The Swim Brief

Building Swimmers Who Want To Be There: Jonathan Kaplan

Send us Fan Mail What makes swimmers want to keep showing up—not because an attendance policy requires it, but because they genuinely want to be there? Jonathan Kaplan,

Building Culture in College Swimming’s Transactional Era

Send us Fan Mail What does it take to build a championship-level program without allowing college swimming to become purely transactional? Stanford men’s swimming head

Building Women's Sports Differently: Ted Lasso Season 4

Send us Fan Mail Ted Lasso returns with a new challenge: building a women’s team inside a sporting structure created for men. Chris DeSantis and Juliet Suess discuss wh

Why Swimmers Aren’t Eating Enough | Alicia Glass

Send us Fan Mail Swimmers spend hours in the pool, yet many still aren’t eating enough to support the work they’re doing. Alicia Glass, Sport Dietitian for USA Swimming

To Save Swimming, Start With the Coaches | Doug Cornish

Send us Fan Mail Swimming has spent decades asking coaches to become more professional. But has the profession done enough to support them in return? Doug Cornish is a

The Making of a Head Coach | Margo Geer

Send us Fan Mail Margo Geer’s path to becoming the head coach at the University of Alabama was anything but conventional. When she took over the program at 28, plenty of

Reflecting on 50 Years of Coaching | Don Wagner

Send us Fan Mail Don Wagner spent more than fifty years coaching swimmers at every level of the sport—from developing young athletes to coaching Olympic champion Janet E

How Do Great Programs Stay Great? | Todd DeSorbo

Send us Fan Mail Todd DeSorbo has built one of the most dominant programs in college swimming history—but he says there was never a master plan. In this conversation we

Leadership, Responsibility, and Shame in The Odyssey

Send us Fan Mail What can The Odyssey teach us about leadership when every available choice carries consequences? Chris is joined by Juliet Seuss for a different kind o

We Protect Athletes. Who Protects Coaches? | Sophie Parr

Send us Fan Mail For years, conversations about athlete welfare have rightly transformed the way we think about coaching. But there's another side of the equation t

The Parent Pressure Trap: Why Giving In Makes It Worse

Send us Fan Mail Why do parents keep intervening in coaching decisions—and why does giving in usually make the problem worse? In this solo brief, I describe the fear un

The Most Important Thing a Coach Can Say After Failure | Dave Salo

Send us Fan Mail Dave Salo has coached at every level of the sport—from NCAA championships to Olympic medals—but this conversation isn't about workouts or sets. In

Debrief: Jeana Kempe

Send us Fan Mail The head coach of Swimming and Diving at the University of Illinois Jeana Kempe joins to talk influences and the path of her coaching career. 

Debrief: David Marsh

Send us Fan Mail David Marsh tells all about what his retirement actually looks like, and what he had planned if he was National Team Director.

Debrief: Tracy Menzel

Send us Fan Mail Tracy Menzel joins to talk GAIN, Diversity and why she’s back coaching in her hometown. Debrief: Tracy Men

Bonus Pod: A Day With Greg Meehan

Send us Fan Mail Recapping the day I spent following around USA Swimming National Team Director Greg Meehan at last week’s Indy Pro Series event.

Debrief: Dave Durden

Send us Fan Mail Dave Durden joins to discuss how he approaches his unconventional start at Cal and his approaches to recruiting and hiring.

Debrief: Megan Devito

Send us Fan Mail Megan Devito, a high school swim coach and performance mindset coach, joins to talk shop on the value of coaching.

Debrief: Kevin Ring, USA Swimming CEO

Send us Fan Mail The CEO of USA Swimming joins to share what he’s learned in his nine months on the job and what he thinks is possible for the future.

Debrief: Cara Stawicki

Send us Fan Mail Former National Team and World Champion rower Cara Stawicki joins to talk shop and even turns the tables on me. Links for Cara: Website: https://cara