Hour of Power

Today was unseasonably cold in Atlanta. When it's "cold" here, my thoughts turn to my college days, which, for the most part, were far colder. 55 degrees and sunny? That's t-shirt weather at Colby College. Today is October 30th, and in just two days my alma mater will be able to officially begin their season. The calendar's turn to November also means something else: the Hour of Power is nearly upon us.

Recruiting Lessons from Alec Baldwin

ALWAYS BE CLOSING

The last few weeks, my man Garrett McCaffrey has been churning out some fantastic interviews over at Swimswam. Recently, he sat down with twelve time NCAA Championship coach Dave Marsh and picked his brain for some recruiting tips. Marsh had some good insight- still, I contend that you can learn just as much about recruiting from Alec Baldwin's movie defining scene in the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross. You know the one I'm talking about:

Watch for MIT Swimming to Make Great Strides This Year

When the big brains at MIT swimming realized that strapping their swimmers to a big fat rocket wasn't going to help their relay qualify for nationals, they decided to look into upgrading their slipperiness.

Remember that Neverwet stuff?  You know, the superhydrophobic spray that Craig Lord wrote about that could take swimsuit technology to a whole new level by repelling water like Rain-X in full roid rage?

Well...  MIT just developed the next level of superhydrophobia.  Check out this excerpt from an article at extremetech.com:

The Return of Sarcasm

Last week, a reader of the swimbrief sent me a succinct request: stop writing nice things about people who died and return to disputing the outright lies that ooze like so much puss from various corners of the swimming world. Fine, I'll bite, let's see what's out there. OH, Craig Lord! We had a brief period of unity, mourning Nick Thierry's passing. Now he's back to writing things like this about the John Leonard/Ye Shiwen debacle

"A statement from an American Coach [Leonard], whose words were far more reasonable than the brutish response...which is the more aggressive and unreasonable 'accusation': 'I think this young girl may be the victim of abuse and ought to be concerned and make sure that is not the case'."

Are you sitting down?

Other People Matter

Chris is his classic pose

Yesterday, I woke up to a simply worded e-mail. It was from Marty Seligman, and much like his other communications, it was one sentence:

"Chris Peterson, my close friend and closest colleague, died today."

There are probably very little crossover between people who read this blog and people who know who Marty Seligman or Chris Peterson are. Chris' unexpected passing left a community in mourning yesterday. If you are reading this right now and have no idea who I am talking about, I'll give you the one sentence version: Chris Peterson was somebody who's life work was about finding the best in people and it all culminated in a simple phrase "Other People Matter".

USA Swimming Talking Points Memo for Board Members: Blogs are Obviously Lying

This morning, I received a memo in my e-mail inbox. Titled "FAQ for Board Members and Others", it was not originally addressed to me, although I guess I fit into the all-encompassing others category. The memo (an FAQ, frequently asked questions) was issued following the USA Swimming convention in Greensboro. It is one part hilarious- every question is written not in the format one would use to actually question someone at USA Swimming, rather they are quite obviously written by someone on the inside seeking to dictate what questions people should be asking them. It doesn't take long for them to get to a topic that's pertinent to this blog: namely blogs.

The Legend of Kevin Carson

My only picture of Kevin Carson is exactly the way I want to remember him.

My teammate Kevin Carson was a fellow (Southwest) Missouri State Bear for only one season, and even though I hadn't spoken to him in over a decade, I will always consider him a good friend.  My heart breaks as I type this.  I attended Kevin's funeral yesterday.

Nick Thierry, Swimming Legend, Died Today.

If there is one time in your life that you got Swimnews and read every single word that Craig Lord has written, let today be that day. This morning Lord penned an obituary for his friend and mentor, Nick Thierry, the founder of Swimnews and someone everyone that writes about swimming owes a huge debt to.