The Mako 🏊🏽swimmers have just completed another very successful Junior Olympics championship meet at UMD this past week. Our swimmers had many great swims during the meet producing countless personnal bests. Did we have 100%? NO, but WE all raced and performed well so hold your heads up high and be proud for going through the process. One of the big highlights of the weekend was Blake Madsen who won the HIGH POINT award for the 10 and under age group. I read an article recently explaining this equation “E+R+O” which represents the basic way of how life works. “Events happen. You choose how to respond and an outcome is produced. The only thing you, I, or anyone has control over in that equation—in life—is how to respond”. It is called the R factor, and separates the good swimmer from the great ones.
It is easy to respond after a successful swim, but it’s how you respond to those difficult swims where you display your true character. Two swimmers who I was extremely proud of were Jackie Dobrydney and Katherine Helms. Jackie swam the 500 on Thursday night and had been looking forward to this event. While standing behind the block with her heat up next, SNAP there goes her goggles. She ran back grabbed a pair and was back in the nick of time. Up she steps and BEEP there she went, but we had a malfunction as the goggles were not working. Jackie had to stop on the first two walls to adjust the goggles (they were good open turns), which took about 4-6 seconds on the walls. After that she settled in , but had to stop again for a few seconds at the 400 to adjust once more. She did finish that race, and upon reaching me stated “THAT DIDN’T☹️ GO WELL” but with a little smile. She knew she would live to race another day, and at that moment I knew this 12 year old girl gets it, and will be okay throughout life.
Katherine Helms was in the midst of an up and down weekend with some good swims here and there, but she also had some swims that were off. How did she respond to the weekend? In her last swim at finals (100 FREE) on Sunday night she swam a personal best of 52.02 😀winning her heat which would have placed her 3rd overall. After warm down I stated that this weekend was humbling wasn’t it, just trying to gauge how she felt. What came out of this 13 year old’s mouth next was astounding and made me very proud of her. She said she was going to write everything that happened all weekend down, and she learned that at this level it is very hard to get aq best time in every race! Katherine held herself together the entire meet and she too gets the process which is hard to teach and learn.
It was great to have Coach Damien out there especially on Sunday Night. I had made the decision that I would get him to get the 4 older swimmers ready for finals and I would work with the younger ones. All of them rose to the occasion and had some really good races, with Graham Evers 1650 standing out (Yes he used his legs).
Sophia Cloutier had a swim off on Sunday in the 100 back for 16th place. She already had the 100 fly for that evening, but I had already made the decision that she would do the swim off and regardless of the outcome we would than scratch out it (the officials got a good laugh when Heather scratched her after the race). The madness of this was two fold; 1. HEAD TO HEAD or my girls would say ME and YOU let’s go and 2. Let’s she how she responds. Sophia lowered her time again by 2 seconds, and gained experience in doing so.
On Sunday our 9-10 girls pulled off something that I have never seen before in their relay. Our first swimmer went off without a hitch, and as she neared the finish, our second swimmer stepped down from the blocks because her goggles snapped. After the three of them stood around for what seemed like minutes discussing😕 the situation, Charlotte took charge, stepped up and went. I don’t know to this day how the other two decided who would go next. Bottom Line is that these 10 and under’s figured it out on their own and 🏁finished the race.
The bottom line Swimming like life takes a lot of hard work and all that hard work pays off; we just don’t know exactly when. The key is to maintain your focus and discipline in the things that YOU can control. ?The greatest power you have in life is the power to choose, and with this power comes great responsibility. Only YOU are accountable for who you are. You make the choice of who your looking at in the mirror.
To all the swimmers swimming this weekend at the Mako Championship meet. Stay focus in your races and don’t be afraid to step out of you comfort zone and race.
Coach Mike
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