Swimming Blogs - Garrett McCaffrey

I was talking to a coach today about a lesson learned from... wanna take a guess? Yep, Eddie Reese. More important than the long list of Eddie's dicsiples, was the lesson learned: If a swimmer hates it, keep doing it.

My first thought... What a horrible way to look at coaching. Eddie must have come right from a bad practice when he gave away that little gem. But I couldn't just let the idea go, and I started thinking, "What did I hate to do as a swimmer?" Two things came to mind: verticle kicking, and consistent 6-beat flutter on long freestyle sets. I just hated it. I wasn't good at either, so anytime I could avoid it that's what I did. I do wish I would've taken those more seriously.

Staying close to the sport has forced me to analyze myself as a swimmer. Being on so many pool decks, watching so many different meets and practices, has given me a coach's view. I guess I'm caught between seeing what's best and knowing how hard it is to carry out. I never embraced my weaknesses as a swimmer. When coaches forced me to do it, I never got past the survival stage.

It is the coach's job to put the swimmer in a postition to challenge weaknesses, but it isn't the coach who turns the weakness around. Becoming a great kicker is just too hard to do for someone else. Holding a tight streamline while trying to keep your head above water for 2 minutes of verticle dolphin kick is too much pain to go through just for the sake of appeasing your coach.

All the coach can do is put you in a position to challenge your weaknesses. That's where the, "If a swimmer hates it, keep doing it," advice comes in. But no matter how smart, motivational, or even intimidating coaches are, in many ways they're helpless. And therein lies the beauty of our sport: the biggest victories come with only one real witness... This is the time of the season when those battles begin.