Please Stand!

A diving coach is, in reality, a teacher. The job of a teacher is to help, encourage and assist your students to learn the subject matter that you are presenting. In this case, your subject matter is the sport of diving. As a person who teaches diving, you need to find the best way possible to reach the students in your classroom (the pool).

There is, in my humble opinion, no right or wrong way to teach diving (safety excluded) -- every diving teacher is different and every diving teacher has his or her own methods to get the lesson across to the students (divers). Experience has shown me that a student is more apt to learn in an environment where the teacher is enthusiastic about the subject matter being presented and I feel strongly that a diving teacher who STANDS during practice has a much better chance of displaying that enthusiasm to his or her students (divers). A coach who stands can be more animated and can better demonstrate techniques; can walk over to the diver for some one on one discussion; can jump up and down to celebrate the learning of a new dive or to show dismay at a diver who repeats the same mistake again. In essence, a coach who stands can bring some energy to the classroom (pool) and this can really benefit the students (divers).

Think back to your school days and recall how boring it was to be in a class where the teacher just sat at their desk and read notes for you to copy in your notebook. Now recall those classes where the teacher was a bundle of energy and you could not wait to get in there and learn! NOW GET OUT OF YOUR CHAIR AND START COACHING!!

Administrating Your Diving Team

Most diving coaches that I know love to coach but do not like the administrative duties that are required to run a successful diving team. Running a diving team is much like running a business -- it is very important to keep up on the day-to-day administrative tasks. Examples are returning e-mails and phone calls, recruiting and registering new divers, billing and bill paying, collecting past due fees, lesson plans, continuing education, etc.

My solution is to schedule a block of time -- the same time every day -- to do these things. I like mornings because my mind is fresh and there are few distractions. I go to the office and try to answer all e-mails, return phone calls and perform all of the routine tasks that I need to do in order to keep my diving program (read: business) running smoothly. Often, these daily administrative duties can be accomplished in a fairly short time as long as you keep up on them.

WOW! Did you know that if you wake-up 30 minutes earlier than you normally do each day that you will add about 7 1/2 DAYS to your year? (30 minutes x 365 days = 10,950 minutes which equals 182.5 hours which equals 7.6 days). Think about how much more you could accomplish with an extra 7 1/2 days!!