Thinking of the Hands at Side and Use of Fins in Swimming Practice (Swim Coaching)

I've been thinking about a few things I can work on to help the athletes improve their swimming performance. Some of them have shown progress in their scores, and new results have recently come out. I haven't had a chance to review them yet, but hopefully I'll get to look at them today to see how everyone is doing.

(Illustrative Only)
Learning to swim
by necessity 
and fine tuning in the
pool does bring
a different skill 
set and knowledge
of swimmin in nature.

Yoga and swimming
are natural to each other.
Be one with the
catfish. 

I'm not always there to provide coaching, but when I am, I work with specific athletes to help improve their overall performance through better mechanics, technique, and skill development. The head coach and other coaches do the heaviy day in- and day-out lifting. Lately, I've been focusing on fine-tuning some of their existing swimming skills to help make them more competitive.

Interestingly, someone recently asked me to help coach another team as well. I suppose once people recognize some level of coaching experience they may ask you to support their team as well (We will see.) I mainly do it because I enjoy helping out, working with promising athletes, and seeing them develop. Between coaching, lifeguarding, and my other activities, I do get a little protective of time because a healthy balance has downtime as well (A tip for sustainable performance.)

Going back to the swimming exercises, one drill that I find particularly beneficial involves keeping the hands positioned down along the sides of the body while swimming, using either a kick or flippers. I think this is an excellent exercise for developing body rotation awareness. Some swimmers tend to under-rotate, while others over-rotate, and both can negatively affect their efficiency and speed in the water.

This drill helps athletes recognize and develop the appropriate amount of rotation needed for a more efficient stroke. I also think it could be adapted for both dolphin kicks and flutter kicks. By taking the arms out of the equation, swimmers are encouraged to recognize and develop the power coming from their legs rather than relying too heavily on their arms.

Ultimately, efficient swimming comes down to balance. When athletes learn to coordinate their body position, rotation, leg drive, and arm movements, they can generate more speed while maintaining their energy and endurance (I learned through the lakes and diving and tweaked in a pool. My style might be a touch different. I swam for functionality in nature.). Timing is also a critical part of the equation. The better the timing and coordination between these movements, the more sustainable and effective their swimming becomes.

For now, we'll keep working on the fundamentals, refining technique, and helping the athletes build on their progress. It'll be interesting to see how they continue to develop.

These next level drills are interesting. 

ISM Manufacturing Business Survey-Environmental, Competitiveness, and Export Orientation.

While manufacturing output and input costs are both trending upward, the overall sector trajectory remains positive. One thing to think about is strengthening domestic raw material production—including reopening critical mining and extraction operations—while maintaining access to international supply chains to ensure industrial resilience (Redundancy from multiple supplies can help in some circumstances.).

(Illustrative Only)

These two 
make their own 
products and then 
ship them throughout
the Great Lakes on 
their supper gas efficient
natural powered 
vehicle called
the sail boat. It
is an old invention but
a good one. 

Achieving this requires balancing three core priorities:

• Environmental Stewardship: Re-establishing local supply chains with sustainable, compliant practices. (You need public support and you need to preserve and enhance the environment. Preserve is not enough.)
  
  
• Global Competitiveness: Remaining cost-competitive against foreign imports to prevent supply bottlenecks. (Ensure there is a healthy balance of domestic production of important materials.)
  
  
• Export Capability: Building a robust domestic foundation that not only feeds local industry but enables foreign exports under favorable market conditions. (One shouldn't build an industry for today's problems but also for solutions to future problems.)

October 2026 ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Report Summary

• Manufacturing grew for the tenth month in a row with the index reaching 55.5 percent.

• All key areas including new orders, production, employment, deliveries, and inventories expanded.

• Production accelerated significantly to 59 percent, reaching its highest level since late 2021.

• Raw material prices increased for the twenty-fifth straight month, reaching 75.2 percent.

• Twelve of the eighteen surveyed manufacturing industries reported overall growth for the month.

Institute for Supply Management. (2026). October 2026 manufacturing ISM report on business. https://www.ismworld.org/globalassets/pub/research-and-surveys/rob/pmi/r4in202610pmi.pdf

The Power of Morning Movement and Daily Micro-Workouts

Starting your morning with exercise sets a powerful trajectory for everything that follows, but the specific benefits depend heavily on how you choose to move. If you kick off the early hours with cardio—whether that means going for a jog, hopping on a exercise bike, or getting your heart rate up—you immediately elevate your core body temperature and stimulate your nervous system. That early surge of oxygen and endorphins leaves you feeling energized, clear-headed, and positive long before your actual workday begins.

(Illustrative Only)
Morning workouts are
great. Head down to
Ocean Beach and 
do some walking, yoga
and meditation or
you can consider 
just working out 
in mini breaks at
your desk. 
Either works
as long as you are
improving lung capacity,
flexibility, range of motion
and strength.

On the other hand, dedicating your morning to practices like yoga, Pilates, or targeted strength training delivers a distinct kind of value. These modalities focus on joint mobility, core stability, and lengthening muscles that naturally stiffen up overnight. Getting the blood flowing through dynamic stretching and light resistance work directly enhances cerebral circulation. That physiological response translates into sharp cognitive function, helping you process information faster, maintain steady focus, and approach demanding mental tasks with clarity.

However, logging a solid hour of sweat in the morning isn't a silver bullet if it's followed by eight hours of continuous immobility. Extended sitting is exceptionally harsh on the body, slowing down metabolic processes, increasing vascular stiffness, and undermining the hard work you put in during your morning session. That is why supplementing your main routine with short micro-workouts throughout the afternoon is so critical. Taking just five to ten minutes every hour—or even every 40 minutes—to stand up and move keeps your capillary blood flow steady and prevents your metabolism from slumping.

These mini-sessions don't need to be complex or exhaustive to be effective. Keeping a set of resistance bands near your desk, grabbing a light pair of weights, or simply knocking out a quick circuit of jumping jacks, bodyweight squats, and dynamic stretches is all it takes to reset your posture and clear brain fog. By constantly interrupting long stretches of sitting, you keep key muscle groups engaged and sustain consistent energy levels throughout the day without relying on caffeine.

While academic studies often note that total daily exercise volume matters more than the exact hour you work out, practical experience proves that timing and frequency shape how you actually feel. A strong morning anchor combined with regular movement snacks keeps your body resilient and your mind sharp from sunup to sundown. If you ever want personalized guidance on structuring these routines, feel free to reach out. Drawing from years of hands-on experience across fitness training, yoga instruction, athletic coaching, martial arts, and firefighting, we can build a virtual movement plan tailored specifically to your daily rhythm.

 Cognitive Benefits of Exercise: Is There a Time-of-Day Effect?

• Physical exercise timing (morning vs. afternoon) was evaluated for its effect on selective and sustained attention.
• Fifty-six active adults completed an identical 12-week intermittent recovery exercise protocol in either morning or afternoon groups.
• Cognitive performance was measured using the d2 Test of Attention pre- and post-intervention.
• Significant improvements in attentional performance occurred following both acute exercise sessions and the full 12-week program.
• No significant difference in cognitive benefits was found between morning and afternoon exercise schedules.

Maeneja, R., Ferreira, I. S., Silva, C. R., & Abreu, A. M. (2022). Cognitive benefits of exercise: Is there a time-of-day effect? Healthcare, 10(9), 1766. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10091766

The Secrets of Good Judgement: It Relies on More Than Easy Answers

 Good judgment is an essential quality for organizational leaders. According to recent research, sound judgment relies on six core elements: knowledge and experience, awareness, trust, feelings and beliefs, choice, and delivery. Exercising good judgment requires deep self-awareness, a grounded understanding of the broader operating environment, and a clear view of the internal resources needed to execute strategy.

In applied psychology, leadership selection often reveals a double-edged sword. Individuals who rise to executive ranks frequently possess relentless drive and high agency. While this determination fuels achievement, the dark side of this trait is a tendency toward overconfidence, self-serving decision-making, and a willingness to compromise ethical boundaries or alienate others to reach an objective.

Ideally, an effective leader balances ambition with collaborative ethics. High-performing managers must pursue clear goals while remaining willing to work with others, understand their own personal and professional boundaries, and align decisions with the best interests of their organization, their workforce, and society at large.

This balance becomes even more critical in an era dominated by automated systems and predictive technologies. While modern algorithms process vast amounts of data within bounded domains, heavy reliance on them risks passive decision-making. When technology sets up the choice—lining up the "cue ball" for us—human nature inclines us to select the easiest option without scrutinizing the underlying inputs, assumptions, or gaps in the data.

Algorithms excel at deep, linear analysis within established parameters, but human neurocognition possesses a unique capacity for lateral synthesis. Human minds make non-linear, groundbreaking connections across disparate domains—weaving together culture, ethics, and strategic vision in ways machines cannot replicate. For leaders, raw data and algorithmic outputs should serve as starting points rather than final answers. True judgment lies in thinking beyond the immediate information to evaluate how choices shape the broader future of the organization.

You may find this article interesting, 

The secrets to better judgement

• Good judgement is defined as the combination of personal qualities with relevant knowledge and experience to either make decisions or form opinions.

• The foundational framework for judgement consists of six core elements: knowledge and experience, awareness, trust, feelings and beliefs, choice, and delivery.

• Gaps in knowledge and experience introduce significant risk, requiring individuals to find ways to compensate depending on the stakes involved.

• Overconfidence is highlighted as particularly dangerous because it leads individuals to overestimate what they know, neglect surroundings, avoid consulting others, and take unwarranted risks.

• Organisations can foster better judgement by integrating it into hiring, performance appraisals, promotions, and by promoting diverse perspectives to challenge groupthink.

• Human judgement remains indispensable in the age of artificial intelligence, particularly because machines cannot replicate context-specific evaluation or moral responsibility.

Likierman, A., & Haydock, S. (2025, March 24). The secrets to better judgement. London Business School Think. https://www.london.edu/think/the-secrets-to-better-judgement

Beyond Party Lines: Voting for Our Shared Future

Our republic relies on good people making good decisions—choices that uphold core principles and work to strengthen the nation for the next generation. Yet, our system faces real internal threats. Hyper-partisanship, self-interest, foreign influence, the over-concentration of wealth, and a breakdown of proper checks and balances within our institutions continuously weaken our collective foundation.

We see the danger of these failures illustrated in modern cautionary  thought experiments like the Allegory of the Clan. In that story, entrenched bigotry and the pressure to appease political stakeholders and one social group (in-group) led to civil and human rights violations, while actively blocking victims from receiving justice (The second class citizen is born). When extremism, corruption, and political violence suppress basic freedoms of speech and religion, the entire democratic framework breaks down.

(Illustrative Only)
Ensure the
Republic is serving 
The people
And their principles. 

While we face critical challenges, there are still countless good people driving positive change forward. However, we must also recognize that some do not care about our shared future. The Allegory of the Clan highlights this intentional bias. These are the takers—individuals who manipulate, cheat, lie, and bully society simply to secure power and resources for themselves. They are the segregationists of modern times (Segregation is only removed by one generation so there are still some judges, officials, and others who still promote and protect those behaviors. It is time to end all that and adapt upward.)

Political parties cannot serve as our primary check and balance. While they may offer a rough ideological balance, strict party-line adherence often benefits party managers and their fonord rather than the public. To encourage reorientation of democracy back to the people, we need to vote as independently as possible, evaluating each candidate and issue strictly on its own merits. If they don't have good values forget all the political rhetoric.

This is not a condemnation of any single party, person, or platform. It is a reminder that this society is ours to shape and pass on. They think it is theirs but it isn't. We have sacraficed since the beginning and there are some who will dismiss your rights when profitable or convenient. Whenever we allow hyper-vetted, heavily funded interests to dictate our decisions, the balance of power inevitably shifts away from the public interest (The real crime that undermines the democracy.)

Today is your opportunity to remind our leadership on both sides that the American people sit at the center of this republic. If our elected representatives fail to fulfill their duty, we must vote them out and encourage our best and brightest to step forward. Don't automatically jump to the next party rhetoric. Think for yourself. 

We possess a strong foundation built on a long history of striving for something greater. We need to back leaders who honor their oaths to the public across all races, religions, and backgrounds.

Be a hero today. Vote your conscience to help reclaim our system and guide it back toward its true north. Progress is never sustained by those who use public office to take, but by the true public servants who work to leave a better nation behind. We each have different kinds of duties and skills we can bring to the table and as long as that is in service of the nation, not the parties, then we will reorient. We will thrive. 

Choose our shared future wisely. Think for yourself and have a blessed day. 

The Trap of Technicalities: Loosing the Northern Star of Justice (The Allegory of the Clan)

 Justice matters beyond legal technicalities. When the justice system and politics are dominated by lawyers, the law can become a game where technical rules replace core principles. A hyper-focus on fine detail obscures the primary goal of the law: true fairness and justice. Not that lawyers are all good or bad but they are limited by their occupation perspective to win even if it costs everyone else.  

(Illustrative Only)

This exact trap exists in science and everyday thinking: when you get bogged down in details, you lose sight of the big picture. You risk wasting effort on things that do not matter, or worse, causing harm. 

The incentives of playing games versus the collective good that comes from doing the right thing (Notice that within this game playing of technicalities are the darker side of human nature such as rhetorical vanity, benefits, partisan incentives, etc. while society benefits more from the deeper fundamental approaches offered by philosophy.) 

To fix this, lawmakers and judges must let the underlying purpose of the law guide their decisions rather than getting lost in procedural mechanics:

• Preventing Ongoing Harm: Legal tools should stop corruption and wrongdoing, not provide technical loopholes for bad actors to exploit.

• Protecting Victims: When systems play technical games, bad actors escape accountability while victims carry the burden. Merely avoiding liability or finding the easiest exit leaves harm unaddressed and rewards bad behavior.

Justice is not about finding technicalities to win a game—it is about keeping the fundamental purpose as your north star. If you loose that then the first (in-group) and second (out-group) class citizenship forms. Once that is an implicit value assumption the harm to society and the principles of freedom clearer.

*The Allegory of the Clan is a hypothetical thought experiment designed to foster thinking. Feel free to reject, change, etc. 

Restoring Faith in Airline Customer Service: 3 Principles

The value of customer service to long-term business development and customer retention is undeniable, though people often get lost in theoretical weeds. At the end of the day, treating customers well means providing the service you promised and quickly fixing customer service mistakes.

Consider an airline story as an example. Flying out of a small town means fewer available flights, so when an airline delays one flight, it cascades and kicks passengers off connecting routes, leaving them stuck. In this instance, the airline lets passengers know in advance. Going the next morning is not a massive problem, but it remains annoying because of canceled plans.

When the passenger informs the airline, the representative simply says, "You can put in a complaint." The passenger responds, "When you put in a complaint, a lot of people complain and nobody listens. At the end of the day, the consumer has to eat the cost."

Then, coming through the airport the next morning, the airline staff announces, "We waived your pet fee." The passenger never asks for this. Moments later, an agent approaches and says, "We are giving you back some of your points." The passenger does not expect this gesture. Having lived with the annoyance of being locked out of plans and swallowing the cost in the past, the airline actually does the right thing this time. It shows there are still people trying to make things right after an operational failure.

This experience highlights three core principles for building a stronger system of customer retention:

1. Provide the promised service as your baseline baseline.

2. Practice genuine empathy by listening when a failure occurs.

3. Make it right proactively to restore customer trust.