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 de...

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 ow...

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 ext...

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...

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, th...

Send us Fan Mail Ted Lasso returns with a new challenge: building a women’s team inside a sporting structure created for men. Chris DeSantis and Juliet Suess discuss what the opening episodes of season four reveal about coaching, leadership and the systems surrounding women’s sports. They explore Coach Chilton’s technical strengths and relational blind spots, Rebecca’s failure to consider a woman...

Send us Fan Mail Swimmers spend hours in the pool, yet many still aren’t eating enough to support the work they’re doing. Alicia Glass, Sport Dietitian for USA Swimming, joins to explain why swimmers need to think more like endurance athletes—and what happens when training volume and fueling fall out of alignment. We discuss early-morning practices without breakfast, why sugar and sports drinks ca...

Send us Fan Mail Swimming has spent decades asking coaches to become more professional. But has the profession done enough to support them in return? Doug Cornish is a former swim coach, financial planner, and the creator of the 2025 Swim Coaches Compensation Survey. His findings expose how precarious coaching has become: 38% of respondents reported working without a current contract, while 80% ha...

Send us Fan Mail Margo Geer’s path to becoming the head coach at the University of Alabama was anything but conventional. When she took over the program at 28, plenty of people questioned whether she was ready. Six years later, Margo joins me to discuss what prepared her for the opportunity, how her experience as an elite athlete shaped her leadership, and why she was able to deal with the critici...

Send us Fan Mail Don Wagner spent more than fifty years coaching swimmers at every level of the sport—from developing young athletes to coaching Olympic champion Janet Evans during the most dominant stretch of her career. In this conversation, Don reflects on the moments that defined his coaching journey, how training philosophy has changed over five decades, what he believes today's coaches...

Send us Fan Mail Todd DeSorbo has built one of the most dominant programs in college swimming history—but he says there was never a master plan. In this conversation we explore what it actually takes to sustain excellence year after year, why coaching elite athletes is more about what you do with the data than long term planning. Listen for how he thinks about recruiting, athlete development, emot...

Send us Fan Mail What can The Odyssey teach us about leadership when every available choice carries consequences? Chris is joined by Juliet Seuss for a different kind of episode: a conversation about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and the questions it raises about responsibility, power, guilt, and shame. They examine whether Odysseus accepts responsibility for the people who follow him, how Penel...

Send us Fan Mail For years, conversations about athlete welfare have rightly transformed the way we think about coaching. But there's another side of the equation that receives far less attention: Who protects coaches? This week I'm joined by coach Sophia Parr (@swim.coach.sophie) for one of the most vulnerable conversations we've ever had on The Swim Brief . Sophie shares the story...

Send us Fan Mail Why do parents keep intervening in coaching decisions—and why does giving in usually make the problem worse? In this solo brief, I describe the fear underneath parent pressure: the belief that failing to secure every possible opportunity means failing their child. I explore how coaches unintentionally reinforce that anxiety, why concessions invite more intervention, and how proact...

Send us Fan Mail Dave Salo has coached at every level of the sport—from NCAA championships to Olympic medals—but this conversation isn't about workouts or sets. Instead, we explore the decisions that define great coaching. We discuss why process matters more than outcomes, how a single sentence can change the way an athlete experiences failure, the transition from assistant coach to head coac...

Send us Fan Mail The head coach of Swimming and Diving at the University of Illinois Jeana Kempe joins to talk influences and the path of her coaching career. 

David Marsh tells all about what his retirement actually looks like, and what he had planned if he was National Team Director. Debrief: David Marsh Chris DeSantis Download

Tracy Menzel joins to talk GAIN, Diversity and why she’s back coaching in her hometown. Debrief: Tracy Menzel Chris DeSantis Download

Recapping the day I spent following around USA Swimming National Team Director Greg Meehan at last week’s Indy Pro Series event. Bonus Pod: A Day with Greg Meehan Chris DeSantis

Dave Durden joins to discuss how he approaches his unconventional start at Cal and his approaches to recruiting and hiring. Debrief: Dave Durden Chris DeSantis

Megan Devito, a high school swim coach and performance mindset coach, joins to talk shop on the value of coaching. Debrief: Megan Devito

The CEO of USA Swimming joins to share what he’s learned in his nine months on the job and what he thinks is possible for the future. Debrief: Kevin Ring

Former National Team and World Champion rower Cara Stawicki joins to talk shop and even turns the tables on me. Links for Cara: Website:  https://carastawicki.com/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/carastawicki/ LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/cara-stawicki-6059196/ Book a Discovery Call:  https://calendly.com/carastawicki/discovery?month=2026-04 Debrief: Cara Stawic...

Organizing my big picture reflections on the stupidest event in swimming history, and all the losers who tried to make it work. riverside_christopher_swim_brief (1)

Big shout out to the IDGI Podcast with Nate McKay and Kyle Johnson for helping me out with this week’s pod. Listen to hear me get interviewed by the guys, plus some thoughts on the top about the Loser Olympics. riverside_christopher_swim_brief