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Every now and then, a scene from an old movie pops into my head during practice, usually when the set is tough, the swimmers are tired, and the grind is starting to show. One of those scenes comes from Conan the Barbarian (one of my all-time faves;-) ... It’s not a swimming, or sports movie (not even close), but it captures something I think every athlete experiences at some point in their journey. There’s a powerful moment early in the classic movie, after his village is des

US Olympian and gold medalist, Mike Barrowman Now, before you roll your eyes, I’m not talking about emotional “feelings” here, I’m talking about physical  or sensory  ones. One of my all-time favorite (and most often repeated) coaching lines is: “How you feel is overrated.” Often uttered during “taper” or meet prep time and throughout a competition weekend. Some of you might be thinking, “Wait, my emotions don’t matter?!” That’s not quite what I’m saying, they absolutely matt

SwimMAC Senior 1 North and Shark 2 North Group Motto: “Work hard for the person next to you.” As a coach, I believe deeply in the power of group . Not simply the idea of a team in the traditional sense (though that matters) but the truth that our individual success is intimately tied to the strength of the group around us. When you are on a team, every individual achievement is rooted in the collective energy and effort of the group. In swimming, of all sports, this is often

We’ve all heard it before, parents lamenting the relentless grind of swimming: the 5 AM practices, the constant pressure to hit new Personal Bests, the tight schedules, the stress of racing. It’s easy to see why so many might feel like they're losing sight of life’s balance, caught in an endless loop of competition, expectations, and exhaustion. But what if we could shift our focus from “Did I swim faster?” to “Did I give my best effort?” and “Did I execute the process?” This

When I set out to write this book, I didn’t want to make another “how-to” on swimming. I wanted to write something deeper something about what it means  to chase mastery through the sport. In some ways it's my love letter to the sport. A compilation of the things I have gained over the years and the impact it has had on my life, and my pursuit of "The way." Swimming’s Book of the Five Rings  grew out of that idea. It’s not a collection of drills or a manual for faster times.

“No one broke, because no one broke.” — A moment I’ll never forget. From 2008 to 2014, I had the privilege of serving as Head Coach of Chesapeake Bay Aquatic Club (CBAC), a small but mighty USA Swimming team tucked away in Southern Maryland. We had about 90 swimmers, not a powerhouse program by any means, but what we lacked in numbers, we made up for in heart, grit, and curiosity. For some context, and context is everything, as you’ll see, in 2008, the year I took over, we ha

When I sat down to write Ring Five: The Book of the Mind , I knew it would be different. The other rings were about form, rhythm, and power, things you can feel, see, and measure. But this one… this one was about what you can’t. It was about silence, about the space between thoughts, about the mental edge that separates presence from panic. It was about the void. At first, I didn’t know how to write that. How do you describe something that is defined by its absence? There is

If you study elite-level swimmers, a few common threads appear. They all have exceptionally refined stroke technique. They’re disciplined...

At SwimMAC Carolina, we believe coaching and teaching young people is about more than fast times and high performance, it’s about...

When I sat down to write Ring Four: The Book of Butterfly, I knew I was stepping into dangerous territory, not just because butterfly is a brutal stroke, but because it exposes you, and for right or wrong people have strong opinions about it. It might be the most revealing stroke of them all. You can’t fake it. You can’t hide behind endurance, or muscle, or even willpower. If your rhythm is off, if your timing falters, the water tells you immediately.

Today blog comes from the “notes” section of my new book (coming soon) Swimmings Book of The Five Rings, enjoy! Throughout this book I...

When I started piecing together the third chapter of my Book of Five Rings for Swimming  project, Ring Three: The Fire Book...

I first had the idea to write Swimming’s Book of The Five Rings years ago, and shortly after having that idea, I told myself I wasn’t a...

When I sat down to work on the second chapter of The Swimming Book of the Five Rings , I knew it had to be backstroke. In Musashi’s...

At SwimMAC Carolina, we know that big goals don’t happen overnight. They’re built through small, consistent choices made every single...

One of the promises I made when I started this blog was to share the process behind writing my book, not just the finished chapters, but...

Last week, we explored the power of identity; how swimmers who see themselves as disciplined, focused, and resilient are more likely to...

One of the promises I made with this blog was to let you follow along as I build my book, The Way of the Water Warrior (working title,...

At SwimMAC, we’re kicking off our character development series with a simple but powerful idea: identity-based habits. The idea that who...

Before we dive into this first blog post (yes, I’m sticking with the swimming puns), I want to give you a little context. I’m in the...