The Power of Coaching Through Questioning!

The Car Ride Home!

Three Key Learning Points * The worst thing you can do is ask them to analyse what went wrong. * The car ride home is not the time to coach - even if you ARE a coach. * What they need most in that moment is unconditional love and acceptance. This post is ostensibly for swimming parents but it’s a good one for coaches too - because part of your job is educating the parents in your program on how to handle the big moments. So here’s the scenario. Your child has gone to a big meet. New goggles. New bag. Everyone’s been excited about the Meet for weeks. But, for whatever reason, their swimming performances didn’t meet their own expectations or yours or the coach’s. Now you’re in the car on the way home. They’re quiet in the back. Maybe headphones on. Maybe gaming. Maybe just staring out the window. There’s that silence that we as parents all know so very very well. And as a parent you’re thinking: “I’ve got to say something. I love them. I can’t bear to see them like this.” This is one of the most critical swimming parent moments you’ll ever experience. Let me walk you through what NOT to say and suggest what you can say and do that might actually help. Don’t ask them to analyse what went wrong: The absolute worst thing you can say is this: “Gee, I thought you’d swim a lot faster darling. What do you think went wrong?” They know they didn’t swim fast. Their coach has already spoken to them about it. They’ve seen their split times. Their teammates have already told them. A competitor or two probably had a go at them. They’ve been beating themselves up since they touched the wall. They do not need YOU - the person they love most - asking them to dwell on it a little more! Don’t try to coach them: “I was watching your backstroke today. You really need to throw your arms more. Push off faster. Kick harder in and out of the turn.” Don’t do it. You’re not their coach. And even if you ARE their coach - in that car, in that moment, you’re not. You’re their parent. That’s the only role that matters in that car in that moment. Don’t compare them to other kids: “Gee, Susie went really well today. Susie was so fast. You normally beat Susie.” Another massive NO! Comparing your child to other kids in that moment just makes them feel smaller and worse. Don’t go there. So what CAN you do? First - say nothing. If they’re in their mid-teens especially they’ll come to you when or if they’re ready. Pushing things only makes them withdraw further. Second - divert. “Hey, on the way home I thought we might grab some takeaway. What do you think?” Give them something small and joyful to think about that’s not related to swimming. Take the spotlight off the meet for a minute. They don’t have to be sitting in the back hitting themselves over the head with a brick the whole drive. Third - share something positive about YOU. “You know what - I really enjoy going to swim meets. I just love watching.” Tell them something that makes it not all about them and their performance. The bigger picture: I’ve been through this hundreds of times with sporting parents - not just with swimming but with football, rugby, tennis, basketball, rowing, gymnastics: every parent at some time will experience the car ride home after a sporting event. The car ride home is far more important than most parents realise. Get it wrong and you create more stress, more frustration, more sadness. You make it harder for the kid to come out of it. But get it right and it’s a chance to demonstrate something extraordinary - unconditional love. Whether they won nine gold medals and broke records, or got disqualified and missed their entry time - love them. Cuddle them. Tell them they’re amazing. Show them they’re valued for who they are not what they swam. If they have you as their “rock” - i.e. the certainty that you love them whether they win or lose - then they have the stable foundation to come back, recover, learn and grow. They always do. Summary: The car ride home is one of the most important moments in your child’s sporting life. Don’t analyse. Don’t coach. Don’t compare. Stay quiet, divert if needed, share something positive about yourself and above everything else - love them unconditionally. That’s the rock they will build the rest of their sporting career - and indeed the rest of their lives upon. Three Practical Applications For Your Coaching: * Educate Your Parents: Run a short parent workshop on the topic of the car ride home. Five minutes at a parent meeting could change dozens of swimmer experiences. * Hand Out the “What Not To Say”: Give parents a printable one-pager with the “three things not to say after a tough meet”. Make it easy for them to remember. * Model It Yourself: Coaches - the first conversation after a tough swim matters too. Same rules apply. Don’t pile on. Don’t analyse in the moment. The deep debrief can wait until the next training session. This is Wayne Goldsmith for Swimming Gold. Check out my new SPORTING PARENTS COURSE https://coachwayne.gumroad.com/l/raisingathletes RAISING ATHLETES - The Sporting Parent’s Guide to Getting It Right. You not only get a unique learning experience with videos and study guides but you get a free copy of my book THE TALENT MYTH - WHY CHARACTER BEATS GENETICS EVERYTIME! And use this CODE PARENTS2026ST at checkout to receive 25% off the price! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe [https://swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

The Power of Coaching Through Questioning!

Three Key Learning Points: * The “sage on a stage” coaching model is failing teenage athletes and contributing to the dropout crisis. * If a swimmer solves the problem they own the solution - and ownership leads to self-responsibility which changes everything. * Coaching through questioning isn’t “soft or weak” - it’s exactly how the best teachers and university lecturers operate. When you ask most adults about the coaches they had when they were growing up they will often describe very similar experiences: The coach spoke. A lot. The coach gave instructions. The coach set the program. The coach told them how to do drills. The coach was always telling or yelling. It’s what we call “The sage on a stage” i.e. “I’m the custodian of all knowledge and information. I’ll tell you what to do and you do it.” That model of coaching is broken and the dropout data is screaming at us. We have a dropout crisis: Teenage dropout rates in swimming are extraordinarily high around the world and they’re only getting worse. It’s not just swimming either. Rugby, rugby league, AFL, hockey - most of the sports I work with are seeing the same thing. The response from most sports has been to tinker with the rules or to pour more money into marketing campaigns to try and increase participation. I think there’s a much better solution and it sits very squarely with coaches and coaching. Why teenagers walk away: When kids hit 14, 15, 16 they start to rationalise their relationships. School? “Yes, I need that relationship”. Part-time job? “Yes, I need money for a car, to buy stuff and to go out”. Boyfriend or girlfriend? “Yes, I’m growing and developing psychosocially. I want that relationship”. Then they look at swimming and they ponder: “Hang on. The coach has been standing at the end of the pool yelling numbers at me since I was 10. The relationship hasn’t changed. I don’t get much feedback. I have no input into my own program. I have no voice.” They quietly conclude that the swimming relationship isn’t serving them. So they come less. Then they stop coming. Solve the problem - own the solution: Here’s the shift. Instead of telling them, ask them. “Don’t breathe inside the flags” - said, told, yelled, screamed a hundred times - lands flat. But what if it sounded more like this? Coach: “Where did you take your last breath?” Swimmer: “On the wall coach.” Coach: “Is that going to make you faster or slower?” Swimmer: “Slower.” Coach: “Is there another way you could do it?” Swimmer: “Yeah - I could take my last breath four strokes from the wall and build my kick to the wall.” Coach: “That’s a good idea. I like that. Give it a go!” The swimmer solved the problem, they own the solution and the learning and they can take responsibility for putting it into action. When the swimmer pushes off the next time they’re not thinking “I have to do what coach told me to do.” They’re thinking “I’ll do this because I chose to. I saw the problem. I solved it. This is mine.” If you solve a problem you own the solution. Ownership of the learning changes everything. This isn’t being soft: A lot of old-school coaches hear this and think “You’re going soft. You’re relinquishing your coaching power.” Not at all! This is exactly how teachers run classrooms in modern high schools. This is exactly how university lecturers run lectures and tutorials. The whole education world has moved past the sage-on-a-stage model to a shared learning, collaborative learning approach. Swimming has been a bit slow to catch up - but we learn fast! Summary: If we want to keep teenagers in the sport we have to change the way we deliver the experience of swimming. Move from telling and yelling to asking and listening. Pose learning experiences as questions. Let them solve the problem. Let them own the solution. And remember, it’s their journey not yours. Three Practical Applications For Your Coaching: * The 10-1 Rule: For every 5 instructions you’d normally give in a session try replacing one of them with a question. Build from there. * End-of-Set Debrief: After a key set ask the swimmers: “What worked? What didn’t? What would you try differently?” Listen before you respond. Let them feel heard, respected and listened to. * Standing Question: Pick one question to ask every swimmer every session. “What’s one thing you want to get better at today?” Then hold them accountable for their own answer. This is Wayne Goldsmith for Swimming Gold. If you liked this post check out my Sports Thoughts Substack with new weekly content on coaching, sports parenting, athlete development and youth sport: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe [https://swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Whoever Wins the Start Wins the Race

Three Key Learning Points: * First movement matters - what part of the swimmer’s body moves first usually determines the success of their first 15 metres. * The “little hole” - hands together, feet together, body in streamline before entry. * The “three kicks” - kick fast underwater, kick fast to the surface, kick INTO the stroke. There’s a lot of talk on the internet about swimming speed - what pure speed is, how to develop it, how to coach it. Feel free to go internet-deep-diving for what it’s worth. But here’s an old saying that still holds up: He or she who wins the start wins the race. In a 50, whoever wins the start usually wins the race. Sure, sometimes a swimmer’s start might be a bit ordinary and they have to pick it up over the back end of the race, finish strong and come through the field to win - but in most cases the first 15 metres decides who’s on the podium - and often who’s on top of it. So how do you actually coach a better first 15? First movement counts!! When I’m teaching coaches how to coach starts I stand on the side of the pool and we watch the swimmer closely. The question I ask coaches is: “what part of the body moved first?” If their first movement is up, chances are it’s going to be a slow first 15. They’re going up before they’re going out. But if their first movement is to push back - hands driving through the front of the blocks, feet driving through the back of the blocks - everything launches them forward in a straight line. Hands through the front, feet through the back and the body explodes forward. Chances are you’ll see a much better first 15. Make a tiny little hole. Once they’re in the air, the body has to be streamlined before it hits the water. Hands together. Feet together. Whole body in line. Try to enter through one tiny little hole rather than landing flat or wide. Less drag in = more speed out. It sounds basic but watch your age groupers in training. How many consistently enter the water through the “little hole?”. The three kicks!!! When they hit the water I talk about three kicks. Not one, two, three - three different TYPES of kicks: * Kick one: fast underwater. Fast, purposeful kicks driving them forward. * Kick two: fast towards the surface. Deliberate kicks that propel their body towards the surface, i.e. not a lazy pop-up and stop! * Kick three: kick INTO the stroke. Their kick has to launch them into the whole stroke and from there - into the whole race. I can’t tell you how many age groupers I’ve seen go kick, kick, kick - STOP - then try to start their race again from that dead stop. They slow down. They get swamped. Their first 15 falls apart. Their kick has to flow straight into their stroke as a smooth, continous, flowing action without a break or pause. Why this matters: In 50s the first 15 metres usually determines the outcome. If it doesn’t decide the winner it often decides who medals. Most coaches spend hours on the back end - fitness, power training, sprint work, “racing tired” etc. That stuff matters. But for sprinters and sprinting, the first 15 is where races are won. Summary If you want to improve your swimmers’ 50s start at the start. Watch their first movement. Improve their streamline. Practice and master the three kicks. The first 15 metres is very coachable - and it’s where you’ll find the greatest opportunities for improvement and success. Three Practical Applications For Your Coaching: * First Movement Audit: This week stand side-on for every dive and ask one question - what moved first? Track it for each swimmer. You’ll be amazed at the patterns. * Little Hole Practice: Set a streamline standard. Hands together, feet together, body locked in. Make it a non-negotiable on every push and every dive. * Three Kicks Set: Build a short set where they explicitly practise all three kicks - underwater, to the surface and INTO the stroke. No dead time between kick and stroke. This is Wayne Goldsmith for Swimming Gold. If you liked this post check out my Sports Thoughts Substack with new weekly content on coaching, sports parenting, athlete development and youth sport: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe [https://swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

The 5 Hs: Biomechanics Made Simple

Forget Bernoulli. Forget precise hand pitch angles. Forget complex angular analysis. Let’s make swimming biomechanics practical for every coach. The Problem With Traditional Biomechanics Education Coaching courses love to throw physics at new coaches. Bernoulli’s principle. Lift versus drag propulsion. Optimal elbow angles of 127 degrees. Angular velocity calculations. Meanwhile, in the REAL world, the coach is standing alone on deck with a whistle, 20 kids in the water and no idea how any of that “hand pitch angle” stuff helps them fix little Timmy’s freestyle. We’ve made biomechanics ridiculously intimidating. It doesn’t need to be. The 5 Hs of Swimming Biomechanics Here’s what you actually need to know. Five things. All start with H. Easy to remember on deck. 1. Head Where the head goes, the body follows. Head position controls body position. Neutral head, level body. Lifted head, sinking legs. Start every technique conversation here. 2. Hands Entry, catch, pull, exit. Newton’s Third Law: push water this way, body goes that way. Where the hands go - the water flows! Watch where they’re pushing water. Keep your hands SOFT so you can catch and feel and keep pressure on the water throughout your stroke. That’s 90% of propulsion sorted. Forget all that rubbish about albatross wings and how human arms are like the wings of an eagle. (Ask me one day about several conversations with Fluid Dynamics experts who laughed when I told them about Bernoulli and swimming). Keep it simple! 3. Hips The engine room. Hip rotation drives freestyle and backstroke. Hip position determines body line in breaststroke and butterfly. If the hips are wrong, everything else has to compensate. The relationship between the head and the hips is critical in all strokes. 4. Heels (Feet) Kick from the hips, not the knees. Ankles relaxed. Toes pointed but soft, loose and relaxed. Heels should just break the surface in freestyle. If you can see knees breaking the water, the kick is wrong. 5. Huff (Breathing) You’re thinking - why include breathing in a post about biomechanics? Breath control affects everything. Holding your breath creates tension and tightness. Poor breathing disrupts stroke rhythm and flow. Poor breathing often means swimmers have to lift their heads too high and for too long resulting in a breakdown of their technique and skills. Breathing is a skill; train it like one. Your Best Biomechanics Tool You don’t need a $50,000 underwater camera system. Your phone and / or your tablet are all you need. Slow motion video and importantly…. immediate playback on deck to facilitate better learning. Record. Replay. Show the swimmer right here and right now: “See that? That’s what your head is doing.” Or even better, ASK the swimmer a question about their technique. “What’s happening when you do that?” “What does it feel like?” “What do you think would happen if you lifted your head a little?” Real-time feedback. Best coaching tool you’ll ever own. That’s biomechanics made simple. Which of the 5 Hs do your swimmers struggle with most? Coming Next Week: Part 3 of the Simple Science Series; Test Sets for Age Group Swimmers If you’re finding value in this series, share it with a colleague. And if you’re not yet a paid subscriber, join us; click subscribe below. Simple science, practical coaching, every week. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe [https://swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

The PACE Model: Training Zones Made Simple

We’ve overcomplicated training zones for beginner coaches and it’s time to fix it. The Problem With Current Models Most coaching education programs throw 6 or 7 different training zones at first year coaches. Threshold, VO2 max, lactate tolerance, aerobic endurance, race pace, recovery, anaerobic power; the list goes on and on. Here’s the reality: you’ve got 25 kids in the pool, three lanes, two hours, and you’re trying to remember the difference between Zone 4a and Zone 4b. It doesn’t work. It’s not practical. And it’s not necessary; especially for coaches working with age group swimmers. The PACE Model I’ve developed a simpler approach. Four zones. Easy to remember. Easy to apply. Easy to teach. P: Preparation Pace This is warm-up, cool-down and recovery swimming. Low intensity. Technical focus. Getting the body ready or bringing it back down. No stress. No pressure. Easy, relaxed, rhythm and flow. A: Aerobic Pace The foundation work. Building the engine. Conversational intensity; they could talk if they needed to. This is where most of your yardage lives. Sustainable, repeatable, technique-focused. And…Easy, relaxed, rhythm and flow. C: Competition Speed Pace This is where we connect skills to race conditions. Not quite flat out, but close. Focus is on maintaining great stroke mechanics and race quality skills at higher speeds. Think of it as “controlled fast.” E: Electric Pace Maximum speed (i.e. not effort - because we should aim for effortless speed). Race pace or faster. Short reps. Full recovery. This is genuine speed work; not sort-of fast, actually fast. It is important that we coach swimmers to marry the concept of speed and relaxation, i.e. maximum speed but relaxed and smooth. Why PACE Works Four zones. One word. Every coach can remember it. As coaches grow and develop, they can add complexity. For example, PACES adds a fifth zone: S for Sub-Race Pace or Threshold. But start simple. Master PACE first. The practicalities of coaching age group swimmers; multiple kids, limited lanes, varying abilities; demand simplicity. Save the complex periodisation models for later. Right now, teach them PACE. What training zone model do you use? Is it working for you? Coming Next: Part 2 of the Simple Science Series; Biomechanics Made Simple If you’re enjoying this series and you’re not yet a paid subscriber, why not join us? Click the subscribe button below. And if you know another coach looking for simpler, smarter ways to integrate sports science into their program, share this with them. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe [https://swimminggold.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]