Mark Seguin: Hello everybody, Mark Ziegwin, Minnesota Swim and Vibe, Continuing our podcast series, The Long Course. episode eight today, we're gonna talk about some obstacles that exist in our sport. In episodes one and two, we talked about what the issue is, the always-on scoreboard, where we all get hyper-focused on results and not enough on the experiential side of the sport. episode three, we talked about really who's gonna fix it. we know it's not the parents, we know it's not the athletes, but it's gotta come from those with a long-term investment in the sports that are highly ingrained in the sport, whether that be local governing bodies, coaches, officials, etc. episode four, we kind of laid out that the only way this would actually happen is if we get a lot of people to do a little, because it's so much work that if you're asking just a few people to do it all, it's never gonna happen. It won't propagate. and then episodes five through seven, we talked a little bit how Minnesota Summon Vibe became or is trying to become the scaffolding to enable everyone to do a little. instead of having a few people having to do a lot, right? It's the catalyst. it's the infrastructure, it's a way that we can all just contribute a little more and bring that experiential side of the sport on par with the results side so we can see the whole picture and look at it holistically instead of just results driven, which is causing a decrease in participation, a decrease in satisfaction, and ultimately probably the Death of our sport as we know it, and it will turn into a country club sport that only a few people can do and enjoy. So, let's talk about the first obstacle. I'm going to talk through four of those today. first one, I think it's pretty simple in anything. Change is hard. but I've found that the long-term stakeholders involved in the sport of swimming, change is probably even a little harder than the average person. and I get it. I get it. And and my experience, and I've talked to probably over a hundred coaches in the state at some point about this subject and about what Minnesota swimming vibe is trying to do and the culture change we're trying to make. And I can get everyone to nod and say, That's great, that's awesome. I fully support that. When it's time for action, I can only probably get one percent of people to actually do something. So Even though it is something that people agree is good, they can't picture how they would change their day to day, or even something week to week, or how they would change their current Structure to give a little. They can't put that together. and it's understandable. There's a lot of work to be done as a coach, and I get it. You know, you're not just running a team, you're running a program, you're writing workouts, prepping for meets, dealing with kid issues, communicating with parents, your own training and stuff. It's hard, but the challenge is when we all agree that something needs to get done, or at least the vast majority of people agree that something needs to be done. Yet you can get only a tiny tiny bit to actually change their regimen a little bit to kind of support that, that's where it gets frustrating. And that's gonna continue to be an obstacle for this kind of change. And I I've been there too. There's times where I've been so overwhelmed that I'm not ready to hear anything anyone has to say, and I'll probably just nod to get them out of my face. but that's not an excuse, right? come back to it. Come back to it. And again, going back to The everyone does a little. That's why we've tried to make it in Minnesota Summit Vibe as easy as possible for any coach, any long-term stakeholder to do just a little tiny bit. And we'll take care of the rest because we know we can't ask a lot. We can't add too much more to people's plates. But we can ask for just a little. and we got to figure out how to get people to understand that it's not just agreeing, it's taking action on it. I think to further jump on that, I'll give a couple examples that I've dealt with over the past couple of years with coaches and just talking about this. I I remember when I first came up with the concept of if I can get coaches that are already sending their results files in high school to the away coach to just copy me on that email, I can take all that and create this high school database, right? I'm not asking for a significant amount of work. I'm asking for 15 seconds worth of work. Each time that you host a swim meet. 15 seconds. And I was told by quite a few people this wouldn't work. Coaches won't do this. We've tried this, it won't work. Obviously, we got to a point where we got about 95% of the coaches, but still, there are five or six coaches out there that absolutely, regardless of the 15-second investment, will not do this. Why? I don't know. I'm gonna say change is hard. I'll I'll talk about another conversation I had. recently there was an article that came out about how the State High School League is looking at balancing out class A and A in girls' hockey. numbers very similar to boys swimming, where class A is the numbers are about 100 teams total. So you've got 64 in double A, and you've only got about 40 in A. so I threw that out there to coaches. Hey, maybe this is something we should look at. And I was told no, it won't work. End of story. And if someone wants to figure out, go ahead. That's up to them. And then I asked for information about maybe the enrollment so I could take a look at what it's looked like. Don't have access to those. End of story. Right? These are problems. These are problems. And these are well-respected coaches out there. So quick to say, no, it won't, it can't. It'd probably take less effort for them to actually try first before dismissing, Now there are some coaches out there that are great, and I don't want to overlook them either. but I would say the vast majority are either non-responsive dismissive when I when when it comes to action, doing something different. Second obstacle I have. We talked about Slitsch. I mean, this was our kickoff, the heads down, right? I'm so focused on what's happening in the pool in front of me at this point in time, I cannot be concerned about what's going on in the rest of the state in the sport. I can't. Or everything in front of me is fine. So there must not be a problem. That's the killer. It's gonna continue to be the killer. Because it's only a matter of time unless you're maybe one of the two to three or maybe four top programs that have more kids than they know what to do with on a regular basis purely by socioeconomic status and geography, it's gonna catch up to you. Right? So you can't do that. You have to lift your heads up and look. Just lift your heads up. I get it. I've been let's call it compelled during the season to focus on what's in front of me. Obsessed. over obsessed. But you gotta pause and when you have the time, lift that head up and look at what's going on around in the sport and how you can contribute to that and not just do what's in front of you. Right? Survival coaching. Making it through the day. Obstacle number three. I think our broad communication in the sport of the swimming, in the sport of swimming and diving sucks. at the club level, at the college level, and at the high school level. I think it all does. Right? So there's a linchpin. There's a single point of failure in almost all communications that are broad. they run through the coach. Okay? So you have a Entity, let's say it's State High School League, use coaches association, Minnesota Swimming. They don't communicate directly to the athletes at all. Okay, they communicate to the coach. Then it's up to the coach to one, understand that communication, deem it worthy, act upon it, and if necessary, communicate it well and follow up to the athletes and parents. We're not good at that at all. We have a single point of failure and it fails more times than it doesn't. Right? That's why we have not a lot of visibility or consistency. for continuity because we can't communicate from a single point or a single source out to everybody. The athletes, the parents, and the coaches. Because it all runs through the coaches and that's where it can get stuck. Misinterpreted, deprioritized, whatever. Again, I can defend that too. I'm not always comfortable sharing something I don't fully understand. But then that next logical step is well one, having groups that are communicating and trying to get things out broadly to better structure what the ask is or what they're trying to communicate. or two, getting coaches comfortable to follow up instead of just dismissing or ignoring when they don't fully understand what it is. And I think that's a problem. I think the fourth thing that we're gonna list as our final obstacle is there is no single owner. It's not Minnesota Summit Vibe. We are here to support. we are not here to do it all. there is no association, whether it be of coaches, nationally, locally, hyperlocally, hidden somewhere, or officials or governing bodies. they're going to own the health of this sport in the state of Minnesota across all three segments. No one's gonna do it officially. Now can we get people together and get people working together and sharing? and and kind of get them try to get everyone up on the same page and use the same tools and and look at different approaches and and be a little more common. Absolutely. Would that be great for the sport? Absolutely, in my opinion. Will do we have anyone leading the charge on that? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I think it is possible. But I also think if we don't get a lot of people doing just a little, nothing's gonna change. We're gonna continue drifting away from the core of the sport. So in summary, there are four that I listed obstacles that would prevent us from actually making significant positive impactful change in the sport of swimming. and they're interrelated. They all kind of fall down on a single group. And I still consider the coaches in the state my peer group, and I am not trying to throw them under the bus. That's kind where we are, right? Like, I know you want to. I don't think it's it that people don't care. I just think no one wants to take that little extra step, or they see it as a step too much, or not their job, or they might not understand it. That's what building a community is about: is to create a space where we can deal with it, right? We can support each other through that. We can communicate, we can partner, we can collaborate. But I'm also hopeful. I think we can overcome these obstacles. I think it's gonna take a few brave people to step out in front, to lift their heads up beyond their own pool, be willing to put themselves out there a little bit and show the impact they can have by sharing just a little and encouraging others to do the same. But I think we can get there. I have hope for that. That wraps up episode eight, the barriers to getting back to where we need to belong. Episode nine, I'm just gonna put a bow on it all. I'm just going to share some thoughts about what I hope to see and what I think we can see if we all kind of work together on this. So thank you very much, Mark Seagwin, Minnesota, swim and vibe, and I am out.