Cap & Goggles

Only a Swimmer Knows the Feeling

Category: Coaching

April 1, 2013

The Bottom Line

Mike Bottom and the psychology of special…

He gets you to believe. In yourself, in your talent, in your training, and importantly, in him. That’s no small task, and it doesn’t have much to do with what goes on in the water everyday.

18 to 22 year old boys can be a delicate lot. They won’t admit to this, but it’s true. Their egos are fragile and their freakishly fit bodies are hyper sensitive to the slightest turbulence in their training. Often times what they need is not a coach but a psychologist. Enter Mike Bottom, the ultimate mind coach.

Two days ago, Bottom guided Michigan back to the top, as the men raced to their first title in 18 years. Bottom’s incredible accomplishments with a who’s who of champion sprinters long ago established him as one of the world’s great coaches, but this title does something else. It validates his Hall of Fame bona fides and transcends that old Sprint Coach label that he wore for so long. This Michigan team won it the Michigan way and the Bottom way. Which is to say they won it by dominating the distance events and swimming blazingly fast on the sprint relays. That’s a dangerous combo.

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February 2, 2013

The Church and the State

How do you judge a nation’s swimming success? By Olympic medals or by broader measures like membership and revenue? With Swimming Canada at a crossroads, a case study for every nation… 

When the CEO came to power spirits were low. So were revenues. At meets across the country, there was a heavy mood of doom and gloom. Leadership was being questioned and medal counts were anemic. There was the palpable sense of losing ground, of being passed by competing countries that seemed to be getting more out of their talent and resources.

In 2005, Pierre Lafontaine arrived to a hell of a task. Swimming Canada needed not only a turnaround artist, it needed an attitude adjustment. They got it in Lafontaine. With an infectious energy of relentless positivity, he began to lift Canada’s sagging swim spirits. He also started generating a lot more dollars, and brought a lot more Canadians into the sport. He did what a CEO is supposed to do: He improved the business.

After eight years at the helm of Canadian swimming, Pierre Lafontaine resigned this week. He’s moving on to become the CEO of Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), starting next month. He leaves Swimming Canada in far better shape than he found it. Yet, he also leaves it at a crossroads – one shared by other swimming nations across the world, as they look to regroup and chart new courses in the next Olympiad ahead.

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October 29, 2012

The Gender Gap in Coaching

Why are there so few female head coaches?

She was the head coach of the U.S. women’s Olympic team. A group that delivered the finest performance of any women’s swim team in U.S. Olympic history. She’s the coach of the defending NCAA champion Cal Bears. She just signed Missy Franklin, the greatest recruit in the history of college swimming. It’s been a good year for Teri McKeever. She is, very arguably, the best coach of female swimmers on the planet.

She is also in lonely company. McKeever remains one of the few women leading an NCAA women’s swim team.

Of the 49 teams that scored points at last year’s women’s NCAA Championships, only eight were led by a female head coach. Two of those eight – Lea Loveless of Stanford and Christina Teuscher of Yale – are no longer the coaches of their programs this year. Both were replaced by men. This means that about 90% of the teams you can expect to see at this year’s NCAAs will be led by men.

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