Leadership Summit Assistant Coach Application 

The assistant coach application is now open for the Leadership Summit which will be held April 24-28, 2019 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO. This event is a four day educational workshop for athletes and coaches. In partnership with Forward Progress and hosted at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center, athletes will receive training in key leadership skills (understanding different leadership styles, finding your own leadership style, values clarification), networking and communication tools, LSC governance, safe sport, clean sport, diversity & inclusion, and servant leadership. Athlete will leave equipped to engage as leaders in their LSCs.

The deadline to apply is January 5th

Apply Here

Manager’s Trip List Application 

How about being involved with one of USA Swimming’s trips or camps! The application for the 2019 National Team & Sport Development Camp/Trip Manager positions is now open thru January 4th.

Apply Here

Staying in “Good Nervous” Before Your Races

By Dr. Alan Goldberg, Competitivedge.com, December 11, 2018 

One of the main reasons races are won and lost before the start is because of how physiologically activated a swimmer gets. That is, how excited/nervous you allow yourself to get the night before, morning of, or right behind the blocks before your race. If you get too activated, or what I call “bad” nervous, then you will physically tighten up, lose your confidence and unknowingly sabotage all of your hard work with a disappointing swim. However, if you can manage to keep yourself in “good” nervous, then you will stay loose and confident and race to your potential. 

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How to Overcome High Expectations on a New Team

By TrueSport, December 6, 2018

Being the ‘new kid’ is tough, especially when joining a youth sports team that has been together for several seasons.

Even just one new player can cause a big shift in team chemistry and roles. This sometimes creates a high-pressure, high-expectation situation in which:

Returning players may feel resentment toward a newcomer who takes over their old position;

Teammates become frustrated if the new player’s ability doesn’t improve the team’s overall play;

A new athlete may ruffle some feathers by assuming a leadership position their teammates may feel is unearned.

Fortunately, how to deal with these new-team dynamics has been studied by sport psychologists, and their research shows several ways parents, coaches, and athletes can help minimize the pressure and maximize performance.

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Clean Sport

The information below should be shared with your athletes and their parents. Please distribute it via email, a club newsletter, or link to the articles on your team webpage.

Supplements:

It's a red flag if a supplement label lists a proprietary blend or has trademarked ingredients that you can’t find legitimate information about. Make sure you're aware of all the ways to reduce your risk of consuming a tainted supplement. #Supplement411

Questioning a supplement you found on a store shelf? Look it up on our #HighRiskList to see if it contains or might contain a prohibited substance. #Supplement411     

Resources:

Coaches: Take a look at these 5 steps that will help your athletes #competeclean.

Athletes: Step one of determining whether or not you need a TUE is checking the status of your medication on #GlobalDRO. Read more: 

Backstroke – Breakout

By Glenn Mills, GoSwim Video of the Week, December 12, 2018

Video: 

Article -

Maintaining your momentum from underwater dolphins to swimming, requires a clean breakout, avoiding resistance.

Why do it:

If you've worked hard on creating great underwater dolphins, you don't want to throw that speed away by have a sloppy breakout.

How to do it:

1 - Learn your underwater dolphin count. Either the number of kicks to the 15 meter mark, or to the point where you'll run out of air if you can't hold it in.

2 - Get your body parallel to the surface and initiate the first stroke focusing on driving the non-pulling hand forward.

3 - Rotate your body so your shoulder is completely exposed above the surface before the recovery starts.

How to do it really well (the fine points):

Learn to be aware of how it feels when you get it wrong. While this swimmer is doing a wonderful job during the underwater dolphins, he initiates the first pull too early, while his body is still too deep. We can still see his entire arm underwater when he starts his recovery.

One or two more dolphin kicks would allow him to get a bit closer to the surface. Or, if he's running out of air because he's always releasing air, don't go as deep on the initial push so you can come up just a bit earlier.

Creating a clean recovery will allow for a better transition into fast swimming, and start your swim off with great rotation and pop of the shoulder.

This is the Effective Way to be an Optimist if you Struggle with Thinking Positive Thoughts

By Atama Oteze, digitallifestyleserve.com, December 8, 2018 

“Just think positive thoughts.”

As someone with anxiety, I’ve heard that piece of well-intended advice a few times. Or, one of its cousins: “Just don’t think about the negative.” “Can’t you just not think about bad things?”

As a worrier, it all seems a bit counterintuitive. Why would I pretend that everything is going to be all effortless rainbows and sunshine, when I’ve been around the block enough to know that’s rarely the case? But it also gives me optimistic FOMO, leaving me worried (of course)–is everyone positive thinking without me?

The answer: I’m not alone in my negative thinking tendencies. We have over 50,000 thoughts each day, and it’s estimated that 70 to 80% of those thoughts are negative. We’re not wired to be in the “think happy thoughts…”

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Parents Must Let Their Kids Fail

By Muffet McGraw, Coach at Notre Dame, November 30, 2018 

Muffet McGraw doesn’t believe athletes today are that much different than the generations who came before them. She does, however, believe parents have changed quite a bit.

In the days leading up to the TCL Vancouver Showcase, the Notre Dame women’s basketball coach was asked her thoughts on collegiate and youth sports. Here are some of her comments, as reported by The Province.

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Defining What it Means to Compete

By Coach Karl Norton, Ice Hockey Coach, December 8, 2018

We will also be combining this (His 3 on ice objectives for his team) with our culture and compete objectives that we will ask the players to develop. I attended a coaching conference in June hosted by The Way of Champions and Changing the Game Project. There were about 60 coaches involved with a wide range of experience. This was one of my biggest take-aways and I’m looking forward to combining these ideas with my focused goals. The other element is the inclusion of the parents in the team culture so that they know what to support and encourage. This will be quite a challenge!

The intent of the process is to end up with 3 main points for Culture and Compete. A lot of words and phrases are synonymous so they will lend themselves to grouping of key ideas. The really big point is that it comes from the players! 

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10 Productivity Tricks from a CEO with ADHD

By executivespeakers.com, November 30, 2018

When Peter Shankman was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in his thirties, he finally understood why he’d been going to such extreme lengths to achieve a heightened focus, including skydiving and triathlons. In his popular podcast, Faster Than Normal, he interviews ADHD experts and discusses how he’s learned to use his unique brain wiring to professional advantage as an entrepreneur, angel investor, and author of four books.

Some of his tactics may seem extreme: When Shankman was two weeks from a book deadline in 2014, he bought a $5,000 round-trip business-class ticket to Tokyo, hopped on the flight the next day, and returned home 30 hours later with a finished draft. But many of his approaches can apply to anyone, whether they have ADHD (and $5,000 to spare) or not. Here are Shankman’s tips for boosting your productivity, from his most recent book, Faster Than Normal: Turbocharge Your Focus, Productivity, and Success With the Secrets of the ADHD Brain.

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