{"id":138698,"date":"2015-06-23T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T16:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=138698"},"modified":"2015-06-23T07:46:09","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T14:46:09","slug":"who-is-to-blame-the-swimmer-or-the-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/who-is-to-blame-the-swimmer-or-the-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is to Blame? The Swimmer or the Coach?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alex Labonge, Swimming World Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Swimmers and coaches- they go together like chlorine and pools. A swimmer cannot succeed without a coach, and likewise, a coach without a swimmer is nothing. The importance of this relationship cannot be measured with any real unit and it is often not truly appreciated fully by either party until poolside interaction has ended.<\/p>\n

Coaching Transition<\/h2>\n

One of the hardest things a swimmer must deal with is losing one coach and finding another. It can truly be a career-altering ordeal.<\/p>\n

I have personal experience with this, having lost the three coaches on my college team all at once and having a whole new coaching staff installed before my senior year. Let me tell you, it was not easy.<\/p>\n

I competed for the University of North Carolina Wilmington for four years in the Colonial Athletic Association. Our program was unique because we had the same head coach who founded the program back in the ’70s. Coach Dave Allen<\/strong> had a system that he had perfected and used every year to great success. Our team was rich in tradition. Coach Allen retired after winning his 13th consecutive CAA Men\u2019s Swimming and Diving Championship in 2014, after almost 40 years with the program.<\/p>\n

With Coach Allen\u2019s retirement came a brand new coaching staff that was different in every possible way; the most notable difference being their youth. The coaching staff had to make a difficult decision– to follow in Coach Allen\u2019s footsteps and make very few changes or to radically change the program and make it their own? I believe that this dilemma was intensified due to the pressure of trying to extend a conference championship winning streak.<\/p>\n

The new coaching staff decided to lean more towards the radical changes, many of which were hard and met by harsh criticism by the athletes. The streak of conference championships ended and the finger was pointed in every direction as to the cause of it.<\/p>\n

Coaching transition is hard for both parties involved.<\/p>\n

Finding Fault<\/h2>\n

The purpose of this article is to remind all of the swimmers out there that coaches are people too. Too many athletes blame poor outcomes at their competitions on their coaches. It is always easier to deflect blame and put it on others.<\/p>\n

In fact, when I described this article to a fellow swimmer (who will remain anonymous), he responded with, “Yeah, we all know who messed up our taper and whose fault it was.”<\/p>\n

Negativity runs rampant after swim meets. The automatic response for a negative swim for many swimmers is to blame a bad taper and the coach in charge of this taper.<\/p>\n

Coaches are not robots. They make mistakes and are allowed to make these mistakes. They spend countless hours trying to create new and exciting workouts for their swimmers. Blame is often thrust unfairly on coaches for messing up a taper, or something else of that nature.<\/p>\n

Every swimmer is different. It is incredibly difficult for coaches to adapt a taper progression to each swimmer individually, especially if they have a large team.<\/p>\n

Coaching is not a science, and like most things, is developed through repeated\u00a0trial and error. I highly doubt there is a single coach in the world that would deliberately mess up a swimmer\u2019s taper.<\/p>\n

The blame cannot be put solely on the coach, nor can it all be on the swimmer.<\/p>\n

Advice<\/h2>\n

Swimmers, remember that not every race is going to be perfect. \u00a0Bad tapers sometimes happen. But just because your first swim of a meet isn’t what you wanted, doesn’t mean that the whole meet will follow suit. \u00a0Mental attitude plays a huge part in how you swim, so don’t get discouraged after one poor race. Keep your head up and stay positive.<\/p>\n

Finally, a personal word of advice for all of you future collegiate swimmers: don\u2019t choose a school based solely on a coach or coaching staff because there are absolutely no promises that they will stick around for your whole career.<\/p>\n

Trust that\u00a0whichever coaching staff is in place has your best interests in mind. They want you to succeed in the pool and in life. Although their methods may seem unconventional and even radical, they’re usually worth giving the old college try. If you have the chance\u00a0to learn from a wide variety of coaches in college, seize that for what it is– an opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alex Labonge, Swimming World Intern Swimmers and coaches- they go together like chlorine and pools. 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