Derek Perkins Reviews

Everyone has their own experiences and I understand that, however, he is the most unprofessional, manipulative and childish adult I have ever had the displeasure of meeting and knowing. His coaching style is sporadic and never tailored towards any training group in particular. SEVERAL athletes, including myself, have required surgery or intensive rehabilitation due to injuries that sparked from Derek’s training, to be able to do simple things apart from swimming. The pointless and pandering training had constantly made me question what the point of training was as there was never an incentive to improve your technique or performance. It was just swim until you physically can’t anymore and keep going so you can finish practice. I’ve seen girls crying DURING practice, rolling their eyes, complaining or just expressing overall unhappiness in and around Derek’s practices during my time swimming for him. Apart from the swimming, Derek made it so that FRESHMAN were made to feel that they weren’t doing enough for the team regardless of performance and that they needed to “step up”. Sophomores had to take on the responsibility of Juniors, Seniors either had to do everything for Derek or weren’t liked enough to be asked to do anything. There was no time to learn what you’re supposed to, it was immense responsibility shoved on you when you don’t need or expect it, especially for the freshman’s. Those who Derek really liked were made captains, it wasn’t up to the team as it had been in the past. I once had a meeting with Derek to talk about becoming captain as he had been pandering to me the entire season before that I would be “because I was a role model for the team”, come to this meeting for him to say that the team thinks i’m irresponsible and overall generally not liked enough, contrasting what he had said to me prior and with no evidence of the team expressing that as we all filled in forms about each other during the season. If you’ve ever gone on a recruiting trip and wondered “do they like me?” or “why do they seem so irritated or uninterested?”, They don’t and they are. During my time there and i’m assuming now as well, the team loathed recruiting trips and recruits. It was enough having to deal with each other and Derek but now we have to pretend we actually like each other an being here. Team activity and bonding felt so forced and unnatural that it was eventually just watching to see who says what and incriminates themselves so that people could have something to talk about. My quality of life had significantly decreased as he had essentially groomed a team of girls to either care for you if you fit in, hate you if you don’t, or tolerate you until you made a mistake and then shun you once you do. It was a toxic mind field of disgusting behavior towards teammates and mental gymnastics with him that genuinely had me question if I belong on the team or in the swim community in general. I understand i’m not a perfect person, no one is, but I shouldn’t be made out to be a horrible person for having interests outside of swimming, taking care of my mental and physical health when I fall sick, taking time to myself or to spend time with people who are not swimmers. These are all things Derek would get upset at me and others for and at one point threatened the scholarship I had because I was injured and was unable to get treatment for the injury. (some background: at the time I had no car, my roommates and other teammates schedules were all very different and didn’t align with mine, and the injury had caused me to be unable to walk. You tell me how i’m supposed to get to a facility a mile away at least). After Peter Linn left, there was a sense of normalcy that seemed to have quickly faded with Derek’s gossip over communication approach, as he constantly would ask girls on the team how someone else was and what they were doing instead of just asking the person directly. You had no personal life or relationships with people apart from the team and that was made very clear by the judgment from the people I thought were my friends when i’d express interest in making friends outside of the team or just talking to others. No personal relationship was private, everyone knew everything regardless if you wanted the team to know or not and would bring it to Derek to use against you when his favourite girls decided they did not want you on the team anymore. Truly, if you value being a person with normal struggles or just in general want to live your life without being stalked by a man child I would go ANYWHERE that Derek Perkins and his gaggle are. If you have any sort of instability in your life mentally, physically, etc, protect yourself and your time as you will not be valued or appreciated whatsoever. Again, I want to reiterate, I have never heard kind words about Derek, even from coaches in the surrounding area. It shocked me entirely to see the comments made here from past teammates of mine. I do not believe it is fair to post so nicely about him when in reality I have seen and heard how he made you feel. if you value yourself, your relationships with other people, your health and your money, avoid Derek Perkins and Eastern Michigan University Swimming entirely.