Matt Kredich Shares His 40 Year Coaching Experience and What Remains When The Stopwatch Stops

GMM by @SwimOutletGear @SwimOutletTV
Today’s conversation is one I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. It’s rooted in a feature story that stopped me in my tracks when I first read it in our upcoming Swimsuit issue of SwimSwam Magazine (dropping March 29th). The piece is titled “What Remains When the Stopwatch Stops,” written beautifully by Anya Pelshaw. Anya's an exceptional talent, and she captured something rare in her interview. It's not just the résumé of a great coach, it's the architecture of a life built on belief.

Today on the GMM podcast we have University of Tennessee head coach Matt Kredich.

If you know Matt’s record, you know the surface story: SEC titles. NCAA top-five finishes. Jordan Crooks under 40 seconds in the 100 free. A combined men’s and women’s program that is among the most respected in the country. But this conversation isn’t about splits, records or conference titles. It’s about what sustains a coach for 38 years. It’s about what remains when the stopwatch stops.

In Anya’s feature, Matt talks about the two defining moments that led him to coaching. One: a volunteer high school coach, a full-time lawyer who cared as much about the slowest swimmer as the fastest. “I saw the power, the belief he had in not just me, but everybody on the team,” Matt says that idea, that a coach is first and foremost a believer, never left him.

The second moment is harder. As a sophomore at Duke, Matt was diagnosed with testicular cancer. It spread to his lungs, spine, and abdomen. He spent more than 60 days in the hospital. And every single day, his college coach, Bob Thompson, was there. Out of that crucible came Matt's core philosophy:

"A coach is not just a technician. A coach is the chief believer."

We talk about how that belief has evolved. Early in his career, Matt thought success funneled through him. Get the training right, get the taper right, and fast swimming would follow. Now, he calls that mindset humbling. Performance, he says, is so much richer than that.

We dig into the Erika Brown story. We also get into Matt's technical evolution. And then we talk about fatherhood, about Ben, about raising a son with autism and how that experience taught him patience. Matt does not shy aways from the any topic in the conversation, and he does talk about the tragic loss of his son Ben, who was killed by an impaired driver. Matt speaks with remarkable clarity about grief, perspective, and what that experience has done to his capacity to guide athletes through disappointment. When he says “shame is corrosive,” it carries weight.

We also revisit Tennessee’s toughest moments, the 2022 NCAA Championships, relay heartbreak in 2025, disqualifications that could have fractured a team, and how culture, not control, carried them forward.

This episode is about leadership under pressure. It’s about building a program where people can be fully themselves. And it’s about why, nearly four decades in, Matt says everything about coaching still feels fresh. I hope you enjoy it.

Many thanks to Swimoutlet.com for their 15 year partnership and support of this swimming news and media.

Swimming news courtesy of SwimSwam.com (swimswam.com)

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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.

Opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the interviewed guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the hosts, SwimSwam Partners, LLC and/or SwimSwam advertising partners.
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