Oct 3, 2017
“I had very big goals.”
Bob Bowman always knew he was going to be great, and as it turns out, he was right. Having coached Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete in the world for over 20 years, Bowman has made a huge impact in the coaching industry.
During this podcast, Bowman dives into how he started his coaching journey by learning from the best in the business such as David Marsh, Paul Bergen, and Murray Stephens.
“I saw coaching as a way I could elevate my goals, and I could be one of the best coaches in the world.”
In retrospect, Bowman discusses how majoring in music for his first 2 years of college has helped him understand how studying the best in your field can be crucial for growth and success. Young coaches in today’s world often want to become the best as fast as possible by creating new ways to execute skill. “A mistake young coaches make today is: if it’s new, it has to be better. Everyone wants to invent their own way…” However, throughout the discussion between Bowman and Dr. Bhrett McCabe, Bowman highlights how you should know the background and the foundation of everything first. The Olympic coach explains how he simply learned from other coaches and absorbed everything he could at the time to later create his own philosophy. This philosophy stresses fundamentals and how repeatedly learning the basics of any sport or activity is very important for every athlete no matter the level.
“Michael Phelps did the same warm up at 31 as he did at age 12.”z
Touching on his coaching career with Phelps, Bowman discusses the relationship he built and maintained with Phelps that ultimately led to many successes for their team over his career. “We were 100% honest with each other all the time.”
Bowman has now decided to take on the mission of coaching a college team at Arizona State in hopes that he will be challenged in a new way. “I wanted to pursue building a championship team in the college rank, just because I haven’t done it yet.”
At the end of this podcast, Bowman declares his manifesto as:
“The process is more important that the outcome.”
We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we have enjoyed recording it.
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