The coach s manner during this brief conversation is critical as well, though it may be very different based on coaching and personality styles. The athlete needs clean, concise feedback of a technical nature, not emotion laden messages. But, with just a little effort, you could have evened out those middle two and swum very close to a totally even split. The next time you swim this, let s get out a bit more aggressively and look to have more energy coming home. Be specific use your language carefully.
Specific praise is meaningful.
Non-specific praise is not meaningful. Anything less than this is insufficient praise to them. It s HARD to tell young athletes many things they are doing right, because they don t do that much right. Measuring the impact of praise and constructive criticism is an art form and requires skillful executing on the part of the coach. Expect to make mistakes.