Team Philosophy
The goal of the Potomac Marlins U.S. Swimming Team is to provide a safe, fun and productive learning environment for all of its staff and team members. The team’s primary focus shall be to develop its young swimmers through maximum attention to stroke technique instruction and goal setting. With this preliminary goal met each swimmer shall then be provided the opportunity and the highest level of coaching possible to achieve their personal goals in the sport of swimming.
A swim team’s philosophy is it’s primary organizational structure and reason for being. Team philosophies are like maps that help guide the team and its members through various obstacles and situations with a particular goal or destination in mind. All activities associated with the swim team are, therefore, rooted within the fundamental outline of the team’s philosophy and are intended to promote and strengthen that philosophy. Every swim team has a different philosophy which is usually determined by the head coach (or coaches) and/or a board of directors.
Team philosophies serve several important functions:
- To provide an outline for the development of the team.
- To provide a basis for expanding the coaching staff.
- To unify the coaching staff enabling them to teach in a clear, consistent, and unified manner.
- To focus team members (swimmer & parent) on individual goals and team goals.
- To give an accurate description of the goals and objectives of the coaching staff to parents.
- To provide a system of measuring the success of the program.
- To serve as a reminder as to why we are involved in the sport of swimming.
The Potomac Marlins Team Philosophy is an extension of the experience that swimming has brought to the lives of the coaching staff. Our philosophy is based on the first hand experiences that the coaching staff has had as young age group swimmers growing up on local swim teams and on through high school and college. You might say, the Potomac Marlins are a swimmer’s swim team.
Our goal is to take the swimmer’s perspective and develop a challenging program wherein the swimmers themselves begin to feel empowered to reach their highest potential and begin to see the team and coaches as the best possible vehicle to get them where they want to go. Building this kind of athlete requires a deeper approach than simply having them jump in the water every night and swim laps. Our approach is two fold beginning with the development of confidence, attitude, commitment, team work, dedication, desire, pride, self esteem, motivation, love, caring, etc. It is during this phase that our team incorporates the foundation for the development of swimming skill.
The Potomac Marlins are a technique based swim team with an emphasis on creating challenging and fun learning environments. Our layered goal approach combines an intense array of motor skills designed to develop proper stroke technique. Developing proper stroke technique is an ongoing process and a great way to develop self confidence. As coaches we take great pride in the progress of our swimmers in the area of stroke mechanics. Concentrating on stroke development is also the best way for coaches to get involved in their swimmers lives and to develop personalized working relationships with all of their swimmers. The Potomac Marlins are dedicated to all their swimmers personal improvement regardless of any differences.
Finally, the Potomac Marlins are a team that is interested in turning out great human beings. Swimming is a scale model of the rest of the world. The problems and challenges that we face in the sport of swimming are often identical to the ones in our everyday lives. Pressure, acceptance, anxiety, fear, success, failure, winning, losing are all here inside the pool, under the water, in the locker room and on the deck. Being a Potomac Marlin means accepting the challenges of life head on experimenting with all possible outcomes, having a lot of fun, and educating ourselves for life through the sport of swimming.
