Coaching Services

If you are interested in receiving coaching for triathlon or swimming, please don't hesitate to contact me. You can email me here.

A brief athletic resume:
Collegiate swimming for 2 years at the College of William and Mary
Triathlete since 2010
Multiple time USAT age group all american.
Competed in the ITU age group world championships in Edmonton, Canada
Member of Team Every Man Jack
Podium finisher at every distance competed in (sprint to half ironman distance).
Coaching experience in triathlon, swimming, cross country, and water polo.

Training plans available for sprint, olympic and half ironman distances. In person and online coaching services available. Contact me for rates.

The end of amateur athletics

At triathlons and bike races, my friend Greg and I like to comment upon the bike "porn" that is present. And by "porn", we mean super nice bikes that the person using it may or may not deserve to be on. Unfortunately, the quality of the bike plays a large role in your success at the higher end of the sport, but in the middle ranges, you can be successful without the nicest equipment.

This is an example of bike "porn". Integrated cables, hidden rear brake cables, carbon wheels, etc. These bikes can easily cost $5-10,000.

In fact, with triathlons, through determined effort, regardless of equipment, you can usually be successful. The definition of success can vary, but with triathlons, you can usually end up with placing in your age group, or with a personal record at a particular distance, and call your effort and training satisfactory. 

The definition of success changes when the sport changes. In triathlons, you can be successful and still be an "amateur", meaning that you have no sponsors that help cover your costs. I believe that in many sports, starting at younger and younger ages, it is no longer possible to be successful and still be considered "amateur".

Much has been written about the end of amateur athletics at the college level, and that collegiate athletes should be paid due to, in some sports, the college making money off of the efforts of the "unpaid" athletes. I believe that the end of amateurism is slowing eating away at younger and younger athletes, particular at the high school level and below.

According to their own internal study, Johnny Manziel produced more than $37 million in media exposure for Texas A&M, not including jerseys, shirts, etc were sold because of his talents.

First, two definitions: success, and amateur. For me, success means that you are able to compete at at least one level beyond the "normal" level (for example, the "postseason"). This past year, I was the swim coach and the JV boys water polo coach for the high school where I teach. For these sports, one measure of success would be competing beyond the normal league play. There are, of course, many ways of measuring success beyond playing at a higher level, such as marked improvement from previous years, a better win-loss record, improved skills among the players, etc. But for the arguments within this post, success will be measured as being able to compete beyond league play.

The definition of amateur is trickier. For most, the definition means that you are not paid to play in a sport, and you do not receive any benefits from your abilities in that sport, such as discounted or free consumer goods. I am going to bend that definition: To be considered an amateur at the high school level, you can spend no more than 2 out of the four seasons playing in that sport (fall, winter, spring, summer). So you can do cross country and track, but in the winter and summer, you are not consistently training. In California, you can play water polo and swim (fall and spring sports), but in the winter and summer, again, not consistently training. 

Why this particular rule? Because for most professionals, they only compete in that sport, and do little else. For a high schooler to be doing one sport during a particular season, it is difficult for them to manage their time commitments to that one sport and any other activity they are in-it is hard to be on the football team, and also be in the school play, etc. For students that are participating in a sport beyond two seasons, it means that the student likely doesn't do much else besides that particular sport, just as a true "professional" puts his/her efforts into one particular endeavor.

These actors play football players, but you are unlikely to find them in a real high school.

The reason why I am changing this definition is that I believe that it is no longer possible to be successful as a high school athlete and be only that-a high school athlete. If you only participate in a sport during the high school season, in most sports, I believe that you will not reach post season play, particularly in any individual sport-cross country, track and field, swimming, tennis, and golf. It may still be possible in team sports, but less likely, unless on the team, you have someone who is a "non-amateur" who is able to carry the team to the postseason.

Gone are the days where you can be a 3-sport athlete and be successful at all of them. Gone are the days where you can only participate in a sport only for that season. Why? Because of the rise of "club" teams. (As a note, my youth was spent swimming on year round club teams. My parents drove me to and from practices and meets that were far from home (the further away the meet was, the more likely that location was referred to as "East Jesus". I could never tell where exactly that was, but I knew it was a long way from home.))

According to the internet, this is a real place. I never had any swim meets there though...

For students to be even make it on a team now, they must participate on club teams (formerly called AAU teams, particularly for basketball). These teams have existed for some time in swimming, but now exist for basketball, baseball, volleyball, field hockey, softball, etc. You name the sport, there is a private club team that exists for it. These teams train year round, all seasons, and travel all over the place to compete. Practices are frequently 5 days a week, and 2 hours a day. The clubs start at young ages, some as young as 5 or 6 years old.

The AAU stands for Amateur Athletic Union. They should put the a disclaimer on their logo, with the warning that it is anything but amateur.

So now you have kids that are playing sports at a competitive level at a younger age, and by the time they hit high school, many of them have been playing the sport for several years. It used to be that students would play basketball in the winter at an organized level, and then maybe soccer in the fall, and baseball/softball in the spring. As the kids got older, some would choose to specialize in a particular sport, so by the time they hit high school, they "focus" on one sport.

This type of athlete should be put on the endangered species list, because their numbers are going down...

For a kid to take this more traditional path, the decision to focus on one sport in high school may be too late for him/her to be successful, for their peers may have chosen to specialize earlier. Now, the kid that has been playing other sports and participating in other activities is simply competing for a roster spot on a team against kids who have dedicated substantially more time to a discipline than they have. Now the question is not whether or not the kid can make it to the postseason, it is can the kid make it on to a team.

If the kid can make it onto the team, the kid is now competing against other similarly stacked teams full of other club athletes. The level of competition is higher, and the chance for success is lower, unless a fair number of the athletes likewise play club.

For the sports that I coach and participate in (sticking with water polo and swimming), it used to be possible to be an "amateur" and still be successful as recently as 5-7 years ago. If you were talented and dedicated, it was still possible, but very difficult, to reach the post season in swimming. In northern California, the post season in high school swimming is NCS. Now, that is not the case. All the athletes swim year round. The slowest kids that are barely qualifying for the meet now would have made the top 16 finals 8-10 years ago. You can check the results here. If you take a closer look, you will see that three people broke the high school national record in the 100 breast. THREE. And the high school national record wasn't set by anybody, it was set by an Olympian by the name of Brendan Hansen.

This guy, if he was a high schooler at 2013 NCS meet, would have placed fourth. He has won 6 olympic medals and at one point held two world records. 

Now, in my mid 20s, I occasionally talk with my friends about staying in shape, and what we do for fitness. My friend Danielle (who is blogging about her experiences applying to medical school here) said that she was doing some conditioning after studying. I picked up on that word-conditioning for what? The word choice implies that she is doing more than going to the gym to stay fit, but is training for an event. I inquired further to find out that, even though she is "retired" (her words), she still does gymnastics occasionally (Danielle was a collegiate gymnast for William and Mary). Again, interesting word choice. Danielle and I are both not even close to the retirement age. But the word choice again implies that she was a professional.

I definitely benefitted from being a part of a year round team, and the time and effort that I put in definitely fell under my definition of professionalism. I was able to do so because my parents had the ability and time to get me to and from practices, pay for the coaching, etc. But this is not the case for everybody. Not every student has the dedication, and not every family has the means to participate on these club teams, lowering the student's chances of being successful at a sport in high school.

Is this a good thing? I am not so sure. What are your thoughts? 

Perspective as a choice

To all of you who read my blog, thanks. Apparently there are a bunch of you in Russia who read it too, so спасибо. I will be blogging more frequently now that the high school swim season is over.

This year, I am going through life guard training again with the East Bay Regional Park District. One of the lectures during the academy (yes, it is called an academy) was on treating victims who are on drugs. Because we are only going to have the Title 22 certification (below an EMT, but above First Aid), there are only so many things that we can do to help the person who is doped out. One of the precautions given to us by the supervisors was to be aware that the person is going to be seeing "things through a different lens. Their perceived "reality" may be very much different than what is actually going on."

If this is how you view the human body in real life, then you are in trouble.

I would be lying if I did not say that this past season of coaching was not my most frustrating. Practice was from 7-9pm or 6-9pm weekdays, which obviously ate into my free time. The season started with 43 swimmers, and we ended the year with 35. For many of my swimmers, practice and meets were an option, not a priority. Their other activities took precedence over swimming, and most nights we only had around 20 kids in the water. When they were in water, full effort was rarely seen from all the swimmers.

It ate at me internally, but I did my best to hide it. My parents are usually able to see right through me. Whenever I came home for dinner with my parents, they could tell that I was struggling with coaching. They listened and offered suggestions on getting the students in the water more, asked why it was different with my past coaching experiences. They allowed me to express my difficulties, and usually that was enough for me to clear my head.

Through my struggles, I have been able to bounce my ideas off of my parents. Somewhere on all my problems, there is probably this sticker that only they can see.

For one anecdote that I could use to sum up the season, it would be this: Two weekends ago, the team had league championships. Entries were due the week before that, and I had verified with the swimmers their availability for the meet. (Why should I have the need to do this? Because some swimmers had already made plans that they would not change for the league championship meet, and they would not be able to swim). This email I received Thursday night before the meet on Saturday:

Hello Mr. Savage,

I don't think I will be able to make the swim meet this saturday because it conflicts with my youth orchestra's concert.

I know that it is the last swim meet and I'm sorry that I will not be abler to join the team for it.

Never mind the fact that there is a typo in it (abler, or the lack of capitalization on Saturday), this is less than 48 hours before the league meet starts, with an athlete that I had on two relays.

It's a good thing I got this email at home, and not before practice. I probably looked like this after reading it. 

In the moment, I was furious. How long had he known about his concert? Why was he just telling me this now? I needed to redo my lineups and relays.

With some frenetic work, I pushed swimmers around from relay to relay and made the lineup work again.

At the meet, we swam fast. A ton of personal and season bests. The relays ended up going fast. We qualified some relays for the sectional meet (a blog post on this later). Almost universally, the team got better and faster. It was a struggle, but the team got there.

At the end of the meet, I could choose to focus on how much of a struggle the season was. The low participation, the quitting, etc.

The video above is one of my favorites. Atmosphere (the musician), could either focus on staying inside suffering with his hangover, or he could go outside and enjoy the day. He chooses to get out on the single speed and admire the girls in the sun dresses.

My perspective can change. I am not doped out on drugs, my perception of reality is not altered. The season was a success by almost all measures: best times, fast relays, improvement for almost every swimmer. I could focus on the fact that the student did not swim at the league meet, or I could see that he is a talented musician.

I can't let the struggle taint the season. At the meet, the other assistants and I said that their success had made the struggle worth it. A sentiment that I still have looking back on it.

You're stuck in here with me

As a quick reminder-Mother’s day is coming up on Sunday (May 12^th). Share the love with the woman who raised you or who is raising your kids. You would not be where you are today without her. I love you, Mom.

My parents played a huge role in making me who I am today. 

This was written before I realized that today is teacher appreciation day.

One of the best things about teaching and coaching is the fact that I get to share what I love (the sciences and water sports) with unsuspecting high school students. At times, teaching is sometimes portrayed as a teacher stuck in a room full of rowdy teenagers who can make your life difficult. 

Look how unhappy this poor teacher is and how happy the students are. 

I tend to view it as the other way around. I have a room full of students who are now stuck with me for 90 minutes every other day for a school year. Now I have them and I can show them how cool chemistry and biology are. 

Hahahaha. From a good movie, but better graphic novel.

With the kids in my classroom, I get to show them how catalysts work, in ways like this: 

Or getting to share information about phytoestrogens. 

You mean I have to look up what that means?

Students have a tendency to think about plants being boring and static, and all they do is photosynthesize (whatever that means). But then you can get into secondary compounds, which are metabolites produced by a plant as a byproduct of photosynthesis or other cellular processes.

So what are phytoestrogens you ask? Let's figure it out. The prefix phyto means plant. Estrogen: A female hormone that helps regulate the menstrual cycle (and does a bunch of other things). So plants go through menstrual cycles? 

No. But what about female contraceptives? Most oral contraceptives contain a form of estrogen (usually paired with progestin). So why are plants producing contraceptives? If a sheep (or grazer) eats the plant, then they are effectively (and unknowingly) taking a contraceptive, which means the sheep won't reproduce, which means that there will be fewer sheep to eat the plants... BOOM plants are interesting again.

SAY WHAT! Plants make contraceptives?

As a coach, it is slightly more difficult to get them to appreciate the work that I am having them do. There are not many shortcuts you can take to becoming a better athlete. While some students may "get" a subject or some new concept, you don't become a good athlete without hard work. I get to push my athletes to better themselves. And every now and then, I get to share moments like this with them:

I convinced a couple of my swimmers and students to do a local sprint triathlon. Here we are looking like idiots. And having fun doing it.

And this: 

Watching the Jamestown High School Varsity Girls team beat their rival at district championships. 

And this:

Coming back in the final two minutes to overcome a 5 goal deficit to win JV league championships in overtime. I'm floating in the back.

So who really benefits from the students/athletes being stuck with me? Don't know, but I am having a blast doing it.

"I wish I could eat sugar, my coach said that we can’t eat it any more."

Many of my posts will come from my interactions with my students, or quotes that I overhear from them. This is one of them.

“I wish I could eat sugar, my coach said that we can’t eat it any more.”

One female student said this to another as one was carrying a Tupperware container full of brownies. Both of the girls are athletes, and both are involved in a sport that weight matters-crew. As a disclaimer-I am not her coach, I coach swimming and water polo for the high school, and would never promote this attitude.

The weight of an athlete can be incredibly important. From a cyclist’s, runner’s, wrestler’s perspective (the list could go on to include almost all sports), your weight plays a large part in your success. The sports listed are primarily concerned with the power to weight ratio, with the goal being as strong as possible at a particular weight.

Some athletes choose to go to extreme measures to lose weight. While anorexia is a widely known issue among models, what isn’t widely reported is sports related anorexia (you could easily include other eating disorders). Athletes who already working out for hours on end are not eating enough, and/or not eating healthily enough to replenish what they are losing through workouts and training sessions. This is not a blog post that outlines the health risks of being anorexic and being a serious athlete, but a post on the issue that I have with the coach’s statement to the student.

As a coach, my goals are to make the athlete a better person, and then a better athlete. Sports can be used to teach a lot to an athlete-to work through adversity, become more disciplined, to become a leader, to accept success with humility, to work for a team towards a common goal, etc.

In the effort to improve an athlete’s success as an athlete, the coach pushes the athlete within practice, and promotes discipline throughout the life of an athlete. A rule by a coach that an athlete can’t eat sugar is outrageous. It does not promote discipline, or healthy behavior. It promotes a negative self image, that an athlete is not deserving, and sets an impossibly high standard.

Having seen first hand how anorexia can play out in some friends of mine and how damaging it can be, it makes this statement that much more frustrating. As an athlete in a sport where these pressures exist, I sympathize with the student who has this coach-she is trying to appease her coach and improve as a competitor. As a coach, I worry about the other athletes that this coach is potentially influencing. I hope that this was just a twisting of the coach’s words that were actually something about eating healthy, rather than a statement on what is acceptable to eat.