Swimming Blogs - Floswimming Blogs

How many times have we seen the trade-off? If I were a betting man, I would be inclined to bet on the team that lost the dual during the year to be the one to win the invitational. A dual meet loss doesn’t necessarily mean you can consider a team to be the underdog the next time they face each other. Meet format changes things. This year the Texas men beat Auburn in a dual. From listening to the interviews on flo, you know that was pretty big motivation for the Auburn guys. Pascal Wollach pointed at that dual as… more »

Could you write a better script? I mean, this is what happens in the movies right? A team riding high is blindsided mid-season by the news that their beloved coach may have just months to live. Faced with adversity, they do not crumble but grow. A young coach is thrown into the pilot's seat and at the final moment they hoist a championship trophy. Well, thats at least one way to look at what Auburn University just accomplished. Still, another party will look at what transpired a completely different way. They will complain about international athletes, denigrate Auburn's academics and… more »

With the season drawing to close and the summer season about to start I am interested to find out what you as coaches suggest your swimmers do with their time away from the pool, that is of course if you give them time-off? Do you tell them to stay completely out of the water or do you encourage them to come in once or twice during their break? Throughout my swimming career I have always disliked taking time off away from the water, simply because when it comes time to get back in, the first couple days or weeks (depending… more »

Well, I took a week off from blogging while I was at Junior Nationals, but now I'm back to throw some more lessons learned from coaching and my studies in Positive Psychology. The topic is partially inspired by this past weekend's victory by the Cal Bears at the Women's NCAA championship. As some comments on this site and public comments by swimming Superstar have revealed, Teri McKeever has established a pretty special relationship with many of her athletes. The challenge of establishing an effective coach-swimmer relationship can be particularly difficult for a young coach. I am just a few years… more »

I apologize for my brief hiatus but the championship season can gnaw on the life of a coach. I'm sure many of you can relate. With that said, I know you have all been anxiously awaiting the next entry of statistical mumbo jumbo. I realize that this stuff may not be so entertaining, but if you take the time to read and understand the information provided you will see that this is pretty interesting stuff. The following post describes the Olympic men's 100M Freestyle as an example of the unnatural bias introduced into performances of 2008. To further demonstrate the… more »

A lot of people go to school for 6 years. Most of them work in a hospital, court room, or laboratory. I, on the other hand, spent an extra 2 years in school earning a journalism degree. It wasn't the most direct route to graduation, but I did end up with the best broadcast journalism degree in the country from The University of Missouri. Yet it wasn't until I was out in the real world starting a swimming website that I realized the truth in something I was taught during broadcast 1: You don't need a license to be a… more »

Men's 50 Free: A bit of a surprise in this one, as Matthew Abood out-touched his training partner and world record holder, Eamon Sullivan. Abood finished in 21.93 to Sullivan's 21.96. Judging from his results this weekend, Sullivan's recovery from January surgery seems to be progressing nicely. Women's 200 Fly: Jessica Schipper defended her title, winning in a time of 2:05.93, not far off her Australian record of 2:05.40. Samantha Hamill out-dueled Stephanie Rice to take second in 2:07.73, just ahead of Rice (2:07.85). Men's 200 Breast: Christian Sprenger and Brenton Rickard did not relinquish their stranglehold on the breaststroke… more »

Women's 100 Back: Sophie Edington of Queensland took this one in 27.89. Up and coming youngster Emily Seebohm finished second in 28.17. Men's 100 Fly: Andrew Lauterstein defended his title, winning in 51.13, just one one-hundredth of the Australian record he set in Beijing. 33 year old Adam Pine finished second in 52.24. Women's 50 Free: Looks like Cate Campbell was quick to put her dissapointing 100 swim behind her. She finished second in this event in 24.70, clinching a spot in Roma. Libby Trickett won in 24.23. Men's 50 Breast: No ties in this one, as Brenton Rickard touched… more »

Women's 100 Fly: Inge De Bruijn's World Record is safe, for now. Beijing bronze medalist Jessica Schipper took the shorter of the butterfly events in 56.90. Don't be surprised to see Schipper challenge De Bruijn's record four months from now in Rome. Stephanie Rice came back from fourth position at the 50 to steal the second in 57.67, running down Felicity Galvez (57.79) and defending Olympic gold medalist Libby Trickett (57.86). Men's 100 Free: Coming into the 2009 edition of the Australian Swimming Championships, word was that Eamon Sullivan was hoping to finish high enough in the 100 to secure… more »

Day 3 of the Aussie World Championship trials saw the first world record scare of the meet, but all in all, only one Australian record was bettered in this final session. Men's 200 Back: No surprises here, as Ashley Delaney and Hayden Stoeckel will once again represent the Aussies in the 200 back. Delaney lead from the beginning, and won the event in an Australian record 1:55.28. Stoeckel was second in 1:57.38. Women's 100 Free: Libby Trickett's work with Grant Stoelwinder seems to be paying off, as she missed her world record in this event by only .11. Trickett's new… more »

Day two of the Telstra Australian Swimming Championships is in the books. Who else will be representing the Aussies in the Eternal City this summer? Lets find out. Women's 50 Fly: Marieke Guerher, a 2004 Olympian in the 100 backstroke, is in the midst of a short axis resurgence, as she held off Libby Trickett to take the 50 fly in a new Aussie record of 25.60. Trickett touched in 26.02. Men's 50 Back: Ashley Delaney set another Australian record in this one, winning the event in 24.81. Also racing the 50 back in Rome will be Ben Treffers, who… more »

The NCAA championship meets aren't the only swimming events taking place this week that come with massive implications attached. The 2009 World Championships are only four months away, and the United States greatest aquatic rival have a pretty big swim meet of their own going on down under. For the next five days the Aussies will be crowning their 2009 national champions, and selecting their squad for Roma 2009. While I wish I could bring you these updates live from the Sydney Aquatic Centre, I am unfortunately stuck in the states. But, I can still peruse the results, and bring… more »

For as long as I can remember I have had a lot of super random and probably crazy ideas about swimming bumping around inside my skull. The randomness/craziness I can either blame or thank my parents for because of the freethinking they taught my sisters and me to do while home schooling (material for later, no doubt). Since retiring from swimming, though, I have found that the shower is the place where I have the most clarity and can best focus/harness my thoughts. Not to psychoanalyze why but there is probably something to the water moving across my body, getting… more »

So my last entry was pretty serious and all that so this time I thought I would have a little more fun and get in to some of my musings… Typically swimmers, unless their initials are MP and they have enough Gold to jumpstart the US economy, are not really thought of as being all that, hmmm, how should I say… “cool” beyond our wet world. Case in point, Aquaman. This un-caped crusader has yet to have a major Hollywood movie made of his heroism, yet his far more dry (yes, that is a pun – think about it) Justice… more »

Last week, multiple people came to me with a New York Times article on Jim Steen. Its not often that college swimming, in this case Division 3, makes it into the country's biggest newspaper. As the article's title implies, it is mostly about the "simple truths" that have meant sustained success for Kenyon Swimming. One of the anecdotes in the article concerned the team's most recent league championship. Steen sat down the swimmers who already had "A" cuts and told them that their primary objective was to get at least enough men and women qualified that weekend that Kenyon's roster… more »

If you know me, it won’t surprise you that my story starts with a girl… it was a teenage crush I had back in Portland, Oregon in the 90s (awww how cute). I was totally gaga for this girl from my team’s rival club and looking for any, and every, opportunity to be around her because we were both pretty shy and I was far from a ladies man. I truly believed, in a totally Dawson’s Creek or maybe today it would be a Gossip Girl sort of way, that given a chance with her my life would be changed… more »

It was an amazing weekend. Record breaking reigned supreme and championship season is in full force. This blog, however, won't be about any of those jaw-dropping swims. No, I'm taking a step aside and writing about my own team. Its a topic I've avoided almost entirely since creating this blog. I did this purposefully, first to protect my athletes from having anything that could in anyway be hurtful written about them in a public forum. But I also did it because in the back of my head I though that listening to a coach write about his own team was… more »

Welcome to the first Monthly Monday Mailbag! Before I get to the questions, one quick item of business: A number of you have posted great questions in the comment section of blogs and videos. If you would like to submit a question to the Mailbag, please do so by emailing me at darren@floswimming.org. That is the easiest way for me to keep a record of questions, plus if a question is posted in comment form, there is a chance I won’t see it. But enough logistical stuff, let’s get to your submissions. I am a sophomore in high school hoping… more »