What I Have Learned from Coaching

At the age of thirty-six, I had accomplished all my professional goals and questioned whether I wanted to spend the rest of my professional career coaching competitive swimmers to swim a given distance faster than they ever had before. Surely, I thought, there are more important and significant professional endeavors that I could pursue. It then occurred to me that what we were doing was not primarily about swimming from one end of the pool to the other faster than we ever had before. First and foremost, it was about the life lessons and the principles, values, and attributes which contribute to success and fulfillment in all aspects of our lives that are acquired in the process of striving to be the best that we can be as competitive swimmers. Our culture may change and evolve, but the prerequisites for success and fulfillment remain constant. This book is about the life lessons learned from the trials and triumphs of some of the most accomplished athletes and teams in the history of competitive swimming.