COACHES CORNER: Rod Hansen, Irvine NOVA. 2023 Recipient of the Age Group Coach of The Year!

bye [Music] Hello everybody welcome back to another episode of the fitter and faster Coaches Corner I'm your host as always Mike Murray today I am thrilled to be joined by the 2023 ASCA and fitter and faster age group Coach of the Year Rod Hansen Rod welcome to the program where are you joining us from this morning ah Hunter beats California out in Orange County awesome and talk to us about the team that you coach I coach Irvine novaquatics in Irvine California we have a now we have like four different sites within about a 15-20 mile radius and about 800 swimmers yeah I was just out there for juniors I love that William Willett pool complex what a what a fantastic place that is yeah you know they're they're that we're hoping the city council is discussing adding another 50 meter pool right now we're down to pull the filtration system broke so we making work no kidding so with that other pool be in that same area would it be in a new location it would be in the same area where you know where the when you the the main competition pool or the soccer field is behind it they put it there possibly yeah our instructor looks pretty promising yeah it looks like that that would be an awesome addition to an already existing uh framework there so I can't even imagine what it would be like to have three pools like it's going to be one of the best outdoor complexes in the country yeah I mean we're fortunate that we're in a in an environment that is aquatic friendly right now our sites fall we get bumped out all the time with water polo and other activities and the high school district uses it so we think oh once we get that 50 meter pool our problem we saw but it'll everything will be impact you know crowded yeah of course of course uh you know what's neat about that facility is so many good memories for so many coaches and teams because so many great meets have been there it's you know it feels like uh we're creating a history at that facility like there used to be in Long Beach and and other famous pools that that that site has now got a reputation as one of the you know the most famous probably at the junior National Level facility yeah yeah it's a it's it's a good environment like I said we have a supportive city council and Community likes it so well I like taking a trip to Irvine every once in a while it's not bad sometimes it certainly beats the weather up here in Upstate New York well Rod you were uh the recipient of the 2023 age group Coach of the Year award this year congratulations among many great finalists and you had a special guest that you actually brought with you to the ask the clinic this year and I I didn't get a chance to meet your dog tell us a little bit about your dog oh I've got a couple Border Collies he's actually outside um it's a good dog take them everywhere that's awesome man I love it I love it that was so cool and I wish I had a chance to beat him when I was there but I was running around like a chick with my head cut off but talk to me a little bit about your philosophy as an age group coach um first of all it wasn't my award it's our entire staff that won that award uh I did it I just happened to be the figurehead but we're fortunate because we have a a staff that that has a long tenure with Nova we've all know each other we get along you know of course everybody has their differences but we all seem to have one common goal in the common goal in our philosophy is to make it a a fun environment for the kids to train and um I would try to we're really interested in on the age group level developing stroke technique rather than pursuing uh you know attaining times or records uh but it kind of goes hand in hand if you develop the good skills the underwaters the catch anything that that helps promote a good successful program no doubt about it yeah and and what do you guys do from a coaching staff standpoint when you talk about focusing on stroke technique break that down for us a little bit how do you communicate what you want to see from your athletes we want to be consistent we want to go to a meet where our kids are coming off the wall not breathing off their breakout stroke where you can identify hey that's an Elvis swimmer that that they're disciplined just different aspects it's it's it's it sounds easy for me to say it it's not that but it's a lot more difficult to implement it to get get so you have to be really stringent but you don't want to be so stringent that it's no more no longer fun for the kids it's a balance but just just having good technique good good turns good you know breakouts and and what are some cues that you're giving your athletes throughout the practice is there a set that's designed that's dedicated to work on these things specifically or is it more or less just making sure that you're observing what your kids are doing and then making corrections as you coach make corrections as a coach that's a good thing but also point out the positive things I think as I've gotten older and done this for so many years if you compliment somebody and let the group know wow you know she did something really well off the walls or did thank you for doing what we asked I think that that that's a boost that in the past I used to just it was all correction correction hey you took a breath Off the Wall hey you're Crossing them over with your arm on freestyle those kind of things but I think if you point out the positive it has a good impact as well Rod everybody's a little bit different in the way that they Define age group coaching when you think of age group coaching what are the ages that go with that moniker I think the ages are all the way up to high school until I leave College where all age groups swimming I mean I you can label someone as a swimmer in a defined swimmer and they had 14 or any age for that matter but um you know my my thought is age group swimming should be just fun positive and you know kids go leave with a good memory there's no doubt about that so how much time do you guys spend on training I am or stroke specific what does your week look like in terms of the way that you train the four strokes uh for me personally I coach from a 9 to 14 year olds it's it's every day it's all I am we don't have specific stroke days um I was a terrible breaststroker and I avoided it as a kid and and it would get dick you know I'm age myself I get disqualified because back then if you put your head underwater you are done um and and I look at how my swimming career you know I'd have like that's when the IM for example would be have a good lead always going in the breaststroke and everybody would run me down and I I want to make sure these kids that I coach and embrace all the all the Strokes regardless because they they can get more specialized when they go to college but you're singing my music here this is something that I love to hear I love when people who are in our profession think of 18 and under athletes it's age group you knock that one out of the park and and boy we train a lot of I am here at Victor Swim Club too and and uh it's always good for me to hear and reinforce that we're doing the right things here but talk to me about kicking Rod what what does kicking look like in Irvine Nova from those age groups what are you doing what are some sets that you like to do share with uh with our coaches what you like to do for kicking um yeah I I'm just going back to I am real quick yeah I always said look at I am results that's the first results I look at see how we're doing as a team um kicking a lot of underwater we got more you know especially short course over the years you have to be a successful under a water picker to be competitive and short for swimming very long course for that factor um well sometimes we'll go into the uh we have a teaching pool and sometimes we're impacted with water polo games and you have to utilize that and we'll use the widths and just do underwaters but uh kick sets incorporate them uh they're they they're short I don't do long kick sets but they're short and they got to be Sprint kicks because otherwise I I think you're you're you're not using utilizing your time effectively if you're just doing a long kick set and it becomes a social kick and kids are kicking side to side so I think you're doing kick sets it's got to be specific you got to let the kids know what the goal is and it's got to be short and fast and we never will take anything more than a 200 I like to use a 200 kick for time without fins under three minutes because my philosophy is you know most races are 200 yards unless you should have you know a Sprint Kick the whole 200. I love it man legs feed the wolf right yep that's great and the underwater is to be able to have that teaching pool does that give your kids a chance to really hone in and focus on what they're doing in terms of undulation underwater yeah I mean we don't utilize it that often but when you know Bulls go down or forced to it's a shallow three and a half foot pool and you can do a lot of pushing off the bottom did creative things that makes the fun for the kids but yeah I I use the example for wits just short uh underwaters if they have a you know 10 yard 10 yard width of a pool that's a really good training yeah talk to us about the equipment that you utilize in your age group practices you know I personally myself I like to use paddles and pole when I swim never use paddles with the kids and then I don't know and pulling I don't know why I just I I'm I'm kind of re-looking at that if I need to reincorporate that but equipment wise short fins um yeah yeah I don't use a lot of equipment we do just a you know a variety of drills and but mainly just I don't do a lot of distance the yardage piles up but it's not it's not a short yardage practice but it's not a 3 500 type practice if that makes sense oh yeah for sure and and I know you know a lot of coaches always get sick and tired of the question but I think there's a lot of value and Merit to understanding the way that people train so when your athletes are really getting after it maybe you're at the peak volume of your season what are they doing a week uh probably five to six thousand yards practice and we practice six days a week you know um sometimes less probably not that often a few more uh my kids keep track of the yardage more than I do I I have always a blueprint of what I want to do each day and then I deviate from it you know I we have coaches our staff that have a specific written workout planned and I have a blueprint but I my working with nine especially nine to 11 year olds something that's going you need to be able to Pivot correctly to identify okay you know we have days where the kids all of a sudden aren't reading the clock and they're good swimmers and they're all looking each other different cues and you know do you have to adapt to that and figure out some way to get them back on track but one of the things that I talked to age group swim coaches a lot is it's it's really hard to have a bad day as an age group swim coach because the kids come in so happy and enthusiastic you know they haven't they haven't reached that cynical teenage age yet you know where where you know they can be complainers and things like that but that age group 9 to 11 always a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm how do you channel that into a really good practice yeah like you said it's there's the rarely bad days you know and you just you keep the positivity try to engage each each swimmer to find out what they did outside swimming each day um yeah it's an easy age group to coach because they're going to drop time just just regardless of what you do so you just have to keep them engaged you're an Entertainer I guess one of the things that's always resonated with me that uh Dave Salo says the greatest athletes in the world are the athletes who slow down the least and is that something that you think about when when you're talking to one of your swimmers about technique or or where you want their hands and feet during practice yeah um but the kids I train you know we have to do some something slow just to get the technique going but there's always a time where I want them to race and practice as well I usually we'll design the sad in my mind that we we we will spend like 10 minutes just working on the skills that I want to see that swimmers do and then we'll finish up with like five minutes with a little bit more rest of fast swimming and making a game and it's easy with yeah nine to 12 year olds you can swim in a lot of different things to do oh absolutely absolutely now in terms of their competition in that age group what are they looking at in terms of how many meets they go to throughout the course of the season we go to about one meet a month we're fortunate like you said we have a nice facility so a lot of our meats are in-house we run inner squads and and uh we can kind of manage the timeline our goal has always been to make it make it make it palatable for new parents when they come in to not be sitting their first experience with swimming sitting for six hours at a meet for three races and you know two of them might be back to back and then you have a two hour delay so we're trying to find creative ways for that we usually attend you know we have our regional our orange Southern Cowboy swimming Championship meets you know once every four months within our LSC uh and we try to do it one or two travel meets a year with the age groupers well that's awesome that sounds like a lot of fun and you know you know and I know that those travel meets in their early years of development are super important for building team culture later on so I I imagine that's a that's a really fun experience for you all you know Rod you mentioned something that that stuck with me there and that was you don't want your parents having to sit through those four or five hour long session meets we have a lot of those here in the east coast just because of pool space and availability as you can imagine but I think a lot of coaches across the country right now are thinking about how can we make the competitive experience a little bit more palatable for parents whose schedules are inundated this day and age with so many different things or just simply with work on the weekends have you guys considered that at all I know you said you run a lot of In-House meets what's your philosophy on that yeah that's a good question I think it's something we always are are wondering you know we I think we're starting to Pivot a little bit not too much but offering one day meets as opposed to two-day meets we have a back to school meet that we do every year when we come back from our August break and it's usually two weeks into the season and for the first time this year we did it we did it made it one day limited to 50 shorter events you know it wasn't a full meet just kind of gauge what where or the new swimmers that are coming into our various groups are performance wise and then we also did a parent appreciate a family appreciation event where they we had a you know we have a great snack bar you guys know that from Internationals and they provided lunch for the swimmers and their families and I think it went over pretty well and we we divide it up in four different sessions so specifically people are in for two hours and then they had a lunch and then also in the dive pool we had a inflatable you know course inflatable like slide for the kids to play with after the meat on their own so it was it was a fun event that that sounds so forward thinking to me especially in terms of bringing your parents in talk to me about how you communicate to your family's you know your values as a coach your expectations as a staff how are you communicating that to the the Irvine Nova Aquatics family um each of our coaches send out weekly emails discuss the practice schedule because we have to deal with a lot of we have a lot of user groups so we have to deal a lot of changes um we have parent meetings several times a year I have mine actually that tonight for the fall season and we hand out you know this Saskatchewan expectations and you know try to keep the line of communications open and when you're talking about your expectations do you do you set up any boundaries between coach and parent communication is there you know you don't text me don't call me how do you guys manage that because I think that's a really important thing right now for young coaches who are just coming up in the profession to understand you know how do I balance this role where this day and age I'm accessible all the time right yeah yeah it's a good thing and a bad thing I I generally I don't know if I've ever said my boundaries I won't answer texts or emails after 9 30 pm I'll usually do in the morning that's pretty much the boundary I've sat on um and you know it's just about it's it's pretty easy I I won't I try not to let emails or texts linger but that's that's the Only Rule I have it's just home I get home around 8 30 8 45. yeah sure sure unless you know some pressing issue yeah of course of course and and how much do you guys rely on your parents for things I I got to tell you your your parent group did a wonderful job posting Juniors this summer they were so hospitable so so friendly as soon as the coaches walked in how did you guys develop parents who are willing to commit that amount of time and energy just something oh they they're amazing I mean from parents have been on the team to have new parents um that's not my corner that's like Kim hostry our general manager she organizes that and and as puts the right people in place and that's coaching at its finest even those parents to make to make them you know not to begrudgingly come in and do it do it as a chore I I see it too that volunteers are really happy to be there and it's I don't know how to answer that one because it's it is unique they're good uh you guys did a tremendous job and you know best hospitality room in the United States this summer was was there in Miami yeah and and we host a lot of other events we but we hosted U.S Masters Nationals we put on you know the regional Special Olympics and it's so it's outside of team and the parents still step up and do that it's really incredible Irvine's had such a a long history of competitive success in the United States and internationally with athletes who go on to swim at the national International level what is something that you think is unique to your program that lends itself towards developing successful swimmers uh it's the environment we live in I mean it's getting expensive Southern California we're paying seven dollars for gallon of gas this week um but the stability I think if the school districts are good people that live here pretty much day so so you we don't have a you know and we have an influx sometimes kids coming in but we don't have an influx of kids moving around so just that that you know most of the kids that I've coached majority of them probably 80 stay with the same Elementary School same high school all through their their career so I think that that's a big plus for for as a coach to know that you got a you know a young Community that's going to provide a lot of good athletes not just in swimming but we have Orange County and Southern California have a lot of other venues oh for sure and it's easy to stay uh you know enthused and energized in that sun and with all the activities and being so close to the beach I mean I went down to Laguna on one of the off days and then it is such a special place out there but uh you know Rod what what do you think you're most excited about in terms of the development of our sport in the last few years what what do you think has been a game changer maybe for uh within USA swimming that's you know really got a lot of young people coming back into the sport we took a hit in covid but what are you excited about for our sport I think just the with the social media and the the the media the exposure the kids uh the kids I coach they know they know the athletes at a lot earlier age than they would maybe 15 years ago um the minority representation in our sport is is is gotten a lot better um yeah so I think it's it's kids enjoy it too yeah now you and I used to have to wait for Swimming World to come out and like every three weeks and then we'd comb through Swimming World and that was our social media yeah yeah yeah they they're watching races before while I'm coaching yeah do you guys ever have any of your alums come back and and talk to your swimmers yes we we try to um like Jason lezak's children swim for our team so that's fortunate you know and uh yeah we we uh since covered we haven't had a real awards banquet but we we pivoted like another thing to to promote you know team unity we usually do a in December we're fortunate those last two years we've done that the weather's been like 70 degrees and sunny but we'll have a just a full party day where we provide foods and our snack bar provides food for the kids and we have all the fun equipment that the sit bounce houses the City of Irvine provides and that's been award banquet but in the past we'd always bring in a speaker usually an Alum oh that's awesome that that's I mean Michael kavik's come in last year and run some swim clinics for us so we that way yeah and the athletes obviously when they're walking past the the competition pool on the back wall there you have you know your list of Olympians and National teamers and that helps build and drive the culture too um more names yeah we have it in a while so we need to do that step up and do that for sure um do you guys do anything in terms of dry land for that age group 9 to 14. yeah we uh we're not doing bands or weights or anything like that but we typically have to we have about a half hour 20 20 to 30 minutes before we can actually utilize the pool with the high school everybody how you utilize it until 4 30. so usually we will do a lot of ball games you know just a eye hand coordination type stuff for kids and that's a time not so much just as dry lines just to kind of talk with the kids and see how their day was going and kind of connect with them but we're unfortunate we have outstanding weather 90 of the year and we're we're surrounded our facility at wallet is surrounded by a park yeah that's not underutilized in my opinion there's no club soccer teams or anything going on so we have it to ourselves you know we don't have we don't we're technically we don't have those fields reserved for us but we utilize them yeah that's awesome and they're right there next to the parking lot next to the pool so it's that's easy access for you guys yeah um so Rod when we think about some of the the national teamers right now some of the the athletes who may represent the U.S team uh heading into Paris who are you excited to watch uh who have you kind of been following and and who do you really get behind when when uh the U.S travels to International meets uh you know all of all of them I I don't want to really name anybody specific I mean Ledecky all of them just Team USA absolutely for sure it's been great to see in my opinion as a club coach it's been great to see some Club athletes making the Olympic team and no I always played for the 15 16 year olds yeah all day all day that's kind of where I was going that's kind of where I was going with that but I mean I I you know to see what Ron's been doing out there in Vegas has been great you know getting some some young people yeah the sandpipers and that's and it's amazing watching what all the teams are now looking at what he's doing and trying to emulate it but he's interested those kids are great yeah it's so fun to watch and you know he's made you know it's yeah we're all looking over and going what's going on over there because these are you know back and then all of them are just young kids Katie grams it's it's good to watch it it really is it's it's so fun to watch and uh it's it it gives I think you know for any club coach who's thinking to themselves like oh I'll never get an athlete to that level it takes time you know you got to make a lot of mistakes you got to have a little bit of success but you know once you kind of figure out your your formula you know you can do some really good things but it's not going to happen overnight you know I see so many young coaches wanting to jump right into a upper level coaching position or work with the best group I think it you know you start out with those eight and unders you're going to learn a lot of lessons do you agree yeah yeah you look at Ron Aiken he gave a great speech and asked it two years ago you know just how he how he developed it didn't happen for him it didn't happen overnight but he had a plan a culture and it set forth for sure you know it did it's always that you know I've had some really good years of coaching and it's it's not me it's it's the group of kids I got and getting in the buy-in to your philosophy and you get a group of successful kids they're gonna it's gonna raise the entire group team up yeah team culture and you know when an athlete holds his teammates accountable or her teammates accountable to a standard because they know that that standard is fun you're going to have a lot of success so do you talk to your kids specifically about how you want them to be great teammates yeah I'm trying to think of an example but you know we just want to be that be not so much team well teammates but but be respectful of each other we want a culture everybody wants to be here um no I love it I love it I mean it a lot of times too like you know this day and age we want to get super analytical and and overthink things but simple simple works you know we're gonna have so many uh cat moments on this Coach's Corner I love it I love it look at this guy take over he's watching you I love it all right uh so Rod has uh as as a club coach you know one of the things that I think we're we're facing with a lot of um our interactions with parents is you know getting these kids to a point where they're able to swim collegiately and the Collegiate landscape has been tough the last few years we could have added years for the covet experience and uh extra years of Eligibility means smaller roster opportunities at a lot of division one schools um but men swimming in particular they're they're not as many opportunities as there once were what are you concerned about when it comes to to College swimming well we're an environment in Irvine the majority of our kid our athletes students are are college-bound um we have a lot of kids that go to Ivy League schools so that I in past years I don't think there's as much concern oh you got to get a scholarship and that sort of thing but we're fortunate with swimming that there's a there's a place there's a if if a swimmer wants to swim there's a college for everybody to division three division two and AI um so I'm kind of I only coach up to like 13-14 so I'm kind of out of that when you know when they hit when swimmers go to high school they're out of my group so I I'm more focused my personally on just you know getting him to be the best well-rounded swimmer and planner and thinker as I can but yeah it's uh there's always a school for everybody I try to tell everybody that you know I had one daughter who went to a a big time swimming school and had another daughter who went to a big time semi-school but it was a division three big time swimming school and she had a wonderful experience so I I always try to tell parents that there's a if you want a son in college there's a place for you we don't have to panic like there's not any spaces yeah that's what that was my I agree completely for sure so Rod when you're not on Deck coaching what are your hobbies what do you do I think it's so important this day and age for coaches to have things that they do outside of our full-time jobs I like to travel it's tough to do that by your coach but I like you know going visiting national parks hiking um I've got two Border Collies that that are frisbee dogs so I do that I try to compete when that every once in a while but usually those competitions are on weekends we have our meets so this year I think I'll make one of them you know and just I like cycling and just getting out are you picking it outside you picked a good town to live in for all that stuff yeah I'm very fortunate I think I ate more sushi that week than I've eaten in a really long time so many good spots yeah I I should do more Sushi I'd have it but I found like four grapefruits like the Costco little tray I get to every once in a while but well Rod thanks so much for joining us on the Coach's Corner wish you all the best this year have great success and uh I look forward to catching up with you and next time I'm going to meet that dog yeah that'll be it'll be he's usually the back eight the junior National Meats because I'm uh you know I was an angel coacher coach uh my some of my former swimmers are swimming in that meet but I'm not actively coaching so they usually put me in back gate duty to that back bargain lab and I sit down there with my two dogs people want to listen to this podcast will know that yeah for sure oh we appreciate your time Rod thanks so much and and this will be uh this will be available on both the fitter and faster platform and on YouTube and Spotify so feel free to share and uh look forward to seeing you again Rob yeah yeah see you this summer all right foreign

Channel: Fitter and Faster Swim Camps

Views: 192

Keywords: Olympic Swimming, Mike Murray, Age Group Coach of the year, Fitter & Faster, Rod Hansen, Swim Coaches, Irvine Novaquatics, NOVA, ASCA, Coaches Corner

Id: FOC5zU4ef6g

Length: 32min 37sec (1957 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 05 2023