University of Michigan

I spent the first four days of this week at University of Michigan working with the Field Hockey coaches on designing their training program for the year. It was a great week. It is always fun to work with coaches who sincerely want to get better. Nancy Cox is the head coach and she is really clued in to what she has to do to make her athletes better. Tracey Fuchs, one of the assistant coaches was very helpful. She is the most capped player in US Women’s field hockey history. She really challenged me at times based on her experience as a player. That type of interchange is very productive and healthy and makes everyone better. I am looking forward to working with them over the next year. I learned a ton about the sport and how we had to adapt to some of the unique demands of the sport.

I also spend time with Jim Richardson, the women’s swim coach. I have been working with his team the past three years and we are starting our fourth. It has really been neat to see how we have evolved the program. Jim is very knowledgeable and analytic, so it is fun to work with him. I am looking forward to instituting the changes we have planned based on analysis of the past three years.

Last but not least I got to touch bases with the women’s tennis coaches. I was fortunate to design their program this year. Bitsy Ritt, the head coach and Amanda Augustus the assistant coach did a super job of applying the program. They gave me some great feedback. I want to congratulate Bitsy on her move to Associate Athletic Director. It hurts to lose coaches like her to administration, but it is good to have administrators who have coached at her level.