On the surface, swimming seems like an individual sport: One swimmer, one lane. Everyone swims their own race using their own tactics and their own strategies.

But it is an individual sport wrapped inside a team environment.

You train in a team. You all dress in team gear. You work with the same coach. You all train at the same pool.

The old saying “there is no I in team” is wrong. Every team is made up a whole lot of “I”s, individuals determined to achieve their own unique goals. But, the opportunity to achieve your individual goals is enhanced by supporting the goals of other members of your team.

Here’s a few things you can do to create a real team environment.

1. Think Team. The first step in performing as a team is to think like one.

Think about the best professional sports teams you know – Football teams, basketball teams, baseball teams, soccer teams, what do they all do that is unique to team sports?

• They wear the same team clothing, they look like a team
• They support each other on the field or court
• They arrive together (usually a team bus) and walk in to the field or court together
• They praise the efforts of team mates
• They aspire to a set of common goals and behaviours
• They recognize the great performances of individuals within the team
• They provide back up and support for individuals who don’t perform well.

So you know what a team does, now let’s apply that to swimming.

2. Before your next meet, develop a Team Meet Strategy

Get the team together the week before your next meet.

At that meeting develop a strategy for how you can all work together at the meet and help each other achieve success for the team and every individual on the team.
Much of swimming successfully at a swim meet depends on attitude – yours and that of your opposition.

A well executed team meet strategy provides you with a focus to help you with your own attitude and perhaps just as importantly, the presence of a well organised, well prepared, well disciplined team really blows the mind of other swimmers and coaches.

For example:

• Aim to all arrive at the pool at the same time: Set up a meeting place outside the pool where everyone meets at an agreed time.
• Wear team gear: Everyone, swimmers, coaches, families, committee, everyone. Look like a team.
• Walk in to the pool area together: Everyone as one large group led by your team captains.
• Leave your swim gear all in the same place in a designated team area: your team “fortress”.
• Stretch as a team: Ideally practice the team stretching routine before race day and have the swimmers (not the coaches) lead the team stretching. Do this somewhere really public and conspicuous, somewhere the other teams will see you and become aware of how professional you are.
• Warm up as a team: Line up together in one line at the end of the warm up lane. One by one dive in until you create a single, continuous line of swimmers (all with the same caps and swim suits on).
• Team cheers: Develop some team cheers and use them at appropriate times. Some good cheering opportunities are:
  • As the team walks into the pool area
  • As swimmers’ names get announced before swimming
  • As soon as the starting gun goes
  • All the way through the race
  • After they finish
  • As the results get announced
  • As they come back to the team area

3. Find a way to help everyone

The easiest thing to do at a meet is to cheer for and support winners – the swimmers who are winning medals, achieving PB times and doing well. However, the real strength of a team is their capacity to help and support the swimmers who are having a bad day and not swimming well.

Not everyone can swim a PB time or win a medal at every meet, so plan to have a support system in place to provide strength and unity during the tough times.

For example, develop a “buddy” system between old swimmers and younger swimmers so that there are strong bonds within the team if things go wrong.

4. Set team goals and take pride in achieving them

For example:

Total number of medals won by the team

Number of relays won by the team

If you have thirty swimmers in the team, and each swimmer has four swims each, that’s 120 team swims.

Set some goals around these 120 team swims like:

• 80% personal best times = 96 swims
• 75% finals swims = 90 swims
• 100% of swimmers not breathing inside the flags on starts, turns and finishes = 120 swims

This can also apply to other swimming skills.

For example:

The team goal for the next swim meet is to be the best kicking team over the final 50 metres of every race, i.e. the kicking of everyone on your team is the best of any team.

You can do the same for other swimming skills:

• The best starting team
• The best turning team
• The best butterfly technique team (or back or breast or free)
• The best finishing team
• The team who took the fewest breaths in their final 15 metres of fly and free

By focusing on the mastering of skills under race conditions, everyone in the team can improve important aspects of their swimming. And – if you concentrate on technique, skills and working together to achieve team goals, chances are most of the swimmers in the team will also achieve their individual goals along the way.

So remember, team stands for:

Together Everyone Achieves Magnificence

Wayne Goldsmith

• Athletes
• Facilities
• Competition
• Budget
• Club Environment / club committee / club politics / club parents
• Support (employed assistants and volunteers

Before commencing the new position the coach should examine each area by:

1. Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the current situation;
2. Identifying the key areas that can be targeted for success;
3. Planning the details of a goal based plan on how to achieve success (immediate short term and long term).

Athletes

Talent – develop a strong feeder program based on quality learn to swim. Introduce a system of learn to swim that emphasises excellence in stroke development, swimming technique and skills.

Recruit and attract the best swimmers ie. People best suited to swim in your program and who are compatible with your coaching philosophy.

Develop a fully integrated approach of setting standards for each level of swimmers with logical criteria for squad selection based on training commitment, level of competition, performance level, age, level of maturation etc.

Seniors

Set minimum expectations – 100% training attendance should be standard and attitude needs to be positive and committed to excellence and club goals. Senior swimmers should set the standards that younger swimmers will emulate.

Set demanding standards for inclusion in the senior team eg. 20×50 on 1.00 hold 35. Do not compromise on these standards.

Set a competition standard of Top 10 from the previous targeted competition, eg, to attend 1999 National Age Championships, swimmers must swim a qualifying time that would have placed in the Top 10 at 1998 National Age.

Meet with senior swimmers fortnightly to discuss team goals and personal targets.

Highlight overall development and fitness particularly in 400 medleys, middle distance freestyle and 200 metre form strokes.

Divide coaching of senior group into – A: Time based groups (all strokes) B: Stroke based groups.

Juniors

Introduce a Skills development model incorporating swimming skill, fitness level and natural talent.

Set clear, progressive standard criteria for each age group, level and standard. Make these levels clear, distinct and precise. Ensure that every swimmer in the club has a copy of these standards and understands them.

Aim for a goal of 3% improvement in all swimmers in the club each year. Make this target specific and give each swimmer target and goal times at the commencement of each season.

Assume a 100% skill level in juniors. Promote a skill-based division and swimmer classification system rather than one based on level of maturation.

Offer something different to each age group each year. This may mean difference in incentives, training routines, competition schedule, stroke emphasis, and training camp activities.

Hold back two events for flat periods. If a swimmer has been successful in one stroke or event, hold back two events to help them overcome flat periods where there is no improvement. All swimmers will experience a form slump at some time in their careers. For example, if they are breaststroke swimmers, hold back 200 and 400 medleys. If they are sprint flyers, hold back 200 and 400 freestyle.

Set individual and team based goals and ask swimmers to contribute to the setting of these goals.

Challenge the “We’ve never done it before” attitude. Set challenging new goals and demanding new standards.

Keep a report card on each swimmer with a checklist on swimming performance that includes P.B.’s skills, attendance, hobbies, school, other sports etc

It is likely you will have fewer swimmers when you take over owing to the usual 20 –30% movement of swimmers at most coach changeovers. Invite recently retired swimmers who left when last coach took over to come back and be a part of the new program.

Highlight overall development in all strokes and distances and in particular 200 medleys. Avoid emphasising one stroke or event before swimmers hit their mid teens.

Emphasise the importance of a social program. Successful coaches need to “outsell” other sports and activities. Offer something that is more exciting and challenging than football, cricket, basketball, netball etc can offer.

Rewards of participating in the social program should be based on attendance and commitment. 100% training attendance is the minimum standard for participation in the social program.

Introduce a health status check / musculo – skeletal screen if possible.

Avoid introducing radical changes immediately. This could lead to problems owing to swimmers having emotional ties to the previous coach. Aim to introduce permanent change in the culture of the club slowly and methodically.

Encourage participation in other aquatic sports only if they do not interfere with meet schedules, training performances, training attendances and competition criteria.

Assess the club in terms of achieving success at all levels. Can the existing structure support Age to Open Success, Club to State level success, and State to National Level success and National to International level?

Introduce training variety and differences from the previous program to stimulate the swimmers physically and mentally.

Introduce a system of “Cap Colours” for different levels and split coaching groups.

Facilities

Examine current staff, support staff and facilities.

Facilities – are they adequate? Is the pool space appropriate? What is the gym standard? Is it close to the pool and swimming specific? Are facilities available (gym and pool) during school holidays?

Does the club provide equipment – buoys, boards, fins lane ropes, flags, clocks, starting blocks, lockable storage facilities, bands etc.

Competition

Establish achievable short-term competition goals and aim at improvement at all levels.

Keep competitions separate from social engagements.

Competition should be compatible to the training program. They should be adequate and appropriate to the age and skill level of the swimmers. Set team and individual performance based goals that focus on skill and excellence in competition techniques rather than times or medals alone.

Obtain accurate and up to date club records lists and have them prominently displayed around the pool. Display club trophies and media to develop a sense of history and pride in the club.

Obtain an accurate and up to date swim calendar for club, district, regional, state and national competitions.

Make friends with the opposition club and schedule regular competitions with them, particularly prior to major meets.

Determine the club motivation. Is it towards seniors or juniors, elites or participation level swimmers?

Introduce a simple competition schedule for all swimmers. For example, rule of thumb 12 years of age – 12 competitions per year / 20 years of age 20 competitions per year.

Negotiate with the club on the swim meets the coach will attend. Be clear on how you will treat those meets. For example, “I will attend 11 meets, 4 are development level for young swimmers, 4 are skills based and 3 are full on with a full preparation, taper and peak.

Make it clear that swimmers attending additional meets without the coach do so without the coach’s support and without the coach’s approval.

Negotiate to be paid for attending meets.

Budget

Can you afford to do what you are planning to do?

What is the next step? Do you have budget and facilities for the next step in the development of the club?

The club needs to do fundraising. This should not be the coach’s responsibility; however, it should have the coach’s full support. As the club grows and the competition standards rise, so does the need for financial support and the need for available funds.

To cover the cost of the coach attending swim meets an “entry levee” of $1 per entry for any swimmer at any meet can be considered. The coach should also negotiate meals and hotel accommodation.

As the level of swimmer increases, the coach should be funded to attend state age, state open, national age and national open championships. The coach should also be funded to attend professional development courses, accreditation updating activities and self-development courses.

Financial negotiations and details of the total coaching package should include clear job performance indicators. Dates and criteria for job review should be set in place before accepting the coaching position.

Club Environment, Club Committee, Club Politics, Parents

Determine political situation – who makes the decisions in the club? Who are the key decision-makers in the local region and the state association? Who are the selectors? Who determines the competition program?

Make an evaluation of the club and the political situation – PRIOR to starting.

Make your assessment of the club, swimmers, support staff and facilities during the first month, then plan a meeting with key club personnel to discuss your assessment and outline your plans (eg. expected standard, vision for the club and long term goals).

Assess the technical skills available and the growth potential of club.

Sell (as in promote) your plans to the club, officials, parents, coaching staff and swimmers. Sell your vision to Club committee first and then sell to the other groups.

After selling the vision, individual parent and swimmer goal discussions (seniors – parents optional, juniors – parents essential) should be scheduled.

Demand individual and club commitment to excellence.

Talk with the previous coach. Why did he or she leave?

Establish an efficient administration. Check the athlete and club insurance scheme. What type of cover is it? Does it cover coaches and swimmers on tour? Does it cover volunteer staff as well as paid staff?

Develop a strong and structured communication network with parents and club administrators. Have one person from the club committee to work with the coach daily, perhaps a properly appointed liaison person to link the committee with the head coach.

Develop a “parents at training” policy that is workable. Discourage parents from talking with you during workouts; instead develop a policy where parents make appointments outside coaching hours. Clearly explain and circulate this policy widely.

The coach must be represented on the swim club committee. If the head coach is unable to attend a club committee meeting, an assistant coach must attend and report back to the head coach.

Club nights and club competition schedules should be coach driven and compatible to the overall training plan.

Introduce a weekly reporting system to the club executive (secretary and president). Include three people (coach and two others) to ensure misunderstandings are limited.

Develop a monthly reporting system to parents and swimmers. A monthly club meeting, after Saturday morning workout is a good option.

Develop a club identity. Look at club outfitting, club identification, club logos team mascot, club captains- All these things can lead to the development of identity.

Develop a rewards system – recognition of swimmers, officials and anyone who contributes to the club effort.

Develop links with the local media.

Assist the club in seeking and maintaining sponsorship.

Support (Employed Assistants and Volunteers)

Recruit volunteer support from professionals to parents. Look for those interested in swimming with different skills, eg managers, doctors, computer professionals, solicitors, marketing and advertising professionals etc.

Look to people in the club who are officials with kids that have moved on or retired. This limits conflict of interest situations.

Assistant coaches determine their level of development, experience, philosophy, qualification etc.

Schedule weekly meetings with assistant coaches and swim teachers to review the previous week, plan and structure following week, discuss key issues, handle problems etc.

Develop an “overlap” teaching program ie. Assistant takes little kids, head coach development swimmers, assistant coach takes stroke development, head coach takes junior squad, and both take senior squad. This technique ensures a double-checking of teaching standards at all levels.

If replacing a long time club coach who is retiring, have the retiring coach on side and use them as a consultant or specialist stroke coach.

Get key people on side eg. Schoolteachers, council, Sports Science/Sports Medicine people, key business people, Rotary and Lions Clubs etc.

Set Common goals and a team approach with assistant coaches. The assistant coach may have applied for your job and been unsuccessful. Demand total loyalty from your assistant coaches.

If recruiting parents to record training times or work with you pool deck, avoid having them work in lanes where their own kids are swimming.

Arrange for a referee or judge to assess workouts of team and give a written report to the club and coach of their observations. This develops a working relationship with officials and gives the coach feedback on the quality and legality of workout practices.

Eliminate non-coaching commitments, (ie “How many things interfere with coaching”). Minimise your responsibility for taking care of training gear, putting lane ropes in and out, writing up entry cards, taking times and recording.

Introduce change methodically and logically with adequate communication at each stage. Aim for long term permanent change rather than quick fixes which tend to be short lived.

Wayne Goldsmith

Every swimming team has a unique culture.

Some teams have a culture of fun, enjoyment, family and friends. Some teams have a culture of hard work, discipline, dedication and training. Some teams are based at schools, colleges and Universities and their culture is a reflection of the culture of the institution.

The culture of some teams comes from their location, the ethnic background of the people in the team, the climate or the city they live and train in.

Every team is unique and every culture is special.

But for many teams, there comes a time when the coaches, swimmers, families and supporters decide they want to become a winning team. They decide to set some serious competitive goals and work together as a team to achieve them. And to become a winning team requires the development of a winning culture.

What is a winning culture? It’s about environment and opportunity.

A winning culture is one where everyone in the team; coaches, swimmers, families; staff, everyone, is committed to creating a performance focused environment. A performance focused environment provides the opportunity for the team and every individual on the team to win.

Developing a winning culture doesn’t mean you stop having fun. It doesn’t mean that swimming isn’t enjoyable. It doesn’t mean that people can’t hang out and be friends.

It means that the primary goal of the team and everyone associated with it is the development of an environment of excellence for everyone.

How do you develop a winning culture?

Empowerment and Ownership: Culture Comes from Within

A winning culture grows from within. It cannot be Imposed from the outside. The culture of the team is something which comes from the team members: you own it: it is part of you.

With many clubs, particularly those older established clubs with long traditions, there can be an attitude of “this is the way we do it here” or “that new idea will not work here because we’re different”.

In developing a winning club culture these barriers to success must be broken down. The swimmers, coaches, officials and families need to embrace change and to seek to be the best of the best in all aspects of swimming. Everyone needs to be committed to improving and accelerating team progress – at the same rate and in the same direction.

Respect the history and tradition of the club. Respect and remember the great performances of the teams and swimmers of the past. But also strive to progress and improve on them. The greatest honor you can do for any club is to make it successful.

Practical Tip One: Before the beginning of the season, bring everyone in the team together for a day of sharing ideas and opinions. Give everyone a chance to speak and share their views. Provide the opportunity for everyone to be heard with respect and dignity. Allow the current team members to feel their views matter and the club is theirs, they are the current custodians of the club – and they are the people who will lead the club into a successful future.

Winning Vision: A Statement of Success

If you don’t stand for something – you will fall for anything.

A Team Vision is a statement which represents the views and opinions of the team which clearly states “This is who we are, what we want to so, where we are going and what we want to achieve as a team”. It is your team’s trademark!

For example:

Our vision is to work hard together and to strive to provide every swimmer the best possible opportunity to achieve their best.

Or

Our vision is to be the leading swim team in the State by consistently working hard, encouraging and supporting each other and doing everything possible to ensure all swimmers in the team have the opportunity to achieve success.

Practical Tip Two: Once the team comes up with a team Vision, write it up on the team room wall. Have every swimmer write it down in their training diary. Get it printed on t-shirts. The closer you stay in touch with this vision, the more the vision comes to life.

Winning Culture Values

Having a great vision is one thing: bringing it to life is another.

Values are a set of words that team members develop to provide a guide on how to act and live and which help you and your team realizes your vision.

For example:

Team Vision: Our vision is to work hard together and to strive to provide every swimmer the best possible opportunity to achieve their best.

Values to support the Team Vision:

• Hard Work (“work hard” from the Team Vision)
• Passion (“strive” from the Team Vision)
• Team Spirit (“together” from the Team Vision)
• Unity (“every swimmer” from the Team Vision)
• Respect (“every swimmer” from the Team Vision)
• Excellence (“best possible” and “best” from the Team Vision)

These six words become the themes for the team for the season and the guidelines for everything the team does.

Practical Tip Three: Use the Values as “code words” for team practices. For example, when things get tough towards the end of a hard set, team members can use words like “Passion” and “Spirit” to encourage and motivate each other. Living the vision means living the dream.

Winning Culture Behaviors and Standards

In a perfect world, everyone would live the team values, everyday. However, just as there are “road regulations” to provide a set of rules for people to drive cars and “laws” to provide a set of rules for how to live as part of society, swim teams need to have a set of team rules to provide a framework for how to act and behave at training, competition and other team activities.

Team rules or behavior standards need to be developed and enforced by the people the rules and standards apply to: the swimmers.

Team rules should grow from the team vision and team values and be a practical set of guidelines for how the team will behave in a range of situations and circumstances.

For example:

Team Value: Unity

Team Rule: All swimmers will have equal opportunity to train and compete.

Team Value: Hard Work

Team Rule: All swimmers who have committed to swimming at national championships next season must complete a minimum of seven sessions per week.

In addition to team rules, a set of consequences for breaking team rules should be developed by the team. These are a set of clear, fair, just, reasonable and equitable “laws” which the swimmers in the team believe best represent how they want to be judged and punished for breaking team rules.

For example:

Team Value: Respect

Team Rule: All swimmers will show respect for each other as people and for each other’s property.

Consequence for Breaking Team Rule: Team room cleaning duties for two weeks.

Practical Tip Four: Form a leadership group from team members which can be elected by team members or selected by a panel of team members and coaches. The leadership group should consist of swimmers of varying ages and levels of ability so that the views of everyone are listened to, respected and represented. The leadership group needs to be empowered to make decisions, to implement team rules and to administer the consequences of breaches of team standards of behaviors.

From Leadership comes Culture. From Culture comes Performance.

Living Excellence – “Not every four years……..everyday” (US Olympic training centre motto).

Lots of teams come up with great slogans, team visions and cool team rules. But very, very few teams actually develop winning cultures. Why? Because words which say excellence are easy to come up with – what makes the difference is living excellence.

Practical Tip Five: Develop a team war cry or song which is based on the team values and triggers everyone to start thinking and acting like a winning team.

At the start of every training session, someone in the team should lead the team war cry and everyone joins in signaling the start of training and the commitment the team has made to each other and to excellence.

Keep it Relevant: Continuous Improvement

Winning once is tough. But a winning culture means you are working to ensure that winning is sustainable – i.e. the culture that you have created is a positive, winning environment with provides ongoing opportunities for swimmers and coaches to perform at their best season after season after season……year after year after year.

It is important that the team sits down at the end of every season and reviews how things went and makes a new commitment to improving, changing and progressing.

Why? Because success in swimming is a Moving Target. What works this season may not work next season. World records are always getting faster meaning that if you stand still…….you will be left behind.

Practical Tip 6: A simple way of reviewing your performance as a team is to brainstorm the season using three questions:

• What are we doing that we should keep doing? Or what is working?
• What are we doing that we should stop doing? Or what is not working?
• What are we not doing that we could introduce to improve our performance? Or what are some new things we can do that will work?

Ask tough questions, get honest answers and you will lay the foundation for a successful future.

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

Creating a culture of excellence and developing a winning culture does not take a lot more money, facilities, time or resources.

It takes a common desire to work hard and to create an environment where everyone has the optimal opportunity to perform at their best – consistently.

It’s not for everyone – but for some, being part of a winning team which has grown from a winning club culture can be the stuff that swimming dreams are made of.

Wayne Goldsmith