Dobkanize Swimming Report Card

I am very excited to share with you how well I am doing as a triathlon swimming coach for my 1-1 triathletes! I use data and facts to quantify my progress, and I monitor this data in order to continuously improve. I see every new athlete as an opportunity to make them faster, and make myself a better coach and teacher. Now, I want you to have access to the data so you can see for yourself how I am doing. One of the great things I like about swimming is that the measure of success is simple. If the swim times of my clients are dropping, then I am doing a good job. If I can make times drop more than any other coach out there, then I am doing a great job! I plan to update this report as I get more .results and clients. Check in periodically to see how I am doing!

Improvement Stats

I am happy to find that my report card as of 27-May-2008 is going strong. In just three months I have picked up 12 new 2nd time clients (doubling my business). The swim time of my 1-1 clients dropped 4.6% on average after the first two sessions. This result is between the benefits of a full-sleeve wetsuit (at 7.9%) and a fast skin swimsuit (at 1.5%). In keeping good results over a greater number of athletes, I am proving that the system I am coaching will work for anyone.

Here is the cost versus benefit breakdown associated with Dobkanize coaching in comparison to buying a wetsuit. If you pay $450 for a full sleeve wetsuit, it means you are paying $56.60 for every 1% improvement in performance. With two sessions costing $120, my clients paid $26.08 for every 1% of improvement! And they could still go out and buy that wetsuit if they want to!

If you take the time to look at my report card for May.2008 versus February.2008, you will notice that I have worked with a few athletes in the past 3 months who have had no improvement with the Dobkanize system. I attribute the small minority of no-improvements as an inevitable result as I start to work with so many athletes of different backgrounds.

I have spent a considerable amount of time analyzing why some people improve more than others. I have had two clients improve their time by over 11% now (much greater than the benefit of a wetsuit). I am trying to learn how these athletes are making this achievement, in the hope that I can help others in the best way possible. I am also looking at what is in common with my clients who struggle. I hope to use these experiences to help an even broader client base in the future. I look forward to reporting my future results soon!

Dobkanize Report Card – the DATA

The metric used in this report card is the 50 sprint difference (either yards or meters) from the second 1-1 session to first 1-1 session with Coach Dobko. A percentage of improvement was obtained by taking the difference and dividing by the initial time (on the first session). The 50 distance was chosen because it is a good indicator of raw speed. As my clients are fit athletes looking to improve, speed is the metric they are after.

As of 27-May-2008, I have collected data from 24 returning 1-1 clients with a wide range of ability. Skill levels include elite amateur triathletes combined with athletes with less than a year in triathlon and swimming. Performances in a 50 yard Freestyle range from 30 seconds up to 70 seconds (a 40 second difference). For privacy reasons, I am reporting percentage improvement and not actual times of individuals. Because the number of clients is low and their skill level so diverse, it is not possible to conduct any statistical analysis and estimate level of confidence at this time.

The percentage improvement is shown in the histogram below.

Summary Statistics:

Low improvement value (% of time) 0 %
High improvement value (% of time) 11.59 %
Average improvement value (% of time) 4.58 %
Median improvement value (% of time) 4.72 %
Number of athletes with no improvement 3
Dobkanize success rate: 87.5%

Improvement Scorecard