I love the stories about who motivated you to start swimming. They're usually great stories. Let me start by telling you mine.
I was with about 7yrs. old and at a 20yd indoor Grand Rapids West YMCA pool, during a "free swim".
The lifeguard was the YMCA Director named Tom (about 25 or so at the time). I knew how to do the breaststroke pretty good for no formal coaching (my older brother swam competitively). It was a Saturday and there were about twenty screaming kids in the pool until Tom blew his whistle. He yelled at everyone to get out of the water and you could hear a pin drop (someone had to be in trouble). He pointed at me and told me to come over and see him. I thought I would pee right there. I didn't do anything anyway, I told myself, and he shouldn't be yelling at people so loud, I thought. I was thinking of what I might have done in the last few minutes as I walked slowly his way until I gulped and stood silent waiting for him to say something. He said to everyone, "You're a pretty fast swimmer and I want to race you across the pool". I was looking at him as everyone of the kids started hooting and hollering. "Well" he said, "Let's go". He told me that we'd be doing the breaststroke. I wanted to race, I wanted to win, even if he was bigger. When he said go, I raced and he sure looked like he was going as fast as he could, and ---- I won. He looked exhausted after that long 20 yard swim, I know I was really tired but I beat him fair and square. He spent about five minutes explaining that someone as fast as me should be on the YMCA swimming team. I couldn't believe it, he wanted me to join the team, heck, I didn't even know they had a team. Well, I almost hyperventilated as I told my mom and dad that I wanted to be on the swim team because I'm the fastest little swimmer that coach had ever seen. I've been swimming and coaching (I wanted to be a coach like him) ever since.
To this day, that one man changed my life by doing something I try to do as much as possible and that's; find something good someone's doing and, only if it's sincere, lavish as much praise as possible onto that someone. Tom did it for me and I hope I can keep doing it for other people and swimmers, young and old. He was a master at making people feel like a million bucks.
Let's hear your story. Coach T.
My story is a story of coaches.
I began life as a gymnast who liked to frolic in the pool in the summer months. After I turned 11 one summer and fared well in the summer meets, my Mom asked if I wanted to join the swim team. I initially balked. Then, later that year, I developed an irrational fear of fancy backward tricks on the balance beam and decided to try swimming instead.
So I joined the local swim team. It was the only team I ever swam on besides high school and college teams. I was coached by two brothers my entire career with different approaches to motivating swimmers both psychologically and physically. I give them the credit for getting me through adolescence without quitting or burning out. I credit them for developing my mental game and mental toughness. I credit them for making me forget that every other swimmer was taller. (As Wayne very sagely said recently, it's not a pose-off; it's a swim race.) I loved their inspirational speeches to the team and to individual swimmers in private. A very ancient memory: I remember going into my first state champs as a inexperienced 12 year old seeded fifth or so in the 100 fly. My coach turned to me and a teammate who was seeded sixth and said, "Can't one of you guys win this race for us ? It's wide open. What are you waiting for." We finished first and third. I was hooked, and I wasn't even a flyer yet. I was a backstroker.
Conversely, I hated my college coach. She didn't believe that swimmers should do separate workouts designed for sprinters, strokers and distance folks as my AAU coaches had. So I was forced to bang out endless distance freestyle sets and then sometimes asked to swim 400 IMs at meets when I had never done them at practice. The only good thing about college swimming was that I lifted weights like crazy and, shockingly to me, became a good sprinter. Previously only a stroker, I could now do the 50 and 100 free without embarassment. Nonetheless, with all the mindless garbage yardage and head butting with my coach in college, I burned out and tore my rotator cuff.
I did not swim another "workout" for 24 years. No desire. My daughter's USS coach got me back in the pool. He began coaching an informal masters workout program, which I grudgingly joined after a running injury sidelined me and my ipod. He overhauled my old school strokes with tons of drills and one-on-one coaching. He called me a "stud." He made me laugh in practice. He taught me starts, turns, streamlines and how to keep my goggles on. He made me do tons of TI drills. He got in and swam with me during practice and challenged me on sets. He told me to go to Nationals and Worlds when I initially thought the idea was perposterous. He helped me love swimming again. He's moved on. I'm on a "team," but swim alone a lot too. I remember everything my good coaches said and it still motivates me. My kids also motivate me a lot. They cheer me on, and I think they are proud of me. They are sure proud that I'm not a total couch potato.
My story is a story of coaches.
I began life as a gymnast who liked to frolic in the pool in the summer months. After I turned 11 one summer and fared well in the summer meets, my Mom asked if I wanted to join the swim team. I initially balked. Then, later that year, I developed an irrational fear of fancy backward tricks on the balance beam and decided to try swimming instead.
So I joined the local swim team. It was the only team I ever swam on besides high school and college teams. I was coached by two brothers my entire career with different approaches to motivating swimmers both psychologically and physically. I give them the credit for getting me through adolescence without quitting or burning out. I credit them for developing my mental game and mental toughness. I credit them for making me forget that every other swimmer was taller. (As Wayne very sagely said recently, it's not a pose-off; it's a swim race.) I loved their inspirational speeches to the team and to individual swimmers in private. A very ancient memory: I remember going into my first state champs as a inexperienced 12 year old seeded fifth or so in the 100 fly. My coach turned to me and a teammate who was seeded sixth and said, "Can't one of you guys win this race for us ? It's wide open. What are you waiting for." We finished first and third. I was hooked, and I wasn't even a flyer yet. I was a backstroker.
Conversely, I hated my college coach. She didn't believe that swimmers should do separate workouts designed for sprinters, strokers and distance folks as my AAU coaches had. So I was forced to bang out endless distance freestyle sets and then sometimes asked to swim 400 IMs at meets when I had never done them at practice. The only good thing about college swimming was that I lifted weights like crazy and, shockingly to me, became a good sprinter. Previously only a stroker, I could now do the 50 and 100 free without embarassment. Nonetheless, with all the mindless garbage yardage and head butting with my coach in college, I burned out and tore my rotator cuff.
I did not swim another "workout" for 24 years. No desire. My daughter's USS coach got me back in the pool. He began coaching an informal masters workout program, which I grudgingly joined after a running injury sidelined me and my ipod. He overhauled my old school strokes with tons of drills and one-on-one coaching. He called me a "stud." He made me laugh in practice. He taught me starts, turns, streamlines and how to keep my goggles on. He made me do tons of TI drills. He got in and swam with me during practice and challenged me on sets. He told me to go to Nationals and Worlds when I initially thought the idea was perposterous. He helped me love swimming again. He's moved on. I'm on a "team," but swim alone a lot too. I remember everything my good coaches said and it still motivates me. My kids also motivate me a lot. They cheer me on, and I think they are proud of me. They are sure proud that I'm not a total couch potato.
