ASCA Newsletter American Swimming Coaches Association 2014 Edition | Issue 5 Winning AS a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy by William Barnett
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ASCA NEWSLETTER AMERICAN SWIMMING COACHES ASSOCIATION 2014 EDITION | ISSUE 5 WINNING AS A Self-Fulfilling PROPHECY By William Barnett In This Issue: Mental Imagery / 05 Features of Excellence in Swimming / 10 Overcome 8 Barriers to Confidence / 20 Teen Bites Hand that Pampered Her / 22 Concept 2 Rowing Machine / 24 ASCA Reading Recommendations / 26 Age Group Swimming, Part IV / 29 Kicking Standards / 30 Code of Ethics Proposed Addition / 31 The maid-of-honor was consoling the bride, up, there in the bowsprit chair of a racing realization that he had been told the wrong desperately trying to keep her makeup boat was the photographer, Paul Barnett, time; a frantic cab ride to the marina, only to from liquefying. The yacht was perfect, snapping photos from a long telescopic see the yacht heading out to sea; a search of course, and most of the bridesmaids lens. James Bond with a camera. for a fast boat; a payoff to a nefarious bad were there as planned. So what was the guy; the last-second idea to shoot from the problem? No pictures. The photographer But of course! You don’t photograph the bow-sprit chair strapped in like a marlin was a no-show. Well, the bride would make wedding party on the yacht itself; too close fisherman. And then, of course, the usual sure that he never got another high-profile quarters. You shoot from a separate boat! self-assured act later on, as if to say, “All job. And to think, all the best families had What a genius. Everything turned out OK – part of the plan.” raved about his genius. spectacularly, really — in the end. Some people have a way of making things Two hours later, as they lay desolate on the But let me tell you the story from the go right, no matter how badly they seem to yacht’s sun deck in the warm tropical air, point-of-view of my brother Paul, the tardy be going wrong. Why do winners seem to they heard the roar of twin diesels. Looking but brilliant photographer: A desperate just keep winning? ASCA NEWSLETTER | 2014 EDITION 5 1 ASCA Newsletter Official ASCA Sponsors Published for the American Swimming Coaches Association by the American Swimming Coaches Council for Sport Development. Board of Directors PRESIDENT: Gregg Troy VICE-PRESIDENTS: Jim Tierney, Steve Morsilli MEMBERS: Jack Bauerle, Don Heidary, Ira Klein, Matthew Kredich, David Marsh, Tim Murphy, Eddie Reese, Richard Shoulberg, Bill Wadley, Chuck Warner EXECUTIVE Committee: Jennifer Gibson, Tim Welsh ASCA Staff EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND EDITOR John Leonard SwimAmericaTM Sponsors CLINICS AND JOB SERVICES Guy Edson FINANCE Kim Cavo BOOKKEEPING\SALES Lenora Hayes MEMBERSHIP SERVICES Melanie Wigren CERTIFICATION Kim Witherington TECHNICAL SERVICES AND WSCA Matt Hooper WEB & PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Mary Malka SWIMAMERICATM AND ALTST Julie Nitti GENERAL COUNSEL Richard J. Foster The Newsletter for Professional Swimming Coaches A Publication of the American Swimming Coaches Council for Sport Development, American Swimming Magazine (ISSN: 0747-6000) is published by the American Swimming Coaches Association. Membership/ subscription price is $70.00 per year (US). International $100.00. Disseminating swimming knowledge to swimming coaches since 1958. Postmaster: Send address changes to: American Swimming Coaches Association 5101 NW 21st Avenue, Suite 530 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309 (954) 563-4930 I Toll Free: 1 (800) 356-2722 I Fax: (954) 563-9813 swimmingcoach.org I [email protected] © 2014 American Swimming Coaches Association. 2 ASCA NEWSLETTER | 2014 EDITION 5 Continued from Cover Social scientists tell us that winners keep Social psychologists have been talking view gets confirmed yet again. winning for several reasons. First off, about these “positive illusions” for years in they may just be better. Quality aside, terms of mental health outcomes (see the The lesson for leadership is clear. We know we know that those with a reputation for work by Shelley Taylor and her colleagues). that a well-informed decision is one that past success tend to get disproportionate But when such views trigger the self- sees reality for what it is. But leadership credit for future wins – the “Matthew fulfilling prophecy, these illusions have the is so much more than correct calculation. effect” described by the sociologist Robert potential to increase chances of success. Especially in uncertain times, what the K. Merton. And of course the winners from As my colleague Andy Rachleff argues, leader believes to be true may end up so the past tend to be in the right place to winning helps a leader feel confident through the self-fulfilling prophecy. make things happen in the future, and in future contests, thereby increasing have the connections and resources to their chances of winning. Many, many make good on those opportunities. people have commented on Steve Jobs’s William Barnett is the Thomas M. Siebel “reality distortion field”; Jobs believed in But there may be another reason that possibilities even when others saw them as Professor of Business Leadership, winners keep winning, a reason that unthinkable. Of course, once he believed, Strategy, and Organizations at the is particularly useful to understand then others would too, making his vision Graduate School of Business, Stanford business leadership: Some people tend more likely to come true. University. His research focuses on to be unrealistically optimistic, a view that competition among organizations and sometimes makes itself come true. Paul Barnett could not accept that he would how organizations and industries evolve fail. So in a situation where others would globally. He is best known for his work The downside of such unrealistic optimism throw up their hands and admit defeat, he on “Red Queen Competition,” where is that it can lead you to be out of touch. kept scrambling. Not letting the facts get in firms learn from competition and so But the upside is that an unrealistically the way, the unrealistic optimist expends become stronger competitors over time. optimistic outlook might trigger what’s effort as if victory was within reach, which of Follow him on Twitter @BarnettTalks. A known as a self-fulfilling prophecy (another course makes that victory more likely. And version of this post originally appeared idea pioneered by Robert K. Merton). with every victory, the optimist’s unrealistic at www.barnetttalks.com. ASCA NEWSLETTER | 2014 EDITION 5 3 4 ASCA NEWSLETTER | 2014 EDITION 5 Mental Imagery & Excellence in Swimming Compiled by Coach Charlie Dragon Bode Miller preparing to start a downhill run in a super combined training session at Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. Athletes in many Olympic events use visualization or imagery as a training tool. CreditRuben Sprich/Reuters Chambliss emphasizes that in swimming 2. The different levels of excellence in swimmers enjoy. What others see there really are discrete levels of swimming are like different worlds, with as boring - swimming back and forth excellence, because there are different different rules. People can move up or over a black line for two hours, say kinds of swimming competitions, each with down within a level by putting in more or - the best swimmers find peaceful, their own different ethos. Here are some of less effort, but going up a level requires even meditative, or challenging, or his other main points: something very different-see point one. therapeutic. They enjoy hard practices, look forward to difficult competitions, 1. Excellence comes from qualitative 3. Excellence is not the product of and try to set difficult goals. changes in behavior, not just socially deviant personalities. The best quantitative ones. More time practicing swimmers aren’t oddballs, nor are they 7. The best swimmers don’t spend a lot is not good enough. Nor is simply loners-kids who have given up “the of time dreaming about big goals like moving your arms faster! A low-level normal teenage life.” winning the Olympics. They concentrate breaststroke swimmer does very on small wins: clearly defined minor different things than a top-ranked one. 4. Excellence does not come from some achievements that can be rather easily The low-level swimmer tends to pull mystical inner quality of the athlete. done, but produce real effects. her arms far back beneath her, kick Rather, it comes from learning how to the legs out very wide without bringing 8. The best swimmers don’t “choke.” Faced do lots of things right. them together at the finish, lift herself with what seems to be a tremendous challenge or a strikingly unusual event high out of the water on the turn, and 5. The best swimmers are more such as the Olympic Games, they take fail to go underwater for a long ways disciplined. They’re more likely to it as a normal, manageable situation. after the turn. The top-ranked one be strict with their training, come to One way they do this is by sticking to sculls her arms out to the side and workouts on time, watch what they eat, the same routines. Chambliss calls this sweeps back in, kicks narrowly with sleep regular hours, do proper warmups the “mundanity of excellence.” the feet finishing together, stays low before a meet, and the like. on the turns, and goes underwater for - Charlie Dragon a long distance after the turn. They’re 6. Features of the sport that low-level completely different! swimmers find unpleasant, excellent ASCA NEWSLETTER | 2014 EDITION 5 5 Mental Imagery & Excellence in Swimming Compiled by Coach Charlie Dragon Olympians Use Imagery as MentaL TRAINING Flying High While Still on the Ground By Christopher Clarey KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — The “Visualization, for me, doesn’t take in all and ski jumping. The wind or weather Canadian bobsledder Lyndon Rush had the senses,” said Emily Cook, the veteran patterns may shift.