Pierre Lafontaine on Coaching Beyond Technique: Inspiring Daily Wins and Building a Winning Environment
Creating Daily Victories: Simple Tools for Coaches to Inspire Athletes Everywhere
Coach Pierre Lafontaine, presently in Canada, shares his no‑fluff coaching philosophy: how to inspire athletes, build winning environments, and keep progress everyday.
Learn practical tips you can apply right away to your swim program or any sport.
Discover:
Why “daily wins” matter more than perfection in athlete development
Secrets to creating a high‑performance environment on and off the pool deck
How to coach technical skills effectively from the side of the pool
Simple, measurable tools for tracking progress and keeping athletes motivated
Strategies for long‑term planning, recovery, and sustainable athlete growth
The Power of Passionate Coaching: From Everyday Progress to Olympic Dreams
Impossible is not a word in our world. I-M‑possible is the mantra we teach—find a solution, celebrate a tiny win each day, and watch kids start leaping over walls for you.
Coaching isn’t a job; it’s a passion that gets you out of bed every day.
Keywords:
coaching, athlete development, inspiration, daily improvement, performance mindset, environment creation, recovery planning, technical expertise, empowerment, mentorship, goal setting, innovation, energy contagion, positivity, pool deck leadership, swimming technique, kick training, simple coaching, people business, ethical coaching, volunteer engagement, club culture, daily wins, progressive training, adaptive workouts, measurement, feedback loops
Come to the World Athletic Federation of Schools and Universities seminars held weekly online at https://WAFSU.org, supported by UCSSC and ISCA.
Also see his prior seminar presentation:
Coaching Is a Responsibility That Changes the World
A coach-to-coach conversation with Pierre Lafontaine
Transcript:
Dennis (UCSSC)
Coming from Canada, we would like to introduce the national coach who will be speaking to you today. None other than coach Pierre Lafontaine.
The Role of the Coach
Pierre Lafontaine
Thank you very much. I want to talk to you a little bit today about your role as coaches. My journey has taken me around the world because I was always trying to find ways to be better than the day before. That is what coaches should be aiming at.
Coaches everywhere take coaching education courses, but those courses are only as good as what you do each day to inspire your athletes. If coaches are not inspiring the next generation, then it becomes just another job. Coaching is not just another job. It is a passion and a reason to get up every day.
I have been lucky enough to coach some great athletes around the world. Probably my biggest success is that I did not overcoach them or interfere with their development too much. One of the first questions I always ask is why you coach and why athletes would go through walls for you. That is the game we are in. Greatness can happen anywhere.
I was working recently in the Atlantic region with a couple of small clubs that had a 25-meter pool, backstroke flags, starting blocks, and good coaches. That is enough. You can win Olympic medals from anywhere. I have seen world records happen in 20-meter pools. They do not need to be perfect facilities. They need inspiring coaches who find solutions instead of excuses.
Impossible should not be a word in our world. I am possible should be the message. If there is a problem, find a solution.
Athletes do not have a long window. They might compete for five, ten, or fifteen years. You might coach for forty or fifty years. Every day matters for them. If you arrive tired or unprepared, you might miss the day they were ready to move forward. That opportunity may never come back.
Energy is contagious. I always tried to be the first one on deck and the last one leaving. I said hello to everyone. Coaches create the environment for performance. Athletes are not products. They are people with emotions, challenges at home, and different ways of learning. A coach must find the way to reach each athlete.
Perfection is not the goal. Excellence is the goal. Be better today than yesterday. Innovation matters because boredom makes athletes quit. Progress keeps them engaged. Give them daily wins so they go home knowing they improved.
Technical coaching is crucial at every level. Coaches are the eyes of the athlete. Even nine-year-olds understand technique. Plan recovery before planning everything else because recovery creates improvement. Hard work alone does not.
Creating Daily Success
Pierre Lafontaine
I learned something watching my children train in rock climbing. Every day they climbed a little higher. Every day they went home excited. I realized swimmers need the same experience. Create daily success so athletes leave practice feeling better than when they arrived.
Being tough on athletes means being intelligent with them, not destroying their spirit. Think long term. A fifteen-year-old today could be a twenty-two-year-old Olympic finalist later. Plan backward from the goal and work toward it step by step.
Ask yourself why an athlete would choose your program instead of another one. You create performance on the pool deck. Administrators support you, but coaches create dreams. That responsibility changes the world.
Coaching today is about empowering athletes, not controlling them. Use language that brings them into the process. Remember that swimmers often look up at the coach from the water. Walk around the pool. Kneel beside them. Speak at their level. Create excitement, not fear.
Children are meant to play. Our job is to create an environment where play becomes learning and challenge.
Details, Environment, and Leadership
Pierre Lafontaine
Details matter every day. Energy matters. Know your value as a coach. Plan everything you can measure. Stroke counts matter. Turns matter. Environment matters. Make your pool welcoming and clean. Smile often. Energy spreads quickly.
You are in the people business, not the swimming business. Senior coaches also have a responsibility to mentor younger coaches. Share tools and experience. That is how coaching improves across generations.
Thank the lifeguards. Thank the front desk staff. Thank the school principals who support your athletes. Everyone contributes to success. Build relationships with all of them.
Turn your phone off during coaching. Athletes deserve your full attention. Set up the pool properly. Use lane lines. Use backstroke flags. Create the environment where learning is possible.
Study your sport every day. Watch technique videos. Talk with other coaches. Find a mentor and keep learning.
Environment creates performance. Even the best athletes cannot succeed alone. Create a place where teammates support each other and want to train together.
Only a very small percentage of swimmers make the Olympic Games. The rest still deserve a memorable experience. Those athletes become parents, volunteers, officials, and supporters of sport later. Their experience matters.
Great coaches simplify. Fewer drills done well are better than many drills done poorly. Swimming is a feeling sport. Athletes need time to feel the water.
Celebrate improvement. Celebrate attendance. Celebrate teamwork. Celebrate progress.
Training Principles and Kicking
Pierre Lafontaine
Strong kicking is essential. About twenty to twenty-five percent of training should be kicking. There is no slow kicking in racing. Develop ankle flexibility and use kicking challenges to build confidence and strength.
A world record is simply someone’s best time. Help athletes break their own best times and they will stay motivated.
Create long-term plans and then act with urgency every day. Learn constantly. Watch other coaches. Ask questions. Stay positive. Coaches have powerful influence. You have magic in your hands.
People often ask why I still coach. It is simple. When an athlete smiles because they improved, it is hard to walk away from that feeling.
Follow-Up Questions
Mark Rauterkus
You talked about fast kicking and timing athletes, especially in China. One swimmer kicked a 31 short-course 50 breaststroke. How does that compare with swimming speed? What is a good relationship between kicking time and swimming time?
Pierre Lafontaine
That is a great question. For one breaststroker we focused on holding strong repeated race-pace times. For example, during training sets we expected consistent repeats around race-pace targets. In kicking sets, consistency mattered even more than a single fast swim.
One of my favorite sets is a 75-meter kick faster than the swimmer’s best 100-meter swim pace, followed by 50 easy, then 25 kick fast, then another 50 easy. We would repeat that several times during the season. It develops both endurance and speed.
Later in my coaching career I changed my approach. Instead of only tight interval sets, I moved toward more race-pace training. That helped swimmers connect training directly to performance.
Mark Rauterkus
The Winter Olympics just happened. Did you notice anything interesting from those performances?
Pierre Lafontaine
What excites me most about the Olympics is seeing what athletes can do under the highest pressure. Weak training habits show up under stress. That is true in both summer and winter sports.
Environment also matters. Norway produces great cross-country skiers because skiing is part of everyday life there. Culture shapes performance.
Mark Rauterkus
What about Chinese athletes in the Winter Olympics and their outlook toward Los Angeles 2028?
Pierre Lafontaine
I think they will continue improving. In technical sports they are very strong. In some team sports they are still developing. Many programs are supported by international coaching expertise. Around the world, elite athletes often train wherever the best environment exists.
On Mental Skills for Young Athletes
Mark Rauterkus
Dr. John Hogg from British Columbia wrote Mental Skills for Young Athletes, which we recently put back in print. Do you know the book?
Pierre Lafontaine
Yes. John worked with our sports psychology team for many years at the University of Alberta. It is a very good book because it gives practical tools for coaches.
Sports psychologists should work closely with coaches and help them read environments and body language. I believe strongly in daily and weekly goals. If athletes only measure progress at competitions every couple of months, they lose motivation. Coaches should create daily progress opportunities.
See https://SwimISCA.com.
Closing Thoughts
Pierre Lafontaine
Remember what we are doing. We are inspiring young people through sport. Be intentional about creating an environment where athletes want to learn, not a place where they are afraid to go.
Dennis (UCSSC)
Thank you, coach. That was fantastic.
