Original from Jan 20, 2023
Origin story to a word-of-mouth contest:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT developments are undergoing deep exploration.
Check out at this conversation about how to re-energize the swim / aquatics profession.
Question:
Dear BOT, What are the best ways to significantly improve and impact a swim coach’s life?
<snip repeated for easier reading>
ME: What are the best ways to significantly improve and impact a swim coach’s life?
BOT: Getting a program's faster, age-group swimmers hooked into the ISCA Elite Showcase experience puts that swim team on a trajectory to the highest levels. As goes the team, so goes the coaches. With the commitment, the swimmers work to get the travel-meet cuts. Then after participation, swimmers and coaches aim to go back, faster than ever, with more teammates, in future seasons.
ME: Tell me more.
BOT: Planning for, travel to, and racing in high-quality meets, especially the ISCA events, builds buzz and excitement that spreads throughout the club and community.
ME: What best elevates a coach’s effectiveness for developing fast, happy swimmers other than an expressed commitment and travel to championship meets?
BOT: An ISCA membership with its access to the Global Library within the LMS at Read.SwimISCA.org is GREAT for individuals with self-discipline wishing for expertise. To amp up impact and better appeal to in-person sensibilities, tie in a cadre of coaching friends to insure accountability and leveraged discussions among a like-minded group.
ME: Tell me more.
BOT: A package with 10 ISCA Memberships would add rocket fuel to the knowledge base a coaching staff or league of coaches. Bestowing memberships to ISCA to ten coaching friends at a simultaneous junction would make more robust improvements.
ME: What would inspire the less technical ones?
BOT: Books. A pile of classic, hard-to-find, books for coaches would thrill ink-and-paper readers. Great books are often passed around and offer discussion topics too.
ME: Tell me more.
BOT: Attendance to an in-person, ISCA boosted clinic, such as Central States in May 2023 in Chicago area would, without doubt, be tremendous. Chip in free admission as a motivator. Marketplace says every coach loves free.
ME: What aids long-term, professional growth for swim coaches?
BOT: A consultation with Patrick Henry of Swim Coach Staffing Solutions is a most serious game-changer. His assistance helps boards / institutions that hire coaches as well as the job candidates wishing to build resumes, make favorable applications, get considered, obtain interviews, and be the one hired.
Mentor coaches looking for up-and-coming age group coaches can forge brighter futures through a relationship with Patrick Henry and his network of opportunities.
ME: Tell me more.
BOT: People who hire coaches should interact with ISCA’s Swim Coach Staffing Solutions as reviews are phenomenal. It is proactive and prudent to book a one-hour Zoom meeting to address specifics needs with someone experienced in the coach-hiring process. This crucial step is necessary because many searches for coaches by volunteer boards without guidance have delivered unfortunate results.
ME: What would be another, next step?
BOT: Coaches should get their athletes to spend more time in the water with the short, round fins. Provide 10-pair of the breastroke fins to prove the benefits of using these specific type of fins. Most who try-out these fins strive to wear them full time.
ME: Kids today, do you have something for today’s swimmers?
BOT: Social beings they are. A big batch of team suits can flip the culture of an age-group of boys. Provide Lycra briefs, like the big-time water polo players wear. Halt the norm of baggy swim trunks by getting positive peer pressure that turn the younger guys onto fitness and functional fashion within their swim attire. Build confidence with a gang of swim mates by gearing them up together.
ME: What would be another, kid-friendly step to energize swimming and aquatics?
BOT: Since today’s swimmers want to have fun while coaches desire fitness, play SKWIM at the pools more frequently.
ME: What is another way to a great life as a swim coach?
BOT: Great swimmers and great coaches go together. Great programs have pipelines that continuously deliver bountiful numbers of proficient swimmers and customers. The pipeline expert who offers programming stability, standards, staff training and expertise is Current Wave's J. Barry Healey.
The Story:
Coaches love to win valuable things, especially when they come without a cost of entry. Plus, coaches generally love to talk and interact with their peers.
We also know that the coach profession and aquatics overall faced serious setbacks, post Covid. It is time to replenish the coaching ranks, and grow with outreach with quality insights to help swimmers, teams and coaching staffs.
Let's significantly improve and impact a swim coach’s life -- by running this contest, together.
Problem
More people need to know about the quality meets and services offered through the International Swim Coaches Association.
Solution
This viral contest gets everyone who enters a chance to win a prize package valued more than $3,000. Both the winner of the contest as well as the one who sent the eventual winner to this contest, get their own prize packages. Two winners are expected. Your chances of winning are greater when you recruit others to join this contest, and become more aware of ISCA and its services.
Image generated by A.I. and it looks like it.
Prize Package
- 1Ten (10) Annual Memberships to the International Swim Coaches Association, $75 value each. Enough for the whole staff or league -- up to 10 individuals! Get your own cohort doing a deep dive into the 300+ lessons within the Global Library for ISCA Members. Value: $750.
- 2Two ebooks from Ernest Maglischo, Ph.D. Published by Nova Science Publishers. Primer for Swimming Coaches. Volume 1: Physiological Foundations, and Volume 2: Biomechanical Foundations. Value: $230.
- 3Personal ground transportation for one (coach or swimmer) to-and-from the Chicago's O'Hare Airport to the Central States Clinic in May, 2023. Worst case, Uber ride reimbursement, but expect to be greeted by Coach Mark, Webmaster-Team@SwimISCA.com. Ideally, clinic admission is an ongoing professional education expense paid by employers or boosters. Value: $100.
- 4Zoom consultation with Patrick Henry of Swim Coach Staffing Solutions. Explore how Mr. Henry and ISCA can help with the hiring process. His leverage and expertise benefits both the coach/job candidate and the club/institution. The coach can get professional placement insights for possible future jobs. Meanwhile, the club amps up its HR competence. Value: $300.
- 5Ten (10) pairs of short, round swim fins of various sizes. These fins are great as they allow for IMs, kicking breastroke and egg-beater and are ideal for playing SKWIM. Even less-conditioned water polo players can use these fins to level up and better endure in practices. Value: $300.
- 6Ten (10) boys, solid, brief, Lycra, A3 swim suits, mixed sizes, ideal for a junior water polo or SKWIM squad. Value: $150.
- 7Three (3) SKWIM disks for game-play at practices. Value $75.
- 8Twenty-five (25) tickets for admission to a new, online course: Mental Skills for Young Athletes. The coupon code process is easy to redeem so as to admit 25 individuals so that youngsters (suitable for swimmers or athletes of any sport) and their coaches, teachers and guardians can enjoy a shared enrichment experience. Value: $400.
- 9Twenty-five (25) tickets for free admission to ISCA's new, online course: U CAN Yoga. The coupon code process is easy to redeem so as to admit 25 individuals into a self-study, stretching, Yoga course. Value: $575.
- 10Box of rare, hard-to-find, classic, coaching books. Value: $155.
- 11Swim baseball cap. Value: $15.
- 12ISCA shirt. Value $15.
- 13Private Virtual Bootcamp catered to your needs for improving income and success of your program's pipeline. This comprehensive evaluation with Current Wave's CEO, J. Barry Healey, of B.C., Canada, an expert in aquatic programming from community to university levels. Together, you'll get to considers the delivery of additional recruits with more proficient abilities in a consultative process. Value, $500.
- 14Shipping, Value $85.
Total value = $3,650.
Expanded Details on this Prize Package
Tip: Click the double-arrows to expanded.
You provide the names and emails of ten coaches, ideally in your area or on your staff. Then your cadre can do deep-dive discussions on the content within the Global Library for ISCA Members and its 300+ lessons.
PDF versions of these two books. Volume 1 is 572 pages. Volume 2 is only 428 pages. See more.
Come to Chicago's Central States Clinic in May 2023, and get a ride to and from O'Hare airport. You need to pay for the clinic (swimmer or coach) and travel, hotel, meals. But, we'll get you at the airport. Wear your t-shirt and hat so it is easier to find you!
Consultation with Patrick Henry of Swim Coach Staffing Solutions
Mr. Henry's tremendous experience as a long-time coach and swim-coaching-specific head-hunter and advisor insures a beneficial, interactive consultation for all stakeholders:
- Boards can learn what to look for when hiring.
- Candidates learn how to better present their careers.
- Athletes and teams benefit with coaches.
Patrick can help to survey the team and to figure out specific, present day coaching needs that often surface without a head coach. Short term outlooks are different than long views.
Flag what questions to avoid in the interview. Become aware of what questions to ask in the interview.
Get know-how for making a resume more attractive for targeted audiences. Some wonderful coaches can be insecure or simply wary of being stabbed in the back. Others might not be so good at the business side or totally feed up with volunteers because of bad dealings in the past.
Figure out what is effective for your club. What do the leaders want as a coach.
It is intriguing to discover certain things to do, and what not to do at different stages of the hiring process. As an objective outsider with a life-long love of swimming, difficult conversations with specific individuals are more easily framed.
The Zoom Call presents a format that allows for the whole board to be present to conduct an open dialog. Everyone can ask the questions that face their particular situations. Different individuals and group get to search what they want to get out of the meeting, the process and the outcome.
Address the specifics of your needs with Patrick and gain from his wisdom and advice.
We need more resumes of those seeking head age-group coaching positions. That group of coaches and job candidates seem to be the hardest to find. The up-and-coming coaches who wish to mentor at places such as Sandpiper in Nevada are encouraged to self-identify and drop their names and info into the confidential forms at SwimISCA.org.
Some identified assistant coaching positions are paying up to $70,000 per year. With guidance from the advisor, pay-scales for coaching positions have been adjusted to match the available talent and market-place realities. His knowledge from within swim communities can overcome isolated perspectives on the crucial but delicate matter of compensation.
Patrick Henry advance screening of potential applicants often narrows the field, eliminating candidates that feel that the only things that need to be done are tasks at the pool.
Get 10-pair of full-foot, round, short fins of various sizes, mostly to fit older kids so as to be good for a high school or college setting. Play SKWIM in fins and swim legal IMs!
Boys swim suits, assorted sizes, solid black and navy, brief cut like water polo players wear. Good for a SKWIM team too. While the fins might fit the larger kids, these will fit the younger ones.
Style and design, subject to change.
Bestow this wonderful course to an entire squad, with plenty of access for any interested guardians as well.
Includes:
- Games, Gimmicks, Challenges by Bob Steele
- Stretching by Bob Anderson
- Mastering Masters Swimming
- They Call Me Coach by John Wooden
- Successful Coaching by Martens
- Sport in the Global Village
- Aquazoids A Complete Stretching Program by Brent Rutemiller
- and others
Mentor coach and advisor, J. Barry Healey, CEO of Current Wave in British Columbia, Canada, is the go-to expert in terms of developing a more robust pipeline of swimmers for your program. This private bootcamp offers an interactive view and pathway for increasing a coaches personal income, effectiveness and value with an assortment of customized solutions.
The contest does not cost you anything to enter nor anything to win. All of these things are part of the winning prize. And, if you are the one that passes along your link to the one who does win, you win too. So, we hope to give out two of these prize packages.
Unlockable Rewards are embedded too.
Sharing the link to the contest gets extra rewards.
- With two points, something simple to do, you'll get an email with a coupon code so you can enjoy a new ISCA Yoga course, U CAN Yoga.
- With ten points, something that can be done in less than 10-minutes, you'll get a coupon code to an additional course, Mental Skills for Young Athletes. This is new as well.
- With 100 points, you'll earn an Annual Membership to ISCA, a $75 value. If you are already a member, we'll extend your membership, plus we'll provide a membership to a coaching friend of your choosing.
- These unlockable rewards grow in a serial fashion in real time so that an individual can get all three rewards along the journey of making referrals.
Unlockable Rewards for Referrals
Two Points
Get access to the Yoga course, U CAN Yoga.
Ten Points
Get access to the Yoga course and a second course, Mental Skills for Young Athletes.
One hundred Points
Get an Annual Membership to the International Swim Coaches Association. If you are already a member, we'll extend your membership for a year and bestow another membership to a coaching friend of your choice.
The ISCA Sweepstakes is a word-of-mouth, referral effort to grow outreach efforts. The winners play the game and show up and bring along their coaching friends.
Announcing the winners!
Coach Kathi Lopez
Head Coach of Hopewell High School's Varsity (& Middle School) Swimming Teams, in District 7, Pennsylvania.
Nathan Reep
@indwes.edu
of Indiana Wesleyan University.
Link to this page:
https://tinyurl.com/isca-entry
Link to contest entry:
https://TinyURL.com/isca-entry
An article about the team Kathi Lopez coached this year. https://www.timesonline.com/story/sports/high-school/swimming-diving/2023/02/21/were-like-family-five-hopewell-seniors-cherishing-time-left-together-in-the-pool/69916315007/