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A Coach’s Plan B: When Best-Laid Plans Go Awry
By Michael J. Stott
Bolstering swimmers—in sickness and health—is part and parcel of a coach’s
job. When done right, everybody wins.
Recovery in swimming parlance has several connotations. In a workout, it is the period of active rest a swimmer experiences after a grueling expenditure of energy. In a meet setting, it can be the energy expended by a coach to help an athlete rebound from a disappointing performance and/or an adverse circumstance.
“Swimming is a naked evaluation,” says Eddie Reese, eight-time NCAA Men’s Coach of the Year from the University of Texas. “You are in a little suit, in a lane all by yourself, and if you make a mistake or give up, everybody knows it—or everybody who is important knows it.”
He acknowledges that every swimmer has disappointing swims. Sometimes it’s even the coach’s fault, but helping a swimmer recover from the calamity “can be one of the most important things we ever do,” he says.
Reese’s post-race advice focuses on the simple, i.e., “kicking through the wall at the finish, especially in 100 and 200 events. And cheering. Although the athlete may not immediately feel like it, the act of cheering actually has a healing effect and can empower a team,” he notes.
Reese recalls the flu debacle that struck the 2010 Men’s NCAA Division I Championships. Postponed a day to help mitigate the effects of the bug, every teams’ title plans were dealt a bad hand.
Texas was 18.5 points behind Cal going into Saturday’s final session when Reese commented, “If you’re going to win an NCAA championship, you have to have people make a good effort on days when they’re not feeling well.”
Another coach who knows a thing or two about empowering a team is Braden Holloway, head men’s and women’s swimming coach at North Carolina State.
In prelims at the 2014 NCAAs, the Wolfpack’s second-place finish in the 200 free relay (by 14-hundredths) was nullified when their second and third swimmers left the blocks early—first by 1-hundredth of a second, then by 1-tenth. In 2015, State was again DQ’ed for an early takeoff (3-hundredths) after posting the fastest prelim time.
Those unhappy events relegated the NC State men to 13th and eighth place in the final standings. Since then, Holloway’s squads have finished the meet four times in fourth place. Even better, his relays teams have captured first or second 11 out of 20 times and have been top four 15 times.
Why the turnaround? For starters, excellent coaching and some maturity. “Well, we did have a good run on relay DQs!” says Holloway somewhat ruefully. “We were a young team, the new kids on the block. Many of our relay DQs were from inexperience in those pressure situations at the NCAA meet. We had a bunch of newcomers that were so competitive that all they wanted to do was win! And many times, it got the best of them.
“At that time as a staff, our goal was to let them know we had their backs and that it was only one moment in time; they would have their chances again.
To hear more from pro coaches on how they responded to their team taking a hit,
Check out the full article in Swimming World’s October 2020 issue, available now!
[PHOTO CREDIT: BECCA WYANT/FINIS, INC. PHOTOGRAPHY]
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Swimming World Magazine October 2020 Issue
FEATURES
012 WORKING FOR CHANGE
by David Rieder
In response to the Black Lives Matter movement, elite swimmers Lia Neal and Jacob Pebley created Swimmers for Change to promote diversity and to make swimming a more inclusive sport and a more inclusive community.
020 THE TROUBLE WITH SPRINTERS (Part 4): REVISITING THE CAREER OF GARY HALL JR.
by Bruce Wigo
As Dave Marsh and Mike Bottom explained in the previous issue, if there is a problem with sprinters, it is because, mentally, they are wired differently from other athletes. Potential trouble then seems to start when coaches and administrators are unable to understand their behavior and their needs. But while causing trouble for some, the aquatic sports world would not be where it is today without the rebellious personalities of sprinters.
026 DEFYING ALL ODDS
by John Lohn
There is no doubt that the Summer of 2004 remains the defining moment in South African swimming history. That’s when Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling shocked the world with their Olympic gold medal and world record-setting performance in the men’s 400 meter freestyle relay in Athens.
COACHING
010 PLAN B: WHEN BEST-LAID PLANS GO AWRY
by Michael J. Stott
Bolstering swimmers—in sickness and health—is part and parcel of a coach’s job. When done right, everybody wins.
038 SWIMMING TECHNIQUE CONCEPTS: DR. ANDERS ERICSSON’S CONCEPT OF DELIBERATE PRACTICE
by Rod Havriluk
Dr. Anders Ericsson left a vital legacy for athletes striving to become experts. His deliberate practice concept specifies the key components that help athletes progress to an expert level. The success of deliberate practice suggests that a coach prioritize deliberate practice strategies in team training and relegate conditioning to secondary importance.
040 SPECIAL SETS: MICHAEL PHELPS—FROM GOOD TO GREAT
by Michael J. Stott
The sets included in this article are taken from the 2001-02 short course and early long course season. They are a representative sample of Coach Bob Bowman’s early program in developing Michael Phelps as the greatest Olympic swimmer of all time.
043 Q&A WITH COACH DAN’L MURRAY
by Michael J. Stott
044 HOW THEY TRAIN EMANUEL FAVA
by Michael J. Stott
TRAINING
030 DRYSIDE TRAINING: NO SEASON, NO RACING…NOW WHAT?
by J.R. Rosania
This pandemic has shut down our competition calendar. Whether it’s a high school, college, professional or Olympic season, we need to perform exercises that will help us stay strong, fast and explosive.
JUNIOR SWIMMER
046 UP & COMERS: EMILY WAY
by Shoshanna Rutemiller
COLUMNS & SPECIAL SECTIONS
008 A VOICE FOR THE SPORT
015 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
023 DID YOU KNOW? MARY HOERGER
031 PREP SCHOOL DIRECTORY
042 HASTY HIGH POINTERS
047 GUTTERTALK
049 PARTING SHOT
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