Coaches Perspective: What Kind of Athlete are YOU?

I was really excited when my brother Tyler and I talked about me writing some coaches blogs for his website.  My name is Elliott, and I am currently the Head Men’s and Women’s Swimming Coach at Eastern Illinois University.  I was never nearly as fast as my brother, but as I found my swimming career dwindling down I realized that maybe my talent wasn’t in the water, but rather on the deck…as a coach.

The idea of having me join my brother in writing this blog is to provide a coach’s perspective on swimming.  Sometimes I am going to provide practice ideas or technique tips, and other times I am going try to provide you with some mental or life advice.  What we hope to do is to help athletes and parents learn a little bit more about how your coaches might think about things.  Hopefully this will help you grow as a person and an athlete.

So, to start!  I am going to ask you to follow my directions in this next paragraph as we go through a short exercise:

I would like you to start by pinching your cheeks with both hands.  For five seconds begin to make sounds like a cow and wiggle your cheeks at the same time!  Ok, so now I want you take right arm, stretch it across your chest, lift your arm so your bicep is right by your mouth…and for five seconds I want you to make a fart noise with your mouth!  Fun right??

Now some of you did those things, and some of you just read it, right?  Either way, did you find yourself asking, “What was the point of me doing that?”  There was no point.  Neither of those things serve any purpose what so ever!  But some of you did it anyway, without ever having met me, without knowing what was going to happen afterwards, or even without knowing if I am a good coach or not!  You just did it!  But let me ask you athletes this; is that how you are with your coach?  Or do you hesitate, question things, or just go through the motions until you are more confident it will work?

If you are willing to make a fart noise, that serves ZERO purpose to anything in this world, then why is it that sometimes it is so hard as an athlete to do something you know will make you better?  I’ll tell you why, because it is HARD!  So next time you get to that point in practice, or while studying for a test, or while doing anything that does serve a purpose of making you or someone else better, remind yourself of one thing…You made a fart noise, for no reason, so why not do this for a reason?

Then to wrap up, what about those of you who just read that paragraph instead of doing what I asked?  Ask yourself, are you that way at school or at practice?  Do you wait until you think you know what is going to happen to “buy in” or trust?  Do you wait to see if someone else does it first, before you join in?

Imagine if you let yourself go a little bit, and maybe trusted a little more without questioning.  Not everything you do in life is going to serve a purpose, and sometimes you’ll do something that should serve a purpose and it will fall flat.  But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try something different or not trust that what we are doing will benefit us someday!

So when you’re having a hard day, or not able to focus at practice, or not having a good set… make a fart noise or doing something silly!  It will remind you to get back on track, push through, and do something that will help you!  And if it doesn’t do that, it will at least make you smile and laugh and sometimes in life that is all we need.

If you every have questions about college swimming, training, mental approaches, or just want advice email me at mcgillelliott@gmail.com .

Reposted from Tyler McGill’s website.