Carmel High Presence Will Be Felt At Junior Pan Pacs: An Interview with Coach Chris Plumb

Carmel High Presence Will Be Felt At Junior Pan Pacs: An Interview with Coach Chris Plumb

Carmel High athletes have long made waves on the swimming landscape, most recently with former athletes Jake Mitchell and Drew Kibler racing at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Now, Carmel will be represented at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships, with Alex Shackell, Aaron Shackell, and Berit Berglund competing for Team USA in Hawaii.

Berglund, committed to Texas, will compete in the 100 backstroke and is fresh off her silver-medal finish at Junior Nationals. Aaron Shackell, committed to Cal, will compete in the 200 butterfly after winning that event at Junior Nationals. Alex Shackell will compete in both the 100 fly and 200 fly, events she won Junior Nationals.

In anticipation of Junior Pan Pacs, we interviewed Carmel coach Chris Plumb, also named to the U.S. coaching staff for the meet.

On podcasts and other interviews, you have often discussed how Carmel focuses on developing the athletes’ character and whole person as well as their athletic abilities. Would you say that is why Carmel maintains success as a whole program?

I feel like it’s one of the factors that contributes to the success of the program. We always talk about how better people make better athletes, and just learning about yourself, learning how to be a better teammate, learning how to come in with a great attitude towards yourself and towards others helps a person grow and take a holistic approach to the sport. It’s never perfect when you are dealing with people and you’re always going to have challenges, but overall that is a big part of the program and why we’re successful. When we are coaching people or coaching athletes you’re not just talking to a machine you’re talking to a person. They have a whole lot of things happening in their life, a whole lot of challenges, and it’s all about the growth and the process. Absolutely better people make better athletes.

Would you say that focusing on the whole athlete constitutes a culture of teamwork? Where did you get that definition of teamwork from?

Teamwork in swimming is interesting. Most of all of us would agree that you’re not going to do it alone, you need others to help you on your journey. We always talk about how we make each other better, we compete with each other not against each other. The environment of practice, having a good attitude, and helping your teammates, building them up, and helping them get better helps the competitive environment where everybody can thrive. I try not to put a limit. It’s not a piece of pie, we’re not all trying to get a piece. There’s ample opportunity for everyone who wants success. The teamwork part of this is when we go to a meet we want to be the best team on that pool deck. We want to be there for each other, we want to cheer for each other, we want to be excited when someone else does well. When we went to Jr. Nationals it was a big meet, but every time there was a Carmel swimmer on the blocks, our kids were so excited when someone did well. That to me, is a big part of why we’re successful and why this is a unique group.

I think that ties with your club vision: “A community club with a national presence.” Would you say that is what community means within your club?

Yeah, we are trying to create a unique community, in terms of our vision too. We understand and value all parts of our community. We want to be encompassing to every part of our community. There is a place for everybody within our club. At the same time we do want to achieve national and world prominence in our sport, so we have high aspirations, so we want to keep our feet and have roots while at the same time grow as tall and strong as we can.

You are on the coaching staff for Junior Pan Pacs. How do you take these principles of community and teamwork and the whole athlete alongside other training principles embedded in Carmel team culture, and integrate athletes from different philosophies and backgrounds when coaching a national team?

I feel like every time we are with a national team, we need to lean into the values and ideals of USA swimming and our country. I think Team USA, one of the most unique and fun things about it is team camaraderie that comes in a short amount of time. There is just something special when you represent your country and I think it is a unifying experience that we have all these athletes from different programs from different states, from different training backgrounds, but once you put that USA training cap on, it’s just like okay we’re in this together we’re here to help each other and we’re going to do this for each other and for our country. I think it is easy to buy into it from the coaching side of “We did the same thing for our team and now we are going to do the same thing for our country and we are going to stand up and race not for the C on our cap today but we are going to race for the USA flag today.” I do think some of the same things and principles apply to Team USA.

How does working with other coaches that may have different philosophies impact what you take home to Carmel when coming home from these meets?

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Obviously, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the swim coaches out there, and in particular the ones who go to Team USA because you certainly have had to put in the time, the work, and the effort to have athletes at the meet and you’re giving up your own time. There is a lot of respect from me. Being involved in the sport of swimming for an extended period of time, you just realize there are a lot of different ways to get things done. I always feel like these trips are a learning experience for me to try and learn from them what makes them successful as a coach and what makes a program successful, and if I can learn from that and I can bring that home, our club just got better and our athletes just got better because I was able to see a different point of view from a different coach. I try to get away from comparing, I just want to learn, I just want to be a sponge, tell me what you do and why you do it and that to me is what makes our sport so great.

Would you say that the attitude of learning from others is just as important for athletes to come away knowing or thinking about?

Yeah. Drew Kibler, he’s been training here a couple of weeks and he just talks about whenever he goes to these meets just watching people and what they’re doing, and that just speaks to me. They’re learning from each other and I think that’s also what makes Team USA so great is that these athletes aren’t hiding what makes them successful, they’re making each other better. Obviously from the results we’ve seen across the world right now, we as a country are going to have to keep getting faster to keep up, so we’ve got to help each other and use each other and share knowledge to keep up with the rest of the world. I think it’s thrust upon us to improve to keep up with the world, so I think this learning and these things happen while on the trips.

In what ways do the Carmel athletes who are attending Jr Pan Pacs (Alex, Aaron, and Berit) embody the Carmel values and what we just discussed with learning anyway you can everyday at practice?

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

I think it’s always an experience, each individual experience, but the greater principles are within overarching pieces of our practice. Each of them have completely bought into our program and to the ideas of trying to improve themselves and improve each other. These people and these athletes know they’re at this meet because of the other athletes they train with and work with. I think a great example of that was the past two weeks. It is always a difficult time when the rest of your team is done and in theory we could have had just three people training. I told them all I want you all to invite a friend or two to practice, people who can get in with you to train just to keep it fresh and to keep a good energy, and so we got athletes sprinkling in throughout these past two weeks. Even though it was their break, they understood that they were there to help the other people on the team. I think because they do have those friends other people were willing to help them. It’s just always creating a fun environment that kids want to come to and those athletes definitely lean into that and make our team better because they’ve bought in themselves.

What do you think is important for your athletes to know as they prepare over the next week and what do you think is imperative for them to mentally understand?

I think that every time you go to an international competition, you’ve got to keep a few things in mind. Number one, you’ve got to continue to do the things that you do and you do well. You don’t want to be caught looking and gawking and just overwhelmed with what other people are doing because there’s different things, there’s different countries, they’re doing different things to get warmed up, to swim their race and get prepared. You just have to go and be the best you in this meet. You’re here for a reason and you’ve earned the right to be here and keep doing the things you’ve done well. This isn’t the time to question whether or not you’re good enough or whether you belong. You’ve got to know right away this is where I go and this is where I belong. Number two, enjoy the process and enjoy the experience, and trust the process and know that you’re ready to go and have fun and enjoy it. Don’t make it bigger than it is and at the end of the day it is just swimming.

For each individual swimmer, could you comment on some attributes that you think make them successful as athletes?

Aaron has just so steadily improved, and over his improvement he just keeps gaining more and more confidence every time he races and competes. Just watching his growth over time, the better he gets the hungrier he gets. At the same time he’s not gotten rattled. When I first started coaching him he easily got rattled or thrown off course by what other people are doing and now he just shows up and he’s got a game face on for whatever meet he’s going to and that’s really helped him be successful. Aaron’s demeanor is pretty nonchalant, pretty cool. Alex is a go-getter. She wants to get to practice right away, she wants to be early. Alex is just hungry to improve and always trying to figure out what to do better. She loves to work out, she loves to practice, she loves to push herself and she’s so hungry and ambitious to improve and she’s always asking about her stroke and what she can do better and doesn’t put any limits on herself. Berit to me is just a flat out game time racer, competitor. When the lights are on bright, she just knows how to rise to the occasion and swim fast just in the moment.

This interview was edited for clarity and length.

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