00:00:03 - Introduction
This is the Your Sports Resource podcast where each week you'll learn actionable strategies that you can implement so the operations of your club support your coaching staff and the direction of your organization. We are committed to excellence in youth sports leadership. Let's get started.
00:00:25 - RENATA
Welcome to the Your Sports Resource podcast. My name is Renata and yes, we've been gone for quite a while, but today we are back with Mike Salpeter, who is the associate head coach for TIDE Swimming in Virginia. Mike has over 20 years of coaching experience with twelve years as a head coach and now with TIDE for going on 6 years this August. Mike was a head coach of the Virginia swimming long course zones all-star team in 2021 and led the team to the Eastern Zone championship.
00:00:56
He has served on the Virginia Swimming Board as a coach representative for the past five years and is a ASCA level four certified coach and has completed the education component for level five. Now, I've invited Mike on today because I feel he has a story that I believe can be helpful to a lot of part-time coaches who would love to make the leap into full-time professional swim coach or being a full-time professional swim coach, but are concerned about taking that leap. So welcome, Mike. We really appreciate you being on the show today.
00:01:31 - MIKE
Thanks for having me on, Renata, and looking forward to hopefully impact lives for everyone out there.
00:01:38 - RENATA
Yeah. All right, so tell us about your role at TIDE and how the team has evolved over the last 6 years. I'm assuming there's been quite a bit of changes, but just tell us about your time at TIDE and how things have changed over the last 6 years.
00:01:54 - MIKE
Sure. So as noted, I've been with Todd for 6 years now, and really what brought me in was just great conversation with Richard Hunter, our current head coach, and Jack Roach, who, as many of us in the swimming world know, is the Yoda of swimming, really just conversations with them in terms of shared similar philosophy and just really vision in terms of where we wanted to take this. When we first started talking, our Chesapeake sites were relatively new.
00:02:27
Abby Hunter and Haley Geiger, I guess would have been Edwards at the time, were kind of leading a more recreational type swim part to kind of help TIDE expand out within the Chesapeake market. At the time, TIDE was very vibrant in the Virginia Beach market but wanted to make more of a name for itself as expanded in the Chesapeake market. And so with my previous experience in terms of coaching with local smaller clubs and head coaching there, growing teams, and whatnot, it was a natural fit in terms of Jack Richard and I to start conversing.
00:03:09
And as I came over, I would say that our Chesapeake sites at the time, about 50 people, we now encompass anywhere between 200 to 250 amongst our respective 3 sites. It's grown quite a bit. , where we started from, probably our low-tier and mid-tier type programming. We now really have seen some kids accomplish great things, do attend high-level meets, and we are very much a strong part of TIDE. I would say that our membership encompasses probably 40% to 45% of our team now. And so it's been a good journey.
00:03:57 - RENATA
So let's jump to that. How did you like, over the 6 years, how did you guys build up that satellite area from a recreational, approximately 50 swimmers up to, what it is today?
00:04:14 - MIKE
Yeah, so that's a good question. I think the first thing is, at least for me, of when I came in, I had a pretty good layout of the land where things started originally. In talking with Jack Richard and Katy Arris-Wilson, who is our team president for me, I was leaving teaching and I was going to be coming in. Ironically, I guess long term, short term, they needed somebody in the Great Bridge market, which is the main portion of where they had expanded to in Chesapeake, long term.
00:04:50
At the time, I was living in western branch, which is about 30 minutes away, driving distance from Great Bridge. And so I was kind of like, well, I guess I'm moving into this full-time. Going to have to do some driving as we go along, give this a whirl, and really hit some traffic. So we also, when I came on, brought on our Portsmouth site.
00:05:14
And one of the things with that is originally that was going to be, whereas I grew things up in the Great Bridge market, maybe I fell back to just in terms of living in that area, living in the western branch area, being the western branch high school coach and having the connections. Ultimately, as it turned out, I fell in love with the Great Bridge area and I moved here. So that kind of starts with number one. I think it really started with me coming in and understanding.
00:05:42
I have to build relationships with these athletes, and not only athletes but with the families. I have to get to know the cultural dynamic of what is the essential fabric of this community and more specifically city, what's important to them, getting to know the kids. In terms of my whole goal in this, when I first came to TIDE beyond just building the relationships within the community, it was very much so to play my part in the organization, I wanted all the athletes at the pool, to feel empowered, to feel like they could accomplish, to feel like we were going to go somewhere.
00:06:26
And so, again, it's not a matter of I knew where we were. I knew where we were starting. I knew where I wanted to get to. And where I wanted to get to was a point where there was a high level of competitiveness amongst athletes because competition is what's going to drive success. They always say iron shapes iron.
00:06:52
And that was what I was really trying to build is I knew in my vision of whether it be a five-year plan or, keeping it, I guess, conservative ten-year plan, within ten years, really wanted to hit a place where iron was going to shape iron within TIDE. And at the five-year mark is really what I was achieving for. But I wanted to pad myself a little bit. I talked to my athletes. The two things we control is our effort and attitude.
00:07:23
So as I came in, to me, establishing that culture of effort and attitude was very important. And also teaching these kids, which had originally been a rec-style program that we need and we want to grow this. Now, I was very fortunate in coming in. Abby Hunter and Haley Edwards Geiger, now, at the time, they really provided a very strong foundation for me so that when I was able to come in, I was able to hit the ground running. Kids were really taught how to swim properly.
00:08:02
Stroke technique was great. So, again, just building those cultural things was important. And then the last part is really just ensuring that the, I guess, strengthening the vision of what the TIDE culture and values were at the time and making sure that that's a large part of what we wanted to build here, too, at our respective Chesapeake sites.
00:08:28 - RENATA
Well, before we move on to. Because the one thing I do want you to share with the audience is how you. Cause you already mentioned it, how you took that leap from teacher to coach full-time. But I want to ask one more question. So one of the. A lot of the clubs, not a lot, but some of the clubs that I work, work with, are like you guys. Now, I've not met a club yet that's in as many pools as you guys are in, but they are diverse. They're in several pools. Right.
00:08:53
And sometimes it's really hard to not become like, the intent should be one team three pools, or one team seven pools, whatever it works out to be, not, three different teams all under the same moniker. So how do you guys protect and make sure that you're not feeling like you're your own team and operating completely on your own? And I know sometimes, probably that balance feels really good and sometimes that balance feels really off. You feel like you're on your own island. But what do you guys do to work to make sure that it is one team with many sites and not many different teams?
00:09:33 - MIKE
Yeah, so that's a great question. I mean, I think the first thing is to acknowledge that in the 6 years that I've been here, I mean, we have exponentially grown. And so therefore, when you exponentially grown, expectations of the membership become extremely high in terms of just wanting equal in access and opportunities. But I think that the key bit is growing under the same vision and cultural values that there are.
00:10:00
And so to best answer your question, I think answer number one is there has to be honest and fluid conversation going on amongst the leadership. That's one thing I give Richard Hunter, our head coach, is whether we agree or we disagree is we're having conversations about where we want to take this. Our opinions are always respected within the room. And I give him a lot of credit in terms of the fact that, Richard is our head coach, is going to chart the direction for this organization. And I, as leading within Chesapeake, is going to essentially help educate where we are and where we want to get to.
00:10:44
I think what I have found is the second part of this is leaving your ego at the door. It's about what's best for team, and that's a part of our mission statement is we really want, we're really all about team. And so again, if you understand your role within a team and that even goes within a site, and you understand what's important through those honest discussions, and then more importantly, you understand the role that you are going to play as a, being a part of that team and really understanding the team is really just about coming around some core values and behaviors and teaching more. Swimming is more than just accomplishments within the pool, I think you can have success.
00:11:34 - RENATA
Yeah. And it's interesting because some people may be thinking, well, values and things. I mean, that's a bit fluffy, but it's not really. I mean, it's really, in short, like you mentioned, one of the key components for any organization, sports, non-sports, is that you have that open and consistent conversation, communication to where you don't have back chatter or back stories happening in the background or just like frustration building up because nobody's talking. Well, that's a value, right?
00:12:06
So I think, there's many things that can fall into that it is values do kind of give you guideposts on what you should be working towards and how you should be working. So I commend you for saying that that needs to be front and center because I do believe they're just, they are what, what makes or breaks the organization because you either live to a standard or you don't agree. So, yeah. All right.
00:12:31
So what I think would be interesting for the audience is that, as you mentioned, you came from teaching, which, I think everybody understands that a lot of the part-time coaches are teachers, right? It's a synced, are aligned, I guess, fields of study or work. And I just want you to share how you like, what caused you to decide to make the leap or the transition from teaching full time to coaching full time, and talk to us about that. Like what were your fears, but what was the ultimate motivator for you to actually make that leap?
00:13:09 - MIKE
Yeah, so I apologize in advance. There's multiple facets with this, but it's a fascinating story. So I'll do my best to be as concise but detail-oriented here is because I think that this speaks to so many out there, which is why I really wanted to speak on this topic is for me the first thing that pushed me was the unsustainable schedule, not only in terms of being a coach and then being a teacher, and I'll get into that in a minute. I'm also a dad of three and a caring husband who absolutely adores his wife and can say I don't think I'd be here right now without the support of Emily who is a fellow teacher and coach.
00:13:54
So it's very interesting the passion we share. But long story short, for me as it was getting into and I was growing the clubs that I was working with and I was head coaches, I was essentially getting up running a morning practice from 5:30 to 7:30 then, or excuse me, it was actually 05:00 to 07:00 then I would show up for my elementary school teaching job at 730. I do that from 7:30 to 2:30, then I would have to get back for afternoon practice which essentially ran from anywhere from 3:30 to 8:30 with dry land and everything included.
00:14:32
And really as I look back I'm thankful that both of my boys at the time and I now have a seven-year-old daughter. But my boys who are older, they were a part of the swim team. But what I was finding was at least for me, looking at the holistic person, swimming was becoming my family dynamic. And then when you tackle on top of that, being a head coach for Western Branch High School and adding that on, it just my plate was flowing over.
00:15:05
And as a teacher, I think is where it first came to be is, I was having to take unpaid leave to go to high-level swim meets, nationals, and the meets down in Florida, and just basically any meet we would go to, I was having to take unpaid leave. So the first thing I looked at is, there were plenty of conversations as it related to with the educational leadership or principal, vice principal within my building. My scores, my test scores for my kids were amazing. I was. I felt like doing a good job.
00:15:46
But as I look back on it now, really what I was I was an unbalanced person. It really wasn't fair to the educational leadership within the building because what they were perceiving was this teacher that wasn't committed, when in reality, I mean, I was just so stretched thin and. So that's number one. Number two, as noted, I just really felt like I wasn't in being split in so many directions, watching my kids grow up, playing soccer, doing swimming now, thankfully, swimming on the team that I was with, and just whatnot.
00:16:28
I wasn't feeling like in being split in so many different ways that I was really being able to give as much to my family. And then more importantly, I think what I was starting to see in the teaching profession, which, it's ironic because the pendulum is swung back now in terms of, of coaching, swimming, and man, do I view it as so powerful now in the sport of swimming. But teaching was becoming data tracking. It wasn't really becoming teaching.
00:16:57
When I first got into it, it was about impacting lives and it had just become test, test in the educational world and data track. And now it's funny because here I am and we're in such a data tracking time within the sport of swimming. And I guess it's my maturity that is caught up of how important that is. But as you can tell from all of those parts, I wasn't healthy, I wasn't happy, and I felt, I guess the best one I would have put it is trapped. And, where it all came to fruition was again, those.
00:17:36
I pulled Jack aside at a local meet that we were all with, and it was actually hosted at TIDE. And I said to him, I was going in so many different directions, and I just basically asked, would, um, would TIDE have a job opening for somebody like me and my negotiables or I should say my non-negotiables with TIDE were the following. And this kind of gets into your question in terms of the leap of faith, teaching is a very secure profession.
00:18:08
So once you hit that, what's known as tenure in teaching, it is very, it's not to say difficult for them to let you go, but you really got to do something stupid or you got to really be a bad teacher with what it is, but it's a very secure profession and they're always going to need teachers and you're always going to have teachers.
00:18:30
My fear in terms of going into coaching full time and it's something that I think held me back to the point where I got 16 years into it was a, I'm looking down the road, and in 14 years, most teachers, when you hit 30 years, you get full retirement benefits, you get full insurance benefits, and that's not something you should ever take lightly. Like that is your future. Here I am where I look back now and say, wow, I could have retired at the age of 55 and that's just not going to happen.
00:19:05
But at the same time, I also looked at it, too, with coaching is not a secure profession. And that's something that I came in with, with Katie at the time and with Jenny Carter, our CEO, Richard and Jack. And I said, one of my biggest fears here is if I leave this secure profession and I come in and within like year, two years, I'm just fired and I'm out of a job, what does that leave my family with? So I realized at the very end I was, my main passion is impacting lives and my main passion is teaching.
00:19:48
And simple to what I realized is my classroom is no longer a classroom. My classroom is now a pool deck. And I think it's something that sometimes we as coaches forget is we are teachers. And now that I'm 6 years down the road of doing this, I'm happy. I realized I made a great decision in the early years. I was always warned, don't lose that teaching license because you never know when you're going to need it back. And I never look back. Now, I really don't. I’m thrilled with the decision that I made. It's been liberating. I'm much healthier, happier. But of course, with coaching, it brings on its own challenges. But that's kind of things in a nutshell.
00:20:38 - RENATA
So what do you think the transferable skills are between both professions? Because I'm calling swimming a profession, because I've been having conversations lately with a lot of clubs about, listen, there's the whole thing with the parent involvement and the parents feeling like they want things their way. And one of the things that have really struck me is that we are one of the few sports that in the youth sector of it and even up into college, like some coaches are professionals.
00:21:11
You have to have all these certifications, you have to take courses, you have to be compliant in a lot of ways that a lot of professions like teaching require in the same way. I don't know that you have to have a degree, but there, there are still certain things that you have to achieve in order to be on deck. So it is a professional organization. But between the two, what do you think are like, what is transferable?
00:21:37
Like, I know in my head, in working with you over several years, what I feel was the transferable skill. But what do you think is transferable that will help, maybe audience, the people who are listening, coaches that are listening about considering making the leap, how, what would be inspirational to like, hey, what you did here, transfer. Yeah.
00:21:55 - MIKE
So the first bit of advice that I can give is going back to what I said a few minutes ago, which is my new classroom is the pool deck. I'll be honest, all skills are transferable. And I did highlight a couple here that I wanted to make sure to mention because I do think everything you do in terms of the teaching world has helped me transition into the full-time coaching world. But, the first thing is what many young coaches struggle with, and we really don't do a good enough job of training with is those parent conversations.
00:22:29
And especially the tough parent conversations just from having parent-teacher conferences. That's one thing I've really tried to bring over in terms of with TIDE. I know we try and meet with our parents three times every year, and essentially it's no different than a parent-teacher conference that you'd be having with your child's teacher at school. Now, I try to do all of my conferences face to face, and again, that's coming from the teaching world of what I learned. It's important to get face to face, to discuss the progress of the child, the goals of the child, and really where we are.
00:23:06
Now, again, as young coaches find once they get in the profession, that parent is looking out for one individual. And while your perspective might be one thing, their perspective is another. And it's really just learning how to maneuver to develop that three-pronged relationship between athlete, coach, and parent. Otherwise in the teaching world, which would be the teacher student, and parent. The second thing is leadership styles and more importantly, interacting with fellow colleagues. Everybody has a different way of being motivated.
00:23:49
Everybody has a different way of being led. And I can tell you right now, in being in the teaching world, I was around some principals that I got to tell you, had they still been around, I don't know that I would be here right now because they were phenomenal leaders and I would have gone through a wall for them. There are other people that unfortunately, I just didn't align with, and it didn't mean that they weren't trying to lead. And the same thing can be said for colleagues, again, in coming back with coaching.
00:24:23
In teaching these kids, being a part of a team is important, and everybody's got different personalities that are going to have to be managed, is the best way I know how to put it. And you have to learn. When I was teaching, my common phrase in the classroom was, you don't have to like everybody, but you have to respect everybody. I've brought that over to the pool deck, and again, it's no different there with the leadership styles or colleague styles. The third is really the importance of understanding the holistic child.
00:24:58
I can tell you right now, as a coach, that's one of the things I really hope that people view with me as a strength is, as I tell some of my younger staff, kids not going to swim for you if they don't respect you. Now, what we get confused with at times, whether it be in a classroom on our pool deck, many young coaches come in and what they want to do is they want to be liked. There's a difference between being liked and being respected.
00:25:29
Respected is having the athlete's best goals in mind, best intentions in mind. And that's really looking at the holistic child. At the same time, if you're coaching them or teaching them like they are a robot and not understanding that they have things going on within their lives that are going to impact the way that they interact, that's important. And the last one here is preparation and lesson planning. You can't go into a practice and wing it, that's for sure. And really what I found is season planning is no different than lesson planning. It's no different than just anything you get. You got to be planned out with how you teach and coach.
00:26:18 - RENATA
Yeah. And those are three areas that are just huge that I do believe that teachers, because they learn it in, in their training. And then as a teacher, they kind of have a leg up. Like, we don't have that kind of training in the swimming profession or maybe even in the sports profession about how do you work with parents? How do you have those diverse perspectives in order to get to the right outcome and how do you lead well?
00:26:46
And I like what you were saying about being liked because I was. I'm watching a podcast right now, and there's one thing that popped out. I just. I don't know. You see my messy notes, but I started to take notes and it's like, so You don't have to be nice or liked. You need to be warm and approachable and considerate, but maintain your boundaries and authority, because it's much easier to kind of be strong and rein it back than it is to be liked and have no sphere of control and then trying to put your authority in. Right.
00:27:26
So I just. I don't know. I thought that was relevant. I thought that was pretty interesting. So. All right, so I want to ask you some questions that we ask a lot of the coaches that come on, and the reason why I do that is because I feel. I feel that people need to learn from a diverse perspectives or point of views on the same topic, because not everybody's situation is the same. Right. So they need to hear different thoughts and different ideas on the same question.
00:27:53
So they know, okay, that actually relates to me and how I operate or how my club operates. So the first one I want to ask you is that. Staff development is something that we at Your Sports Resource really push for teams to invest in with head coaches and associate head coaches like yourself. So what are the some of the ways that? What are some of the things that TIDE does to stay on top of that professional development from an internal perspective, I know there's always conferences and clinics and things like that, but from an internal perspective, how do you guys keep up with your professional?
00:28:31 - MIKE
So the first thing that we do is, which I think is so important, is hold one-on-one meetings with Richard and I kind of splitting up our staff. Those one-on-one meetings are the employees meeting, meaning they're going to come in, they're going to talk to us about where they want to go in their career, what they want to do, and that can be outside of swimming in itself and really just honing in on that piece. Those one-on-one meetings are important because they build and establish relationships with the employee.
00:29:03
Again, as I would say for my teaching days, the biggest thing is people want to know that you care about them when you're working with them and again, it helps build the respect factor. So those one-on-one meetings, we aim to hold them once a month where outside pool deck hours, just basically in middle day, whatever it may be, we're sitting down and it's offline and we're having those meetings. The second thing that we tend to do is to really hold weekly staff meetings and pod meetings.
00:29:40
But specifically in terms of with those staff development, targeting specific skills that we really, as a leadership staff would identify at the beginning of the year that we want to become better at or we want to really train our employees in. And I bring this up in terms of, I like that you went with the ASCA part. Really the best way I know how to say this is in being a swim coach. And you're absolutely right, there is no training on certain topics.
00:30:07
ASCA is going to deliver the coaching. The college courses is the best way now to put it. So, like when you go to ASCA, you're getting the college courses, when you're actually stepping on deck and you are coaching day to day, and that's with basically the X's and O's, the writing, the workouts, the interacting, and whatnot, that's really the student teaching that's coming into play, which I again go back to the parallels between the two.
00:30:35
So really our leadership staff, through our leads, not just Richard myself, but through our 15-18 lead, our 13-14 lead, our head age group coach, lead development coach, what we're doing is we're also taking time outside the pool deck beyond these weekly staff meetings or pod meetings and pod by pod, I bring that term over from teaching where if you think of a pod in the teaching world, it would be like third-grade teachers all getting together and collaborating.
00:31:06
Well, if you have coaches of the same group or same age level, they're getting together and they're collaborating. But the biggest part of this is, again, really getting down and dirty with the employee as it relates to ways of really utilizing the Jon Urbanchek systems of moving through the different energy systems, which again, for ASCA is ASCA level 3, I believe in terms of getting into that, well, we want to bring that home in terms of what we're doing as a staff, in terms of talking as a staff.
00:31:43
But then there's also all these components of. I know I led a meeting for our staff on just the importance of psychology within athletes and just really targeting in on some of those skills. So again, if we can create five or six different professional development topics, we're going to over the span of the year dive into those. So, not to say that it is like an ask a clinic, but it's something that we as a staff are really diving into and saying, we're going to hit home with this.
00:32:20 - RENATA
Yeah. And I think that's great. And I think that, when I start talking to clubs about this, they feel like it's an overwhelming, and it can be overwhelming. Like, you guys have been through a few iterations of how often you're doing these, and is it too much? and I think it's like now we're going through another iteration where we're talking about, okay, what's too much? And, like the timing of doing the training to where holding that balance of supporting yourself and your staff, but also not frying them because they're in heavy meet mode and they're also in heavy meeting mode.
00:32:58
Sometimes you just have to go through several iterations of what works and what doesn't work for an organization and understanding that there is a bit of ebb and flow in that approach in how you want to work with your staff. But ultimately, you should be the head coach. And I would even enroll the associate head coach. Like, they need to be purposeful in how they are upskilling their staff and creating opportunities for professional development because there is a lot of information in house and you can have different people speak from the team or you could invite somebody from a different team to come in and talk, but I think that we don't do enough of that.
00:33:39
I think we expect, or a lot of teams expect that ASCA is going to give you everything and everybody else is going to get their information via osmosis by watching the top-level coaches. And that's not right. And I think you need to be a bit more proactive in your approach. So TIDE is a board-run organization. And, I'm sure you, along with everybody else, you understand the pitfalls of a board run, a parent, board run organization. And I feel like TIDE is one of the very few clubs that I have met that does this well. Like your board really supports your staff and they make sure that you guys have the appropriate staff for all the day-to-day work.
00:34:26
And so you guys do feel supported and then they stay focused on their, their objectives, which means both sides of the house lead together for great outcomes. So you guys are really lucky. But even in a really good, positive environment, what are some things that you would share with the other the audience on, like, what's the best way to really develop a strong relationship with your board as a coach or just a general staff member that's being asked to participate in board meetings like, or should be having a great relationship with the board? Like what is your, what are your thoughts on making sure that that from your perspective, your side, not what the board's doing, but from your side makes a great relationship?
00:35:14 - MIKE
So I think that from our side, again, it comes back to some of the common items that we've talked about, which is everybody plays a role and everybody has a different perspective. And so from that board side, essentially, while we are trying to mold athletes in the pool, we're also running a business here. And in that business running that board president has got to look out for the membership as it relates to. They are the vocal leader for the parents.
00:35:49
They're also the vocal leader for where we want to go as an organization. So, one of the things that, again, our current board president, Jenny Huelsberg, and president emeritus now, but, president, when I came on, Katy Arris-Wilson, one of the things that they both innately do a great job of, again, is the communication factor they respected and do respect. I strongly feel that anytime that Richard, myself, or Kat, our head age group coach, would speak at a board meeting, what we're trying to bring is the coaching perspective to the table and the vision of where we're trying to go as a staff.
00:36:34
Then from there, it's really their job and their role as a board to basically ensure that that aligns with the vision and the values of the team of where we want to go. Now, of course, our vision as a coaching staff should do the same. So I guess what I'm saying is it really boils down to shared vision. It has to be a shared vision between the board and the coaching staff. It cannot get into a tenuous relationship where both sides don't see the perspective.
00:37:06
So I guess I've kind of gotten off topic, but to your original question is, for me, I have to trust, there has to be a certain semblance of trust that when I walk in the room that those, those board members are bringing me, not their opinions per se of their own selective child or children that live in their household, but for the best interests of the team. And if I can take that at face value, a response that I would give is, again, not just for the groups that I coach, but specifically the vision that I see it for, where it is with the team.
00:37:49
So I think the two words that I would use is communication and trust. And I guess the third would be, which is more of a phrase, of a shared vision. I think if those things are in place, any board and coach can get along, it's when those start to disintegrate. And I would throw this out there. A lot of coaches across the country want to sell themselves of the performance of the athletes in the pool.
00:38:18
All of you, I speak to you very, very, very strongly here when I say you can have the strongest athlete performance in the pool, but if you are not changing lives outside of it and you're not curbing employable men and women who are going to go in and who are going to be responsible adults when they get older. And I don't mean to get on my preach box, but this is the importance. That's really what a board is trying to sell or should be trying to sell, but then, putting it on the other shoe.
00:38:51
When a board becomes too reliant on results in pool of hiring and firing coaches like, look, one of the values at TIDE is performance. And trust me, we all take that very seriously. If we're not performing, we understand, and I mean performing both in and outside the pool, we don't have jobs. But that being said, there are times where boards lose sight of the personal growth and culture that coaches are trying to bring in. And if they lose sight of that, we sometimes see great coaches getting let go by organizations that are basically starting their pathway downward. And that's not a good thing.
00:39:39 - RENATA
Yeah. It really is frustrating to see so many coaches leaving the profession. And I think that, listen, there's a lot of reasons for that. Not all of it is board. But I think that a good portion of the coaches who do finally make the decision to move on that they've had enough is because there isn't that reciprocal or mutual respect between both sides. And nobody says that you have to agree.
00:40:06
Like, that's never like, it would be great if you do, but differing opinions and coming to a shared agreement for the best outcome is better than constantly building up a wall and just butting your head up against the wall from both sides and not going anywhere. And that's when you said, you're starting your spiral downward. So, and I think both sides of the house, like, I think the parents need to understand that and I think the coaches need to understand that. Like, just because you're the coach. Sorry, the profession has changed. It is now a business big time. Right.
00:40:41
So you have to be doing the right things for the business, not just because I'm the head coach and I said so sorry that that shit doesn't fly anymore. Right. But also the board needs to understand that. They need to think from the perspective of the entirety of the organization as a business and not from the perspective of their child or from the perspective of, like, when we get lost in those salary conversations, it's like, well, I never made that much money, and it has nothing to do with you. It has to do with the job that you're hiring for, what's in the market, the level of professionalism that person is.
00:41:18
And yes, you should be spending the right amount of money for your staff, just like you would in any other business. Swimming is no different. So sometimes we got to get both sides to go have mutual respect and reciprocal respect with each other so they can come together and solve problems and create great outcomes. So. All right, I have one more question for you. Kind of go back, going back to that professional development, really more from a support perspective, but I feel it's important that coaches build alliances with each other, not just within your club, but outside your club.
00:41:57
And I feel that when we recommend that coaches take that step, often there's fear. Like, they're not going to want to talk to me or there's like, they're not going to make time for me. Nobody's going to make time to talk to me or I'm too busy, whatever. There's excuses. And I feel that it's really important to have peers to have support and to learn from. Right. Everybody has something that they can share, some skill or some knowledge that they can share. I don't care what level you're at. Right.
00:42:32
Like we talked about, you coming in from a different perspective or profession. Just because a coach or a new coach, they're new, but they taught for 20 years doesn't mean they don't have value that they can't share. And I think that coaches are, if they could reach out and build those relationships within the industry, it really. It just helps you learn things from different, varying perspectives. So what are, what are some of the things that you do personally as Mike? Not a coach within TIDE. What are some of the things that you do to build relationships with other coaches and stay connected and share information and learn from others? And if you don't, that's ok.
00:43:18 - MIKE
Absolutely. I absolutely do. And I've been blessed in that over the last five years. I have made it a point. And I really would push and encourage all young coaches out there to do this is to get involved in the governance at the board level within their LSCs. For me, it was five years, maybe, actually, it was seven years ago, I was still with Diggs swimming and I just happened to go to a House of Delegates meeting for Virginia swimming because what I was told is he is a coach in the LSE. Hey, listen, there's going to be a general election and we need all coaches there and whatnot.
00:43:57
And I wanted to do my part right, and I do promise I will get on track in terms of what I do every day. But as I'm sitting there in the meeting, I happen to go to this coaches committee meeting and in there the coaches rep was stepping down from the board and of course they asked, is there anybody within this committee group that would like to step up and lead? And you know me, I am very much a big part of. I'm either going to be a part of the solution or I'm going to, by sitting in silence, I'm going to be a part of the problem.
00:44:32
So of course I raised my hand and here we are. Well, it's been five years. It's actually been longer than that. Here I am where this is the second iteration where I am now in a four-year cycle of being coaches rep for Virginia Swimming. And I was very fortunate in terms of within my first cycle, not to say now I serve with Ryan Woodruff of Lynchburg, one of the teams in our LSE. But I was very fortunate in that first cycle to get to know Morgan Cordle, who is the 757 head coach. And she and I worked very closely together for a good four years. I can say that I grew as a coach just as much as my interactions with her as in any other reason.
00:45:16
I think what it made me realize is I got going within that, many coaches are scared to share, I don't want to say philosophy, x's and o's, whatever it may be, because we are in such a competitive environment. For me now, what I really try to do is I aim to reach out to at least one coach across the country every week to see if I can set up some type of, whether it be call, Zoom, whatever it may be, collaborate on practices. But the other thing I'm blessed with is being coaches rep.
00:45:51
It's given me the opportunity, especially during some of the hardest times, like during the pandemic, to connect and to create a virtual format, whether it be through, zoom through, just networking on deck, whatever it may be of being a resource for them. I think what I've found is the more that we can grow a mentorship program not only within our team but encouraging our younger staff to go out there and find mentors and to like, seek conversations.
00:46:28
I know recently, just this year, we sent our head age group coach, Cat Ware, or, excuse me, Cat Leach and Danny Colvin, who's our 13-14 lead out to Tac Titans in North Carolina. The purpose of doing so is they're another gold medal club and we want to learn from them. And really, the bringbacks that both Cat and Danny brought back have been so valuable for our organization. But the way I look at it is it doesn't stop with me.
00:46:57
My coaching network and the people that I'm connected with have grown over the years and I'm really loving it because I'm getting to know it's not just quality coaches who have great things to share, but like in Morgan, just in working with her on the board, I found a lifelong friend that even now, we're sitting connecting with as she's taken on a new job and I'm saying, let's go out and let's have coffee. Let's catch up. It's just that, again, human connection, relationships.
00:47:33 - RENATA
Yeah. And I think that, like, listen, you say you reach out every week and I'm sure you probably get more no's than yeses, right? So. Or just silence. Right. But your odds are higher when you're constantly trying to connect with people. So coaches stay behind at meets, go to the, like the dinners or the things that are offered, and go to the shared areas and make connections. So afterwards you can do that, reach back out and go, hey, I just would like to talk every once in a while. Pick your brain so we could share. It's really funny when you say it's a competitive business even if I were to relate it to my business, right, there's a million consultants out there, right?
00:48:15
And we all kind of do the same thing. But my approach and how I handle things is going to be my way and I think that's the same with coaches. Right? Share your information. It's going to be adapted to your personal style. Like, somebody else is not going to steal, Mike Salpeter's style in delivery and how he approaches things. There will be like information or tasks in there that they can take, but it's still going to be very different. So you're not going to lose anything by sharing information with other people. Quit holding your cards so close to your, to your vest, so to speak, because it's.
00:48:55 – MIKE
I relate it back, you're never, you're never winning or losing. You're always learning. And that's really what I try to convey to the athletes and to what you just said, I could care less whether somebody is stealing something that I have done or not. It's helping them grow as a person, professionally. And that, that's been what it's been for me as I've been in this, this job.
00:49:20 - RENATA
Well, Mike, thank you so much for coming on today. We really appreciate it.
00:49:22 - MIKE
Thanks, Renata. Thanks for having me.
00:49:24 - RENATA
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