Determining Your Position

1. 8/27/2012 1 Determining Your Position Brian Brown Asphalt Green Unified Aquatics

2. 8/27/2012 2 Introduction The most important skill required for leadership is the ability to accurately assess where you are at any given time. Situations change with and/or without our plans. Leaders need to recognize and accept this (and learn to accentuate it). If you can accurately determine where you are, then you can best decide where to go. Purpose today is to share some of the ideas and methods which have evolved out of coaching within the uniquely challenging environment of NYC for eight years.

3. 8/27/2012 3 Asphalt Green Unified Aquatics Team of 230+ swimmers from all 5 boroughs of New York and parts of Westchester and New Jersey Unique coaching challenges Transportation Real estate values Manhattan �Island life� Unique coaching opportunity Most diverse ethnic and economic team in country

4. 8/27/2012 4 �My way or the highway� but �When In Rome�� The coach creates the environment and the environment creates the coach Aphorisms developed before and since being at AGUA �Work Works� It�s a race, not a beauty contest You can�t fool Mother Nature Sometimes you have to go over the edge to know where it is Learn By Doing / Teach Yourself 100% of 100% Fitter is Faster War Against Mediocrity

5. 8/27/2012 5 War Against Mediocrity We are engaged in a daily War Against Mediocrity It is a battle with a familiar enemies: Time Society Athletes Oneself As coaches we are facing (seemingly) insurmountable odds. Every thing around us wants to immerse us in �the ordinary.� It�s like being lost in a jungle, a desert, on a mountain, or in an ocean every day � how do you find your way to your intended destination, a place called Excellence?

6. 8/27/2012 6 Having An Internal Compass �It�s all about�� A single, theoretical point in space does not exist in reality Opposites attract (and are attractive) It�s very easy to think in terms of opposites, but two points in space are still theoretical and do not exist in reality either Black & White Ideas� (Gray and Invisible ones too!) Two intersecting sets of opposites are necessary to complete an accurate picture of the question at hand

7. 8/27/2012 7 3-D Reality requires 3-D Thoughts

8. 8/27/2012 8 What is necessary for really fast swimming? North / First Thought�Endurance South / Opposite Idea�Technique East / Related Thought�Speed West / Hidden Aspect�Power

9. 8/27/2012 9 Some Role Models We have plenty of knowledge about each of these ways of producing fast swimming. All great coaches use all the different aspects for fast swimming, but some are more well-known than others for their particular style, aka their �North Star� North�Endurance Urbanchek and Shoulberg South�Technique McKeever and Quick East�Speed Salo and Marsh West�Power Reese brothers

10. 8/27/2012 10 Maximize each aspect, then move on North�Endurance�8 weeks +/- 3,000 For Time Pace and Color Charts Just plain hard stuff South�Technique�2 weeks +/- Focus on something as a group Have a deadline by which something needs to be fixed East�Speed�3 weeks +/- 10 second speed Max efforts of specific race distances West�Power�5 weeks +/- Racks, cords, paddles, etc.

11. 8/27/2012 11 Charting Your Whereabouts During your season you must be able to adjust � to know where you are whether or not that�s where your plan was supposed to take you Verify (or correct) your map and your route Have an explorer�s mentality We are all trying to go somewhere we�ve never been before Someone else�s map may be flawed or outdated Your own map may not account for changes in the terrain Trust your North Star When you are a little lost, follow the first thought you gave to the question, �What is required for fast swimming?�

12. 8/27/2012 12 What This Means Real Life in coaching New coach, new success Same program year after year creates stale swimming Dinosaurs become extinct, or at least irrelevant Real Life in swimming Kids can swim fast off of any type of work. Examples of very different training ideas are all around us. Explore them. The trick is to not get lost (or at least not for long) in the myriad methods

13. 8/27/2012 13 What This Means (Part 2) The goal of training is to induce evolution We may not always be able to control these changes, or their timing, but we need to be cognizant of this natural process When one trait is improved through focusing on it, other traits become dormant Explore new directions, but always trust your North Star

14. 8/27/2012 14 Next Steps Thank you Questions