January 3, 2025 • 27 mins
Whether you’re a coach, swimmer, or simply a sports enthusiast, this episode will inspire you with insights into the transformative power of perseverance, innovation, and connection.
Dive into this episode as Jonathan Kaplan, the visionary behind SwimRVA, Rapids Swim Team shares how he turned a small swimming program into a thriving community of over 580 passionate swimmers. Discover the secrets to creating an environment where swimmers, from kids to adults, feel empowered, responsible, and excited to return to the pool. Learn how fostering fun and mentorship builds a lifelong love for swimming and strengthens communities.
What’s the secret to turning casual swimmers into lifelong enthusiasts? Join us to uncover Jonathan Kaplan’s innovative approach that blends fun, responsibility, and mentorship to create a ripple effect in the swimming world. From inspiring stories to actionable strategies, this episode is your lane to transforming the way you think about swimming, coaching, and building a vibrant swim community. Don’t miss it—dive in now!
Check our Jonathan's Inspiring Sports Nation Channel https://www.isnation.com/coach/642/bio
Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I'm doing an on-deck interview with Jonathan
Kaplan.
He is the head coach of SwimRVAthe Rapids and I swim on and
off with the SwimRVA Hammerheads, which is the master's program.
So Jonathan and I have crossedpaths at this beautiful facility
, swimrva.
It is just a stellar,unbelievable pool.
(00:22):
It was the Olympic trials pooland Jonathan has built the
program here at SwimRVA withthese kids from Jonathan, is it
true, from zero to over 500 now.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, we started in 2018.
We had zero swimmers on day one.
We grew to about 288 kids inthe first three to four weeks,
which was quite remarkable, andnow we're in year six and I
think we've crested the 580swimmer mark right now and
hopefully growing closer to 600soon.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
As someone who swims in the other pool because we
have so many lanes here whileyou guys are swimming.
It seems your swimmers reallyenjoy practices Like they.
I'm in the locker room.
I see them.
I see them coming in and out.
They seem to be having fun.
What's the secret to these kidshaving so much fun in your
program?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, that's interesting.
You say that because youtypically get to see them in the
morning yes, early, and it'snot easy to have fun in the
morning because, let's face it,waking up at 3.45 or 4 in the
morning is not an easy thing todo, but for us it's.
We find that it's more about theenvironment that you're
creating at the practice and thefact that we don't actually
have an attendance requirement,so we don't require the swimmers
(01:30):
to be at any practice.
That puts a little bit moreback on the coaches to have to
create an environment that thekids want to be a part of, and
so we very much encourage thekids to cheer for each other, to
get to know each other, tobecome friends with each other,
be supportive.
It's not always perfect,because teenagers are teenagers
sometimes, but at the end of theday, they have an environment
(01:50):
that they want to be a part ofand they don't have to be there.
And they're all there becausethey got the same type of goals.
They all want to improvethemselves, they all want to be
faster swimmers, and so thatmakes the practices a lot more
fun to be a part of.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
It reminds me a little bit of masters having fun
, but that is so wonderful tosee.
Now one of the things we have alot of our listeners are master
swimmers.
They're triathletes, they'readult swimmers and maybe they
have kids that swim.
So I know a lot of the parentswho put their kids in swimming
were swimmers themselves.
Parents who put their kids inswimming were swimmers
(02:26):
themselves Now.
So when I swim in a USA meetand your team is there you have
been so supportive of masterswimmers being in a USA meet.
What is your thought?
Could we encourage other masterswimmers to get in a USA meet?
What would you say?
Your experience has beenwatching my husband and I swim
in multiple USA meets and you'vebeen there.
(02:49):
Your kids have been there.
What's been your take on that?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
In your case it's actually twofold One, because
when you are in the pool andsome kids might be like who is
that swimmer in?
Or they might not understand oreven realize that the senior
age group is actually open, soyou can literally be any age you
want and some swimmers justthey didn't even know that.
It's not that they think anolder person shouldn't be there,
it's that they didn't even knowif it was allowed, and that
(03:14):
just remind them, like, how olddo you think a lot of the
Olympians are?
Well, they're like 28, 32, 36.
Yeah, okay, so if they were,they could swim in this meet.
If they can swim in theOlympics, they can swim in this
meet.
But from your case, obviouslyyou've reached very high levels
and so I get to brag on you alittle bit and they become a
little bit more invested in yoursuccess and I'm like, yeah, she
(03:35):
trains right down in the otherlanes while you're practicing
every single day.
So that's really good.
You're like the gateway for thekids understanding that
swimming is not something thatyou just do until you're done
with high school or you're donewith college.
And that very much is in linewith the attitude that we take
with coaching our kids is.
(03:55):
We don't want our kids to be sogrung down and they hate the
sport.
By the time they get to the endof high school and they're like
I can't get far enough away froma pool, they have the term
swammer.
I've never liked the termswammer because it's like that's
insinuating that you're not aswimmer anymore.
But you can always be a swimmer.
You just change your approachinto what you want to get out of
(04:17):
it as you get older.
But I don't want to have kidsgoing through our sport that
think, once I'm done with highschool, that's the end of it for
me.
I want them to see this as apart of the rest of their life
and even competition can be apart of the rest of their life.
I can tell you from experiencebecause I've been that person
swimming in the meet.
It's really awesome for thekids to get to see people who
(04:40):
just swim because they love thesport and they can connect with
that and it just gives me anopportunity to remind them of
why they're swimming in thefirst place.
It's not only about the times,it's not only about the records
or did you achieve your goal.
It's about having a goodrelationship with the sport that
is going to make you a betterperson and that literally never
stops.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yes, we're so on the same page.
I hate when somebody saysthey're retiring from swimming.
You should never retire fromswimming, it's just.
It is a lifelong sport.
Give us a little background onyour swimming.
You swam at Florida State.
I did Okay, and then what hasyour trajectory of your swimming
career been?
(05:21):
Your own swimming, getting inthe water.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, so I learned how to swim when I was three.
I grew up in Central Florida.
I actually swam in the RowdyGaines Olympic Pool for my whole
career.
So, yeah, rowdy's fromWinterhaven, florida, the same
place.
We went to the same high schooland everything.
So Rowdy's a really good friendof mine and he actually used to
come down while he was doingmasters and he would train with
(05:45):
me while he was actually when hewent to Japan and he broke
every freestyle record and everyworld record for his age group.
Yeah, I have some really goodtraining stories with him when
he would come down and stuff.
But anyway, so I was veryinspired by Rowdy at a young age
.
I met him when I was eight andhe came to our swim team banquet
and we've just been literallybeen friends ever since then.
(06:05):
So I started swimmingcompetitively at six and started
to reach pretty decent highlevels, probably top three or
four in the state until I was 14.
And I decided to step away fromsoccer for one year.
I played soccer for eight yearsand I just stepped away for one
year and I said you know what,I'm not leaving soccer, I'm just
going to focus on swimming forone year.
(06:27):
And my soccer coach wasactually unbelievable and he was
incredibly supportive of it,and I can go on and on about the
stories about my soccer coachand the impact he had on my
swimming career, but that's foranother day.
But anyway, that one year wasreally good.
I ended up being ranked in thetop six in the country for 13,.
14 boys in the 400 IM broke thejunior Olympic meet record for
(06:49):
the state of Florida.
So I had some really good swimsand that just catapulted me.
I was like I'll never look backwith soccer.
That was also around the sametime, when I was about 14 to 15,
when I pretty much knew that Iwanted to be a swimming coach.
I don't think I actually hadmade that official decision but
looking back, I basically was acoach from the water with a lot
(07:10):
of my teammates, not like in abossy way, but in a just, in a
supportive way.
I just really I just lovedwatching my teammates succeed
and that was really important tome to the point where I don't
know you probably remember this,but we actually used to have to
fill out our times on a pieceof paper and turn it in to the
meet and then they would createa heat sheet from that.
(07:30):
There was nothing done onlinebecause there was no online.
And I used to have all theswimmers from the other team.
Even when I was 14 or 15, theirparents would come up to me and
ask me what their kids' besttimes were, because they knew
that I knew all the kids' besttimes because I just love
watching my teammates race.
So then when I did eventually goto Florida State, I studied
sport management because I knewI wanted to be involved in
(07:52):
sports right from the get-go.
I studied sport managementbecause I knew I wanted to be
involved in sports right fromthe get-go and I solidified,
probably by my sophomore year,that I knew I wanted to get into
coaching and I'd been coachingover the summers with my own
team back home in Tallahasseewhen I was there.
So I really started coaching at18.
And then when I graduated fromFlorida State, I knew for sure I
wanted to coach.
(08:12):
So I set it up so that I couldget the graduate assistant job
coaching at Florida State andthis is back when graduate
assistants could actually coach.
So I was coaching.
It was weird because I wascoaching some of the swimmers
that I swam with, but I was alsocoaching with the coaches who
had coached me, but it was agreat experience and I got my
master's degree in sportadministration and so having
(08:34):
those two degrees has beenperfect segue for coaching full
time, because I literally useprobably 98 percent of my degree
both the degrees every singleday, and I got too many college
roommates and friends and stuffwho got a degree in criminology
and aren't doing anything incriminology or something like
that.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I'm not like that.
I knew what I was going to doand I got into it from the get
go and I use it every day.
Gosh, I love that passion.
That's really beautiful.
Do you think that your soccercoach had any influence on you
wanting to be a coach?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Oh man, that's interesting.
I've always thought so muchabout his impact on me as an
athlete and just the person Iturned into.
I've never been asked thatquestion before, but now that
you ask it, I think a hundredpercent, because the one thing
his name is James Smith, just aphenomenal person and my head
swimming coach, jim Grazier thetwo of them two Jameses,
(09:28):
actually, but they were justvery impactful on me wanting to
be a coach.
Because James Smith, my soccercoach, he just was exceptional
about just making you feelreally good about yourself.
Even when I decided to swim onlyI would get a letter in the
mail from him and it would justbe this he would use like
highlighter and it was just thisawesome letter hey, you're
(09:50):
number one, I really thinkyou're just a great person.
And he made me feel awesomeabout myself and so I think
that's probably where I got thedesire to make other people feel
really awesome about themselves.
And then Jim Grazier, who wasmy longtime swim coach as a kid.
He was exceptional aboutteaching me how to do that in
the swimming world, because hedidn't grow up as a swimmer, he
(10:12):
grew up doing other things andhe became a swim instructor who
became a coach and he's aphenomenal coach who never swam
before, and so he had to learn alot of different ways to get
kids excited about how they feelabout themselves in the
swimming world, and so I reallylearned that from him too.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
That's beautiful.
So in all these experiencesyou've had and I know just
having known you for severalyears you have lots of fellow
coaches that are high levelcoaches, Olympic coaches, and
you have so much experience withsuccess, what do you think some
of the traits that championsshare, that you see on a daily
(10:50):
basis Not necessarily somebodywho's gone to the Olympics, but
just that these kids are reallysuccessful what do you see that
those traits that they share are?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
That's a great question.
I have been very fortunate overthe years to have a lot of good
experiences with Olympians,starting with, obviously, rowdy
at a young age.
I've got to coach several whowent on to swim in the Olympics
Florida State.
I've had the pleasure ofworking with Townley Haas at
Nova for a little while.
I got to coach Charlie Swansonas his primary coach for a year.
Love Tuna he's a great kid.
(11:19):
He's not a kid anymore, he's abig, grown man, a big Olympian.
But no, the thing that I'venoticed over the years is
they're not that different thaneverybody else.
I think people have theseassumptions that Olympians are
this just magical human beingwho is flawless and they're just
like, wow, they're so luckythat they're that talented and
(11:41):
it's really never like that.
Every now and then you'll meetan Olympian who they just have
that persona and they're justlike, yeah, there's something
different about that person.
But I've coached a lot ofpeople over the years who are
something different about thatperson feel.
But they don't turn out to beOlympians.
They're just great people.
The thing I noticed aboutOlympians is that, on a more
(12:02):
consistent basis, they're justwilling to do the things that
other people aren't willing todo.
They're willing to do the extradolphins off the wall when
others are going to complainabout it.
They're willing to come intothe practice when they might
have a stuffy nose or they're alittle bit exhausted when others
would have easily slept in.
That's the difference.
And when you add up all ofthose small little increments
(12:25):
over a lot of years and swimmingis a repetitive sport over a
lot of years that adds up over alot of years.
That adds up and it turns intobecome a gigantic chasm of a
difference between your averageswimmer and an Olympian, because
the Olympian was willing to doit all the time and they just
made it their habit.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Oh, I love that.
I love that.
That really resonates with me.
Is there anything that you thatisn't out there in the public
that may be a little insightinto Jonathan Kaplan, like what?
Maybe a hobby or something thatyou enjoy doing?
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I love.
I just love diving into sportsnumbers in particular.
I'm not a crazy math person, sodon't get me into like calculus
or anything crazy like that,but simple math I love and I
love, just like, the beauty ofsport.
And so from as long as I canremember, since I was probably
about 10 or 11, I collectedsports cards.
(13:18):
So I collect like baseballcards, basketball cards,
football, and I took a long timeoff from the hobby and I
actually just my best friend,who we've been best friends
since we were six we actuallymet on the swim team, so you
never know who you're going tomeet, even when you're six years
old and he had messaged me acouple of years ago and he said
(13:38):
have you tell how much yourcards are worth?
I was like I haven't done thatin a couple of decades, but
let's go take a look.
And it just got me rememberingwhat I loved about the beauty of
the pictures of the cards andthe statistics that are on the
back.
And a lot of them will tell youtheir hometown or maybe a story
about their journey and stufflike that.
And I've always been fascinatedwith the journey that other
(14:00):
athletes take to get to highlevels.
Because, like I was sayingearlier, with the Olympians,
like you think that it's thismagical thing where everything
works out perfectly and sportsisn't like that.
It's about the failures thatget you to become successful,
not the other way around.
So I like seeing that story andthen the cards are just like a
way to capitalize on that.
(14:21):
And a fun little side note mybest friend, chris Bogey, and
one of my other really goodfriends that I grew up swimming
with in Winter Haven.
His name was Dan Ketchum andDan Ketchum went on.
He and I would collect cards,we'd go to card shows and all
this stuff.
Dan went on to swim at Michigan, became NCAA champion and went
and won a gold medal for theOlympics and the relay the 800
(14:44):
free relay.
He was on the prelims of the800 free relay and won gold
medal.
So my passion for sports stillrooted in swimming one way or
another, even my passion forcards.
I love that, I just love that sowhere do you think you get this
passion, man, the reason why Icoach, and it's the cheesiest
(15:08):
answer ever and I've said it ahandful of times in interviews
over the years.
But I'm like, look, it's cheesy, but it's true.
This is who I am.
I've always wanted, for as longas I can remember.
I want to have the mostpowerful impact on the largest
number of people possible, andthere probably are other avenues
where I could maybe have animpact on more people than
coaching swimming, but then Iwould lose the level of impact.
(15:29):
So I just think that swimmingis the one sport out of all
sports that mimics the rest ofyour life.
There's a lot that you're goingto learn by being a football
player, soccer player, tennisplayer, golf or whatever that
are going to help you in therest of your life, but I don't
think any of those sportsliterally mimic the ups and
(15:50):
downs that you go through,because you have to learn how to
push yourself as an individual,but you have to do it in a team
setting.
Very few swimmers can start andfinish their career by
themselves and become successful, so you have to learn to work
together as a team, but you'reonly as good as you work, very
similar to when you go get a jobor you have a boss or you start
a business or something likethat Marriage a lot of what you
(16:13):
learn through the ups and downsof swimming helps you get
through the ups and downs ofmarriage, because inevitably
there are ups and downs inmarriage.
So I've been passionate aboutthat and that's the reason why I
chose swimming.
At the end of the day, thoughit's personal, but I don't mind
sharing because other peopledeal with loss in their life too
.
But for as long as I canremember, my parents told me at
a young age that I had an olderbrother who I never had met and
(16:38):
he passed away when he was onlyabout 10 months old Obviously
extremely devastating for myfamily and for my parents.
But what that did is it put myparents in a situation to adopt
because they weren't going to beable to have another child.
That essentially wouldn't havethe same thing happen and, as
tragic as that is, they ended upadopting my sister and then,
(16:59):
three and a half years later,they adopted me.
It's the greatest thing that'sever happened to me in my entire
life was becoming adopted.
And if that had not happened?
And Joshua, who was my brother.
If he had not passed, I wouldhave never been given that
opportunity, and so, because Ihave that opportunity, I just
can't imagine my life beinganything other than I need to.
(17:22):
Really, I need to kick the heckout of this life because I've
been given this opportunity thatessentially someone was
sacrificed for, and so literallyeverything that I do, I'm
trying to find the best way thatI can have an impact on someone
else's life in a positive way,and I'm doing it because of him
season I've ever had in probablymy whole swimming career, and
you sat down with me.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
You're not paid to coach me.
You sat down with me, you wentover some splits, you've allowed
me to use your resistance bands, you've just you've cheered me.
I see, when I was in lane onebreaking the 500 free national
record, you were standing therewith your arms in the air and I
saw you and hey, I don't think Iwould have kicked it in on that
last 50, which I needed.
So it's choking me up to hearyour story.
(18:21):
It's just, it's reallybeautiful and you are making a
huge impact and I love seeingthe success of this program and
in this facility and what you'redoing and I can totally see why
it's happening now.
And then the last question wealways ask is is there anything
that I haven't asked you thatyou would like to share with our
listeners?
Could be anything.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, sure, first of all, let me go back and say that
it was my pleasure getting towatch you break those records,
like it was.
It's really inspirationaleverything that you've done and
the fact that you're willing todo like we said earlier, willing
to do things that other peoplearen't willing to do, and here
you are, having the bestswimming you've ever had later
in your life.
Like that's just an awesomelesson.
(18:57):
So I love that you've got anavenue to share that with other
people, because you're going toinspire a lot of people for a
long time.
So just wanted to say that.
The other thing for me is thatmy this is something that I
never thought would reallyhappen.
Like when you think of I'm aswimming nerd.
That's through and through manI got, I can tell you some
swimming stories and I know alot of people and I've just been
(19:20):
, you know, connected to thesport in such an intimate way
for a long time senior coach forthe first six years and I just
promoted our amazing coach,blake Profitt, to be our head
(19:40):
senior coach so that I can spendmore of my time and energy as
the head coach and the director.
So it's very different thananything I ever thought I would
be doing, because you think of acoach.
You're like you just want to beon the deck and you want to get
the recognition for developingthe athletes.
And I know coaches do that wellinto their 60s, sometimes 70s,
and I think that's awesome.
That's where they want to be.
(20:01):
When I decided to make thisshift, because it was for the
betterment of the entire program, I had a lot of coaches.
I asked several of my bestcoaching friends around the
country so what do you thinkabout that?
And they're like are you goingto be okay?
Are you going to scratch theitch?
Are you okay, not being on thedeck as much?
I'm not off the deck yet, buteventually we'll get to that
point where I'm not really onthe deck as much and I'm more
(20:22):
okay than I ever thought I wouldbe, because my group that I'm
coaching now is the coaches.
We got 27 coaches on this staff.
So if I can coach 27 coaches tobe better versions of themselves
and they have the ability toliterally impact hundreds of
kids, then now I have theability to impact thousands of
(20:44):
kids and even if I don'tdirectly work with every single
one of them side note to that Iactually do get to work with all
the kids now, because at everyat least once a month, I spend
time with every single practicegroup and every single time slot
.
So I actually know the teambetter now than I ever have
before.
So I guess, like the lesson forthat is, just because you're
(21:07):
doing this right now doesn'tmean that there isn't a
different chapter where you canhave a significant positive
impact on others and I'mactually on Instagram a lot now,
which is something I neverthought I would do, and here I
am sharing motivationalInstagram reels and things like
that that I never thought wouldhave an impact, and I've
literally get people from aroundthe world reaching out and
(21:29):
telling me how much they lovethe reels and stuff like that.
So you just never know what'scoming up.
So be willing to change andalter what you're doing.
Don't just do the same thingall the time.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Wow, I love that model.
That's very innovative andsounds like stuff that SwimRVA
is doing here constantly.
Thank you for spending thistime with me.
I know you have a meeting thismorning at eight o'clock, so
it's just been awesome and we soit's just been awesome and
we'll continue to watch yoursuccess and really appreciate
you.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
It's been such a pleasure chatting with you and,
regardless of whether doing aninterview, I look forward to
chatting again next time.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Thank you.
So I'm doing an on-deck interview with Jonathan
Kaplan.
He is the head coach of SwimRVAthe Rapids and I swim on and
off with the SwimRVA Hammerheads, which is the master's program.
So Jonathan and I have crossedpaths at this beautiful facility
, swimrva.
It is just a stellar,unbelievable pool.
(00:22):
It was the Olympic trials pooland Jonathan has built the
program here at SwimRVA withthese kids from Jonathan, is it
true, from zero to over 500 now.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, we started in 2018.
We had zero swimmers on day one.
We grew to about 288 kids inthe first three to four weeks,
which was quite remarkable, andnow we're in year six and I
think we've crested the 580swimmer mark right now and
hopefully growing closer to 600soon.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
As someone who swims in the other pool because we
have so many lanes here whileyou guys are swimming.
It seems your swimmers reallyenjoy practices Like they.
I'm in the locker room.
I see them.
I see them coming in and out.
They seem to be having fun.
What's the secret to these kidshaving so much fun in your
program?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, that's interesting.
You say that because youtypically get to see them in the
morning yes, early, and it'snot easy to have fun in the
morning because, let's face it,waking up at 3.45 or 4 in the
morning is not an easy thing todo, but for us it's.
We find that it's more about theenvironment that you're
creating at the practice and thefact that we don't actually
have an attendance requirement,so we don't require the swimmers
(01:30):
to be at any practice.
That puts a little bit moreback on the coaches to have to
create an environment that thekids want to be a part of, and
so we very much encourage thekids to cheer for each other, to
get to know each other, tobecome friends with each other,
be supportive.
It's not always perfect,because teenagers are teenagers
sometimes, but at the end of theday, they have an environment
(01:50):
that they want to be a part ofand they don't have to be there.
And they're all there becausethey got the same type of goals.
They all want to improvethemselves, they all want to be
faster swimmers, and so thatmakes the practices a lot more
fun to be a part of.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
It reminds me a little bit of masters having fun
, but that is so wonderful tosee.
Now one of the things we have alot of our listeners are master
swimmers.
They're triathletes, they'readult swimmers and maybe they
have kids that swim.
So I know a lot of the parentswho put their kids in swimming
were swimmers themselves.
Parents who put their kids inswimming were swimmers
(02:26):
themselves Now.
So when I swim in a USA meetand your team is there you have
been so supportive of masterswimmers being in a USA meet.
What is your thought?
Could we encourage other masterswimmers to get in a USA meet?
What would you say?
Your experience has beenwatching my husband and I swim
in multiple USA meets and you'vebeen there.
(02:49):
Your kids have been there.
What's been your take on that?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
In your case it's actually twofold One, because
when you are in the pool andsome kids might be like who is
that swimmer in?
Or they might not understand oreven realize that the senior
age group is actually open, soyou can literally be any age you
want and some swimmers justthey didn't even know that.
It's not that they think anolder person shouldn't be there,
it's that they didn't even knowif it was allowed, and that
(03:14):
just remind them, like, how olddo you think a lot of the
Olympians are?
Well, they're like 28, 32, 36.
Yeah, okay, so if they were,they could swim in this meet.
If they can swim in theOlympics, they can swim in this
meet.
But from your case, obviouslyyou've reached very high levels
and so I get to brag on you alittle bit and they become a
little bit more invested in yoursuccess and I'm like, yeah, she
(03:35):
trains right down in the otherlanes while you're practicing
every single day.
So that's really good.
You're like the gateway for thekids understanding that
swimming is not something thatyou just do until you're done
with high school or you're donewith college.
And that very much is in linewith the attitude that we take
with coaching our kids is.
(03:55):
We don't want our kids to be sogrung down and they hate the
sport.
By the time they get to the endof high school and they're like
I can't get far enough away froma pool, they have the term
swammer.
I've never liked the termswammer because it's like that's
insinuating that you're not aswimmer anymore.
But you can always be a swimmer.
You just change your approachinto what you want to get out of
(04:17):
it as you get older.
But I don't want to have kidsgoing through our sport that
think, once I'm done with highschool, that's the end of it for
me.
I want them to see this as apart of the rest of their life
and even competition can be apart of the rest of their life.
I can tell you from experiencebecause I've been that person
swimming in the meet.
It's really awesome for thekids to get to see people who
(04:40):
just swim because they love thesport and they can connect with
that and it just gives me anopportunity to remind them of
why they're swimming in thefirst place.
It's not only about the times,it's not only about the records
or did you achieve your goal.
It's about having a goodrelationship with the sport that
is going to make you a betterperson and that literally never
stops.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yes, we're so on the same page.
I hate when somebody saysthey're retiring from swimming.
You should never retire fromswimming, it's just.
It is a lifelong sport.
Give us a little background onyour swimming.
You swam at Florida State.
I did Okay, and then what hasyour trajectory of your swimming
career been?
(05:21):
Your own swimming, getting inthe water.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, so I learned how to swim when I was three.
I grew up in Central Florida.
I actually swam in the RowdyGaines Olympic Pool for my whole
career.
So, yeah, rowdy's fromWinterhaven, florida, the same
place.
We went to the same high schooland everything.
So Rowdy's a really good friendof mine and he actually used to
come down while he was doingmasters and he would train with
(05:45):
me while he was actually when hewent to Japan and he broke
every freestyle record and everyworld record for his age group.
Yeah, I have some really goodtraining stories with him when
he would come down and stuff.
But anyway, so I was veryinspired by Rowdy at a young age
.
I met him when I was eight andhe came to our swim team banquet
and we've just been literallybeen friends ever since then.
(06:05):
So I started swimmingcompetitively at six and started
to reach pretty decent highlevels, probably top three or
four in the state until I was 14.
And I decided to step away fromsoccer for one year.
I played soccer for eight yearsand I just stepped away for one
year and I said you know what,I'm not leaving soccer, I'm just
going to focus on swimming forone year.
(06:27):
And my soccer coach wasactually unbelievable and he was
incredibly supportive of it,and I can go on and on about the
stories about my soccer coachand the impact he had on my
swimming career, but that's foranother day.
But anyway, that one year wasreally good.
I ended up being ranked in thetop six in the country for 13,.
14 boys in the 400 IM broke thejunior Olympic meet record for
(06:49):
the state of Florida.
So I had some really good swimsand that just catapulted me.
I was like I'll never look backwith soccer.
That was also around the sametime, when I was about 14 to 15,
when I pretty much knew that Iwanted to be a swimming coach.
I don't think I actually hadmade that official decision but
looking back, I basically was acoach from the water with a lot
(07:10):
of my teammates, not like in abossy way, but in a just, in a
supportive way.
I just really I just lovedwatching my teammates succeed
and that was really important tome to the point where I don't
know you probably remember this,but we actually used to have to
fill out our times on a pieceof paper and turn it in to the
meet and then they would createa heat sheet from that.
(07:30):
There was nothing done onlinebecause there was no online.
And I used to have all theswimmers from the other team.
Even when I was 14 or 15, theirparents would come up to me and
ask me what their kids' besttimes were, because they knew
that I knew all the kids' besttimes because I just love
watching my teammates race.
So then when I did eventually goto Florida State, I studied
sport management because I knewI wanted to be involved in
(07:52):
sports right from the get-go.
I studied sport managementbecause I knew I wanted to be
involved in sports right fromthe get-go and I solidified,
probably by my sophomore year,that I knew I wanted to get into
coaching and I'd been coachingover the summers with my own
team back home in Tallahasseewhen I was there.
So I really started coaching at18.
And then when I graduated fromFlorida State, I knew for sure I
wanted to coach.
(08:12):
So I set it up so that I couldget the graduate assistant job
coaching at Florida State andthis is back when graduate
assistants could actually coach.
So I was coaching.
It was weird because I wascoaching some of the swimmers
that I swam with, but I was alsocoaching with the coaches who
had coached me, but it was agreat experience and I got my
master's degree in sportadministration and so having
(08:34):
those two degrees has beenperfect segue for coaching full
time, because I literally useprobably 98 percent of my degree
both the degrees every singleday, and I got too many college
roommates and friends and stuffwho got a degree in criminology
and aren't doing anything incriminology or something like
that.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I'm not like that.
I knew what I was going to doand I got into it from the get
go and I use it every day.
Gosh, I love that passion.
That's really beautiful.
Do you think that your soccercoach had any influence on you
wanting to be a coach?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Oh man, that's interesting.
I've always thought so muchabout his impact on me as an
athlete and just the person Iturned into.
I've never been asked thatquestion before, but now that
you ask it, I think a hundredpercent, because the one thing
his name is James Smith, just aphenomenal person and my head
swimming coach, jim Grazier thetwo of them two Jameses,
(09:28):
actually, but they were justvery impactful on me wanting to
be a coach.
Because James Smith, my soccercoach, he just was exceptional
about just making you feelreally good about yourself.
Even when I decided to swim onlyI would get a letter in the
mail from him and it would justbe this he would use like
highlighter and it was just thisawesome letter hey, you're
(09:50):
number one, I really thinkyou're just a great person.
And he made me feel awesomeabout myself and so I think
that's probably where I got thedesire to make other people feel
really awesome about themselves.
And then Jim Grazier, who wasmy longtime swim coach as a kid.
He was exceptional aboutteaching me how to do that in
the swimming world, because hedidn't grow up as a swimmer, he
(10:12):
grew up doing other things andhe became a swim instructor who
became a coach and he's aphenomenal coach who never swam
before, and so he had to learn alot of different ways to get
kids excited about how they feelabout themselves in the
swimming world, and so I reallylearned that from him too.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
That's beautiful.
So in all these experiencesyou've had and I know just
having known you for severalyears you have lots of fellow
coaches that are high levelcoaches, Olympic coaches, and
you have so much experience withsuccess, what do you think some
of the traits that championsshare, that you see on a daily
(10:50):
basis Not necessarily somebodywho's gone to the Olympics, but
just that these kids are reallysuccessful what do you see that
those traits that they share are?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
That's a great question.
I have been very fortunate overthe years to have a lot of good
experiences with Olympians,starting with, obviously, rowdy
at a young age.
I've got to coach several whowent on to swim in the Olympics
Florida State.
I've had the pleasure ofworking with Townley Haas at
Nova for a little while.
I got to coach Charlie Swansonas his primary coach for a year.
Love Tuna he's a great kid.
(11:19):
He's not a kid anymore, he's abig, grown man, a big Olympian.
But no, the thing that I'venoticed over the years is
they're not that different thaneverybody else.
I think people have theseassumptions that Olympians are
this just magical human beingwho is flawless and they're just
like, wow, they're so luckythat they're that talented and
(11:41):
it's really never like that.
Every now and then you'll meetan Olympian who they just have
that persona and they're justlike, yeah, there's something
different about that person.
But I've coached a lot ofpeople over the years who are
something different about thatperson feel.
But they don't turn out to beOlympians.
They're just great people.
The thing I noticed aboutOlympians is that, on a more
(12:02):
consistent basis, they're justwilling to do the things that
other people aren't willing todo.
They're willing to do the extradolphins off the wall when
others are going to complainabout it.
They're willing to come intothe practice when they might
have a stuffy nose or they're alittle bit exhausted when others
would have easily slept in.
That's the difference.
And when you add up all ofthose small little increments
(12:25):
over a lot of years and swimmingis a repetitive sport over a
lot of years that adds up over alot of years.
That adds up and it turns intobecome a gigantic chasm of a
difference between your averageswimmer and an Olympian, because
the Olympian was willing to doit all the time and they just
made it their habit.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Oh, I love that.
I love that.
That really resonates with me.
Is there anything that you thatisn't out there in the public
that may be a little insightinto Jonathan Kaplan, like what?
Maybe a hobby or something thatyou enjoy doing?
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I love.
I just love diving into sportsnumbers in particular.
I'm not a crazy math person, sodon't get me into like calculus
or anything crazy like that,but simple math I love and I
love, just like, the beauty ofsport.
And so from as long as I canremember, since I was probably
about 10 or 11, I collectedsports cards.
(13:18):
So I collect like baseballcards, basketball cards,
football, and I took a long timeoff from the hobby and I
actually just my best friend,who we've been best friends
since we were six we actuallymet on the swim team, so you
never know who you're going tomeet, even when you're six years
old and he had messaged me acouple of years ago and he said
(13:38):
have you tell how much yourcards are worth?
I was like I haven't done thatin a couple of decades, but
let's go take a look.
And it just got me rememberingwhat I loved about the beauty of
the pictures of the cards andthe statistics that are on the
back.
And a lot of them will tell youtheir hometown or maybe a story
about their journey and stufflike that.
And I've always been fascinatedwith the journey that other
(14:00):
athletes take to get to highlevels.
Because, like I was sayingearlier, with the Olympians,
like you think that it's thismagical thing where everything
works out perfectly and sportsisn't like that.
It's about the failures thatget you to become successful,
not the other way around.
So I like seeing that story andthen the cards are just like a
way to capitalize on that.
(14:21):
And a fun little side note mybest friend, chris Bogey, and
one of my other really goodfriends that I grew up swimming
with in Winter Haven.
His name was Dan Ketchum andDan Ketchum went on.
He and I would collect cards,we'd go to card shows and all
this stuff.
Dan went on to swim at Michigan, became NCAA champion and went
and won a gold medal for theOlympics and the relay the 800
(14:44):
free relay.
He was on the prelims of the800 free relay and won gold
medal.
So my passion for sports stillrooted in swimming one way or
another, even my passion forcards.
I love that, I just love that sowhere do you think you get this
passion, man, the reason why Icoach, and it's the cheesiest
(15:08):
answer ever and I've said it ahandful of times in interviews
over the years.
But I'm like, look, it's cheesy, but it's true.
This is who I am.
I've always wanted, for as longas I can remember.
I want to have the mostpowerful impact on the largest
number of people possible, andthere probably are other avenues
where I could maybe have animpact on more people than
coaching swimming, but then Iwould lose the level of impact.
(15:29):
So I just think that swimmingis the one sport out of all
sports that mimics the rest ofyour life.
There's a lot that you're goingto learn by being a football
player, soccer player, tennisplayer, golf or whatever that
are going to help you in therest of your life, but I don't
think any of those sportsliterally mimic the ups and
(15:50):
downs that you go through,because you have to learn how to
push yourself as an individual,but you have to do it in a team
setting.
Very few swimmers can start andfinish their career by
themselves and become successful, so you have to learn to work
together as a team, but you'reonly as good as you work, very
similar to when you go get a jobor you have a boss or you start
a business or something likethat Marriage a lot of what you
(16:13):
learn through the ups and downsof swimming helps you get
through the ups and downs ofmarriage, because inevitably
there are ups and downs inmarriage.
So I've been passionate aboutthat and that's the reason why I
chose swimming.
At the end of the day, thoughit's personal, but I don't mind
sharing because other peopledeal with loss in their life too
.
But for as long as I canremember, my parents told me at
a young age that I had an olderbrother who I never had met and
(16:38):
he passed away when he was onlyabout 10 months old Obviously
extremely devastating for myfamily and for my parents.
But what that did is it put myparents in a situation to adopt
because they weren't going to beable to have another child.
That essentially wouldn't havethe same thing happen and, as
tragic as that is, they ended upadopting my sister and then,
(16:59):
three and a half years later,they adopted me.
It's the greatest thing that'sever happened to me in my entire
life was becoming adopted.
And if that had not happened?
And Joshua, who was my brother.
If he had not passed, I wouldhave never been given that
opportunity, and so, because Ihave that opportunity, I just
can't imagine my life beinganything other than I need to.
(17:22):
Really, I need to kick the heckout of this life because I've
been given this opportunity thatessentially someone was
sacrificed for, and so literallyeverything that I do, I'm
trying to find the best way thatI can have an impact on someone
else's life in a positive way,and I'm doing it because of him
season I've ever had in probablymy whole swimming career, and
you sat down with me.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
You're not paid to coach me.
You sat down with me, you wentover some splits, you've allowed
me to use your resistance bands, you've just you've cheered me.
I see, when I was in lane onebreaking the 500 free national
record, you were standing therewith your arms in the air and I
saw you and hey, I don't think Iwould have kicked it in on that
last 50, which I needed.
So it's choking me up to hearyour story.
(18:21):
It's just, it's reallybeautiful and you are making a
huge impact and I love seeingthe success of this program and
in this facility and what you'redoing and I can totally see why
it's happening now.
And then the last question wealways ask is is there anything
that I haven't asked you thatyou would like to share with our
listeners?
Could be anything.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, sure, first of all, let me go back and say that
it was my pleasure getting towatch you break those records,
like it was.
It's really inspirationaleverything that you've done and
the fact that you're willing todo like we said earlier, willing
to do things that other peoplearen't willing to do, and here
you are, having the bestswimming you've ever had later
in your life.
Like that's just an awesomelesson.
(18:57):
So I love that you've got anavenue to share that with other
people, because you're going toinspire a lot of people for a
long time.
So just wanted to say that.
The other thing for me is thatmy this is something that I
never thought would reallyhappen.
Like when you think of I'm aswimming nerd.
That's through and through manI got, I can tell you some
swimming stories and I know alot of people and I've just been
(19:20):
, you know, connected to thesport in such an intimate way
for a long time senior coach forthe first six years and I just
promoted our amazing coach,blake Profitt, to be our head
(19:40):
senior coach so that I can spendmore of my time and energy as
the head coach and the director.
So it's very different thananything I ever thought I would
be doing, because you think of acoach.
You're like you just want to beon the deck and you want to get
the recognition for developingthe athletes.
And I know coaches do that wellinto their 60s, sometimes 70s,
and I think that's awesome.
That's where they want to be.
(20:01):
When I decided to make thisshift, because it was for the
betterment of the entire program, I had a lot of coaches.
I asked several of my bestcoaching friends around the
country so what do you thinkabout that?
And they're like are you goingto be okay?
Are you going to scratch theitch?
Are you okay, not being on thedeck as much?
I'm not off the deck yet, buteventually we'll get to that
point where I'm not really onthe deck as much and I'm more
(20:22):
okay than I ever thought I wouldbe, because my group that I'm
coaching now is the coaches.
We got 27 coaches on this staff.
So if I can coach 27 coaches tobe better versions of themselves
and they have the ability toliterally impact hundreds of
kids, then now I have theability to impact thousands of
(20:44):
kids and even if I don'tdirectly work with every single
one of them side note to that Iactually do get to work with all
the kids now, because at everyat least once a month, I spend
time with every single practicegroup and every single time slot
.
So I actually know the teambetter now than I ever have
before.
So I guess, like the lesson forthat is, just because you're
(21:07):
doing this right now doesn'tmean that there isn't a
different chapter where you canhave a significant positive
impact on others and I'mactually on Instagram a lot now,
which is something I neverthought I would do, and here I
am sharing motivationalInstagram reels and things like
that that I never thought wouldhave an impact, and I've
literally get people from aroundthe world reaching out and
(21:29):
telling me how much they lovethe reels and stuff like that.
So you just never know what'scoming up.
So be willing to change andalter what you're doing.
Don't just do the same thingall the time.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Wow, I love that model.
That's very innovative andsounds like stuff that SwimRVA
is doing here constantly.
Thank you for spending thistime with me.
I know you have a meeting thismorning at eight o'clock, so
it's just been awesome and we soit's just been awesome and
we'll continue to watch yoursuccess and really appreciate
you.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
It's been such a pleasure chatting with you and,
regardless of whether doing aninterview, I look forward to
chatting again next time.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Thank you.
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