My coaching philosophy is built upon my own experiences as a student-athlete, a coach, and an educator. It is my belief that a coach should fulfill many different roles for student-athletes. A coach should be someone who challenges their student-athletes to grow athletically, academically, professionally, and personally. For me, these characteristics can be found in the roles of a coach, a mentor, and a teacher. Within these roles are characteristics I believe a coach should have. These characteristics are that a coach should have clearly defined objectives/goals and rules, be able to see the bigger picture, be organized and involved, be able to build and maintain relationships with student-athletes and colleagues, and assist student-athletes manage the pressures and challenges of college.

A coach should be able to challenge and bring out the best athletically of each of their athletes. To me, this means that a coach cannot use a one-size fits all approach. A coach must be able to individualize their approach in how they train and support each student-athlete. As someone who has coached many different levels of athletes, I had to learn how best to approach these athletes to get them to the best level possible. An elementary school swimmer is going to need different training and motivating factors than a high school swimmer who may be moving on the collegiate swimming after high school. It is important to understand what level of athlete you are working with as a coach and what motivates those athletes to train and compete. Knowing what motivates each of your swimmers and how to get them to push past their safe zone is a key characteristic needed from a coach to help the athletes grow athletically. Understanding your athletes is important; pushing athletes too hard or too far can be counterproductive and as a coach, you risk losing the athletes belief that you have their best interest in mind and want them to succeed.

A coach should also lead with their words and their actions. As a coach, we communicate with our athletes verbally and with our actions. A coach should not only verbally promote key values such as trust, commitment, teamwork, and respect but a coach should be setting an example with how they interact with their athletes, fellow coaches, and colleagues. Preaching these values only goes so far; athletes need to see that the values being told to them are important to the coaches as well. In addition to creating a positive atmosphere during all team activities (practices, competitions, traveling, etc), I also believe a coach needs to set up an atmosphere where the athletes know it is okay to fail. If athletes are afraid of failing and the repercussions that come from failure, they will never take risks that may result in tremendous growth athletically and personally. While it should never be the intent to set up athletes for failure, as a coach I believe that athletes can make incredible strides in growth when they are challenged to pursue new avenues for training and competition. During this time, it is also the responsibility of the coach to reassure the athlete that new techniques and methods sometimes take time to show results and to encourage the athlete to keep striving to get better even if the athlete is becoming frustrated.

I believe it is imperative to be organized and involved with the development of a training program for athletes. I believe that a coach should have clearly defined goals for their team, their athletes, and themselves. At the beginning of the season, I believe in setting team goals, individual athlete goals, and personal coaching goals. Setting a team goal helps the team strive for a common goal. This can be an improvement of dual meet record or finishing place at the conference meet. I believe this should be a big-picture goal and that further goals should also tie back into that larger picture. Sometimes we can get so focused on one particular thing we lose sight of the larger picture and forget that there is a common goal to be achieved.

Having each swimmer set individual goals is important. It helps ensure the swimmer has an ultimate goal they can work toward and it can provide feedback on how to structure their training. I believe that each practice should be building toward that ultimate end goal for both the team and the individual swimmer. Due to this I truly believe goal setting is a requirement for all swimmers. As a coach, I structured my training regimes to be broken down into weekly themes that focused on specific strokes or stroke techniques. I would tell my swimmers at the beginning of each week what the theme of the week was and how I foresaw practices working out during the week. Sometimes I would have to adjust and change my planned workouts to better meet the needs of my swimmers on a given day but I would make sure those changes remained within the theme of the week. I view swim meets as a time to test new racing techniques and strategies, test the swimmer's fitness, and provide valuable feedback for moving forward in training.

A strong part of my coaching philosophy is installing rules that are followed by all the athletes and coaching staff. These rules help set expectations and let athletes and coaches know what is considered acceptable behavior. These rules can change depending on the level of athletes I’m coaching but the fundamental values distilled into the rules are respect for others, commitment to the team and training, having athletes and staff take ownership of their actions, and creating a positive and encouraging atmosphere for the team. As a coach, we are given the responsibility to develop our athletes to reach their fullest potential while they are with us. However, as mentioned earlier, I believe we as coach serve two additional roles, the teacher and the mentor.

As a teacher, a coach has a responsibility to help athletes grow academically and professionally. I believe that a coach has accountability to make sure their athletes are succeeding in the classroom in addition to succeeding in the pool. It is not enough to just know the academic requirements necessary to eligibility; a coach must be knowledgeable about the academic resources available to their athletes. I believe that academic success should be on equal standing with athletic success if not placed higher. Personally I strongly believe that academics come first. There needs to be a focus on the student as well as the athlete. Without a focus and encouragement to be the best student possible, there cannot be the athlete side of student-athlete. As a collegiate student-athlete, I understood that my swimming career would end after my four years of eligibility and so it was important to me to succeed academically. As a high school coach, I instilled that same focus for my athletes as they could not compete if they were not academically eligible. While some athletes may go on to compete professionally, those are the exceptions, not the rule and without proper focus on academics, we are doing a huge disservice to our athletes if they are not prepared once they graduate. Thus, my philosophy is that student-athletes should be held to at minimum, the eligibility requirements, but should be encouraged to always strive to be the best possible student they can be. As a coach, I believe it is my job to provide assistance were applicable to student-athletes to help them succeed. My time as an Academic Coordinator, high school assistant coach, and Adjunct Professor has strengthened this belief. I’ve seen some student-athletes try to do the minimum and when they realize they may be in trouble academically try frantically to make up. This approaches rarely works and generally results in additional stress upon the student-athlete. As a coach, I believe it is important to set academic standards early in the student-athletes career so they know what they need to achieve. If that means some practices or competitions need to be missed to fulfill an academic requirement then that is what must be done. I believe that the student-athlete can work with the coaching staff to find ways to make up any missed practice.

Competing in sports teaches athletes many skills and values they can take with them after their sport careers are completed. Values such as respect, ownership, leadership, responsibility, and teamwork are all values that sports can teach athletes. I believe that it is a coach’s job to make sure these values can be found in their program and that their athletes learn these values. I believe that these values can translate to the professional level after the student-athlete completes their collegiate athletic career. As mentioned earlier, I believe a coach should use moments of failure or setbacks be a teaching moment for how an athlete can improve and better themselves. I believe this is an important step for personal and professional development of student-athletes. If they are never challenged and never allowed to fail they will struggle to face failure when it occurs to them. While no one likes to fail, I consider it a valuable and powerful teaching moment. In the role of teacher, a coach should always be looking for moments that can be used to teach important skills and life lessons.

Finally, I believe a coach should also be a mentor to their athletes and other staff. As a mentor, a coach should seek to develop and foster relationships with their student-athletes. The stresses of collegiate athletics are unique and a coach should be willing and able to help their student-athletes address those stresses. Since the pressures and stresses change as student-athletes progresses through college, a good coach should be able to assist and guide student-athletes of all academic standings. Being able to relate can help the student-athletes realize they aren’t facing the pressures alone and there is someone who is there for them. As an assistant coach for club and high school, I did my best to learn all about my swimmers and engage with their parents and family. I believe that a coach needs to be knowledgeable about their athletes. A professional boundary should, of course, be maintained but a coach should get to know their athletes. In my opinion, a good coach should also be one who can provide advice when asked as well as help student-athletes and staff weigh out the pros and cons of difficult situations and decisions. As a mentor, a coach should be one of many resources available to student-athletes and staff.

Above all, a coach needs to be the physical embodiment of their coaching philosophy to show their student-athletes that they hold themselves to the same high standards they expect of their student-athletes. My experiences as a student-athlete, coach, and instructor, have helped to shape my personal coaching philosophy and I’m always looking for ways to strengthen, improve, and refine my personal coaching philosophy.