Napping, Neighbors, and Older Folks... Some Observations and Notes

NAPPING

Did you ever nap at work? Be honest. Conference period, private office, cozy nook or closet, turn off the lights and the phone, catch a quick 40 winks. Never? Hardly ever? What about when the pandemic has you WORKing from home? Different scenario, isn't it?

In a late-March article by Ray A. Smith in The Wall Street Journal (Disclaimer: Again, the WSJ is my go-to for mostly unbiased news and commentary) it was noted that "...[many] people returning to offices in the coming months face an end to one of the secret perks of working from home: the daily nap. People who say they rarely napped before the pandemic have picked up the habit over the past year, worn out by dramatic work-life balance challenges that have extended the work day, Zoom fatigue, insomnia and the simple fact that remote work makes short snoozes possible."

One man "thought naps were indulgent until he began working from home. 'I became brutally aware of what my body is saying. And not just when to rest, but when I’m productive and when I’m not,' he said. In June, he began taking 45-minute naps after feeling sluggish post-lunch."

"A 28-year-old, who interns in social media and data analysis ... says the naps recharge her when she feels tired by midday. 'Instead of powering through that, it’s best to just not give into subpar work. Relax, then refresh and go back to it,' she said."

Interscholastic swim coaches put in some really long days, often arriving at school as early as 5:00AM and not leaving until 7:00-8:00PM or later. Meet days they may not get home until almost 11:00PM or later. When you're young you can deal with it, but as we keep tacking on the years we're less likely to be able to do so. A nap might help, as the 28-year-old stated above. It also is no surprise to find many coaches of various sports consuming coffee, tea, and caffeine-laced sodas throughout the day. My A.D. was rarely seen without a small Styrofoam cup of industrial-strength java in his hand, no matter the time of day.

When we were in preschool and kindergarten, a midday nap was customary, although probably needed more by the teacher than us tykes. Naps and siestas are similar, both being short periods of sleep, but siesta is a Spanish term that comes from  the Latin phrase "hora sexta", or "the sixth hour" after awakening, which is about midday, and typically after lunch. The siesta is historically common throughout the Mediterranean and Southern Europe, China and, through Spanish influence, the Philippines and many Hispanic countries. The combination of warm temperatures in these geographical regions, and heavy intake of food at the midday meal contribute to the feeling of post-lunch drowsiness. Trying to get back to work under such conditions may result in the aforementioned subpar work. Naps are claimed to be the norm in non-China Asia and their productivity doesn't seem to suffer. Mr. Smith writes: "[While] dozens of studies have shown the benefits of taking naps, such as increased alertness, stigma [in the USA] about napping at the office endures."

Some takeaways:

     o [While employers] are increasingly sensitive to employees’ need for downtime, they’re still unlikely to sanction in-office naps.

     o Ideally, naps should be less than 30 minutes and taken earlier in the day to avoid interfering with nighttime sleep.

     o It is recommended to nap in a partially-reclined chair or anywhere else where you’re not lying completely flat.

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NEIGHBORS

The NISCA Annual General Meeting ("The Conference") was held recently, and this year it was a pre-planned virtual event, all meetings held on Zoom. One difference noted was that during these meetings, there were up to 25-30 people in a photo/video montage on a Zoom screen. You've all seen them, everyone's faces visible all the time. This seemed in stark contrast to the usual in-person experience, where the same friends sit at the same tables all around the meeting room, some you can see, some you can't, some are faces and some are back-of-the-head, some are behind you or out of your peripheral vision, so out of sight. This was quite different. And while quiet casual side conversations or comments are the norm during in-person meetings, you can't do that on Zoom.

I bring this up because the pandemic has altered our lifestyles in our neighborhoods, too. People venturing out to take strolls around "the hood" started meeting neighbors who, although they lived near each other, had never met or rarely said hello.

Anne Marie Chaker wrote recently in the WSJ, "As the pandemic re-centered people’s lives around their homes, neighbors have grown closer to each other. In a recent survey ... 32% of more than 3,000 respondents said they have gotten to know one or more of their neighbors better since the pandemic began. Many of those new relationships will endure. 'There is this quality of a powerful shared experience, and many people have really helped one another,' says Richard Weissbourd, director of the Making Caring Common project at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, which studies families, communities and social relationships. As school and schedules resume and people are leaving the house more, 'you still see your neighbors. You remember and feel reconnected.' "


I wonder if the new faces and voices we've encountered during our virtual Conference will become new and enduring friends? We can hope!

====================================== 

OLDER FOLKS (you thought this was about napping, too?)

In a previous column on mentoring, the notion was shared that older, more experienced coaches could be valuable mentors to younger coaches. Very often a friendship will develop out of a mentoring relationship and, as if reading our mind, the WSJ's Clare Ansberry wrote an article (March 3, 2021) titled "The Power of Friendship Across Generations." The article was about close friendships between people who are 15 years or more apart in age, and the writer claimed that "[these] intergenerational friendships tend to be long-lasting and enriching."

When first getting started in my coaching career in the early 1970s, I looked forward to every issue of Swimming Technique magazine, because I was learning so much from it. One of the frequent contributors was a gentleman from Washington state named Dick Hannula. I thought he must be one of the best high school and club coaches around, certainly the one with the most useful and helpful ideas I encountered, so I got up my nerve and sent him a letter with about a hundred questions, not really sure he would take the time to answer this young kid in south Mississippi. But he DID. He answered every question with clear and concise thoughts and in reading it (over and over), I felt as comfortable as if he and I were sitting across a dining room table sharing coffee and yakking like old friends. (I still have the letter!)

Fast-forward almost 50 years. Dick Hannula is 92 years young and remains a friend to this day. I sent him an email recently, advising him how to watch the Women's and Men's NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships on ESPN3. He emailed back shortly:

Dana,  Thanks for the tips.  You woke me up on the championships.  I finally got in today and the first race I see is the 100 Y back. Kathy Berkhoff goes 49.74 and is under 50 seconds.  This was special for me.  In 1966 or '67 no woman had broken 60 seconds for the 100 yard back, and my swimmer, Kaye Hall, was the first woman under 60 for the event.  She did it in a special exhibition event within one of our boys' swim meets.  There was no girls high school swimming at the time.  I can't remember the exact time now but it was in the 59's and a new American Record.  She did 58's later. She was on our Tacoma Swim Club.  We had been timing her at the end of practice and rang a cowbell at the point of the American Record.  When she was within a stroke of the finish, we set up the exhibition swim for the record.  Announced it and had a capacity crowd for the meet and her swim and she delivered.

She went on to break the WR for the 100 M back at the '68 Olympics.  60 seconds was the hurdle 54 or 55 years ago, now under 50 seconds today.  What can possibly be next?

Dick

I hope some of you have, have had, or will BE a mentor to someone like Coach Hannula has been to me, and make a difference in your and their lives and enjoy the ripple effect you start.

Why do they swim? Or anything else? To excel, or to enjoy?

 

A lot (most?) of our kids are never going to be champions, may never finish anywhere near the top, so why do they do this (swim), or play violin, or soccer/football/other sports, etc.? Vonnegut's answer is pure "gold". 

What do we develop, the Athlete? In part, but no. We develop the Person and prepare them for Life. We, as a group, understand and know this, absolutely. Some kids and parents don't. We each should figure out our own way to share and instill that understanding. 

But also keep the fire lit and the blade ever sharpened. 

Just my opinion.

*******************

By Kurt Vonnegut:

When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.

And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”

And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”

And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.”

- Kurt Vonnegut

Spring Cleaning Time AGAIN???

Spring cleaning time AGAIN?

It seems like we just finished doing this, yet here it is, time to do it again. No matter how much we try to declutter, things accumulate like so much dust on open shelves and the tops of things we can't see and can barely reach (refrigerators, armoires, picture frames). Great. Now we need to declutter -and- dust. It's never easy, and it never ends.

Like every swim coach knows, there is a physical side and a mental side to our sport. So, too, is there a physical and mental side to decluttering. Depending on your state of mind, the mental battle may be more daunting than the physical, but you need to handle both.

The end of the swim season looms before us this time of year, sometimes seeming like that special effect in movies where no matter how far you run towards your goal, you feel like you are never going to get there, it just keeps retreating into the distance. Since there is always a "next practice" or "next meet" or "next season" waiting for us, it can feel just like that never-ending road we are always racing down. And along the way we have collected a lot of clutter. Heat sheets with scribbled notes and past workouts and various other pieces of paper stack up, ribbons and medals that weren't distributed or picked up get moved to another corner or a bag or a box but still stay nearby, and how many dried-up whiteboard markers do you really need on your desk or in your briefcase?

Waiting until the end of the season to take stock and mentally or physically declutter and plan for the days, months, seasons ahead is a mistake. "No one plans to fail", they say, "they just fail to plan." When I was coaching a rapidly growing club team with Chuck Warner in Houston in the searing heat in the summer of 1980, we would come home from practice to our shared apartment, crank up the A/C, play some Willy Nelson records, and sit down with our practices to make notes on what went well, discuss what needed to improve, who made progress or needed special extra help, things like that. Every. Single. Day. If we waited until the weekend or "when we felt like it", we would have lost the freshness and clarity of our observations and collaboration. And there would have been a lot of clutter to wade through.

Jes Marcy (www.jesmarcy.com) is a professional organizer. She says that clutter is a modern challenge. In a newspaper interview with her recently it was explained that hoarding is an evolutionary challenge that we have relied on as a species to succeed. 100 years ago you had to hoard enough food and firewood to get through the winter. But not anymore. Just go online, execute a few clicks, and stuff will magically show up at the front door! (BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!) The writer of the article, Ellen Byron, states: "..we're taught to keep and cherish everything that's been given to us, that's the Depression Era mindset. We feel that if we throw something out we're a bad person." [1]

Our workspaces become piles and stacks, our home or work office starts looking and feeling more like a storage unit, and if we're not careful, we will wind up like Shel Silverstein's Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who "would not take the garbage out" [2], and become (supposedly) buried in the mass of "stuff" we are reluctant to dispose of. Most of us find ourselves in this situation because we simply have more stuff flowing in than flowing out. We will need to reverse that.

Then the mental aspect tries to slap its handcuffs on us. As we're decluttering, Ms. Byron writes, "We come across a decluttering landmine. [It] could be...anything that has a deep emotional tie to an event in our past. Then we get sucked into the emotional journey that this object sparked for us." Maybe it was that meet program that has your handwritten splits when Jenny made her first national QTs, or maybe the heat sheet where you drew a big smiley-face when Rex swam his first breaststroke event without getting DQ'd. Emotional ties are tough. You will have to make hard choices at times.

When I was in college, I was astounded that my coach had notebooks of every single workout he had written, challenge set results, best average times, meet splits, EVERYTHING, 15-20 years worth at the time. I have kept logs of all of mine, too, along with attendance notes and every little thing that I needed to make a note of. I'm not now, never have been, and never will be a digital guy with regard to coaching swimming. I like paper, I know where to find it, and I never need batteries or a power source to access anything. But it's a LOT of notebooks.

Now the pertinent point: How often do we refer to those volumes upon volumes of carefully chronicled data? Almost NEVER. Why do we keep them? Because, just like how my dad used to explain the shelves and piles and MOUNTAINS of broken tools and materials he hadn't touched in years, "Because I might need it someday. Usually within 10 days of when I get rid of it. You just wait. You'll see." I waited. I saw. In this case, Dad was right on the money. But when you need it, you have to FIND it. And that's another event in itself.

This has been a brutal year on everyone, and especially athletes in most sports, and their families. The pandemic, the social and political unrest, living with an almost apocalyptic mindset about venturing outside and (heaven help us!) MINGLING with our classmates, neighbors, teammates, and workplace friends, it's understandable how one can start to feel a little stir crazy. The winter, and especially January, is hard even in normal times when the holiday "high" evaporates and many experience what has been termed the "post-holiday blues." A little pick-me-up, something to look forward to, may be just the ticket, and it is something many of us have done with our athletes for years: A goal poster or "dream board." You make a collage of quotes, images, numbers, desired destinations or achievements, you make it BIG and BOLD, and you pay attention to it, you give it a place of importance in your daily thoughts, you give it a showcase. It helps you focus, and that in itself is a form of mental decluttering.

Having a tangible reminder of a goal helps create the belief of attainability. The anticipation of attaining a goal is very powerful, and can get us through challenging times in our lives, like now. In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, writer Anne Marie Chaker remarks that "[a] growing body of research shows that having an event to look forward to is linked to general feelings of happiness and positivity." [3]

Disney employee Tom Fitzgerald came up with this: "If you dream it, you can do it." And our old friend, Coach Bob Steele, has created a terrific set of notecards emblazoned with his trademark catchphrase, "YAGOTTAWANNA" [4]. And you do. Get busy.

 

====================

NOTES:

[1] "How to Tackle Clutter And Its Emotional Toll", Ellen Byron, The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2021

[2] www.shelsilverstein.com/books/where-sidewalk-ends/

[3] "Stir-Crazy Families Beat the Winter Blues", Anne Marie Chaker, The Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2021

[4] Bob Steele, Coach-Artist-Author, http://gamesgimmickschallenges1.com/

More Podcasts Now Available!

The home base for Swim Talk A2B (the 2nd-most exciting podcast in the WORLD!) is

www.anchor.fm/swimtalk

From there you can get links to several podcast platforms which host the RENOWNED and ADDICTING chatter of Bob Button and Dana Abbott as they interrogate multiple victims, many of whom are icons in the world of swimming, and a few of whom labor beneath the cloak of being barely-known to full anonymity (much like the hosts before they were drawn into the podverse).

You can always email comments, questions, or suggestions for future guests/topics to:

swimtalk@outlook.com (copy and paste into your email app if you want to send us something now)

In the meantime, we are contemplating upgrades to our current studio equipment:

 

Partial Episode List and Victims (Guests):

003        John Vogel - The Woodlands Swim Team (ret)

004        Mike Waldman - Andrews, TX HS

006        Sam Kendricks - Meet Announcer Extraordinaire

007        Patrick Henry - Swim Coach Staffing Solutions (temp coaching positions)

008        Katie Robinson - Northwestern U

009        Lorin Koszegi - Houston, TX

010        Glenn Mills - Go Swim

011        Dave Wharton - Olympian, World Record Holder

012        Mike Litzinger - U of Notre Dame

013        Bill Wadley - Ohio State U (ret)

014        Mike Murray - Victor (NY) Swim Club and ASCA Bd Member

015        Chuck Warner - Rutgers U (ret), World's Best Swimming Author

016        Bill Brown - Swimming Official

017        Wendy Mader - Triathlete Coach, Iron Man World Champion

XVIII    Dana Skelton - First Colony Swim Team Developmental Coach

XIX       Brent Rutemiller - ISHOF CEO, Swimming World Publisher

XX        Mike Koleber - Nitro Swimming, ASCA Bd President 

 

Hello, Podcast World!

Our swimming podcast is now quite available, more episodes being uploaded and more coming! Please join and take a listen if swimming is your thing!

 

https://anchor.fm/swimtalk

 

New Episode Up for SWIM TALK!

 

NEW PODCAST EPISODE!

 

Episode 11 - A Visit with Notre Dame's Mike Litzinger

 

Absolute gold with the leader of the Fighting Irish swimming program!

 

https://youtu.be/4_CqqeH9zWE

 

 

The Podcasts Are Not Only UP AND RUNNING, We Have SUBSCRIBERS!

Yes, a coaching buddy and I were twiddling our thumbs during the shutdown idleness late spring and we pondered, something like this: 

Want to go see a movie?

No, they're closed.

Lunch?

They're closed, too.

Rob a bank?

Same. Closed.

Well, then what?

We could do a podcast.

We're not qualified, we know nothing about podcasting.

Neither does anyone else.

What would we talk about?

Something we know about. What do we know?

(Both) Swimming.

Hmmm. That could be debated.

True.

What do we need to cast the pod?

A microphone.

Anything else?

A pulse.

Well, guess we're covered.

You sure? Check lately?

Yes, I checked my pulse this morning.

What was it?

98.6

OK, let's do it. 

========================================

Check out a podcast or two. We've already suckered two Olympic swimmers and a couple of NCAA D-1 college coaches to be interrogated, along with successful club and high school coaches. And they still have their jobs.

 

Click HERE 

Is There Room For *Another* Swimming Podcast?

Veteran coaches have amassed a huge library and storehouse of knowledge, experience, and information during long careers. The question of "how much is worthwhile?" is left up to those who follow and consider.

 

Bob Button and I have over 80 years of coaching between us, from LTS to summer league, high school to college, and beginner lessons to top-group club coaching.

 

With all the extra time forced on us by the current health situation, we embarked on a new adventure together, developing a new swimming podcast. It is not the usual "top coach interview", "top swimmer interview", "recruiting and other college news", or anything like that.

 

We call it simply, "SWIM TALK". More precisely, "Swim Talk A2B - Everything you wanted to know about swimming, from A to B". Abbott is the "A", Button is the "B". We talk about wide and varied aspects of swimming, and anything else we want. We have interviews, we banter, we share non-swimming news and magazine articles that relate to swimming (in our view, anyway), we drink coffee and hot chocolate.  We have fun, we get serious, we offer a slightly different slant on things aquatic. And other things, too.

 

Join us for Episode 002: Zooming Through Isolation; Solitude and Creativity. (Episode 001 is still in production, the dog ran off with the tape, we're still looking for it.)

 

It's on You Tube here, if you like it, tell and share with others on all of your social media, if you don't, just stop sending us cards on our birthdays. 

 

WHAT DAY IS IT???

You're not alone. Retirees are used to joking that in retirement, "EVERY DAY IS SATURDAY".

With "stay at home" and "shelter in place" and "SIT YER BUTTS DOWN AND STAY PUT!", everyone is starting to wonder what day it is if they don't have a routine.

There's a lot going on that is messing with your perception of hours and days during "Corona Daylight Time", and this article is pretty good. Click on the audio player button when it opens in a new window.

Click HERE

Baseball Without Spectators? Why Not?

Computers put virtual lines on the turf during real-time football games. The wizards at Industrial Light and Magic and others (Disney, Marvel Films, etc.) have been doing amazing SFX for years. Canned sound (think "sitcom laugh tracks") has been around for decades. I watched a re-creation of a baseball radio broadcast years ago, complete with sound effects, canned crowd noise, and the stadium organist joining in. So why not? I think the magicians in the control room could conjure up a game "almost" as real as sitting in the cheap seats. Boil some hot dogs, JiffyPop some corn, pay $10 for a beverage, and best of all, no standing in line when you're ready to "recycle" that $10 beverage.

Why not?

Out of adversity comes opportunity and creativity.

Batter up?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/baseball-without-fans-sounded-crazy-it-might-just-work-11587297600

Now, how about sharing something you're doing with your teams and athletes to re-imagine and re-create swim practices?

What Are You Reading?

The best answer would be BOOKS. But *real* books, not that thing that sucks the life out of us called Facebook. Oh, it's OK if you're looking for a new place to get takeout, or a new recipe (you are spending more time in your kitchen too, aren't you?), or you need a dose of cute kitties or puppies, or you just got an incredible picture of your kids that the world needs to see. That's OK.

But we should be reading REAL books. Expand your mind or escape the cabin you are locked up in, leave the TV off and get that stimulation and mental nourishment that *real* writers create, not the pablum of the vast wasteland referred to by the sage Newton Minnow. Or most blogs*, including this one. (*Texasswimming.blogspot.com being a rare exception)

I had the pleasure and privilege of being invited to speak via Zoom to a group of talented young swimmers this past week. Clay Pruitt, Head Age Group Coach at COOG here in Houston, and I have been friends for a while, and he asked if I could speak to his group about the wit and wisdom of Texas' Eddie Reese, a subject Chuck Warner and I wrote about in our 2019 book release, "EDDIE REESE: Coaching Swimming, Teaching Life." It was a good group and we had a great time together.

The book referred to (aka ERCSTL) has around 130 quotes from Eddie Reese, but one quote that is not in the book is one that Eddie shared with me privately, when we shared feelings about our dogs:

"Scratch a dog and you've got a job for life."

I think that, this being Eddie Reese's 42nd year at the helm of the Longhorns, that almost qualifies as a "job for life." The care and nurturing of many hundreds of young men that have chased the black line at the Texas Swimming Center is of such high quality and character that Eddie could be said to have satisfied that dog by constantly providing the scratch that it needs, wants, and deserves.

The quote that is most applicable during these very different times is one that Eddie has said many times, and in many places, and is maybe the single most defining thing he has ever said:

"Take care of yourself, take care of each other, and the rest will take care of itself."

If you haven't acquired a copy of ERCSTL for your personal library yet, now's a good time to get one. Available on Amazon, from ASCA, online at the link above, or PayPal me $30 for a signed-by-me (Dana; Chuck lives in NJ and Eddie's out fishing somewhere), personally inscribed (tell me what you want) softcover copy (includes mailing, USA only). Just email me at boardsandbuoys@gmail.com or leave a comment.

"I'm lonely."

One of the things that is especially difficult for so many of us, regardless of age, is the desire for the social interaction we are so used to.  We miss our colleagues and teammates, our family members who don't live with us, our students and athletes, maybe even the people who smilingly bag our goods at the grocery store. The temptation to go visit someone is very strong, as alluring as the siren songs of The Odyssey or The Argonautica of Greek mythology. But we mustn't.  Why? Seems obvious, but here is something that can explain better than I can:

Visiting even 'just one friend' puts everyone at higher risk for coronavirus

Be well, stay safe, use this time wisely. Read. Call someone. Start or continue writing in a journal.

Scratch your dogs.

Taking Care of Ourselves and Each Other

I was watching TV recently (who isn't?) and one of the insurance commercials posted some encouraging message about taking care of ourselves and others.

That's what it is supposed to be about, isn't it? Just more important now than ever.

The words and message sounded very familiar. Then I remembered where.

It's the closing quote from Texas Coach Eddie Reese in Chapter 13 of "EDDIE REESE: Coaching Swimming, Teaching Life", a book I co-wrote with former fellow Texas assistant coach (and possibly America's greatest swimming book author), Chuck Warner:

"Take care of yourself, take care of each other, and the rest will take care of itself."

 The closing quote from Eddie Reese in the book is this:

“When you die, the only thing you take with you is that which you’ve given others. That’s the ballgame right there. What if we’re all able to do that?”

It's been suggested that we should all use the stay-at-home or shelter-in-place mandates to renew relationships, spend so-called quality time with our families that coaching and teaching takes so much of during "normal" times, and make sure we're taking care of ourselves mentally, spiritually, and physically. Reading books to renew our minds has been suggested by almost everyone. 

There is so much to be learned in this book. And by re-reading it.

Aaron Peirsol, 5-Time Olympic Gold Medalist & World Record Holder:

An emotional and educational read. Although I swam for Eddie for eight years, I still learned more about him from reading this book.

www.eddiereesebook.com

Notable Quotes

"The biggest gift I’ve gotten from swimming is mental toughness. The amount of mental weakness I see every day is uncomfortable.

“Swimming is a vehicle for life. Swimming makes you aware of the patterns in your own life – the good and the bad. Once you know that you can choose to evolve or regress because nothing ever stays the same.”

Dax Hill, The University of Texas (https://www.usaswimming.org/news-landing-page/2019/09/26/former-national-teamer-dax-hill-now-channeling-his-competitive-fire-as-a-coach)

Comment: I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Dax at the 2019 Mens NCAAs at UT. What the above quote refers to as mental toughness is about never giving up, always believing you can do whatever it is you are trying to do, and having the confidence in that belief to stay tough.

Watch this race (click on link), and imagine the mental toughness needed to stay in the race when you are more than a body length behind at the 100 (nice race announcing by good friend Sam Kendricks!).: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=103&v=jb65tkCaDSo&feature=emb_logo

Let's talk about walls...

It's not just about speed between the walls. 

It's about speed AT the walls, too.

Courtesy AZ Quotes

Our first CONTEST! Do you feel lucky?

Rules are really simple. Read the article linked to below, share an innovative way to apply its premise to training competitive swimmers, email me at boardsandbuoys@gmail.com, and wait.


The winner will not only be featured in an upcoming post (with a photo, if you're willing to send one), but will win a book from my extensive swimming library. You will get your choice from three titles, and I will even pay the postage.

I've already got my own ideas, but curious if anyone else out there is plagued by my pinball-type thinking process.

Here's the article.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-decoy-effect-how-you-are-influenced-to-choose-without-really-knowing-it?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Take your mark...   GO!

SPORTSMANSHIP: Is it Dead?

Joseph Epstein laments the decline and fall of sportsmanship in a recent article in The Wall Street Journal (shameless plug for my favorite daily paper!), "A Good Sport Is Hard to Find, Especially in the NFL" (Feb 1-2, 2020)

He asks, "How many people remember sportsmanship? I remember it and now think of it chiefly as the element missing from contemporary sports.

"It was notably practiced by the great Australian generation of Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson and John Newcombe. Harry Hopman, the Australian Davis Cup coach between 1939 an 1967, might send a player home for cursing on the court."

"Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe... wretched behavior on the court.

"Serena Williams... cursed out a lineswoman...  engaged in an extended argument with an umpire.

"[NBA] basketball... fist-pumping after slam dunks...  thunder-sticks... “Make Some Noise.” 

"In baseball, batters flip their bats and stand in the batter’s box watching their home runs sail over walls, then slowly jog round the base path, fist-pumping or flexing their muscles... steroids... signal-stealing..."

Then he remembers and recalls this:  “Make a great play,” said Ryne Sandberg, the splendid Chicago Cubs second baseman in his 2005 Hall of Fame speech, “and act like you’ve done it before . . . hit a home run, put your head down, drop the bat, run around the bases.”

Some of the great football coaches have echoed that admonition.

Many football coaches have a simple opinion on how a player should act when he arrives in the end zone to score a touchdown. Famous former coaches Darrell Royal (University of Texas), Vince Lombardi (Green Bay Packers), Paul Brown (Cleveland Browns), and Tom Landry (Dallas Cowboys) are among those who have been credited with saying, “Act like you’ve been there before.” [snopes.com]


"Sportsmanship matters because without it sports are an empty proposition—a matter of who is faster, stronger or more brutal than whom. Sportsmanship implies respect—for the game, for your opponent, for yourself. A great part of the justification for sports is as a forcing-house for building character. Accepting defeat with grace is one of sportsmanship’s character-building components; winning without braggadocio is another. A strong sense of fairness is yet a third component and discipline and perseverance a fourth and fifth. Without sportsmanship, sports are little more than grown men playing children’s games." (Mr. Epstein is the author, most recently, of “Charm: The Elusive Enchantment.”)

What about OUR sport? I love seeing a great race, and then the hands and arms extended across lane ropes to shake hands, pat on the back, or hugs between opponents that mere seconds before had been battling to the last second to best each other. That's US. What have -you- seen that best exemplifies sportsmanship in any sport?

Jamie Squire, Getty Images

 

FOR ALL OF YOU "OLDER" COACHES

I remember starting my first high school job at the rather advanced age of 29, after a number of years of club and college coaching. It was a more stable paycheck, pool (no more renting, we had our own!), and support system. Like many of you, I did it for a LOT of years before I even thought about retirement: when, how, what it would cost me, etc. Fortunately, I had started modestly investing about the same time I started the job. If I had not, I wouldn't have been able to retire so early. So that's my first and strongest recommendation: If you are not already regularly investing for your future, it would be wise to start. Sort of like "the best time to plant a tree is 50 years ago, the next best time is now."


Glenn Ruffenach is a former reporter and editor for The Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com), and a recent column, "The Definition of a 'Successful' Retirement", addressed a number of things that are important to think about, regardless of your age or proximity to retirement, or even if you are already retired. Excerpts below, and then a few comments and an idea.

Each of us should try to define retirement—to describe what it will look like—before we enter that door. And that definition/description, invariably, will differ from person to person. If you wish to embrace what might be called a “traditional retirement”—if you want to play golf several times a week, enjoy a glass of wine at sunset and never “work” another moment in your life—more power to you.

Or, if you wish to climb the Andes in retirement, volunteer at a hospital, open your own pizzeria or save the whales, that’s fine, too. Perhaps you will decide that you don’t want to “retire” at all. Perhaps your work is your passion, and your idea of a happy ending is to die at your desk, working late on a Friday evening.

The point: There is no “right” or “best” retirement. There is only your retirement, one that, ideally, will involve a good amount of planning on your part. (And talking with your partner. Especially your partner. That process alone, will increase your chances for a “good” retirement greatly.)

Our reporting has shown, again and again, that retirees who seem most fulfilled are those who continue to search for challenges (large and small), who immerse themselves in a range of activities, and who firmly believe that their best years are still ahead of them. 

So let's say you are financially set to retire, your pension and/or investments and Social Security will provide you with the lifestyle you are comfortable with, and you turn in the paperwork. What now?

I "retired" in 2005 after 25 years at a major Texas public school, and after a year of enjoying my newfound freedom of not getting up at 4:15AM and getting home at dark-thirty, and having "played" with a new house and some new man-toys, I got ... bored.  That dang itch was back. I missed working with young people and helping them improve their swimming, their academics, their lives. 

At the beginning of a second year of retirement, I had the good fortune of being asked to start a team at a new private school in the area, and built a strong program there that kept me busy for another 12 years before I felt it was time to move back to retirement. 

At the end of that summer, I was recruited by a good friend to work for a large USA club team as a coach mentor and consultant for the coaching staff, but especially for their newer coaches. It was quite fulfilling. I got to help again.

The next school year gave me the opportunity to start coaching a transitional group within that same club called Future Stars. The youngsters in my two groups were 10-under and 11-older, and the group goal was to help them make the transition from summer league level to year-round club and high school swimming.  That's where I am this current year, and it has been quite enjoyable.

I don't know if chlorine gets in our veins or what, but some of us just seem to be "lifers".

If you have retired or are thinking about it, but you're not ready for the golf course every day, or a rocker (shortcut to cemetery!), you might want to get in touch with a great friend and colleague, Patrick Henry, in Belton, Texas. Patrick has come up with an idea and business plan so great we all might be smacking our foreheads thinking "I shoulda thought of that!"

Patrick has posted on Facebook, and I'm just going to copy it here for you. If you're interested, get in touch with Patrick. Could be a heckuva retirement activity and opportunity for you!

I have retired from school district work, coaching, as of 12/31/19. I have started a business called Swim Coach Staffing Solutions. When a team loses a coach mid-season due to injury, illness, retirement, taking another job, safesport, or whatever, we can send in a temp coach to keep quality practices going (and prevent other teams from poaching the swimmers). It can be for 1, 2, 3 months depending on the time of year. Some months are not good times to find a coach. 

I will consult with the hiring body and get to understand what type of coach they are looking for. Then I bring in at least two qualified vetted candidates. They select who they want and then I negotiate their contract. 

I have partnered with the International Swim Coaches Association in this endeavor. I have been collecting resumes from coaches around the world. These are all confidentially held. 

I ask questions like where, geographically, would you like to live and coach. Would you ever consider coaching internationally? What is your dream job? Then when opportunities come up I contact them and privately ask them if this interests them. And we go from there. 

Also coaches looking for a job, we should be their first call. So any coaches, pm me your email and I will send you a link to the form. This will get you in the private secure database. 

Anyone who has coached 30+ years and would be interested in a temp job pm me. I have already had several contact me today. I need different geographic areas covered. This is a coach run operation, for coaches and teams and really for the swimmers. A way to give back and meet a huge need.

Contact Patrick directly (not me) by email at:

swimcoachstaffingsolutions@yahoo.com

or through Facebook at:

 https://www.facebook.com/patrick.henry.9822

POINTS TO CONSIDER

Legendary coach Eddie Reese, on purpose:

What you've given others is far more important than what you take with you. Teachers, coaches, doctors...we are in the ideal position to influence people and do it the right way. We are in the greatest sport in the world. It's difficult. I have been doing this a long time. I am still trying to get it right.

  

A more insightful look into Coach Reese and his methods and “secrets” can be found in the limited release, hardcover, full-color edition of 

“EDDIE REESE: Coaching Swimming, Teaching Life”, 

being re-issued for sale February 1- April 30 ONLY. 

Order at www.eddiereesebook.com

Interesting People

From “Getting Fit Meant Sink or Swim for an Ex-NFL Star”, by Jen Murphy in The Wall Street Journal, November 3, 2019

Former Cleveland Browns offensive lineman Joe Thomas fueled his NFL workouts with 10,000 calories a day. Now, he would need about five days to eat that much. After retiring in March 2018, Mr. Thomas radically overhauled his diet and exercise.

During his 11-year NFL career, the 10-time Pro Bowler tipped the scales at 325 pounds. “When you’re practicing three hours a day in pads and a helmet in the heat, your muscles need fuel,” he said. “I spent years training myself to turn off my stomach-brain connection. When my stomach said full, I’d still eat two more plates of food.”

More than a decade of hits took a toll on his body. The 6-foot-6-inch Mr. Thomas has had four knee surgeries since his days playing for the University of Wisconsin. Constant joint pain and inflammation made practice excruciating during his final pro years. “My last season I made it to three training camp workouts,” he said. 

Photo: Nick Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images

In August 2016 the Browns installed a 25-meter lap pool in their training facility in Berea, Ohio.

Unable to run, Mr. Thomas turned to swimming to stay fit. “At first, I was like a submarine and sank straight to the bottom,” he recalled. “I spent just as much energy staying afloat as I did moving forward.”

By the start of the 2016 season in September, he was swimming 10 lengths of the pool daily. “That’s a warm-up for most swimmers, but I felt totally gassed,” he said. “It’s great cardio, and my body always felt better after I got out of the pool than before I got in.”

Last summer, Mr. Thomas moved his family to Madison, Wis., and began swimming with his brother-in-law, an avid triathlete, in a high school pool. He hired a coach to improve his technique. Mr. Thomas primarily swims freestyle because wear and tear on his shoulders over the years makes other strokes difficult. A typical workout lasts 20 minutes and he tries to make it to the pool two to three times a week. “I love that swimming is something I can do late into life,” he said. “If I jogged or did CrossFit, I’d have pain and swelling for days after. That’s not what I need. Swimming is good for my heart and my joints.”

When doing long swims he wears underwater headphones and listens to house music or ’80s and ’90s rock like Metallica, AC/DC and ZZ Top. 

T.R. and Work Ethic 

Some interesting facts about Teddy Roosevelt are shared in a new book, “The Strenuous Life”, by Ryan Swanson. Roosevelt's “mania for sports and physical fitness earned him the nickname, “Mr. Strenuosity”, asserts Mr. Swanson. The book “...argues that T.R. inspired and bullied the lethargic citizenry into better shape and transformed organized sports.” (WSJ book reviewer Edward Kosner). 

Some facts. During the Roosevelt presidency:

+ the first Olympic Games staged in the U.S. were held in St. Louis

+ the National Collegiate Athletic Association was established to reform college football, reducing violence and enhancing fan appeal

+ the National and American baseball leagues played the first World Series

+ New York’s mammoth Public Schools Athletic League was formed, the first big youth-fitness program in America and a model for other cities. [Kosner, WSJ]

He made up for mediocre talent through enthusiasm and boundless sweat. He kept meticulous records of his exercises. “I never was a champion at anything,” he reflected. But he never gave up. [Kosner]

In Roosevelt's time, “people worried that sitting in classrooms and offices would drain Americans of the vigor that farm work and manual labor instilled. Now, the concern is that social media, cellphones, robots and artificial intelligence will turn humans into pallid drones... 

"[A recent] survey found that more than a third of American adults and 17% of children and adolescents are obese, and millions more overweight. Teddy Roosevelt would be appalled.” 

“In life, as in a football game,” he liked to say, “hit the line hard.”

(Mr. Kosner, the former editor of Newsweek, New York, Esquire and the New York Daily News, is the author of a memoir, “It’s News to Me.” )

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”