Pursley Pep Talks: We Can All Contribute

Pursley Pep Talks are a collection of coaching perspectives written by Alabama head swimming coach Dennis Pursley. This is the 27th installment of a series that will be rolled out throughout the coming months.

Pursley Pep Talks: We Can All Contribute

Not all of us have the talent to win medals at the highest levels of competition, but we can all contribute to the success of the team.

The age group coach who is finding the time and patience to teach our future Olympians to swim, the parents who are driving them to morning workouts, the teammates who are challenging them in training, the officials who are spending their weekends running swimming meets, the admin staff who are handling all of the logistics, the sport science staff who are supporting the national team and the coaches who sacrifice weekends, holidays and any semblance of a “normal” life are all making invaluable contributions to the success of the national team.

Without the top-to-bottom team effort, there wouldn’t be any national team program nor any medals for USA Swimming. As important as they are, however, isolated individual efforts in and of themselves will not result in the level of success that we aspire to achieve.

It is equally important that we work together in a unified team effort. We will all have different opinions as to how to go about achieving any given objective, and we will all be presented with countless opportunities to support or resist the team approach.

When we are willing to make personal sacrifices for the sake of the team effort, we become a formidable team. It is this kind of environment that produces gold medals and personal best performances.

Each time we make the positive choice to support the team effort, we are contributing to the success of the program and everyone in it. When this happens—and our objectives are accomplished—everyone involved can take special pride in their personal contributions.

About Dennis Pursley

After getting his start as a volunteer coach on Don Gambril’s first Alabama staff, current Alabama head coach Dennis Pursley has gone on to one of the most extraordinary careers in the sport of swimming, a career that led him to be named one of the 25 most influential people in the history of USA Swimming in 2003.

Pursley has helmed coaching staffs throughout the world, including stops as the first head coach of the Australian Institute of Sport, the inaugural director of the United States National Team and most recently the head coach of Great Britain’s 2012 Olympic squad. Pursley returned to the deck in 2003 as the head coach of the Brophy East Swim Team in Phoenix Ariz., before becoming the head coach of British Swimming in 2008.

Pursley and his wife Mary Jo have five children, Lisa, Brian, David, Steven and J.J. Lisa has joined him on the Alabama staff.

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Patrick Henry

8 years ago

awesome

Rick Allred

8 years ago

I thought his son David was on the coaching staff? Why does it only say Lisa in the biography?

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Jason Marsteller

8 years ago

Reply to Rick Allred

David is currently coaching with Stingray Swim Club.

http://www.caymanswimming.com/Contact.jsp?team=iscisssc