Teaching Leadership Skills at Swim Practice

Swimming teaches valuable skills for real life. Coaches realize this, but sometimes it can be challenging to be intentional in how we teach these skills. Swimmers have goals for the sport that can range anywhere between staying in shape to winning an Olympic medal, and, as coaches, it is our job to help them achieve these goals. But, what skills swimmers walk away with at the end of their swimming career is just as important as the accomplishments. One skill that is highly valued in college admissions and most jobs is leadership. Leadership skills that can help lead to success in the pool and other situations can be taught to swimmers from an early age.

Teamwork

A leader needs to set an example, delegate tasks, and sometimes be in charge, but the ability to work as a team and collaborate is a skill that great leaders need. Leaders don’t work alone. Instead, they are effective and inspiring collaborators on projects.

Teamwork is also necessary in swimming. While swimming at a high level has individual results, it is a team sport. Swimmers rely on each other for a sense of community and they are a group that pushes each other to achieve their greatest potential. To encourage positive teamwork, do activities that build community and trust and encourage swimmers to be vocal during practice to encourage others.

Perseverance

Perseverance is the ability to handle setbacks and keep going. In life setbacks happen all the time ranging from not being accepted to one’s first choice college to getting a bad grade to losing a job. Leaders handle these setbacks by viewing them as an opportunity to grow and try new experiences. Leaders accept that setbacks are not desirable, but also realize that they are not the end of the world. Leaders frame setbacks as just that, as a journey set back a step, but not as a journey ended.

To teach perseverance in swimming, allow swimmers to acknowledge setbacks, a bad time or a rough practice, but encourage them to frame the view of that event as only a step back in the larger plan. Remind swimmers that one bad time or bad day is not reflective of the time and effort they put in everyday at practice. Remind them of a time when they were successful. Encourage swimmers to think about why the event was a setback, but to move forward in a positive way for the future. Sometimes it is hard for swimmers to see the positives or the road ahead after a bad meet, so it may be useful to have swimmers think about a “Perseverance Action Plan” ahead of time. Encourage them to think about how they can change their mindset from negative to positive after a bad race and move forward. With a plan ahead of time, it is easier to persevere when a swimmer is having a bad day.

Goal-setting

Leaders are expected to set goals and then be motivated enough to achieve those goals. Leaders have set both long-term and short-term goals and have a plan to achieve their goals. To teach goal setting, emphasize the process of setting long-term and short-term goals that are both challenging and realistic. Additionally, it is important to set both time goals and process goals, such as how swimmers will train at practice. Often, this can be accomplished through team or individual meeting with swimmers after the initial goals are set. The key with teaching goal setting is to allow swimmers to set their own goals and follow through with the work. One way to help swimmers see the connection between their work and their goals is to revisit the goals throughout the season. Too often, goals are set and then forgotten about. By revisiting the goals, swimmers are able to reflect on the goals they achieve and did not achieve, understand why it happened, and create a plan with updated goals for the future.

Decision-making

Finally, all leaders are constantly faced with decisions that will impact themselves and their team. Being able to make decisions fairly quickly that are in the best interest of everyone involved is important. The key to this skill is being able to understand the implications of our decisions on others and weigh the pro’s and con’s.

Teaching decision making early on is important for swimmers. Allow swimmers to make decisions and understand the consequences, both positive and negative, of those decisions. For example, if a swimmer sets a goal and then only attends practice four times per week, point out to the swimmer that the decision he or she is making does not align with his goals. It can also be useful to walk swimmers through a process of considering the pro’s and con’s of their decisions. Often, this helps people see what impact their decision can have and eventually this process becomes a habit.

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Often, when we think of a “leader” we envision someone who is in charge and tells others what to do. That is one example of a leader, but leaders can take on many roles and the skills that make someone a “leader” can be used in so many contexts beyond telling people what to do. Leaders help others. Leaders find solutions to challenging problems. Leaders make the world a better place. Let’s remember that despite the level of swimmers we are coaching, we are also coaching people who will go out into the world and impact others and we are teaching them skills to be successful.