EP 06: Jeff Dugdale on Winning and Sacrifice

Jeff Dugdale is the Head Swim Coach at Queens University of Charlotte and a five-time NCAA Division II Coach of the Year. In addition to working at Queens, in 2012 Dugdale started as the Director of High Performance for SwimMAC Team Elite. He assisted in placing five athletes on the U.S. Olympic Team that returned to Charlotte with three gold medals and three silver.

Discussion topics and key ideas:

How Michael Phelps created one of his favorite failure stories
Why people yell “War Eagle” at him in airports
How the idea of patriotism impacted his decision to leave the pharmaceutical industry and coach for the Olympics
Why the pool at Queens University is listed as an industry-best “ultimate pool”
What make SwimMac Elite different from other collegiate & professional programs
Why he and David Marsh picked Charlotte as the place to start SwimMac Elite
Why he’s against trophy culture
The one question he asks individuals about failure – to prevent it from happening again
The relationship between best practices & failure

Quotes:

“Only a jackass stumbles twice over the same stone.”
“Failure gives us a road map: how to move forward, how to be better, and how to avoid pitfalls.”
“Where there is success, there is going to be failure.”

Links:

Join the conversation:

Our Sponsors