to a pool on at least a monthly basis to reinforce the skills they gained last summer ..read more

Written By: Doug Miller The biggest challenge for the adult swimmers we see in our program is developing "feel" for the water. That's so important, of course, in all facets of swimming. But where it becomes an issue in freestyle is when athletes are unable to develop an effective catch and a solid grip on the water. I use what I call a ,Hinge Drill Progression (,click to view demonstration) to help swimmers understand the mechanics of "holding water." We begin with the "double hinge," simply making the initial high elbow catch. We'll place both palms on the deck while in shallow water. Then t ..read more

Written By: Reed Miller We see it all too often, what appears to be the Loch Ness monster rising up and out of the water. But, unfortunately it’s not majestic or mysterious. Nope, it’s just another bad backstroke breakout featuring floating arm syndrome. It’s one of the most common mistakes we see that drives us coaches crazy. Why do backstroke swims so often turn into Nessie sightings? The drifting lead arm stems from poor streamlines along with a bad angle at the breakout. A bad angle at the break can be caused by a shortened kickout if the swimmer wants to breathe and/or because they misti ..read more

Written By: Dan Tudor If you’ve seen the classic movie “Jerry McGuire,” you’ll remember this scene: Jerry, a pro sports agent played by Tom Cruise, is at a crucial point in his “recruitment” of the star #1 draft pick that is being courted by a rival agency that fired Jerry earlier in the movie. Jerry is the hotel room of the star and his father. Jerry, through a phone call from the rival, finds out that his million-dollar superstar made a commitment with his rival even after the father promises Jerry that they’ll sign with him earlier in the story. If you’ve seen the movie, do you remember th ..read more