CPR — all USA Swimming certified coaches must be CPR certified; so we all took a recertification class recently. It took way too long — a 2-3 hour class stretched into almost 6. YIKES.

Which makes me think about all of the good teachers and some of the poor teachers I’ve known. Wow, there are some unprepared teachers out there and usually they aren’t ‘professionals’ in any sense of the word. Being around teachers for the past many years (sorry, I won’t tell you how many) I know what goes into the preparation for class every day and when I attend a class that doesn’t quite measure up I immediately know that the teacher didn’t prepare for that single class or prepare to actually be a teacher by learning material for that class or how to be a teacher.

Same thing goes with coaching. If a coach isn’t prepared most every swimmer knows it. The littlest ones start playing around and not paying attention; older swimmers don’t know why they are doing that workout yet again — or they do know why — because coach didn’t prepare today.

We are all teachers; everyone learns by observation. How many times have you been into the grocery and been uplifted by a friendly hello by your cashier? Sometimes it happens. All too often it’s a perfunctory ‘hello,’ and business as usual. Some may not think that’s teaching, but who’s observing the behavior? Usually kids. So here comes another generation of not-quite-unfriendly cashiers. And some downright rude cashiers. How do you handle the stress in your life? By lashing out or holding in your frustration? Um, the proper response is probably communication. But how many of us share that portion of our lives with our children? How are they to learn; by us telling them how to do it? News flash — demonstration works much better.

Here’s to being a good teacher in everything we do, including coaching swimming. And a great CPR class next year.