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 10-Oct-2008 is better than ever. I now have data from 30 returning clients.  The swim time of my 1-1 clients dropped 5.8% 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, from beginners to pros.

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 $20.68 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 Oct.2008 versus May.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.  My success rate (% of athletes who have improved) has now improved to 90% (from 87.5% in May).  Although the success rate is better, I will continue to monitor and analyze why a small minority of athletes struggle.

You will also notice that there have been a few athletes with significantly higher improvement levels.  In contrast, the improvement rates reported back in May.2008 were more evenly distributed between clients.  A single client had an improvement rate of 14% and another had a whopping rate of 33%.  You might think that these high fliers just started out slower than everyone else.  Although one of the athletes was in the slowest 10th percentile of initial speed, the other athlete started out at the 50th percentile (right in the middle). 

I have spoken with both of these individuals to find out why they have responded so well to the Dobkanize system of swimming.  The one thing in common was that both made it a point to say they were just doing everything I told them to do in between sessions.  One athlete put it this way.  When I asked why his improvement was superior, he said simply, “I just did everything you said.”  I thought there was more to it, so I asked if there was any other hidden reason the athlete could think of.  The response was, “I did exactly what you said, at the effort you said, and at the frequency you said.”

The other thing in common with these athletes (and every other client who improved by 10% or more) was their excitement with swimming during the second session compared to the first session.  Once these athletes started seeing results, excitement and improvement became inter-related and sustaining.  Enhancing swimming enthusiasm for my clients is something I take very seriously.  It is as important as communicating the proper methods of fast swimming.  The best swimming knowledge is of no use if the client doesn’t work on it relentlessly.  And it is difficult if not impossible to be relentless at something you aren’t excited about.  I plan on monitoring enthusiasm even more closely in the future.  I look forward to reporting continued success in the future!

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 10-Oct-2008, I have collected data from 30 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 improvements so varied, 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) 33.20 %
Average improvement value (% of time) 5.80 %
Median improvement value (% of time) 4.91 %
Number of athletes with no improvement 3
Dobkanize success rate:  90.0%      

Improvement Scorecard