The Fear of Success (and Failure)

The first #MondayMotivation social media post in 2019 by USA Swimming is the inspiration for my first blog post of 2019. The motivational quote was said by Winston Churchill. A quick history lesson reminds us that Winston Churchill was the prime minister of the United Kingdom during World War II. He is often credited with doing an exceptional job keeping the United Kingdom resilient through turbulent war times. Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” How can we help our swimmers successfully deal with success and failure? No single result is the end of the story. It is more how we react and keep moving forward.

First, how does one handle success? My answer is to be proud of your accomplishment and the work that led you to your successful accomplishment. Some level of celebration is likely appropriate. The next response is the difficult one. Often some swimmers start to doubt they can replicate (or even improve on) that accomplishment. They begin to think about all the hard work and time leading up to the perceived perfect outcome just achieved. It can be hard to believe it is possible to do it all over again, let alone be better. Agreed it will not be easy. Maybe in the past the athlete acknowledged there were still areas to improve and approached those areas in an honest effort to get better. However, in the end the athlete did not see the improvement desired. Likely, that resulted from forgetting about the aspects that they worked on earlier. The athlete probably got better in the new areas, but the old stuff may have regressed from a lack of focus on them. This is understandable and common. It is a large part of what makes continual improvement so difficult. One must continue to work on the old stuff while finding new areas of improvement.

Continuing to become better only gets more difficult as you improve. This is where the courage really is needed. No athlete can do this alone. Along with one's support system of coaches, teammates, family, etc. an athlete can be guided on a new path. This support system will be there for encouragement along the way. These individuals can help push the athlete beyond old limits and help pick them up when things get tough or seem to fall apart. The individual athlete must make the decision and commitment to continue improving, but the athlete is not alone in making the journey.

Dealing with failure is very similar to success. The athlete will first ask themselves what went wrong. Very often, there will some relatively obvious answers. The coach and others within the support system must then work cooperatively to devise a plan to improve. This plan to improve will mostly include ways to correct the mistakes identified. The only difference between these mistakes after a failure vs. success is how easy one can identify the mistakes. The process of developing the cooperative plan is only step one of accepting the failure. The later steps and longer part of the process is working through the plan (and likely even adjusting the plan over time).

Whether you claim a result is a success or a failure, it is not the final chapter. Determine what went right and celebrate those aspects. However, also constructively evaluate your performance for aspects that can be improved. Then develop a plan to maintain the good aspects and ways to add to them going forward. This is true for both successes and failures. As humans, we are not perfect, always leaving chances to be better. Be proud of your accomplishments, but be courageous in trying to be even better next time.

A slight detour out of the pool: Lessons from running the NYC Marathon

 

I am going to make a slight detour out of the pool for this blog post.  Just recently, I completed running the NYC Marathon. To start let me describe my marathon history.

The 2017 NYC Marathon was my fourth overall and third NYC Marathon.  I did 2 marathons (Vermont and NYC) back in 2004 and vowed to never again to do one.  I stupidly did not even come close to training appropriately.  Essentially, I finished (did not run most of either) them by probably training with a few 3-5 mile runs in the months beforehand.  That is no way to prepare one's self for a 26.2 mile race.  I survived alone on being younger and still in semi-decent shape from being a swimmer.  Fast forward to the day of the NYC Marathon in November 2015.  I had done some running that summer to prepare for my first triathlon.  I kept running afterwards to add some variety to my exercise routine.  A fellow swim coach (who was much more of a runner than I) messages me that she was watching the marathon on TV and decided to run next year (2016) with a charity.  She suggested that I might want to run it in 2016 too.  My first reaction was no way, that is crazy and I said never again.  I gathered some more information and thought some more about it and eventually decided that I would like to try again.  I think I realized how I left things just did not sit well with me.  I had not given my best effort and that still bothered me over a decade later.  I actually started real training and did okay with that.  My training was not that good as I did not follow a structured plan (even though I had one available to me).  I competed and finished in 2016, breaking my previous best by almost 1 hour.  However, I still felt there was more I wanted to accomplish.  I also wanted to complete this marathon experience with my friend that suggested doing it.  She missed out due to injuries and had to defer until 2017.  I was even more focused on proper training for 2017.  I was much more consistent and felt much better about things.  I set 4 goals for myself.  One was a very aggressive goal (break 4 hours) that I may never achieve, but I like to set that one goal that seems unattainable.  The other 3 were to actually run the entire race, have a time of 4 hours and something, and lastly make the NY Times results section (they cut it off usually around 5 hours -- too many names to print all 50,000+ finishers).  Well, I achieved those 3 goals when I finished in 4:45:56 this past Sunday in the 2017 NYC Marathon.  I had come a long way from struggling to be the last official finisher back in my first marathon in Vermont.

So, how does this marathon experience relate to swimming and coaching.  There are so many things.  I will touch on a few.

1. TRAINING: You have to put in the work to succeed.  There are no shortcuts.  With each marathon I have completed, I have gotten better in my training and as a result I have done better.  The same is true in swimming.  If you take the time to train smarter and better, the more likely you will succeed.
2. GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE: As coaches we often tell our swimmers to get used to feeling uncomfortable.  You can only improve if you get out of your comfort zone.  I truly believe that, but swimming has been a part of my life for so long that I think I have become comfortable feeling uncomfortable.  It was getting hard for me to relate to younger swimmers and what they experience regarding this.  I hope that makes some sense.  Being a relative newbie to marathons, I have found again what it means to feel discomfort as I try to improve my marathon running.
3. MENTAL TOUGHNESS: Again another thing I have just become too comfortable with.  I really re-learned what it means to be mentally tough.  While I have improved my physical conditioning with each marathon, the aspect that made the most impact was becoming more mentally strong.  My body hurt just as much, if not more, this year as the miles added up, but I forced myself to keep running.  My body was going to hurt whatever I did, but I had to train my mind to set aside that feeling and keep running.  My friend and I talked about this before and after the race.  We were in total agreement how it was going to hurt and it did hurt, but fighting through the hurt was so important.  This is something that all swimmers struggle with to varying degrees.  I think I can understand better what young swimmers are feeling as they are being asked to try and expand their skill sets as swimmers.
4. PACE YOURSELF: As a distance swimmer, I am very aware of the ins and outs of pacing.  Running marathons just added a whole new level to my knowledge set.  Last year, I got caught up in the crowds of NYC and went out too fast and paid the price later on.  That was a good mistake and one I actually encourage my swimmers to make.  Finding out how much you can handle is important.  This year I was much more controlled in my early pace.  Early on I wanted to go faster and keep up with my friend, but I knew it was not the right strategy for me.  It paid off for me as I felt better towards the end.  I actually was able to speed up at the end.  My friend admitted afterwards that she probably went out too fast feeding too much off the crowds.  That was the exact thing I experienced the prior year.  We even talked a bit about that prior to the race, but until you actually experience it it is hard to make the adjustment.
5. TECHNIQUE: It is so important to maintain proper technique.  When you are tired, it is normal to lose some control over your technique and get sloppy.  It may feel better in the moment, but you will become less efficient.  And less efficient means you will get more tired, more quickly.  As the miles added up, I could feel the soreness of my leg muscles with every stride.  I knew I had to maintain a proper stride and rhythm with my legs and arms.  This is the same thing in swimming as you must maintain a good efficient pull and steady kick.  Even breathing is important.  Just like your coach probably tells you to maintain a breathing pattern, this is true in running as I had to breath normally.

Hopefully, this was a useful detour down my marathon running experience and you can see how it relates to the development of a swimmer.  Just as important I hope I can take this knowledge to continue improving as a coach.  And yes, I am intending to go for 3 in a row and run the NYC Marathon in 2018.

Thoughts on how to train age group swimmers

Months ago I started to work on this blog post about my training philosophy for age group swimmers.  I knew this would be possibly a controversial topic.  There are many differing opinions on how to train swimmers of all levels.  I will be completely honest and say that part of my delay in completing this blog entry is due to being unsure if I wanted to deal with the differing opinions.  While I respect and welcome well thought out opinions expressed in a polite manner, I know there are some out there who can be very unaccepting of different opinions and as a result are downright rude and disrespectful when expressing their beliefs.  Those are the types of discussions I do not want and what kept me from posting this.  For those willing to have a respectful discussion, please do comment as I am open to your ideas.  My ideas while still grounded in the same basic beliefs have changed over time to adjust to new knowledge and what I think children need and want today.

To start I would like to provide a little background of my own swimming as I believe this shaped the foundation of my philosophy as a coach.  While tracking the volume of yardage was commonplace for me, I did not come from a background that did extreme amounts of yardage.  Probably the peak weekly yardage I did was in high school with my high school program and it reached around 50,000 to 60,0000 yards.  Looking back, I would say that 20-25% of that was what I would consider garbage yardage today.  It may have had a purpose, but I don't recall one.  My club practice volume peaked at around 40,000 to 45,000 yards weekly.  Part of the difference was that we did not typically do doubles with my club team, while my high school team had doubles 2-3 times a week.  Going back to my age group swimming days, pre-high school, I came from a program that emphasized much of what would be considered today's USA Swimming IMX program.  Without training extreme volume, we were encouraged and prepared to swim all events and distances.  That is where I learned to love distance free, 400 IMs and 200 flys.  Moving forward into college, I still trained as distance swimmer, but we again were not a volume based program.  Our weekly average yardage was slightly higher than my club experience (mainly due to 2 doubles a week).  We did do the typical increased volume during a winter break training, but that was not the norm throughout our season.  In summary, I was introduced to a training philosophy that trained distance and IM while avoiding extreme yardage volume.  Note that I did not mention much about short race pace training.  While we would do sprint sets occasionally, it was not a large part of my training experience, good or bad.

Now, onto my coaching experience.  As I am now in my 18th year of coaching, I have seen a slow positive change in the way age group swimmers are trained.  I think when I started to coach the prevailing popular approach was to mainly increase training volume over time to develop senior swimmers.  In some ways, treat young age group swimmers like mini senior swimmers.  While increasing the volume swimmers train is important, I think often the curve was too steep.  More and more, I am gladly hearing about coaching not increasing the number of practices or even number of hours practiced.  It is more about better utilizing the time already scheduled.  For younger swimmers there should be more down time within a practice, as much more instructional attention is necessary (and they are slower).  Thus, the density of practice time being actually filled with swimming will increase as a swimmer gets older and more experienced.  I would much rather see a swimmer increase and exhaust their training capacity in this manner before adding any additional practice sessions.  As a coach of mainly swimmers ages 10-12, I believe offering 6 practices a week ranging from 1.5-2 hours in length is more than adequate.  It is understood and expected that most swimmers will miss 1-2 of those practices a week due to other activities.  I strongly believe that is acceptable as these children should be involved in other activities and sports.  They do not need to be making a commitment to only swimming just yet.  If they choose to do that, that is fine, but that is the exception and not the norm.  Within the 2 hour practices is when we take more time for instructional work or just plain fun and games.  Often 30 minutes of that is used to just work on technique or some type of fun game.  They already have put in 1-1.5 hours of hard work.  Another aspect I find  increasingly becoming more true is that swimmers today take longer to understand and apply the various training concepts.  What I mean is it takes more time before a swimmer understands and independently knows how and when to change intensity (learning the energy zones however you teach it).  I think many swimmers start understanding the concepts long before they learn how to make their bodies apply that knowledge properly.  It can be frustrating as a coach, but we must be extremely patient as we will feel like we are repeating the same lesson hundreds, maybe thousands, of times.  The last aspect that I truly believe and I think is common amongst most coaches now is training from an IM perspective.  We are trying to create well rounded swimmers that can do any event or distance.  Yes, they will have favorites and ones they are better at.  However, we create a system that allows them to respect and be comfortable swimming anything.

The last item I would like to address is USRPT(Ultra Short Race Pace Training) for age group swimmers.  While I have not researched the details of it much, I will provide my limited opinion.  I strongly believe that part of what we must teach is how to swim fast.  One of the best ways to do that is by doing short, fast swims at times.  That is where I think USRPT is an awesome tool for age group swimmers when used in moderation.  However, USRPT as the sole or dominant training approach I think is detrimental to the long term development of age group swimmers.  I believe reasonable training volume above and beyond USRPT is critical for long term success.  I think USRPT is something that can be increasingly incorporated for a swimmer in the later stages of their careers (college and beyond).  We are seeing many swimmers in that demographic succeed with it.  That is great and I think we must remember that they have not trained like that their entire careers.  We are only starting to now see swimmers use USRPT predominately from a young age.  I am curious to see how their long term development progresses.  Maybe I will be wrong and then it will be up to me to adjust as I hope I am continually doing as new knowledge is learned.

Now it is time to set some goals!

Goal setting.  It is something we all do whether we realize it or not.  As swimmers, one should be constantly creating and evaluating one's goals.  Most coaches will have swimmers do this at the beginning of the season.  That is a minimum as to when and how often they should be done.  Goal setting is really a continual process.  Age group swimmers will need help through this process as it probably will be the first time they are formally creating and documenting their goals.  In this blog entry, I will go over some of what I consider important for an age group swimmer (and some advice for parents) to do when setting goals.  Also, as a part of goals, I will discuss the support system you want and can provide as one works to reach their goals.

So here are some of my opinions on goal setting for age group swimmers.
1. Create a goal time for all events.  Since I believe that every swimmer should try all events, one should have goals in all events.  It is important to have a purpose (working towards your goal) each time you step on the blocks.
2. Goals are not just times you want to achieve in a race.  Think about what you must do in practice and out of the water to achieve your goals.  Is their a specific set or technique that you can improve on to help you achieve your goal?  Would getting more sleep or eating healthier be of some benefit?
3. Specify a time frame for each goal.  There are short term and long term goals.  Specify by when you want to achieve goals.  Yes, this creates a little pressure and urgency, but used the right way this is a great motivator.  If something is months or years away, it is naturally hard to stay focused on that long term goal (still important to have long term goals).  Therefore, one should create short term goals to achieve along the way towards that long term goal.
4. Swimmers, try as much as possible to work on your goals by yourself.  These are yours, and yours alone.  If you have trouble, I suggest a swimmer go to their coach for help first.  Now, parents, this is probably the hardest part of the process.  You want to help your child, but letting them own their goals will truly help them.  These goals should be their goals and no one else's goals.  Just be there to help them and support them on the journey towards achieving these goals.

Once a swimmer has created their goals, what now?  First, the swimmer should share these goals with their coach.  The coach is the one there to help guide the swimmer to achieving these goals.  The coach may provide some constructive feedback on a swimmer's goals.  Some examples may be that the coach thinks the goal is too easy or too hard, some intermediate short term goals are need related to a long term goal, etc.  A good coach ultimately will let the final decision on the goals be with the swimmer as these are the swimmer's goals.  They are not the coach's goals either.  I suggest a swimmer share their goals with some trusted friends/teammates.  Having a support system in place can be an immense help.  Some people will be the ones that will keep the swimmer honest when they get lazy and are not working their hardest towards their goals (this happens to even the best of us).  That support system also will be there when you hit some setbacks along the way.  Sometimes you will need to re-evaluate your goals due to setbacks.  Your support system, including your coach, will be there to help you.  Just as much as you need a support system, be there for your teammates and friends.  They may not say it, but they need and appreciate you.  You do not need to have the answers, but being there to listen and let them talk can be just what they need.

So, you have created and shared your goals.  Now is the time to get working and achieve those goals.  Remember once your goals are met, it is not the end,  It is time to start the process again and create some new goals.  Good luck!

The first meet of the season

As the new swim season is about a month old for most teams now, competition and swim meets are about to begin.  Swim meets can be very stressful and nerve-wracking for swimmers and parents.  It does not matter how many years someone has been a swimmer or parent of a swimmer there will be some nervous feelings before the first meet of the season.  That is okay as being a little nervous is okay and normal.  How one handles those nerves is what matters.  Personally, I know that I still get nervous before competing at a meet and I have been doing it for over 30 years. 

When it comes to age group swimmers I think there are 3 general types of swimmers getting ready for that first swim meet.  The first type is a brand new swimmer that has never competed at a swim meet before.  The second type is someone that has a season or two experience and is beginning to really expand their swimming knowledge and ability.  The third and final type is someone that is a pretty experienced and well rounded age group swimmer soon to become a senior level swimmer on their team and/or competing for their high school team.  Each of these swimmers has a slightly different perspective and will approach the first meet of the season differently.

The brand new swimmer should first and foremost remember they are with their friends and should enjoy the experience.  As a new swimmer competing for the first time, each swim is a guaranteed best time.  Do not have any expectations going into the meet except to have fun and give your best effort.  Your coach(es) will be there to help you along the way.  Your teammates will be there to cheer you on.

The slightly seasoned swimmer has some idea of what they can expect as they have been to some meets before.  However, they may be trying some new events now as they have more experience.  In events they have competed previously, they will want to beat their previous best time.  At this early stage in their swimming career that is still possible, but it will get harder to do a best time every single time they get on the blocks to race as the continue to compete.  Stay confident in your ability to improve and try new events or distances.  Your coach believes you are capable and that is why you are competing in those specific races.  Lastly, remember that your times are not the only thing to consider for improvement.  Your technique is just as important to always improve.

The very experienced age group swimmer in possibly his/her last season as an age group swimmer has been doing this for a while now.  This swimmer most likely understands what the previous type is just starting to learn about how to judge improvement not just by doing a best time.  This swimmer is starting to look at comparing times to the same point in the prior season.  They are realizing it is not reasonable to compare their best time from a season ending championship meet to an early season meet.  This swimmer hopefully has competed in most, if not all, the available events for an age grouper.  If not, they need to start trying to longer senior events (no more 50s of strokes and instead 200s). 

Whichever swimmer you are, always talk to your coach.  Your coach is there to help you along the way so you feel confident.  A confident swimmer will always perform better and ultimately be happier.  Each of the swimmers can help the other types and should always cheer on all their teammates.  Many may think swimming is a very individual sport and does not have any team aspect.  That is not entirely true.  Yes, it may be you versus the clock while racing, but if you know you have your teammates with you cheering you on you will usually swim better.

Good luck to all swimmers as they begin competing at swim meets!

Observations from the 2016 US Olympic swim team

As swim teams around the country are starting or about to start the new fall/winter season and begin another quadrennial (USA Swimming and it member clubs often create long term plans that follow the 4 year period leading up to and including the Olympics),  there are so many things that can be taken away from the most recent Olympics in Rio.  Coaches, swimmers, and parents can learn so much from the preparations leading up to the Olympics and the actual Olympics.  I am going to focus on a few items from US Olympic team during the 2016 Rio Games that provide important lessons to coaches, swimmers and/or parents.  These are listed in no specific order, but here it goes.

1. Katie Ledecky continued to force us to expand our thoughts on how fast and versatile a swimmer can be.  In today's swimming environment, it is pretty much unheard of to have the range from sprinting to distance swimming that Katie Ledecky showed us at these Olympics.  She was among the elite in the sprints (anchoring the silver medal winning 4 x 100 free relay and winning gold in the 200 free) and in a class of her own as she destroyed the competition while winning gold in the 400 and 800 free (for the 800 free no one else was in the wide TV view when she finished).  I don't think we are finished seeing the broad range of ability by her.  How fast she has taken women's distance swimming is amazing.  To be put in perspective Janet Evans who for so many years held the 400 and 800 world free records with some amazing times of 4:03 and 8:16, respectively; those records are now 3:56 and 8:04 set by Katie Ledecky.  When talking about improving world records, usually it is in terms of tenths of a second or maybe 1-2 seconds for the longer races, but not 7 or 12 seconds like Katie Ledecky has done.  So, swimmers keep setting aggressive goals.

2. Michael Phelps showed us how important it is to love what you are doing and have fun during it all.  Though swimming requires a lot of hard work, it is just as important to truly love it and have fun.  You could see how much more fun he was having at these Olympics compared to 4 years ago in London.  And his results showed the fun he was having.  There were some classic Phelps moments.  The one that stands out for me was Phelps' relay leg on the 4 x 100 free relay.  Coming off his turn, Phelps showed probably his best ever underwater dolphin kick and breakout.  He took what was a close race and turned it into a good lead for the US team that they never relinquished.  Swimmers, if that example did not show you how important a good streamline dolphin kick underwater can be off turns, I don't know what else would convince you.

3. Missy Franklin showed us all great maturity and class in how one should handle a disappointing swim/meet.  There were some great expectations for Missy Franklin, but it just did not happen for her.  Missy Franklin struggled during these Olympics, but she was very humble and by all accounts kept trying and stayed upbeat in support of her teammates.  I think I can say we all hope Missy Franklin can and will come back stronger than ever and continue to have more success in the pool.

4. Though this was not one of the positive parts of the Olympics,  Ryan Lochte showed us how important and critical it is to be completely honest and truthful.  Without going into all the detail of the incident he was involved in at the gas station, Ryan Lochte clearly showed bad judgment in not being 100% honest and truthful regarding what happened.  By not doing that, you saw how out of control the incident became and was an embarrassment for the US Olympic team.

5. The many successes of the Olympic rookies.  When it comes to Olympic experience, this was one of the youngest US Olympic teams in recent history.  However, in the end it quite possibly was one of the best ever teams in terms of medals won.  The rookies on the team time after time medaled.  It all comes down to confidence and great team support.  Always believe in yourself.  Just as important, the team support showed how much more one can do when one knows their teammates are supporting them.  I think I heard some statement supporting that during every interview of the relay teams.

6. Cody Miller and Dana Vollmer showed us though winning gold may be awesome, it is not everything.  One can be rightfully ecstatic about winning a silver or bronze medal.  Though neither won their events (they lost to some phenomenal world record breaking swims), the pure happiness they showed in performing their best even when it did not mean first place was so special.  Only one swimmer (if there are no ties) can come in first, but that does not mean all the other finishers were not successful and won in some way.  This is important for coaches, swimmers and parents to remember.  Too often we can get caught up in judging how successful someone is based on wins/losses determined by place.  It is important to look at the larger picture to determine success.  Was it a best time?  Did the swimmer improve a technique aspect that they have been working on lately?  Was the goal to pace the race a certain way and was that accomplished?  Or simply, did you try your best?

7. It is okay to show pride and emotion in how you have represented your team and just achieved one of your ultimate goals.  During the medal ceremony for the men's 4 x 100 free relay where the USA team won gold, you saw how overcome with positive emotion Olympic rookie, Ryan Held, was.  He was so overcome with emotion at winning gold while representing his country/Team USA and achieving the ultimate goal for almost any swimmer to win Olympic Gold.  I know it made this coach/swimmer get choked up at the pure emotion Ryan Held showed.

8. Never give up!  Anthony Ervin persevered and came back to win Olympic gold in the 50 free 16 years after the first time he did it.  Not many thought he could even medal at these Olympics, but the old guy believed in himself and put it all together in the final and won the 50 free by 0.01!

9. In meets, with a prelims/finals format, often you will see surprises who moves onto the next round.  At these Olympics, you saw some great swimmers that were expected to advance miss semifinals or finals.  But, one must remember as long as you advance you still have a chance.  A good belief to have is as long as you have a lane to swim in, you still have a chance.  That was so true in the men's 100 free.  In prelims, for whatever reason, Nathan Adrian (the defending Olympic champion) had a slow swim and was in jeopardy of not advancing to the semifinals.  Luckily for him he squeaked into semifinals in the 16th and final spot.  He showed another type of perseverance by coming back in the semifinals with the fastest semifinal time.  He got another chance to swim after nearly missing the opportunity to advance and made the most of it (he ended up winning the bronze in the final).

10.  And last is a very important historical occurrence during these Olympics.  Slowly, swimming in the United States is becoming more racially diverse.  We are finally starting to see more African American swimmers at all levels of the sport.  During these Olympics, we all witnessed the first ever female African American win gold in an individual event.  This happened when Simone Manuel tied for the win in the 100 free (while also breaking the American record).  It is so great to see diversity starting to take hold in swimming.

Know your swimmers!

When an athlete knows their coach truly believes in them, they usually will achieve so much more.  I believe this has always been true.  Coach-athlete relationships have evolved from an authority figure (coach) dictating what the athlete must do and the athlete following those instructions without questioning it.  Today, the coach and athlete relationship is much more of a partnership (possible topic for a later blog about the coach-athlete relationship).  Today's athlete demands that the coach be supportive more than ever.

When I say supportive, I am talking about the coach working to understand each athlete and recognize each one is unique.  The more the coach takes the time to understand each athlete, the more the athlete trusts the coach.  As the trust grows, the athlete is more willing to do whatever the coach asks of them.  Notice I did not say demand as demanding things from our youth today does not work very well until a very strong bond of trust is built between the coach and athlete.  Even after that trust is built, there will still be respectful questioning from the athlete.

A coach can build that trust by learning from day to day, week to week, etc. what the athlete is capable of.  The coach must work hard to learn what motivates the athlete.  The coach must also recognize the motivation can differ from day to day.  Some days you can easily push the athlete to do more, but other days you just have to back off and let the athlete work through things knowing you care.  The coach can never stop trying to read their athletes and their mood and temperament.  As a coach you will make mistakes.  Own up to those mistakes to the athlete and they will respect you.  The most basic advice I can give to getting to know your swimmers is to be the first to arrive at practice so you can greet them as they arrive.  As they prepare to start practice you can engage the swimmers in some casual talk.  By doing that you can figure out how they are feeling that day, but more importantly you start to learn about them as a person (and they learn some about you too).  Also talking with the parents before and after practice is a good way to learn about the athletes.  The parents can give you insights about their children and will appreciate you showing you care about their child beyond their performance in the pool.  This process can take multiple seasons, but it is well worth it.  Even when you think you know the swimmer, do not stop interacting with the athlete and parent to better understand your athlete.