The Swim Brief

Send us Fan Mail You don’t have to write the workout to be a hell of a coach. Louisville associate head coach Stephanie Juncker joins Chris to discuss how coaches make an impact through relationships, trust, and what they bring to the pool deck every day. Stephanie shares why she has stayed at Louisville, how she has learned to pick her battles, and why a successful coaching career doesn’t have to mean becoming a head coach. They also explore the barriers women face in the profession, how inf...

Send us Fan Mail What does it take to keep good coaches in swimming—and how hard are we really looking for the people we say we want to hire? UCLA associate head coach Bex Freebairn joins Chris to discuss the everyday choices that shape coaching culture. From paying coaches enough to build sustainable careers to actively seeking out women for opportunities, Bex challenges the idea that our individual influence is too small to matter. We also explore her journey from rural New Zealand to Ameri...

Send us Fan Mail Are we debating how much salt to put in the soup while the guests are on fire? Ricki Clausen returns to The Swim Brief for a bonus episode about what’s holding Scandinavian swimming back. His argument: coaches are better educated than ever, but the swimmers they develop run into school demands, cultural pressure, and financial barriers that better coaching alone cannot fix. We discuss why the transition to high school drives swimmers out, whether Denmark’s four-year school pa...

Send us Fan Mail Cal Brown’s posts about swim training have occasionally gotten under my skin. So I invited him onto The Swim Brief to explore the experiences behind his message—and where we actually disagree. We talk about training volume, recovery days that aren’t really recovery, and what strength coaches hear from athletes that swim coaches might miss. Cal explains how he and his brother approach athletic development at Aqua Strength Performance, from mobility and jumping to leaving somet...

Send us Fan Mail Juliet Suess returns for the second half of our Ted Lasso conversation, exploring who gets the freedom to coach differently—and who still has to prove they belong. We dig into Alice Chilton’s development, disagree over Ted’s handling of her suspension, and consider what her promotion reveals about opportunity in coaching. Ted’s decision to step back opens a broader conversation about head coaches, assistants, and whether flexibility is something everyone deserves or a privile...