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Marsh (right) with Bob Bowman; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n

Marsh had served as the head coach for the UC-San Diego Tritons Division II team the last two seasons, but was unable at times to coach both groups at the same time. The university did not want Team Elite to be using the same facility as the college team so that meant he had to run a separate workout for the college team and then again for the professionals in the morning and the afternoon.<\/p>\n

“There were days where I would be on deck eight hours a day,” David Marsh said. “You need space to think through workouts and I was not as dialed in.”<\/p>\n

“Thankfully it wasn’t the Olympic year so we could make adjustments.”<\/p>\n

But now it is the Olympic year and Marsh is shifting his focus to Team Elite only, having stepped down from the UCSD head coach position earlier in the year. Long-time colleague Marko Djordjevic <\/strong>has taken the head coaching reigns<\/a> from Marsh. The rest of the coaching staff stayed intact so Marsh was optimistic it wouldn’t be a huge adjustment for the athletes at UCSD. And now with his own pool space at the Jewish Community Center in La Jolla: “It really feels like home” to Team Elite instead of just a pool where they are renting space.<\/p>\n

Now with a real home pool secured, Marsh and his American Team Elite swimmers are only two training cycles away from the 2020 Olympic Trials. But even with no guarantees at who is on the plane to Tokyo, he is still reminding all his athletes that the ultimate goal is winning medals at the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

With finals in Tokyo set to be held in the morning<\/a>, Marsh shifted his morning practices to be from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in preparation for what the morning finals will feel like next summer with finals being held at 10:30 a.m. local time in Japan.<\/p>\n

Currently David Marsh is focusing on getting everyone ready to go in the morning, with some helpful tips from Bob Bowman<\/strong>, who helped coach\u00a0Michael Phelps\u00a0<\/strong>to the greatest eight-day run in the history of the sport of swimming. Phelps had to swim every single Olympic final in 2008 before lunchtime and broke seven world records in that run. Swimming fast in the morning has been done before, but it is always a challenge to get athletes used to performing early in the morning when their peak performance is usually done in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

“You need to prepare the body for morning swims and we are getting as close as we can to that,” Marsh said. “The biggest thing is the environment: going to bed early having a real meal in the morning. The athletes need the energy to get through the morning.”<\/p>\n

From now until March, the main focus for Marsh and his Team Elite swimmers will be on the Olympic Games, and after March his American swimmers will shift their focus to the 2020 Olympic Trials<\/a> in late June. This isn’t a new experience for Marsh, who has been on the American staff at the 1996, 2000, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. But it is a much different experience for him now as opposed to four years ago when he was training the Team Elite squad in Charlotte, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

David Marsh’s New Life in California<\/h3>\n
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A post shared by David Marsh (@swimcoachmarsh)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n