Wayne's Wisdom

This article on swimming parents originally ran a few years ago, but the heart of the piece remains true and unchanged. Take a few minutes to read the insights below and reflect on what the author is saying. It could be helpful in generating harmony between key parties in a swimmer's life. By Wayne ...

10 Swimming Coaching Approaches That Don't Make Sense Originally posted August 12, 2015 Like all sports and all industries, swimming has its fair share of myths, routines, habits, practices and rituals which everyone does...but that doesn't necessarily make them right. Swimming coaching can be a gam...

By Wayne Goldsmith. 20 x 100 on 1:45 16 x 200 on 2:30 40 x 50 on 1:00 6 x 400 on 6:15 Anyone who's had any involvement with the sport of swimming would be familiar with the concept of a Main Set. Those combinations of repeats and rest times (intervals) that are the focus - the emphasis of all swimmi...

Workouts Don't Matter. All this stuff about volume, intensity, frequency, heart rates, lactate, speed, power, endurance...it's doesn't really matter. None of it. Coaches spend hours and hours pondering, "do we 6 x 200 or 7", "should we hold 1:40 or 1:35 on this set", "should this kick set be 600 met...

Swim Training: How Much Should We Be Doing? By Wayne Goldsmith Introduction: I've had numerous poolside conversations, attended over 50 hours of lectures and workshops at major swimming conventions in the U.S., Australia and Great Britain, enjoyed many, many long phone calls and SKYPE calls, had cou...

Wayne Goldsmith: How To Handle The World's Dumbest Swimming Workout How many articles, blog posts, magazine features and text books have you read about swimming workouts? How many web articles have you seen that start with something like "The 10 best speed workouts" or "The best ever distance workou...

Wayne Goldsmith There's a lot of swimming articles about how to be successful: bet you've never read one that will tell you 5 Things You Must Do If You Want to Fail at Swimming. There must be a lot of swimmers who prefer to fail than to succeed.....because in every squad, in every city, in every nat...

Coaching A variety of factors and traits determine if an individual is a superb coach, somewhere in the middle or not very good at the profession. In this article, Wayne Goldsmith examines some of the characteristics that define an individual as a high-quality coach. The piece is heavy on being a mo...

By Wayne Goldsmith. It's easy to spot a good coach - energy, passion, enthusiasm, dedication, connection with their swimmers, knowledge...and it's just as easy to identify terrible coaches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcT93A_6s4E&t=7s So how do you identify terrible coaches? Terrible coaches "Te...

Wayne Goldsmith Can’t Coach In The Pool? Can’t Coach In The Gym? Coronavirus-crunched on all sides? Coaches, ask not what you can't do but what you CAN do, writes Wayne Goldsmith, exclusively for Swimming World. One thing I’ve learned about coaches is – they’re always – ALWAYS – thinking a...

By Wayne Goldsmith (On Coaching Legends) Through the years, Wayne Goldsmith has had the opportunity to attend and speak at some of the world's most prestigious and important swimming coaching conferences, including The Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association (ASCTA) Convention, the Amer...

Swimming Coaches & Parents Yesterday, we ran a previously published piece in which Wayne Goldsmith took a look at 10 things parents do that irritate coaches. Well, there is another side of that coin. So, Goldsmith also took a glance at things that coaches do that get to parents. Those points are emp...

Last year, Wayne Goldsmith put together a series of terrific short videos while he was on tour in the UK and Ireland, writes Craig Lord. I was lucky enough to be at the Swim Ireland clinic at which coaches learned just how important it is to challenge some of the myths of swimming in the way the...

Can’t Swim? Can’t Gym? Coronavirus-crunched on all sides? Ask not what you can't do but what you CAN do. Here are 25 things You CAN Do While Training and Racing Are on Hold - from Wayne Goldsmith, exclusively for Swimming World. You’ve been told that your next Swim Meet has been cancelled. The one y...

There's a lot of stuff around about Leadership...books, videos, DVDs, courses, conferences, training programs....seems like everyone's got something to say - and something to sell - about Leading, Leaders and Leadership. Wayne Goldsmith's new book "Leading Without Leading" isn't selling anything - e...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3AiNAei8Oo&t=4s Competitive Swimming is in crisis…..UNLESS….. By Wayne Goldsmith There is no doubt that Competitive Sport around the world is in crisis. In some places, particularly in rural and regional areas, some sports - particularly the traditional Olympic sport...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAytQI-MdvI The Pool Pathway By Wayne Goldsmith Every national swimming association around the world has some sort of swimmer development pathway - what I call the pool pathway. It's a model and a system which has been around for more than 50 years in some form - and ...

A Morning with the Master: On Deck with Coach Bill Sweetenham By Wayne Goldsmith I’ve known Coach Bill Sweetenham for a long time. He’s been one of the strongest and most positive influences on my life and he continues to be a respected colleague, a trusted mentor and a great personal friend. Everyw...

By Wayne Goldsmith. The most important question any swimming coach seeking coaching success can ask, is "Why Do I Coach"? When I work with swimming coaches around the world, I usually start my "coach-the-coaches" sessions with that question: Why Do You Coach? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbM-l7_3...

By Wayne Goldsmith. There are coaches. And there are good coaches. Coaches who do things right - and do the right things - the things that will help the swimmers and the teams they coach to be all they can be. So what is it that good coaches do that sets them apart? What are the things that good coa...