WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Healthy as a Horse Episode 9: Coach Maddie London

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

Coach Maddie London is in her first year as the Assistant Women's Swim Coach at Hillsdale. She and Ella discuss how her college experience has affected her coaching philosophy and some of her hopes for the program. 

Welcome to Healthy as a Horse where we discuss health and wellness for Hillsdale Chargers. I'm Ella Malone and our guest today is Coach Maddie London. Maddie is in her first year as the assistant women's swim coach here and she comes with great experience from a collegiate swim career at Arkansas and Pitt. Welcome to the show. Thanks, Ella. What did you first learn in your transition from high school to college athletics about how important it is to prioritize your health as an athlete?

So kind of that mix of like you're an adult now and you're also an athlete. Yeah, so I definitely think that it was a process for sure. I was kind of a health nut in high school, cutting out sugar and cutting out and doing all these crazy diets that I saw, but it was for people who wanted to lose weight. And as a swimmer, you don't need to lose weight, you need to gain weight. When I got to Arkansas, I was lucky enough to have what's called the Jerry Jones Center. This was a multi-million dollar project that they put money into, and it was essentially a dining hall and a lecture hall and a. study center just for athletes. So everything that they had in that dining hall was pure fuel for the athletes. We only had dessert on Mondays. So I'd never really had to think about it. So I was there

for two years. And then the transition that you're asking about really took place when I went to Pitt. Okay. So we had fueling stations at Pitt, but I was living off campus. I didn't have a dining plan and I had to cook for myself. So it was really, really hard to figure out what to cook, especially when you're juggling academics with high intensity athletics, and then, you know, trying to get some internships on the side. We had a nutritionist come in that would go on grocery walks with us and kind of explain, you know, this is what a basic plate would look like. And then as you get more into cooking, I feel like you get better at it. The foundation for me that really made the change of my mom cooking to me cooking was having that fuel plate and being able to say, okay, this is how much protein you should have at this time.

This is how many carbs. This is how many veggies, et cetera, et cetera. So then what would you say is the biggest takeaway you had about your health from your college experience? And this could be from the food side, mental training. I definitely think I wouldn't be who I am without it. I think it teaches you great discipline. It teaches you health is wealth, right? You hear about people getting osteoporosis.

You hear about obesity in America a lot. If you are just moving once a day, if you're eating food that isn't processed, every single meal, you're going to be okay. For me, I'm trying to stay as healthy as possible so that I can go on and do things in my life. And I think athletics definitely opened the door for me to have that way of thinking. I think if I didn't do college athletics, I would probably have a different view of life. That kind of goes into my next question. How has what you learned about health in college translated to your adult life? And then I'll kind of go into how it's changed how you approach being a coach. Yeah, so I had some coaches that were actually restricting certain food groups. Specifically at Pitt, we weren't allowed to have butter at certain times. We weren't allowed to have cream cheese at certain times. We weren't allowed to have cheese. We weren't allowed to have bacon or sausage or things like that. So high fat. High fats. Okay. Yep. So that was that was something that I think can be beneficial and detrimental depending on who you're talking to. So when you're talking to female athletes specifically, you know, females, we just carry more fat.

on us. It's just how we're made up. It's not a bad thing. It's just how we're made. So for them, you should be able to eat those things and be okay with it. But when it's drilled into your brain not to eat those things, it can lead to eating disorders and unhealthy lifestyles. So when that was happening to me, I kind of had to think for myself, make sure I knew what was fine. And I kind of started looking at how many calories that was burning. And I just wasn't eating enough. I was actually malnourished for a long time. I, as a 5-10 female was stuck at 135 for an entire season. And so they actually had me go on calorie-enhancing drinks that I had to drink to 500-calorie

drinks a day. Oh, those are gross. They're gross. Yeah. On top of my regular food intake. And I was still not able to maintain my weight. And they were still placing these restrictions of fat on you? On the entire team.

And that's where I come into coaching. Every single individual is individual. Yes. So I'm not going to treat my sprinters the same as I would treat my distance people. In the same way, I'm not going to tell everyone to eat their own, like, eat the same thing. Yes. Because you have different needs. If you have more muscle, you need more this.

If you have more fat, you need more this. As I go into coaching and as I pick out meals for our team, I try to make sure that there's options for them to eat healthy, but also options for them to make sure that they're getting enough calories. I think swimming, running anything aerobic, you're burning more calories than you can take in most of the time. So that's how I approach things is just think for yourself, make good decisions, but I'm not going to restrict anything. Yeah, that makes sense. So do you think it's important for coaches to be an example of well-rounded good health to athletes and why? Because I've heard a couple times of athletes saying their coach should be doing everything that they're doing.

And I don't think that's necessarily fair. I don't think you should be in the pool with us every day or doing this exact same workouts. But also, there are definitely coaches out there who do not hold themselves to any sort of exemplary standard. How do you balance that? You look at your coaches. You look at them as your leaders, right? And something that I learned very early on was if you're going to be a leader, people are not going to follow you unless they think that you believe in a mission that's bigger than yourself. Yeah.

And so if you believe that your team should be working out 20 hours a week and that they should be eating healthy food and they should be having a good water intake doing all the good things that you should be doing, getting enough sleep, you need to be doing that too. Right. Like I don't go home and stay up until 2 a.m. I go home. I eat a meal that I've already cooked. I, you know, take care of myself and then I get to bed on time so I can wake up and be my best self for you. I'm sure you've seen me. I work out at least seven times a week, right? So if I'm not doing that and then I expect you to do that, how do I expect the team to buy in? Right. So that's where I'm coming from.

I also think you should be the example that you want to see other people because you have a better understanding where their headspace is at. Right? If I can't coach people if I've not been there. So I've paid my dues in college. I say I'm five years. Which is why you don't have to do it Exactly what we're doing. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, I paid my dues. I did my time, but I'm also not going to be a couch potato and do nothing, right?

So I think leadership's a big part of that. And I also think that just in general as a lifestyle and as a person that I am, I would never expect you guys to do something that I hadn't done before. Yeah, that makes sense. Well, and for like what you said about sprinters and distance people being different, like me as a sprinter, I'm going to give my all to the sprint. program and the program that's set before me, which is an example to the distance people, even though we're not doing the same thing. So we're not doing the exact same thing. You're my coach, but we're still holding ourselves to certain standards and values. What kind of mindset training did you go through in college and how do you use it for yourself as a coach now?

And then how do you also implement that for our team? Yeah, so I think you got to take this to the grant assault, right? I actually was thinking about this the other day. Division one and division two. they're different animals. Yeah. Right. So something that I really appreciate here is Division 2. We're printing academics first, which at the end of the day, that is what's going to propel you in life.

Swimming is a great discipline tool. It's a great character builder. But at the end of the day, it's not your life. Academics first is a big thing. And you see that in athletes. Division 1, I see this a lot of times. You swim out of fear. Okay.

Not that you're scared of the coach. Not that you're scared of competition. but you're replaceable. There are people that want to swim Division I at every corner. If you mess up, you're replaceable. If you mess up, you're not getting on that relay. You mess up, you're not on that travel team. So a lot of people in Division I, they swim out of fear.

And in Division II, people swim because they want to swim. Nobody forced them to come here. Nobody said, hey, if you don't swim Division II, you're not going to make it in life. When I coach you guys, I try to make sure that there's a balance because the way that I was coached would never fly here. And that's just from the way that Division I coaches are. I mean, I think you have to be a little bit insane to be a Division I head coach. Because your whole life goes into it. They're your second family, if not your first family sometimes.

So my mindset in college was very much you're replaceable. Nobody cares. Nobody cares what you have going on at home. Nobody cares what you have going on in the classroom. Nobody cares if you have an exam at 6 p.m. after practice. If you're at practice is from 3 to 5 p.m., you're at practice from 3 to 5 p.m. Your mind is nowhere else. You're not late. You're not hanging on the wall. You're not not eating. I mean, nutrition, that wasn't a choice for us. You either fueled yourself or you weren't able to practice. Because we were practicing so hard. Eight hours of sleep, mandatory. If you don't get eight hours asleep, you're not going to be able to make it through a morning practice. Yeah. Right?

So all of these things that elite athletes do, we were doing. And we were, we had a 3.5 GPA as a women's team. The men's team had a 3.3. So not only were we excelling in the classroom, we were also excelling in the pool and in the weight room. the weight, I've never been with a team that lifted heavier than pit. And I think a big part of that is having a men's team, right? So we have a women's team.

We're very specific. Women lift differently than men. But when you're in the weight room with men, you want to lift like men. Yeah. So that's, that's another mental thing that comes from that. I also will say that when you are at a level, like, division one level, not only division one, but power four. you don't mess up. No, not allowed.

And if you walk on the pool deck and you're 10 minutes late, you're not getting the pool. You're kicked out. Okay. So that is how the mentality is. And that's why I don't bring that here because it's division two. Right? There are standards that you should meet as a team, such as being on time and things like that. But if you need to do something for class, that's going to be the first priority.

And that's the biggest difference. I am Ella Malone and you're listening to Healthy as a Horse with Radio Free Hillsdale 101.1.7 FM. Today we are talking with coach Maddie London about her experience as an athlete and her experience in her first year of coaching at Hillsdale College. So we talked about this a little bit earlier in your experience as an athlete and how you learned eating habits for yourself. But what are your biggest eating habits suggestions for college athletes? And I know for our team like you've provided some really good like practical things to eat for recovery so what are some of those yeah so i think um as an athlete especially at hillsdale you're kind of confined to the dining hall right so um some things that i i would advise you guys to do is have a little bit of of control right like

no one's there telling you to eat x y z so you have to do it um there's dessert every single night obviously you can have a dessert but you shouldn't be getting like three bowls of ice ice cream, right? Because at the end of the day, that's fat. And fat is going to burn through first, and then you're not going to have any muscle to build upon, if that makes sense. Because in the way that you burn food is fats and sugars go first. Then you burn carbohydrates. It's like noodles and rice, things like that. And then you burn through protein. So obviously, fats and sugars are essential, but you don't want that to be your main source. Your main source should really be carbohydrates. And then protein is more for recovery.

So when you get out of the pool and you're done and you're looking for recovery snack, bananas are great because they have hydration, they have electrolytes, they're going to help you get back into where you need to be. Chocolate milk, great. It's got protein. It's got sugars. It's got electrolytes. It's going to help you hydrate.

Awesome. Get you a protein bar. That's going to help build your muscles back up. And then after that, get you some cherry juice. It's going to bring the inflammation back down. So that would be my ideal for snacks right after your workout is done or your competition. But sometimes that's not always practical. So go find an equivalent, right?

So we have goldfish that has salt. It's a carbohydrate. It's going to bring you back up, right? Banana is super easy. Get you banana. They're everywhere here, I swear. Yeah, they're everywhere. With going to the dining hall, find a performance plate.

and fill your plate up the way that you would with the options that they provide you. So you have carbohydrates, fill that up with this amount. You have veggies, fill that up with this amount. You have protein, fill it up with this amount, and make sure that you're getting enough. Yeah, that makes sense. You just experienced your first trip to Florida with the team for winter break training. How do you think this was beneficial for team building? And then what are some things you may try to implement next year to make it even better?

For anyone listening that doesn't know, going on a training trip, as a team is a really cool experience because you get to focus on swim and your teammates and nothing else you don't have family you don't have boyfriends you don't have school you don't have any distractions so really the only thing that distracts you is your teammates right so um i think one of the things that was really really good about florida was all the girls in the team were dialed in they were working on details they were working on uh you know pushing themselves because they knew that they wouldn't have to exert their brains after practice. Well, it was so helpful having you tell us what details to focus on, but it was really cool when we were in the pool seeing everyone

choose to actually do it. Right. And that's the thing that happens when we come back to campus is everyone's so stressed out about academics. So you kind of get to practice and your brain's a little la-di-da, right? And so that's where that discipline needs to come in where you're like, okay, whatever's going on outside, I'm at practice. Put that away for a little while. Right. In terms of making the trip better, I thought the gym we worked out out was awesome. I would maybe change the practice times just around a little bit more to give you guys a little bit more time in between. We had practice from 8 to 10 and then we had lift from 1 to 2

and then we had practice from 6 to 8. Just very dropped into the day at different times. Yes. And so if I have. had to choose and obviously we have to share the pool with other teams. I would choose seven to nine swim and then I would have lift right after that give you guys that time to rest. Make sure you get breakfast and lunch. And then I would have practice from probably five to seven. Yeah. Because then you guys have time to get a little something as like a pre-dinner after practice. You get a dinner after that. Right. So a lot of my thought process of making this better is fueling, sleeping, recovery, rest.

I mean, those are all the things I'm thinking about all the time, especially when we go on trips. Like, we're about to hit the road for GMAX next week. Yes, my next question. Yes. I can't know, Ohio. I'm planning all the meals, right? I want to make sure that you guys are getting fueled the right way. Yes.

So, as we go into conference, what are you most looking forward to about the meat? I'm really looking forward at seeing how you guys compete. I think you guys sometimes need a fire lit under your butts a little bit. I just want to see you guys be aggressive. and I want to see you guys take what's yours, right? So I fully believe that we're going to have a solid second, but I want to give them a run for the money for first. Yeah, close as we can for sure. Yeah. So what that does is it sets it up for where next year, okay, we got this close. Next year, we could get it. Definitely. Right? So I want to see y'all's competitive mindsets. I'm really looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to seeing you guys come out and just dominate on relays and things like that. Um, looking forward to watching Ella Schaefer too free she's going for that that title that she got last

year I'm looking for some some more school relays I think we're definitely going to have if I had to predict I'm going to say I'm going to say six or records or something like that broken I want to see some NCAA B cuts I want to see a relay qualify for NCAAs me too but I mean I can say it all day but it comes from the swimmer we do it comes from you guys So that's the other thing. I don't know if I included this, but it is, it's hard for me to not do it for you. Yeah. You know, I just have to sit back and watch and let it take its toll.

It's so fun having less races in the day because there are times at DuelMeets where one of my teammates is in a race that I really want to cheer for, but I'm swimming in 10 minutes. Yeah. But when it's more spread out, like watching the team support, like the one or two people that are in the pool and then everyone else is there. to support. It's really cool. Yeah. What are some of the best ways we have prepared? Because I think that translates really well to some general advice for athletes who prepare from big competitions. Yeah. So I think one of the things that I see a lot when you get to championships is nerves. Right.

So you get to the pool and you forget that it's just a swimming. It's this pool. It's the same yardage. It's the same lanes. It's just different people in the pool. Maybe a couple more people are swimming than usual, right? I think a lot of people tend to forget about that. And then they just kind of freak out. So I think if anybody listening has talked to Coach Kerner, he's a huge mentality guy. So we've been doing a lot of visual training, visualization, things like that. And I really think that if the girls buy into it, it's going to help. So this is just a little explanation for you guys. This is where coach will have the girls visualize their race and try to imagine themselves in can't in Ohio. Yep. In the pool, in the venue, with the noises, with the sounds, with the feeling, take your mark, go.

And then everybody is visualizing the races. What that does is it puts them in the situations that when they get there, it's familiar. Yep. And so I think that is one of the biggest ways we've trained on the mental side, on the side of strength. We've been lifting fairly good, I think, this year. We're starting to cut down a little bit on that. We do what's called a taper. And what that does just gives the girls a little bit of rest so they get a good pop at the beginning.

So we've done a lot of really good work. I think the girls are more together than they were at the beginning of the year, which is nice to see going into a conference championship that we're trying to fight. for it's nice to have the girls be together yeah it's awesome i like to ask everyone who comes on the show this question it's my last one and it's big and people interpret it differently depending on how they define health but here it is um being an athlete at this level or higher comes at the sacrifice of your health is something i've heard yeah do you think this is true if so how do we remedy this and then if it's not true how should we go about changing people's mindset about it so i think i think there's a bit of

truth to it. I don't think it's full truth. Obviously, everyone has a different coach. Everyone is treated differently. Everyone has a different experience. So when you're at Division 2 or Division 1, I definitely think your mental health can suffer if you don't get help, right? So mental health has become a huge topic these days, but I think when you get a coach that doesn't fully love you and support you, that's when those problems come into play. Yeah. So I think at the end of the day, a remedy for that would just be make sure your coaches understand that you're a human, make sure they understand that you are not perfect, and make sure

that they know that the goal at the end of this is to progress you into life, right? Obviously, we want to win a championship, but at what cost? Yeah. In terms of it not being true, I think, I think in terms of like the physical, it all depends on you. Right? We have the resources for the training room. We have trainers. You have to do the prevention. You have to take accountability for your health. You are a young adult. You're starting to make your own way into things. You need to figure out what's important to you. And if doing shoulder rehab for five minutes each day is not important to you and then you get a hurt shoulder, that's where the towels are going to lay. Yeah, that makes sense. Awesome. Well, thank you for coming on the show today, coach. It's been awesome. I'm Ella Malone and this has been healthy as a horse for Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.