The Swim Brief

Send us Fan Mail Tracy Slusser has coached three NCAA championship teams. She has also experienced a coaching culture that made having children feel incompatible with doing the job at the highest level. We talk about the expectations she absorbed early in her career, what happened when a fellow coach brought her child onto the deck at Nationals, and the changes Tracy wants to see—from emergency deck passes to better coverage when coaches take leave. Today, Tracy works with coaches on le...

Send us Fan Mail What is a developmental coach actually trying to finish? Longhorn Aquatics head coach Mike Laitala joins Chris DeSantis to discuss why producing fast young swimmers is not the same as preparing athletes for long-term success. They explore the risks of early specialization, the difference between developing strength and simply “lifting,” and why athletes can advance beyond their own developmental awareness. Mike also explains how he prepares swimmers for college, another coach...

Send us Fan Mail Jack Roach has spent a lifetime learning from coaches—and helping coaches and athletes learn from one another. In this conversation, Jack reflects on his time leading USA Swimming’s National Junior Team, where he helped create developmental experiences that connected young swimmers with senior athletes and brought coaches into a broader web of relationships. But his philosophy extends well beyond any particular program: coaches shouldn’t simply provide answers. Their job is t...

Send us Fan Mail What makes swimmers want to keep showing up—not because an attendance policy requires it, but because they genuinely want to be there? Jonathan Kaplan, head coach and director of SwimRVA, joins Chris to discuss a collaborative approach to coaching built around athlete ownership. Jonathan explains why he has never used an attendance policy, how coaches can teach swimmers to manage the psychological demands of practice, and what happens when an athlete’s entire identity becomes...

Send us Fan Mail What does it take to build a championship-level program without allowing college swimming to become purely transactional? Stanford men’s swimming head coach Dan Schemmel joins Chris DeSantis to discuss his unlikely path from Hawaii to one of the most prestigious jobs in the sport—and the moment he finally felt that he belonged there. They explore how Stanford is navigating NIL, the transfer era, and the growing pressure to treat the athlete-coach relationship as an exchange o...