We have known Glenn
Mills since 1998. He was our first real swimming
teacher; we took a weekend course in New York State with him. We invited him to come to our home town to
teach us more about the art of coaching.
Glenn was the best teacher, and he had the experience of being a
champion which makes a huge difference.
I see him as one the last coaches from the last century even though he
is not an old man. We have shared with
you some videos placed on YouTube that belongs to him.
Glenn Mills, Olympian &
GoSwim Co-Founder
Glenn Mills, a 1980 Olympian in the 200
breaststroke, has become the god of swimming videos, the master of showing
"you" how to improve your stroke technique. Through his company,
GoSwim, Glenn has produced best-selling swimming videos for swimmers who are serious
about swimming proficiently.
Tell me about your NCAA success, coming back from 1980 and winning
again, being the 1983 NCAA champ in the 200 breast.
‘’I had a couple years where I was struggling and actually decided to quit. My Dad said one thing to me that I'll never forget, "we'll love you no matter what, but we've always tried to teach you it's better to quit when you're on top, not when you're on the bottom." I was back in the water within a couple days, worked extremely hard, and ended up winning a meet I didn't expect to win. Of course... then I didn't want to quit. My Dad was very sneaky that way.’’
Breaststrokers are a different breed. Are breaststrokers more sensitive to technique because they're pushing so much water?
Breaststrokers are simply more sensitive... so be kind with the rest of
the questions. I think it takes a long time to be a great breaststroker.
You have to realize it can't be all about the power, it's got to be about
what you need to avoid. The harder you try, the more the water fights
you. The goal has always been to develop a constant forward movement, and
you have to be keyed in to whether the effort your putting in is productive, or
destructive. It's a very fine line, always.
I will give you some of his writings:
Commit
If there's one thing I'd like young swimmers to grasp, or understand,
it's how brief their athletic life is going to be.
I'm sure many people would argue that as we get older, we get
better...that athletic pursuit doesn't have to end when college (or high
school) ends. There are thousands of Masters swimmers, triathletes, runners,
open-water swimmers, and weekend warriors who continue their quest for fitness,
or to even improve. However, reason states that you'll never have as much time
to focus solely on athletics as when you're young.
The trouble with this dynamic is that young people typically want to be
doing other things. They're impatient to grow up, and they like to do things
that aren't always productive to the athletic life. I'm not condemning kids, or
accusing, but I understand the pressures of youth having once been there
myself. The pressure to attend parties that will be filled with choices, or
simply staying out too late to have a great workout the next day. I don't have
to get in to drinking, drugs, and other lifestyle choices (that's for the
parents to discuss); however, it's the choices made by the athlete that have to
be questioned here. Each athlete needs to look internally and make a decision.
As they get older, a certain percentage of people will find a new level
of commitment to sport. Compare how Masters swimmers get in the pool with how
age-group swimmers get in. Who's on time? Who jumps in first? Who is more
worried about how many people are in their lane, and if they're going to be
able to finish a set, or a swim. Too many young swimmers see practice as a
burdensome part of their day, while Masters athletes see this is the downtime
they deserve FROM the pressures of their day.
In my mind, too many kids have it all turned around. What I wish for
young athletes to grasp is the idea of COMMIT. Commit to the life OF an athlete
for just a few years, and understand that you're going to have a lifetime of
opportunity to do the things that you feel like you're missing when you're
done. If you're worried about missing time with your friends who stay out late,
going to the coolest parties, maybe you're not hanging with the right people.
When you get older, you'll be able to stay up as late as you want, heck, you
can drink, smoke, eat anything you want, and those things I just mentioned,
while probably not the healthiest lifestyle choice, are all totally legal. For
the majority of swimmers I work with outside of Masters swimmers, these
activities (except eating junk), are NOT legal.
If you commit, you're going to end up performing at a higher level than
you expected. You're going to go faster than you thought, and you'll end up
understanding, at the end of each season, that it's all worth it. Watch the
people who win the big meets, who are the happiest at the championship time of
the season. The look of success is due to one simple word, commitment.
What is commitment? Commitment for an athlete is a daily activity that
starts and ends at the same place each day... in bed. It means getting to bed
at a proper time to allow your body to recover from the work that you've just
finished. Commitment for an athlete starts at night, at that reasonable time.
It continues early the next morning, when the alarm clock goes off with ample
time for you to get up, brush your teeth, get some food, and get to practice
before it starts, not when it's scheduled to start. It's getting in on time,
and doing your best to accomplish the assigned practice that your coach has
spent time designing for YOU to be a more successful athlete. After practice,
it's generally off to school, where you need to focus on what the teacher is
saying, paying attention to the details so you can save time doing your
homework and not having to re-read passages in your books to get the full
meaning.
Commitment is choosing the right foods to eat at lunch to continue to
fuel your body for afternoon dryland and swim practice. Commitment is leaving
school and heading to a quiet place to do your homework, or directly back to
practice, whatever your schedule allows or demands. Commitment is about filling
your day with productive activities so you can lessen the stress of your day by
simply keeping up with things. It's about having another effort-filled
practice, followed by the trip home for more food, and reading. It's about
relaxing for a while, maybe catching a bit of TV, or surfing the web, to clear
your mind prior to lying down to start your commitment all over again.
Sound boring?
That's the life of the majority of elite high-school-age athletes. How
do the pro swimmers live?
Step one is written above. Finish step one of an athlete-committed life,
and you may have a chance to find out. Honestly though, chances are not in your
favor to find out how professional swimmers live. It's simple math, only an
infinitesimal fraction of swimmers ever earn enough money to turn pro, so
chances are you're going to be finished with THIS chapter in your athletic life
when you've finished college.
That means... if you're not committed... you'll simply NEVER... never...
never... ever know how good you could have been. You'll never have as much time
to train, or as little responsibility in your life.
Commit now, and live the rest of your life with a contentment few people
will every understand.
We have to speak about what Glenn mentions thousand
times to help our athletes to place their feet on the ground.
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