A Day of Coaching

Today I helped coach a Masters Swimming Clinic at Fuller Pool in Ann Arbor.  Leading up to the clinic, I had no intention to help out simply because I don't normally coach.  As the event grew closer, I heard about numerous requests from the attendees to join the coaching staff.  Last week I broke down and agreed to help out.  I've largely avoided coaching in my life.  I've often said "I want to coach later in life".  I feel like I have some other things to accomplish in my personal and professional life before I become surgically attached to the pool deck (rather than the water).  I've feared coaching in a sense as well.  With how passionate I am about swimming, and my comfort with public speaking, I had a feeling as soon as I did it, I would be hooked forever.  My worst fears were realized today.  I absolutely LOVED my experience coaching today.  I really enjoy leveraging my 22 years of competitive swimming plus my year training with Olympians to help other swimmers.  It was a really positive experience.

The 2 hour clinic turned into about 3.5 hours once we helped everybody in attendance.  The first 1.5 hours was focusing on a specific freestyle drill.  The remainder of the time was really well spent critiquing strokes and offering feedback on how to improve.  The staff was also videotaping swimmers and will offer voiceovers to provide the swimmers a video to refernce later.  I spent most of my time on the techy side of the clinic.  I brought speakers and wireless microphone to ensure everybody could hear what was going on, especially those with hearing problems.  When most coaches just yell, I thought this was a much better solution.  I moved on to event video and photos afterward.  I got some great shots of the coaches and swimmers in action.  I'm told one of them will end up on the USMS homepage in an article about the event.  When it was time to split up into each stroke, I was assigned backstroke (big surprise).  I worked with about 25 different swimmers in total.  Each one would start at the 15 meter mark and swim towards the wall.  When they touched I would provide them a critique of their stroke.  It felt good to take all the knowledge I've learned from the great coaches in my life, and organize it all into helpful comments to share with others.

In total we had 67 swimmers in attendance.  I probably knew half of them at least.  It was nice to catch up with those I knew and meet a few new ones.  I've been asked to travel to a few of the Masters practices and coach a bit so I'll probably add a few of those in my schedule.  Today was a great experience and reinforced that I do indeed want to coach someday.  Great job today everyone!