Into the Deep Blue

Well the question would be, where to begin in this section?

The obvious answer would be, the beginning. That's too far back. Let's jump in at the meat and potatoes portion.

I've been swimming for a good while now, and have been instructing and/or coaching swimming for a slightly shorter time frame. My competitive career began back in elementary/grade school, while living in MD. I was never one for football, baseball, or basketball. My eye-hand coordination wasn't all that great and my sense of balance on land could have used some work to say the least. In the water, I couldn't fall over and I didn't have to worry about catching or throwing. All I had to do was beat the guy next to me. Easy. Simple. And tons of fun.

As I got a little older, it got harder to beat the guys next to me since I aged up and was having to train with older middle schoolers and highschoolers instead of my age group for a challenge. When I went to middle school I tried out football. Failed miserably at it, and returned back to swimming. This time however, I joined a year round competitive team, Curl-Burke Swim Club. The site I trained at was in Middletown, MD and it was awesome. I still love my coach, Holly, dearly and am thankful for all of her insight and hard work.

The next year, is when I officially began the cycle of giving back to the sport. In 7th grade I was made an instructor for my site's CuBu Stroke School. As of writing this, I have been teaching swimming now for 12 years.

Upon moving states entering High School, I joined the local club team here Raleigh Swimming Association (RSA). The Head Coach at the time was none other than renowned swim coach, current Head Coach of the Marlins of Raleigh (MOR), Paul Silver. While swimming for RSA, I worked under Matt Schade, Paul Silver, Jozsef Nagy (multiple time Hungarian Olympic Head Coach, developer of the wave breaststroke, and Mike Barrowman's coach), and Dan Flack. I also began work for the City of Raleigh and taught swim lessons for them, as well as coached the Pullen Aquatic Center's summer swim league as both an assistant for one summer and the head coach for the next two seasons.

After High School I returned to the metropolitan D.C. area for university. There I studied a vast many things, including a lot about life. During my time there, I had the distinct pleasure of training under Head Coach Mark Davin, a couple different assistant couches, and one Beth O'Conner Baker. It was under the coaching styles of Davin and Beth, that I came to appreciate what slowing down and executing the stroke mechanics correctly can do for your over all performance.

Since this time I have changed my approach to teaching and training. I now focus more on the development of execution first, building a solid foundation on the ability to execute the range of motion correctly and then go from there. This is to reduce injury and prevent a distaste for any form of training.

I'd like to continue to instill a sense of enjoyment in training, as I saw and experienced during my time at Hargrave Military Academy working with the cadets. It's exciting for a coach to see the suggestions and technical changes made in training result in a significant change in the performance of an athlete during coaching. Especially an athlete at an elite level, helping a swimmer go from a mid :48 100 Freestyle to a :47 mid-high. It was during these opportunities I discovered, this is what I want to do with my life right now and possibly forever. This is where I want to be. On the pool deck. Making the distinction in a sport that is often dominated with the idea that power is needed more than finesse, and create functional training methods that develop a focus on movement not muscles.

Fast Swims!
Flash