Thursday, June 08, 2017

Fwd: This really upset me


---------- Forwarded message ----------



I'm a pretty positive person but I felt I had to write this email.
You probably know that within the last few days we've launched the School of Thought Clinics that Matt Kredich hosts annually at the University of Tennessee.
It's exciting that we can help provide access to the School of Thought Clinics because I really admire what Matt does in continually bringing in outside experts to learn and better himself and his program.
Honestly the response to it has been awesome with tons of coaches taking advantage of this great resource that is now available online.
But one coach felt the need to email us and complain.
What was he complaining about?
Not the videos or not getting his login info or anything like that.
He was complaining that he disagreed with some of Jan Olbrecht's training conclusions, and therefore we shouldn't be providing this resource…..because he disagrees with it…..
He also went on to say just because someone like Maglischo has a "PhD" behind his name that it doesn't mean anything about whether the information was good or not.
And this is where my frustration shifts to confusion and borderline sadness for this coach.
First, I wasn't saying that PhD's mean you know everything when I mentioned Maglischo was in attendance at the clinic but rather pointing out that the best coaches know a lot but STILL want to keep learning. Maglischo himself in the podcast I did with him a while back said he made some big mistakes in this thinking and recommendations.
But guess what? He's still learning and trying to get better!

He could have just written the first book (Swimming Fast) and been done. But no, he's improved his thinking to then write Swimming Faster, and then Swimming Fastest and now even his latest release.

If you don't know this by now let me be perfectly clear about our position at RITTER and what not only myself but the rest of our team's goal is:

We provide opportunities to learn to be a better coach or swimmer, not "right way" methods.

What we will not do is be the "gatekeepers" in deciding what is the "right way" to do something or the "wrong way" to do something. I'm certainly not smart enough to keep up with everything.

I am, I think skilled at finding those that are doing things differently and spotting great practitioners, who themselves are trying to continually get better.

A small example of this was a blog that Abbie our Technique Coach wrote about the multiple ways to pull in freestyle. Not the singular "right way" but the options to choose from depending on the circumstances.

Why do we take this approach?

Because the sport of swimming proves over and over again that there are so many ways to achieve success.

It's not about finding the singular "right way" and then everything magically falls into place.

What is necessary is knowing the principles of exercise science, stroke technique, nutrition and recovery. Then blend it altogether and be continually open to learning new things. There's continual evolution in our sport and so the "best" ways to train always shift over time.

As a coach if you ever feel you've "arrived" and figured it completely out, well that's either the moment you get left behind and/or it's when you start sending emails like the one I got yesterday.

If you listen to any handful of podcasts and especially in the Coaches Corner you'll hear really successful coaches continually say that they are still trying to figure it out. And whenever they feel certain there's usually a twist coming up soon.

A great example of this is currently featured in the Coaches Corner – Gregg Parini of Denison University. Gregg has been there a long time and been producing great results for a long time. But in multiple instances of the talks we done so far, it's always come up that complacency leads to lower performance, as a coach or a swimmer.

Gregg is always trying to figure out a better way and not comfortable with just copying what worked last season because they "figured it out."

Now please understand me too. I'm not saying that just because you get access to something like the School of Thought that you are required to believe everything and implement everything.

Absolutely not!

I think most of you don't make that mistake but if everyone knew that, well then I wouldn't get emails like I did yesterday.

It's always better to listen to other experts and get ideas and then decide how it fits into your program. That's the mindset we operate with here and the one I think is best for all coaches.

Learn. Test. Adapt. Repeat. That's basically the process of becoming a better coach. But if you stop learning or even being open to it then that you get stuck and stagnant.

So that brings us to the opportunity that you have now. With over 40+ hours of video lectures and discussion in the School of Thought Clinics there's a ton of opportunity for you to learn something here that you can apply to how you run your program.

And…… we just announced some awesome NEW Free Bonuses when you purchase any School of Thought Clinic.


BONUS #1

Dave Salo - Case Study: Follow along as Coach Salo talks you through 4 full weeks of workouts for his pro team, college athletes and even campers at his swim camp. Get access to PDF copies of the workouts as well as audio of Coach Salo's discussion about the training.

BONUS #2
Bob Bowman Presentation from the 1st Global Swimming Summit. Coach Bowman talks about the greatest impacts on his as developing coach as well as training philosophies and much more.
**Bonuses will only be available for a limited time and will expire at midnight tonight so don't delay in getting access to the School of Thought Clinic.



Keep learning – ALWAYS and enjoy!


-Chris

PS - Remember the Bonuses listed above will be yours for FREE with the purchase of any School of Thought Clinic. These Bonuses will expire tonight at midnight so don't miss out.

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