Eddie Reese Edit
Thu, Jan 26, 2023 10:34AM • 28:36
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coaches, people, swimmers, day, practice, running, good, taper, stroke, long, real, technique, training, important, read, edie, olympic, goals, athletes, year
SPEAKERS
Eddie Reese, Paul Barnett
Paul Barnett 00:00
Good afternoon, Eddie Reese, and welcome to the Great coach's podcast.
Eddie Reese 00:05
Thanks. It's nice to be included in the group.
Paul Barnett 00:10
Well, I think by the end of this interview, you might very well be at the top of the group. But I want to take it slowly before we get to the long list of medal winners that you've had been associated with. But Eddie, something simple to get his going, where are you in the world? And what have you been doing so far today?
Eddie Reese 00:27
I'm not sure if it's a blessing or a curse. But I have this drive to find a way to get better at whatever I do. Whether it's coaching, swimming, hunting, or personal fitness, or relationships. I don't like these words, never satisfied. But I wake up at three o'clock, trying to figure out how to get all those things better.
Paul Barnett 00:58
Well, let me ask you, if I can about some of the greats that you've experienced, because I know that, you know, we've worked with Buddy Crone, Bill Harlan, Jack Borel, and Rick Barnes. And those are just four of the many, many big names that you've been associated with. But Edie, what is it you think the great coaches do, apart from getting up at 3am? To think about how to get better? What are the great coaches do differently, that sets them apart?
Eddie Reese 01:26
I think there's some basic things to really be at the top of a sport that is really the leader in physiological training. I mean, we're the Olympics for the most popular sport, other countries, take it very seriously. And we do too. So to be good at this, you've got to care more about the athletes and yourself, whatever goals you have, should be for them, not to move you to a higher station, or a higher position. You got to know basic things, physiologically. In other words, things that if you do x, then what are you going to get? Because there's not much of that in our sport. And I do believe the first thing I said, the athlete in front of all their respects, from academics. And nowadays, mental health is so important, and specially in our country. And it's kind of sad that we've gotten to this, but take care of the athletes know the physiological basis of training. [PB1]
And then we all know have we all know technique, we can get it anywhere. We can Google strokes, anywhere, so it's available. And a lot of people don't use it. We had a real good swear, come here to train year for the Olympics. First week, he was very sad. I've been at this other place for five years. And one week, I've had more stroke work than total in the five years. And I believe that's commonplace, not just in our country, but in other countries. But if you watch what happens, there are certain strokes that get to the finals. If you've got like get backstroke, if you put your hand in on the back of the pan, and you can be ranked nationally. Doing that as an age grouper. Nobody any good does that. Now the top 16 trials are the Olympics does that. So that stroke eliminates people don't let that happen.
Paul Barnett 04:04
Eddie Hume is very important to you. It's in all the articles over the years you mentioned your humor and your your jokes in your dry sense of humor, which I experienced before we hit record. Why is it so important to you as a leader?
Eddie Reese 04:19
I would like to give you a good breeze then that's just the way I am. But also know that swimmers have a great sense of humor and training can be and will be boring. So to get them to smile during training is a very important aspect of it. Probably the part I left out, being a good coach. Gotta do some fun. You gotta have fun. The human animal needs still laugh. There are anecdotal stories out there about guys that have been sick, they thought they were gonna die. They moved out of the hospital, got comedian based films and gotten well through laughter. So we know it's a good thing. And we've got to happen. My, if when they quit laughing at my jokes, I'm a goner. And right now, I'm funnier than I've ever been. That could be a distorted view.
Paul Barnett 05:28
Or we might have to speak to some of your, the long list of the many medalists you've had. And ask them about that maybe a quick joke before an Olympic final is the secret to high performance
Eddie Reese 05:39
we have a lot of times our team meetings are before we get to the pool. So the worst thing you can do is try to pump them up an hour and a half for the swim. So we do keep it light and go into some of the funny things that have happened.[PB2]
Paul Barnett 05:57
Tell me Eddie, when you talk to new coaches, who are taking over new teams, those teams might have been successful, they might not have been, what do you tell them to do? First,
Eddie Reese 06:07
I try to give them all advice. So whatever you try to do, you cannot do it in one year, get to know the kids enjoy the kids, we have a saying over here that has to do with knowing how much you care, before they care how much you know. And I think somebody did just make that saying up, they saw it happening and described it. And I really believe that that's the first thing you do. Part of care is tech D technique can be positive reinforcement, I've got some guys that don't change anything for a year or two. So you've got to find a different way of saying that, whatever you want them to fix. But the way I describe technique, as most athletes reach 90%, the good ones have their potential, that's just a number several reference. And if you don't have good technique, you reach 95%. So that puts you down around 81. And I'm gonna beat you with people that are not as good because I'm gonna work on technique[PB3]
Paul Barnett 07:30
at the keyboard or you for your team, which I love is take care of yourself, take care of each other. And that takes care of everything else. So it's so powerful in its simplicity. And yet it also connects, you know, with self care, selflessness winning, where did you develop this, this motto? Where did it come from?
Eddie Reese 07:51
I'm sure I read it somewhere. But we talked about it, they liked it.
And we have a culture here that can be really, really good, or just really good. And anything that's a high level, it doesn't take much to knock it down. And the athletes are the biggest part of this. In practice, we talk about all I want them to do is say good things to each other. Someone swimmin well, going fat, tell them great job. Somebody's not swimming. Well, that's me. Cause if Sapir says at this age, says something, too, a teammate can be more powerful than I am. And, but if they say something negative, they'll get blown off or cussed out. So I didn't want them to do that. I never want that to go on between them. Even though it does on Fridays, they go in the locker room, no coaches sit down and go around the room. And they say something good. They've done in school this week, academically, some good things they've done in the water, and it's called their clap meeting. And then the seniors decide where to get this now, all of them go eat together on a Friday night. I wish I could say I started that came from another swimmer. And that was 25 years ago, that keep it going. During COVID We had to have do the numbers we had to have like a group in one to three and then three to five, the group that was in 123 whatever they were doing it five, they would come back for that meeting. So you can't put a value on the importance of that kind of stuff and The affirmation and practice that is so good[PB4]
Paul Barnett 10:04
at, I've got this great quote from one of your old swimmers, it's the gold medalist, Shawn Jordan. He says, it expands the set of possibilities of what you can close your eyes and see happening. So caught my eye when I was reading and I wanted to ask you, how do you work with visualizations to help people,
Eddie Reese 10:27
we kind of do that in a casual way, we don't sit down and do it.
I'm an eternal optimist. So I'm always saying good things, and trying to get them to realize like, right now we're working pretty hard. I've got a team that's way ahead of anything we've had in recent memory, physically, and culturally, they are doing a phenomenal job, taking care of each other, and doing the right things and practice.
And we have a meeting, the beginning of the semester, talk about goals, they tell me their goals, and I give them an idea what they're gonna have to do to make that goal. Because their goals, they're optimistic too. And I've seen too many people, what I call swimmers on a mission, like when Brenda Nansen came that Texas had gotten third into event set the Olympic trial, third stays home, he came to school, he was the man on a mission. He never lost the breaststroke race, he was never beaten in practice. So those all those sayings, you may not never lose the race. But you can always be working hard. And that's the name of the game. We're blue collar sport, you want to beat somebody outwork them. And granted, there's some people, even if you outwork them, they're not going to be but you've got to look at it, that mindset. [PB5]
And a thing that helps us in that is we get people to come in and improve a lot. The name of my game,
I've never wanted to be an Olympic coach, never want to worry about winning an NC double A's. My only goal is to have my swimmers go faster than they can believe. I don't do that all the time. But I tried to do it. And the whole key is they need to help me, cause I'm only 10% of their equation. They are 90% of the equation. self image is important. Goals are important, not just to have the goals, but to work for the goals. And that's how I approach them on a season plan. I have very good swimmer, six practices a week for his whole career. Actually, we've gotten a lot more of that coming out on high school nail than we've ever had. And those guys, I'm telling him, you know, you're gonna have to go to more workouts, your practices are gonna be harder than you've ever done. Edie,[PB6] [PB7]
Paul Barnett 13:37
you say that a leader should bear the pain and never give the pain to great saying and I wanted to ask you is the ability to bear pain, something that can be taught.
Eddie Reese 13:49
My wife and I were at a non denominational church retreat. We knew the guy that ran that there was no one else there. It's it's in a place that's right next to heaven. It's so pretty and you get up early in the morning and watch 200 turkeys fly across the creek and run into deer all the time. Just phenomenal place and they always leave the library open for us. And I was we were in the library and I was telling my wife that I've had about as much pain as I want to have cuz I watch I watch the pool all the time. You get my SAT like grimace and make no motion. That's a negative. So I'm getting 100 to 200 negatives a day. All coaches do. The ones with a real gift doesn't bother them. It bothers me and my wife reached up and pulled down a little book, maybe 100 pages name of it is leadership is an art. I can't even remember the author now. But I just read the protective cover. And it said that said the leader should always bear the pain and never give it. And honestly, that made me well, because as bad as that was making me feel that book convinced me that that's what I'm supposed to do. And it's been easy ever since.[PB8]
Paul Barnett 15:35
Can it be taught you think, can you teach people to bear the pain?
Eddie Reese 15:39
I think most anything can be taught. But the tough part of that is usually that thing that teaches you are real bad experiences. And then you try to fix it. So the teacher may be experience. You know, like, when a swimmer has a bad race, they know it, you don't need to jump down in other parents gonna get on him. That's not good. And you don't need to get on him. Because when my swimmers have a bad race, it's usually me, because I've been working them man. Not rest on them or whatever. So that's usually on the coach. I know if somebody swim badly, we get embarrassed. But that does. That's on me.
Paul Barnett 16:33
Edie, I've got this another quote from you, that I loved. You say, everyone knows how to work people hard. The key is to work them hard and protect the mind. And as you said earlier, in the introduction is such a focus these days on mental health, how can coaches be better at protecting the minds of the people they're working with?
Eddie Reese 16:52
Wayne Goldsmith is one of the guys that I listen to in the world. He is a genius. When it comes to people. First time I met him, he told me two things. One was, you're running a good program, Friday and Saturday, they're tired. You don't need to keep beating the stew out of them. And he's right. And I've done that. But the other one I was good at, but he made me better. He said, You must stay engaged. That means you got to talk to him.
Like when I was at Auburn and add 22 people, I'd say three good things to everybody. Every day, it was easy to keep track. Now with 35 people, I can't keep track. But I worked at at least two and notice some talk to say good things about them or help them correct a stroke. I think a stroke critique has a bad connotation. Because I really believe your big downfall, do it the right tone. And it's a positive. It's really important. Because everybody comes by shake sand. And thanks me. I don't believe they mean it. Because I've just really worked hard, but whatever I love it.[PB9] [PB10]
Paul Barnett 18:25
At I've got this other quote from you, which I think is an interesting one for non swimmers. Because, you know, you say you can't rest too much, but you can rest too long. And it sort of caught my eye. But I wanted to ask you, how could a non swimmer from a corporate guy? How could a non swimmer apply this idea of recovery to improve their their daily? Oh,
Eddie Reese 18:45
well, so many people depend on taper. But taper the effective taper as is all relative to how you prepare when I talk about a taper or rest, which is pretty much the same thing. I start talking about September the first because if somebody gets sick along long the way they're caper, and they miss 10 Days, Seven to 12 days, then their taper may be different. So I think this is way you've got to play in your season. It's like if you're running every day, or cycling every day. You got to get to a point where well the American Way is bigger, better, higher, faster, stronger. We run three miles a day this week. We're running three and a half next week and in about eight weeks for running and eight and about 12 weeks. We quit run takes too much time. We're too tired. And we just give it all All up somewhere, you've got to realize that swimming 2000 or 3000 is all right every once awhile, my team because they are a bunch jarred workers will get real tired. And instead of get down at the beginning of practice on time, we'll talk for 45 minutes, and then we'll go 3000, then I'll get him out for the last 30 minutes. And we'll have different people work on different things like, we'll work on freestyle turns, backstroker turns back to breaths turns that what we call to an turns, just fly to fly, fly the back breast to breast, breast to free. And that's you don't just want to dry unless led training for the Ironman. I started a guy running, he wanted to run a mile and a year and a half. He was running, he had a great affinity for running. He had a gift that he didn't unwrap until later in his life. But he was running 13 to 20 miles to small towns. And I said, You've got to get to where three miles is good and acceptable. half year later, he quits that run $100 cars going more, more is the best and the worst word in our language, because it'll take you to the top and it'll take you back down to the bottom 80
Paul Barnett 21:43
If more is the best and the worst word. You've had such a long career, somehow you've managed to have more and reenergize yourself, get up every day, keep going. Roll up. How do you as you reflect on how you did that? What advice do you have for the rest of us.
Eddie Reese 22:01
There's never been a job, span a lifestyle. been tough on me, cause I'll read a couple of times a week till one or two in the morning. And then I get up at 430. walk the dogs. And I'm at practice by six. And you know, I've said recently, if I can just run a practice and not go to meet, I can coach tell them. I love practice. I love their efforts. I love to say I'm working harder training to get better and getting better. When I go to a clubs or another team's practice. If they're being coached. There are two things that occur. Everybody's streamlining and everybody's flagged kicking off the wall. But there's no magic I just even when I tried to retire. And a my ad talked me into coming back. It didn't bother me at all. It just went on like nothing happened. I told him I was gonna retire in March. And I announced in March, I could be me good week. I don't know that that just quietly Okay, there.
There's no magic wand out here for doing a good job, or leading a good life. So real simple equation. It's like give got my favorite quote, that very simply, we're just here to help. What else can we offer? Me we can accumulate a lot of things, a lot of material things. There's a quote and one of the many books that I've read that they talk about when you die, you can't take it with you. But the quote is when you die, you can't take it with you. But then these guys say the only thing you can take with you when you die is that which You've given others, and nobody likes to talk about dying, even though no one gets out of this life alive. So it's gonna happen. How do you want it to be? So I don't have all the answers. I learned as I go. I love to learn. I know I need to learn[PB11]
Paul Barnett 24:29
any one of your special skills I read about is observing on especially on the pool deck. I've heard other people actually talk about how you just are so focused and you observe and you watch and you listen, and you're very rarely distracted.
Eddie Reese 24:46
Could you tell us about that? I never realized that until we had a Japanese contingent come in for a long course meet we had the middle of January. And they talked to me every day, during my practice after the practice. And one of them one day said, I've noticed you always look at the pool. And I've never thought about that. But I do. I just like to see what they're doing, whether they're learning anything or doing something better, or if somebody starts a little late, does a flip, turn in the middle of the pool and comes back. I want to comment on that. I just want to comment on most of this stuff. I think it's the only thing I learned. I just, I like it. And I do it. But I'm focused. One I don't like to word I don't believe that exists.
Like people asked me, How do you motivate people every day, I said, No one can motivate anybody, every weekend, much less every day. If you take the X Y axis, what you want to do is raise where they cross is the zero level. You live at weather in the morning, you get up, you go drink coffee, go to work out to raise that level, you get up, you do 10, push ups, 20 sit ups twice, go drink coffee, just keep that as a lifestyle, and you want to raise your zero level. And it's not a thing you can do. Because you get motivated to do it or get rewarded for it. You got to do it because it's best for you and all around you.[PB12] [PB13]
Paul Barnett 26:42
You had retired, they talked you into coming back and sounds like you never actually I don't think great coaches ever retire. Actually, I think they're always got their hand a little bit. But I know that you say you're there to help that you're there to be of service to make swimmers go faster, use all these great phrases. But I think I really want to challenge you and ask you if we had your swimmers with us now. And we asked them what your legacy was in their lives. What do you think they'd say?
Eddie Reese 27:09
I've been real careful never to speak for them. Because all I do is get trouble.
But they some of the things I've read is that I'm really good at helping them with Sarah life. And I liked that. Cause swimming is a short time in their life. You want it to be good. And swimming is one of the greatest teachers on Earth are one of the greatest preparers for life in the real world. That serious.[PB14]
Paul Barnett 27:46
Edie, thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your insight today. I think the people in the real world, again, have experienced this and they're going to enjoy it greatly. And I wish you all the best for the season ahead. But probably more importantly, I wish you all the best for getting outside and playing with bread and pill because they are very, very anxious.
Eddie Reese 28:06
Earl is and usually when my wife gets on a phone or I get on the phone, she just starts barking and she gets a reaction. Thanks, Paul, great questions. Appreciate the work you put into it to do this interview. If I can ever help you again under way better circumstances. I'll be glad to do that.
Paul Barnett 28:28
It's perfect circumstances for me at thank you so much. I look forward to seeing you soon.
Eddie Reese 28:33
All right. Thanks a lot. Bye