Season 3, Episode 6: Social Media & Sports — with Dr. Valerie Gruest

One spelling note first: the transcript reads "Valerie Gruest" consistently throughout, except one self-introduction moment where it's transcribed "Gruost" — almost certainly an ASR mishearing. I've used Gruest everywhere; worth a quick double-check against her own bio before this goes out.

Dr. Gruest — a Northwestern alum, 2016 Olympic swimmer for Guatemala, and now an assistant professor of strategic communication at New Mexico State — joins Glenn and Wayne to talk about what social media is actually doing to young (and not-so-young) athletes.

In this episode:

• The research: heavier social media use tracks with more anxiety, depression symptoms, and loneliness — and today's kids process something like 54x the daily information their grandparents did
• Body image predates the feed — swimming's "smaller, leaner" culture starts at age 4 or 5; social media just adds a second, harder-to-escape layer of comparison
• The number that stops the room: ~54% of elite aquatic athletes report an eating disorder or body-image issue
• A practical framework for parents and coaches to walk an athlete through a harmful post, instead of just telling them to get off their phone
• Wayne's coaching angle: "you can't out-influence the influencers" — the coach-athlete relationship is the one thing content can't replace (same argument he makes about AI in coaching)
• Not just kids — Glenn brings up the "Enhanced Games" and supplement marketing aimed at older ex-athletes
• Why blanket phone bans don't work — and what to do instead on deck

Season 3, Episode 5: Creating a Successful Club (Part 1)

Wayne Goldsmith and Glenn Mills lay out what actually goes into building a swim program that lasts — not the technique, the decisions underneath it.

In this episode:

• Identity first — why "who are you, and what do you stand for" has to come before drills, technology, or dryland
• The warm-up as an X-ray — how Wayne reads a club's culture in five minutes on deck
• Building a staff that completes you, not one that just agrees with you
• Facilities and equipment — why a better pool doesn't make a better coach (and a bucket of concrete can be a kettlebell)
• Money, committees, and the three people every coach needs on speed dial
• The "crow's nest" approach to long-term planning, and the one thing every 8-year-old actually needs
• Building a local network — physical therapists, nutritionists, and sport psychologists who'll work for exposure to your team

Glenn Mills and Wayne discuss the impact of the new 50-meter sprint events on swimming, particularly at the Olympics. Wayne shares insights from a meeting with Bill Sweetenham, emphasizing the positive opportunities for coaches to engage more athletes. They highlight the increased competitiveness and the need for better skills, timing, and technique. The conversation also touches on the broader implications of sport changes, citing examples from triathlon, cricket, and lacrosse. They stress the importance of adapting to attract more participants and improve the sport's accessibility, particularly for young athletes and their families.