Coaches Education

Motivational Monday: Positive Affirmations for Swimmers Breathe in, breathe out. The moment has arrived. All swimmers know the feeling of having a big race in front of them. You stand behind the blocks, anxiously adjusting your cap and goggles. You count down the heats in front of you until it’s fin...

The Excellent Swim Coach (From the Archive) Swimming is very much a sport of observation. Swimmers observe others' strokes underwater during practice and have a lot of time on deck during meets to watch the coach-swimmer dynamics surrounding us. I had 12 swim coaches in my 18 years of swimming. It's...

A Letter To My Club Coach  Dear Coach,  I used to think gratitude was something you expressed at the end, after the final practice, after the last meet, after the chapter was closed. But swimming doesn’t really work that way.  Neither does your impact.  You were there long before the success, long b...

The Role of the Time Trials Referee By Phil Barnes Most people associate time trials with a session between prelims and finals during a championship meet, but time trials can also be conducted as a stand-alone event. A common denominator of time trials is their ad hoc nature, with entries, seeding, ...

Why Outsourcing Your Swim Team’s Dryland Program May Not Be the Best Move By Brad Jones In recent years, many swim teams have been tempted by remote, app-based dryland and strength training programs. These companies promise cutting-edge programming, convenience, and performance gains, all delivered ...

A Better Way to Teach Swimming Balance and Body Position For the last 85 years, swim training has had plenty of tools to build fitness. The harder part has always been teaching what creates speed in the first place: body line, balance, and alignment that hold up under fatigue. Dual Boards are built....

Motivational Monday: Establishing Your Voice as a Swimmer As much as swimming is a team sport, most races are only completed by one person. However, the training often organized by coaches applies to many teammates instead of one person. Even though this practice is effective and makes sense for hel...

[caption id="attachment_631161" align="alignleft" width="450"] The College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association[/caption] January 6, 2026 The College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) announced a new multi-year partnership with Fitter & Faster Swim Camps, naming the organizat...

3 Reasons Age-Group Coaches Are Valuable in Molding Young Swimmers (From the Archive) By Julia Czentye (formerly Warnken) If you were a swimmer, you should remember your first coach, right? Or like any sport you played when you were young, some of the most memorable older figures were your first tea...

Why is Yoga Beneficial for Swimmers? Bringing back this article by Kaylie Williams, a formerSwimming World College Intern.  You can do yoga at home! Don't need any fancy gear - just some sort of stretching mat or open space on the floor to get started.  Have you ever neglected the cool-down stretchi...

Swim Drill: Tennis Ball Breaststroke Tennis Ball Breaststroke is a drill in which swimmers hold a tennis ball under their chin as they swim down the pool performing breaststroke, working on keeping the tennis ball in place in order to set proper head position. This is a great drill for younger swimm...

Historic Set: The Legendary 100 x 100 Of Olympic Champion Mike Bruner (Splits Included) A tradition at some clubs during winter training is for athletes to complete a 100 x 100 workout. The set is an Ironman/Ironwoman accomplishment. So, as some swimmers prepare to tackle this grinding set, we visit...

Cold Water and the Mind Behind Speed There is nothing worse than one of those first outdoor summer practices in May when the air has not touched 80 degrees yet. The pool sits there cold. Colder than cold. Jumping in feels like punishment, and getting through the set becomes the hardest part of the d...

How Innovator Konrad Antoniuk Is Using Data to Redefine Swim Training Swimming World is pleased to highlight a rising voice in swimming innovation: Konrad Antoniuk Former Cal Poly standout, Olympic Trials qualifier, and founder emerging swim-tech platform Morphwear. Antoniuk's journey from age-grou...

A swimmer’s favorite words to hear from a coach are “Good job.” But nothing compares to hearing, “We are starting our taper.” That moment feels like the first breath after the final turn in a 200-meter backstroke. The grind of a swim season is hard, and swimmers feel it all year. The work is necessa...

5 Drills to Improve Your Underwaters: Improving a Key Aspect of Racing Underwaters are one of the most important parts of a race. That fact is confirmed by watching any elite-level swim. The fastest swimmers stay underwater for an extended period, using strong, powerful kicks to propel themselves fa...

The Power of a Positive Mindset: How Your Thoughts Can Change Your Swimming  You can train harder than anyone else in the pool, but if you don’t believe in yourself, it’s tough to reach your full potential. The truth is, your mindset matters just as much as your physical strength. What you tell your...

The American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) will kick off 2026 with one of its most popular regional events — the Pacific Swim Coaches Clinic, returning January 9–11, 2026, at the Napa Valley Marriott in Napa, California. This year’s lineup features coaching legend Bob Bowman of the University ...

The Fifth Stroke: Dolphin Kick Drills That Can Improve Performance By Mark McCluskey, Swimming World College Intern In recent years, we have consistently watched the sport of swimming develop and grow as we discover ways to become faster. One of the biggest discoveries is the importance of dolphin k...

Beyond the First Second: Mastering the Underwater Start The first second of a race begins on the block, but it does not end there. It may start the race, but the following factors write the story. A clean entry can give a swimmer the lead, yet it is only one piece of the equation. A swimming race is...