Update on last post

I've gotten a lot of great feedback on the last post. Two things I wanted to add/clarify:

• I do not think failure and losing are the same thing. For the purpose of the last post, failure is represented by not doing what is necessary to reach your goals. Losing is only what happens in a particular race. You can definitely lose a race and still be a success. It all depends on what your goals are, how you prepared for the meet/race, and how you approached that meet/race mentally.
• It is important to understand failure as a possibility, but in no way do you have to accept failure as your fate.

The next logical thought would probably be something like..."so much talk about failure can be rather negative. How can failure be avoided?" I have been thinking about this all weekend and will be posting something in the next couple of days.

Thoughts Left Over From The Summer

I have done a fair amount of reading this past summer, mostly books and articles on psychology. This was great because it gave me a different perspective on my own coaching as well as some ability to see and understand things my swimmers were experiencing from a different perspective. I began to notice more than just what is said but how it is said: tone of voice, body language, etc. I also was able to start focusing more on how we prepared rather than just what the steps toward full preparation were. I tried to watch the meet day habits of swimmers on our team and other teams while at Nationals and Junior Nationals and see what differences there were between those who seemingly "achieved" and those who did not.

During this time I was also reading Walter Issacson's Benjamin Franklin: An American Life as recommended by fellow GCIT coach and history buff Dan Saia. I have always marveled at Franklin's work ethic and intellect, not to mention the fact that Franklin is a fellow Philadelphian. Let me say that I highly recommend this book to anyone. It is, in my opinion, an examination of the true genius that was Benjamin Franklin. There are some mature themes in it (like all of us Franklin was in no way perfect) so parents, please, be sure that it is in the hands of the right young people.

One quote in particular really piqued my curiosity when coupled with what I was observing at Nationals and Junior Nationals:

“An infallible rule: if two persons equal in judgment play for a considerable sum, he that loves money most shall lose; his anxiety for the success of the game confounds him.”
-Benjamin Franklin

This rule applies to many situations in every day life and especially in a sport such as swimming. When it comes to competition a person who is too fearful will end up performing defensively (i.e. to not lose or not fail) and actually fail to accomplish their goals or the task at hand (Issacson 58). Our sport is unique in that victory, nine times out of ten, is not determined by place finish in a race but by the amount of time it takes you to complete the race. The only true foe, in that regard, is time itself.

I began to think that a major difference between those reaching their goals (or "achieving") and those that were not (or "failing") was the confidence they brought to the table. I began to try and assess where this confidence was coming from and began to understand that the "achievers" were not spending unnecessary time before the race thinking about what they will do if they fail to succeed. As coaches we want, above all, for the swimmers to improve in and out of the pool and reach their goals. I personally feel that everyone (swimmer or not) should set high goals for themselves as long as they understand the steps, sacrifices and, above all, time necessary to reach those goals. But if you spend too much time concentrating on failure, to paraphrase an old saying, "You are doomed to repeat it."

One cannot perform at their optimal level if their thoughts are clouded in any way by the fear of failure. You must first acknowledge and accept the fact that failure is a possibility if you are going to be able to avoid it in any way. That being said, you do not have to accept the fact that failure occurred or be happy with it in any way. What you need to do is understand all possible outcomes and move on to the task at hand.

A person must experience and understand the feeling of losing or failure if they are going to be able to truly appreciate winning or achieving. No person, especially a swimmer, should be protected in any way from defeat or failure. As coaches or parents this can be the hardest thing to do: allow a child to fail. However this is most definitely in their best interest (as Bruce and Thomas Wayne say in Batman Begins "We fall down so that we can pick ourselves back up."). We must guide them down the right path toward understanding defeat/failure as well as through the steps toward avoiding the exact same fate in the future. They must pay attention to proper preparation with the understanding that (in a sport where the difference between accomplishing or failing to accomplish a goal can be 1/100th of a second or less) skipping the minutest detail can be the difference between failure and accomplishment.

Everything is a learning opportunity, every accomplishment and every failure. The problems leading to failure may not be rectified in one attempt. While this would be the ideal situation it is just as important to show progress toward rectifying the issues. The more daunting the task, the more time it usually takes to master.

Above all, your mind cannot be constantly clouded by the fear of failure. Once you are able to accept failure as a possibility it will become easier to focus on the task at hand rather than worrying about what will happen if you fail. Some of the greatest accomplishments known to man are preceded by failed attempt after failed attempt. Failure will make you stronger and smarter and make reaching the goal so much sweeter.

Its Been a While...

After rushing home early from Nationals for my brother's wedding, getting to spend two weeks on vacation and the amazing push in the beginning of September for team registrations (more on that in a second) I have completely neglected updating the blog in quite some time. I see by the hit counter that quite a few people have visited the site since I last posted in August and I apologize for not keeping up with all of you. Luckily I now have some time to get back into the swing of posting here on a more regular basis.


Since I came back to GCIT in October 2004 our number have increased at a steady pace. We have had to endure some tough times with the pool being shut down during the summer of 2005 and 2006 but with the help of a great coaching staff and a very supportive group of parents we got through it. Last September we started with 130 swimmers on the team and that number increased to 160 by the time we hit the spring season. By April I started to think we could get close to the 200 swimmer mark possibly by September 2008...as there is always a nice surge in registrations following the Olympic Games.


Heading into the month of September our registrations were at 130 and climbing, well ahead of the record pace we set in 2006. However I did not expect to experience the push on September 10th (the first day of practice) that happened. We had over 100 swimmers register for this team (for the full-time program and the high school warm-up group) in less than three hours! When all was said and done we had 200 swimmers on the full-time team and 55 in the high school warm-up group, reaching my personal goal one year early. The high school warm-up group has since grown to 60 swimmers.


There are probably many reasons as to why our team is at this size right now. However one thing keeps coming back to me as a major factor for the surge. I received a number of calls and emails from people who have said something to the effect of, "I have heard the program at GCIT is very good." We can put together a great looking brochure and can put ads listing our team accomplishments in the various summer league meet programs but nothing will ever top the personal endorsement of one of our current families. Knowing there are people on this team who think enough of the program to recommend it to their friends and summer league teammates is both very encouraging and humbling at the same time.

The coaching staff is very excited about the coming season. We hope to help the swimmers on this team become better athletes and better people over the next nine to eleven months. If there is anything we can do to help you or your child with this sport please do not hesitate to speak with one of the coaches.

2007 Nationals...in the books!

Wow...I mean WOW! Dara Torres is simply amazing!! Tonight at the spry age of 40 she broke her own American Record in the 50 freetsyle en route to winning her second national title of the meet. This brought to mind the fact that about 18 years ago Mark Spitz tried a comeback in his 40's. Let's just say that Spitz' comeback never really got off of the ground (READ: failed miserably). Dara is an amazingly gifted athlete who, right now at the age of 40, looks like a good bet to make her 5th Olympic Team. Oh, and her time tonight would be tied for the second fastest time in the world this year.

On a more local note, Erik Vendt broke a 20 year old meet record in the 800 free tonight. Vendt's time of 7:49.75 broke the previous meet record established in 1987 by Sean Killion. Simply put, Killion was the greatest swimmer to ever come out of South Jersey. Sean graduated from Cherry Hill West and went on to a great college career at Cal and was a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team. Sean was named the South Jersey Male High School Swimmer of the Century in 1999. Sean was a great role model for all of the younger swimmers (myself included) in South Jersey during the 1980's. Sean proved that great swimmers don't just come from California or Texas...they can come from South Jersey as well. As much as I love to see fast swimming, it was a little sad to see Sean's record broken.

The end of Senior Nationals means the beginning of Junior Nationals is on the horizon. Seven GCIT swimmers will be in action during the week. They have been training hard since the beginning of April for this meet and I am very optimistic heading into Monday's events.

Nationals after Day 4

What an amazing night at Nationals. The night ended on an intense note with Michael Phelps missing the world record in the 100 back by .03. He was second at the 50 but used the best underwater kick in the world to blast to a 1/2 bodylength lead and never looked back.

I spent the entire finals session next to Charlie Kennedy, head coach at Suburban. I did this for a number of reasons but mostly because I wanted to stand next to him when Brendan Hansen swam the 100 breastroke. Brendan is from Haverford, PA and swam for Charlie before attending college at the University of Texas (where he still trains). Brendan wasn't able to break his own world record in the race, but he blasted past the rest of the heat in the last 25 for the victory. Charlie had some great insight into Brendan's stroke rate and other aspects of his race which he shared with me. Its a chance like this to listen to some of the best coaches in the country (and Charlie is definitely in that group) discuss everything from stroke technique to team administration that makes attending Nationals a treat for me.

Nationals

Just finished up with the second day at Nationals and the swimming has been great to watch. Today ended with an almost World Record in the Men's 200 Backstroke by Michael Phelps. However the highlight of the night for me was watching Dara Torres win the Women's 100 Freestyle. Dara is 40 years old and has her sights set on making her 5th US Olympic Team (1984, 1988, 1992 and 2000 were the other years she was a member of the team). Simply amazing to watch her beat people half her age and who were not even born when she was in Los Angeles for the 1984 Games.

NCAA Clearinghouse for Seniors-to-be

This one is for all high school seniors-to-be and their parents. You must register with the NCAA Clearinghouse in order to take official recruiting visits and compete as a part of an NCAA Division I or II sports program. The Clearinghouse assesses your initial eligibility (for recruiting) and your final eligibility (based on classes taken, your GPA and SAT/ACT scores) to participate in Division I or II athletics.
The website you want to use is www.ncaaclearinghouse.com. From there you will be able to get all the information you need on NCAA initial eligibility and you can also register with the Clearinghouse online. You will also have to get your SAT/ACT scores sent directly to the Clearinghouse from the testing company. You will also need to get your official transcripts MAILED to the Clearinghouse by your high school. There is a $50 fee required to register with the Clearinghouse.
Remember, you can not take an official visit to a Division I or II school without being properly registered with the Clearinghouse (application filled out, test scores sent and received, transcripts sent and received, payment made).

Happy Independence Day

The coaching staff would like to wish everyone a happy and safe Independence Day. Please, whatever you do, do it safe and have fun.

Also, please take the time to remember those who have made the sacrifices so that we can celebrate our independence freely this and every July 4th.

So whatever you do today have fun, be safe, and honor this great country!

New Website

We are hoping to have our new website at least partially operational sometime this week. The new address is www.gcitswimming.org. We will be getting the registration information for the 2007-08 swim season up as soon as the sight goes live.

If you know of any swimmers interested in GCIT please have them contact me via email at msprang@gcit.org or call 856-468-1445 x. 2304. I will be conducting new swimmer tryouts for the purpose of group placement on Tuesdays and Thursdays in July by appointment.

We will have the coach recommendations for group placement out this week. It has been tough because the Silver and Gold groups seem a bit crowded. We will have more information on this with the group placements this week.

I will also send out a detailed description of each group to include prerequisites and the focus of the groups.

Let the Recruiting Begin!

As many of you know the period when college coaches can begin talking to the class of 2008 begins this Sunday. Some of you will get in upwards of 10 phone calls this Sunday. But if you do not get any phone calls don't worry, you just are going to have to do some work to get the attention of the colleges you are interested in. Please remember the following:

1) Use the next month and a half to gather as much information as possible. You can ask any and all questions you'd like, as well you should. You need to get to know the coaches, their style and what they expect from their swimmers in and out of the pool 12 months out of the year. Ideally, you will find a swim team which closely resembles the training you have at GCIT to ensure the smoothest transition possible.

1a) Make sure the colleges you are talking to offer your major. If you know what you want to study it makes no sense talking to a college that does not offer that major.

2) Do not commit to any official visits at all in July. Some of these coaches can be crafty and try to trick you into this. They know you only have 5 visits to use and know that some club coaches (like me) do not want their swimmers taking 5 visits in the fall. They want you to get onto their campus as early as possible so that their school is what you are comparing the rest of the schools you visit. Again, gather as much information as possible and then contact your coach at GCIT (or me if I am not your coach and you can't get a hold of yours) to determine the best course of action for visits.

2a) National group swimmers should not be signing up for more than three trips in the Fall. Be sure to sign up for one of them on September 8th because we don't have practice that day any way. Between the SATs and meets if you take five trips before the signing period in the beginning of November you will be missing too much practice. Most trips require you to get there early on Friday morning so you miss two workouts and you know very well that swimming on your own (if the school you are visiting allows you any pool time it won't be more than 2 hours total all weekend) is not nearly the same as swimming with our team.

3) Know what is allowed and what is not allowed during the recruiting process. Go to www.swimmingworldmagazine.com and check out the article written by Jason Marsteller (another one of my new buddies from Hawaii) which has a plethora of information on the recruiting process, including information from the NCAA directly.

4) If/When you talk to coaches, keep detailed and accurate notes of the conversation. If the coaches mentions that their kid has been sick WRITE IT DOWN. It will make a huge impression if when you talk to this coach again you open the conversation with "I hope your son is feeling better." Show the coach that you are interested and that you care and they will show more attention to you as a recruit. They are talking to hundreds of swimmers in a very short period of time, you need to MAKE AN IMPRESSION on them so that they know you and want you on their team. There is no better impression to be made than of an intellegent young person who takes the time to remember who they have talked to and what they talk about. So go out before Sunday and buy yourself a notebook just for phone correspondence with college coaches. Leave space in the notebook for each school you talk to so that it can be easily references each time you speak with them.

5) Have fun. Some people stress over this and that is rediculous. This is a great time in your lives and the lives of your family so enjoy it. Remember, you need to find the best fit for you academically, athletically and socially and it takes some effort and research to get to that point. Do take this process seriously but make sure it stays fun for you.

At any time if you have any questions please feel free to contact me. I have been on every side of this process from a recruit to a recruiter to the family member of a recruit. I can pretty much answer the questions you have and if not can find someone who will answer it for you.

Hawaii Redux

Sorry it has taken me so long to get some info up on the trip to Hawaii. To recap, six GCIT swimmers were selected to the NCSA All-American team based on their performance at the NCSA Junior National Championships this past March in Orlando. The top 9 swimmers in each event were selected for this trip. The six swimmers from GCIT represented the second largest contingent from one team behind Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club in the Washington, DC area. It bears mentioning that RMSC has over 1,500 swimmers on their team and swims out of 5 different facilities in Virginia and Maryland. We had a large team (by our standards) of 165 swimmers this year. I was fortunate enough to be selected as the head coach for the East Women's Team.

The team began gathering in Los Angeles Saturday night, June 2nd and in Honolulu the next day. The team's went through three days of intense training at the Central Oahu Veterans Memorial Pool (the groups averaged 15,000 meters on Monday, 13,500 meters on Tuesday and 14,000 meters on Wednesday) mixed in with touristy type excursions to the North Shore of Oahu, Waikiki Beach and Pearl Harbor. Highlights would definitely be surfing on Waikiki Beach, rock jumping into Waimea Bay and the trip to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.

Thursday and Friday evening (June 7th and 8th) was the competition pitting some of the best swimmers ages 18 and under in the East and West against one another in a dual meet. GCIT swimmers fared very well with Joanna Thomas winning the 800 free and 400 free, Jamie Marks taking the 400 IM and 1500 free, Bill Cregar winning the 200 IM (after being in 4th place going into the freestyle leg). Emily Creran walked away with lifetime bests in the 400 IM (a 1-2 finish for GCIT swimmers) and the 400 free (coming from 3 seconds down to take a pivotal 3rd place). Mike Joyce "took one for the team" and swam the 1500 free for the first time ever and had nice swims in the 400 IM. Blake Trabuchi-Downey also had nice swims in the butterfly events.

The East Women's team were able to eek out a 7 point victory over the West while the East Men's team had a hard time with a talented West squad.

All in all, it was a great trip for all. The swimmers were able to meet some new people and train with some of the best young swimmers in the United States. As a coach, I was able to sit round-table with some of the best coaches in the country and get new ideas on team administration and training.

Back in the U.S.

Just returned late last night from a simply amazing trip to England. I have some great pictures that will be posted this week along with some pictures from Hawaii.
I grabbed the Senior 2 swimmers before the meet began this morning and told them how invigorated I felt upon my return. A lot of that is due to the book I read on my vacation: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. There are way too many self help, psychology books out there and all seemingly have the same message. But this book took a much different approach and gave specific examples on how one can use the open mindset to better their lives. There are specific portions of the book dedicated to school, athletics and home life. I highly recommend this book to all.

The posts will come faster as I have some more time to dedicate to it now that the traveling is a bit more managable over the next month.

Welcome

This is the first post in what I hope will be a continual service to GCIT Swimming team members and families. My goal is to give you news and updates as well as a stream of consciousness view of our team.

If at any time you have any ideas or thoughts to add to the blog don't hesitate to contact me!

In the next couple of days I will be posting some thoughts and pictures from my trip to Hawaii with the NCSA All-American Team.