The cool thing about working with lots of different folks is that I get to see each individual progression. If you take 20 athletes, all 20 of them will have a different way of going about their improvement process. I think that’s pretty darn awesome! It means that there is no one right way. Rather there are many options for
Me: Use your hips! Swimmer: My hips?? How do I “use” my hips?Me: Push, drive, snap those hips! Swimmer: I’m trying to “push, drive, snap” my hips…but nothing happens! Me: Use 500% more hips! Swimmer: Wow…that was amazing! I really moved forward! These are just a few of the conversations that I often have with new
Mind vs Body Which one is more important for learning? It’s a great question…and generally our answer depends upon what we’re doing. School learning? Mind, right? Sport learning? Well…body, of course! I recently read a groundbreaking book that supports my idea that combining mind & body enhances learning. In his book, The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning
Learning…it’s never a linear process. Our human brains are amazing, but they are not computers. We can’t simply put the info in & expect things to be repeatable & duplicatable. For most of us, learning is “one step forward, two steps back” approach where things get better one day & then seemingly worse the next.
For adults, signing up for learn-to-swim lessons is always a challenge. Unfortunately, we often let our fears & egos hold us back. So, it’s particularly important that, when we make the decision to take swim lessons, we set aside fear & ego to learn to swim. What do we fear…besides the water itself? We
If had a dollar for every time I’ve heard: “I thought it would only take 2-3 lessons to learn how to swim.” Oh my…I’d be rich by now!! 😉 No, my friends, it’s a much longer process requiring patience & diligence. Why does learning to swim take so much longer than people think? Here are my Top 4
Over the years I’ve had many opportunities to coach coaches. It’s a challenging situation. We both (me as the coach & the coach as the student) have to watch for the often inaccurate assumption that mastery will come quickly. After all, coaches are really good at the skill sets they teach & they’re often quite
Which is more important? Inborn talent or dedication? I would argue that perseverance & tenacity are the keys to success. As a swim coach I RARELY am asked to help someone learn the Butterfly stroke. Most swimmers stay far, far, FAR away from it because, if not done correctly, it’s truly exhausting. Of the four
If you’ve tried to learn a skill over internet (music lessons, dance instruction, singing lessons) you may agree that virtual learning is challenging. Even with awesome available technology (like Zoom), technique help is most efficiently done in-person with hands-on direct feedback. But recently I’ve experimented with remote swim lessons which really work! Sometimes we just don’t