F.Y.E. (For Your Entertainment)

Over my lunch hour today, I was watching some of the race videos from the recent 2017 Men's NCAA Swimming Championships. This is the fastest swim meet in the world. Why not the Olympics? Let me tell you a few reasons:

1. Fastest swimming country in the world=USA. USA only gets two entries into the Olympics for each event and only one relay. At NCAAs you see ALL of the fastest swimmers in the world.
2. Short course yards baby! What beats it!? Jam packed with starts and turns combined with guys towering over 6'5" they make the pool look like a bathtub.
3. Swimmers from all over the world come to train and go to college in the USA. That makes for an even more special event (take Joe Schooling for example, Singapore's 2016 Rio Olympic Gold Medalist in the 100 fly...he swims for Texas).
4. Last and most important: Swimmers are competing for their team. Their school colors. Whether it be burnt orange, maize and blue, or crimson and gray. These guys absolutely 100% love their school, love their program, and love their teammates. 

So I decided to put together a short video list of my favorite NCAA swimming moments that I have seen (on YouTube, not in person. Sorry I don't have that kind of bank, and I'm not that old!) So without further adieu...I present to you....Chris's top 5 NCAA races.

(I do not take credit for these videos. Please visit YouTube.com to watch these videos and more from the users that have uploaded them.)

1. I'm going to start you off with a long one. 2016 Men's 1650 freestyle. No you don't need to watch the whole thing...skip to 2:49. At this moment, you can see the leader (Akaram Mahmoud - South Carolina) has just flipped with 75yds to go. Chris Swanson of Penn is just getting ready to flip.

Chris Swanson is 2 body lengths behind going into the FINAL 25 YARDS and hammers it home to pull off the win by 0.12 seconds. Not only is it the closest 1650 race in NCAA championship history, but take a look at the difference in final splits. 

Chris Swanson 24.38

Akaram Mahmoud 27.17

That means with a 50 to go, Mahmoud had a 2.77 second lead. 

DON'T EVER COUNT YOURSELF OUT!

2. Caeleb Dressel 100 freestyle - 2017. Don't blink or you'll miss it. This video provides us not only the fastest 100 on record (it's not even close: 40.00), it provides Rowdy Gaines commentary. Feast your eyes on SCY swimming's superman as he annihilates this 100 free. (You can skip ahead to 2:30 for the start of the race).

In his post race interview, you can tell he really wanted the 39.99. And just being 0.01 off hurts. But who couldn't be happy with a 40.00. The 2nd best time on record is 40.92 from Cesar Cielo (of note, Michael Chadwick also breaks 41 in this race with a 40.97).

3. Women's 2014 800 Freestyle Relay. (Skip to 5:00). This video features Georgia and Stanford battling it out for the lead. But WATCH OUT! Because who jumps in for Cal's anchor leg? Two scary words for any Bulldog or Cardinal to hear: Missy. Franklin.

Missy splits one of the fastest 200s of all time (1:40.08) and runs down two OLYMPIANS (Brittany MacLean - Canadian Olympian, Lia Neal - American Olympian) to give her team the victory. There aren't many people in the world who swim for their team more than Missy Franklin. And this video is exciting proof of that.

4. Men's 2015 400 Medley Relay. This video provides a whole list of things that make it spectacular. For one thing, the meet is in Iowa City. Nice and close to home. Then watch Cal swim. Led off by history's all-time greatest backstroker, Ryan Murphy. Murphy jumps out to a HUGE lead for Cal, who follows him up with Olympic breaststroker Josh Prenot. Note Prenot's underwater pullouts. I don't think there is anyone in the world with as fast and efficient pullouts as his. Unreal. You'll have to watch the rest of the video for yourself...

This was a major coming out race for the Texas Longhorns. Joe Schooling smokes a massive 43.95 fly split, followed by Jack Conger's 40.96 to come back on Cal and take the victory in 3:01.23. After a first have performance that had Cal out to a cushy 2 second lead, the Texas boys came back with an emphatic, "THIS IS OUR TIME".... and they haven't let up since - this year winning 11 events and 4 out of 5 relays at the NCAA Championships while also establishing 8 NCAA, American, and US Open Records in the process to claim their 3rd consecutive title.

5. Is there a swimming list in the world that is not complete without Katie Ledecky? Deferring her collegiate career for one year in order to train for the Rio Games, Ledecky entered Stanford as a freshman for the 2016-2017 season. Here's the problem for everybody else: Katie Ledecky does not swim like a freshman. In this video you get to watch Katie Ledecky doing Katie Ledecky things while tearing up the 500 free. One small note: Leah Smith (2nd place in this race) was the 2nd woman to ever break 4:30 in the 500. She get's a little upstaged, but when you are beating Smith (Olympic Bronze medalist) by this much, you deserve the entire stage.

Freeze the picture at 4:35 to see just how much she wins by. Setting an new NCAA, US Open, and American record. Katie. Ledecky. Swimming's number one swimmer....EVER? 

This is why NCAA swimming is so exciting. Get on YouTube and watch these and more. They are a lot of fun to watch.

Parents in Youth Sports - Too Much Pressure?

        Let me preface this by saying that I am not a parent - yet. My first child (a girl) is due in 3 months. Since I found out my wife was pregnant, I have paid closer attention to the way parents treat their kids. What I have paid attention to most is how parents of athletes act during and out of season.

Not being a parent myself, I cannot speak of personal parenting experience. However, as a coach I can give first hand accounts of what I believe to be successful and unsuccessful parenting from the coach’s point of view. Outside of having my own children, my student-athletes are the closest thing. I take pride in taking care of them, looking out for what is best for them, treating them as if they were my own, and always sticking up for them and believing in them. 

There is already plenty of pressure in youth sports. Whether you believe that statement or not, I am sure that your kid does. Take a little league baseball game for instance. At the end of the season, everyone gets a trophy. No pressure, right? But how does that kid feel when they go to school the next day after one of their best friends struck them out 4 times the night before? You don’t think there is pressure to perform even at the youngest age?

Now take that pressure and add in the pressure of the coach who has high expectations for his team (made up of three kids with experience, five who might be able to manage, and four kids who don’t know how to hold a ball). Every time a kid goes to bat, the coach is gauging his success. With every fielding error, the boy gets a detailed report on what he did wrong and how he should fix it next time.

Without the added pressure of the parents, this young boy is likely already in tears. The role of the parent at this point should simply be to ask the youngster, “Did you do your best?” and, “Did you have fun?” This seems wishy-washy, but what more could we want from a young athlete? 

The parents of one of the most successful young swimmers of all time famously reported wanting nothing of their daughter but her best effort. No pressure for winning, best times, records, time standards, or gold medals. They figured that their daughter would put enough pressure on herself that it didn’t need to come from them. They didn’t even wake her up in the morning and insist on perfect practice attendance! Can you believe that? Without this pressure from the most influential two people in her life, Missy Franklin went on to achieve remarkable things. After every race she asked herself, “Did I do everything I could in that race?” If the answer was no, she allowed herself to be disappointed. If the answer was yes, then she knew if she got beat that the other girl was just better than her. No big deal. What are you going to do between this loss and the next time you race to make yourself better?

One mantra I preach to my swimmers is this: 

“If they beat us, make sure it is because they were better than us. Not because they tried harder.” 

This is all I can ask of my kids. Do 100% your best work, 100% of the time and you can’t come away disappointed. We have all been there. Thinking after a race or a game, “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda.” Having these regrets may be one of the worst things in sports. You remember the line from the coach of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team? “They may beat us, but they will NEVER out hustle us.” When you coach athletes 3-4 hours a day every day, and then watch them compete you can tell when they are giving their all. When a swimmer of mine gets out of the pool I can look them in the eye and tell them honestly whether I thought they swam with everything they had. And that is something I will let them know. As high school kids, this is something they should strive for. As a coach, I feel it is my job to hold them at that standard of always doing their best. That goes double - or even triple - for parents. All a parent can ask of their child is all they can give. Back to those two questions that Dick and D.A. Franklin used to (and still) ask their daughter Missy after a race, “Did you do your best? And did you have fun?” If the answer to both is yes, the day was successful and everyone can go home happy.

Like a balloon being sat on, the additional pressure from the parent can lead to the kid “popping”. I have seen this is kids who have been burnt out of a sport before they even hit high school. So much early pressure and the kid is sick of their childhood passion. As tough as it might be, I think that when my daughter grows up I would be much happier if she was happy doing something that she wasn’t great at than if she hated it and was great at it. I have also seen when parents hit the jackpot. Their kid is successful and they are loving what they are doing. It does go to show you that if they truly love the sport, they will put in more time and dedication. All of this makes the kid, parents, and coach happy. A dream world, right?

All of this being said, parents are one of a child’s most valuable assets. The countless rides to practice, filling water bottles, snacks, money, and support is beyond measure when it comes to a parent’s dedication. A child athlete needs someone to look after them, let’s just make sure that we are doing it with the best intentions of the CHILD in mind (and I will try and do the same when my daughter is born :))