By Amy Wu
On most days, you’ll find swim coach Glenn Mills not on deck, but behind the steering wheel of a 35-foot foot long RV with a Ford Hybrid in tow.
Mills hasn’t swapped swimming for road tripping, but for now he’s happy doing both. Since April 2015, Mills and his wife and coaching partner Rachel Stratton-Mills, have been going cross country. They’ve been sightseeing, visiting old friends, but also busy visiting swim clubs across the country, and working closely with swimmers and coaches.
It is all respects a swim sabbatical.
Mills said that the idea “actually started about 20 years ago with me traveling across country on my motorcycle. Life keeps going, and sometimes plans change. This allowed me to experience most of what I wanted to do… but it would have been much tougher with all of us on a bike!”
The “us” refers to Stratton-Mills and the couple’s nearly 2-year-old daughter Madison Avery “Maddy.”
As with many things in life, timing is everything. The opportunity surfaced two years ago when the couple decided to leave Asphalt Green, a swim club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
“The new administration had a different vision of where they wanted the team to go,” Mills said.
At Asphalt Green, Stratton-Mills was the head coach for five years where she coached star swimmers including Lia Neal, who won a bronze medal as part of the women’s relay team for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Mills, the founder and president of GoSwim, which creates swim training videos, had coached the Masters team at Asphalt Green. Mills’ swimming resume includes winning the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1980, and being an NCAA champion in the 200 breast in 1983.
The road trip is much more than a cross country drive. For the couple, it is a complete change of lifestyle professionally and personally. They left behind stable jobs. They traded in their Manhattan apartment for the RV. They said farewell to a city that both loved.
It is hard for hardcore swimmers, or in this case swim coaches, to completely take the chlorine out of a road trip though. As part of their road trip preparations, they decided to build their road trip around visiting swim teams across the country and, “learning from them and working with swimmers.”
Mills views the visits as knowledge exchanges. They are seeking to learn as much as they can when it comes to coaching strategies and philosophies, which extend beyond performance. One of their intended outcomes? To sharpen their coaching skills.
“We are going to have all of these new ideas we are learning about their organizations,” Mills said.
After getting a positive response from gauging interest from friends in the industry, the couple put their plans into action. They published a note in a GoSwim newsletter soliciting interest from swim teams. The Mills’ received an overwhelming response from at least 80 teams.
“We are basically filled for a year,” Mills said, noting that the bulk of the visits will start in September.
At the same time, they brainstormed as to the best way to visit the different teams.
“We did a lot of searching on how we would get around the country,” Mills said.
An RV seemed like the most practical solution, but was daunting especially since neither of them had driven one before.
The trip is being funded and sponsored by GoSwim.
“We’re really trying to ask what are people’s definition of excellence, what are their values and focuses, what is their day to day of achieving it does, and are their goals actually being achieved.”
As part of the visit the duo often film their visit and interviews with coaches and swimmers and most it goes on the GoSwim website.
As road trips go, the visits have kept the couple very busy. They are coaching on the road, and are often up until the wee hours of the morning editing and posting video. Although they visit the teams free of charge, GoSwim does charge a fee for teams who want to get evaluated and receive feedback. A highlight of working with the teams is working with the kids.
The Mills have become social media mavens too. They regularly share snippets of their journey on Facebook and Twitter, whether it be “picking up a little travel guitar for the road” in Fort Wayne, Indiana to snapping up a HitCase waterproof kit for their smartphone.
In between driving, coaching, visits and social media, they are frequent bloggers too. The Mills’ blog “Our Quest Blog,” chronicles their visits to the clubs, and often includes interviews with coaches, and video clips of the visits.
The couple continues to receive requests. Sixteen teams launched the first part of the tour, but the family is set to head to Ohio next month, where they will spend time with Mills’ mom in Cleveland. From there, the plan is to then head south.
LESSONS FROM THE ROAD
Along the way, the Mills have learned as many lessons on the road as they have in the lane. Some of the challenges have been unexpected like finding Internet hot spots (they once had to go six days without the Internet because they were in a remote area).
“It’s pretty much constant work and we are really learning the process,” he said.
They have become savvy at plotting out the nearest Wal-Marts and Targets where they stock up on food and diapers. Mills says his driving acumen has been sharpened by wielding the RV. And then, there’s camping out in the RV.
“The big thing you have to be very comfortable with spouse and kids. We are in 200 square feet 24/7. If you’re not truly comfortable with that person, you are in big trouble,” Mills laughs. Fortunately for the Mills, they are loving the adventure.
“We are having a ball and truly being together,” he said.
Swapping their apartment in Manhattan for an RV was surprisingly less of a change.
“We had a nice place in Manhattan, but it was small. You move to an RV 200-300 square feet and it’s not that big of a difference,” he said. “We have a really nice RV, we actually love that.”
All work and no play makes a road trip a snoozer though, and Mills and Stratton-Mills make sure that they’ve built in time for fun. They have been able to visit old friends, many of them coaches and swimmers.
“This is all new, all a big learning experience, you just got to throw yourself in. A lot of people say they wish they could do it,” he said. The couple has already clocked in more than 4,500 miles and made their way from the East Coast to Minnesota. They’ve seen Niagara Falls. They have a bucket list of places that they want to visit including Mt. Rushmore.
As with many things in life, all good things often come to an end. But the couple say that they will end their road trip in style. Specifically, the road trip will book end at the Olympic trials next June in Omaha, Neb.
In the meantime, they are enjoying each other’s company and taking photos with Maddy and taking her to sight see. At time,s Mills says they miss the bright lights and big city of Manhattan.
“We’re already scared when it’s going to end,” he said. “We are having such a good time out here.”
What is next for them post road trip is anyone’s guess. The wide open road has taught him to go with the flow. The possibilities are endless, maybe returning to coaching regularly, maybe seeing more of the country. But that’s okay, Mills says.
“The unknown of what is so exciting about this,” he said.
MILLS CHLORINATED ROADTRIP (Photo Gallery)
Come visit Atlanta, Georgia! You could see the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coke, the Atlanta Zoo, and more. I’ll buy you a City Pass! I also have a great, diverse group of swim lesson kids you could meet/work with and there are a lot of fantastic teams in the area!
We’ll be visiting Dynamo Swim Club and are looking forward to seeing the area and some great old friends!