So our first meet of our journey this season has arrived, AKUMA MATATA. No problems, no worries this weekend. We understand that all swimmers are looking for a best time, a lofty goal indeed. Let’ s look at that a little closer. Depending on your age and the level you are at, the last Big meet you were in, we may need to manage our expectations a bit.
For a lot of our 12 and under’s those fast swim seem like they will never end, like the energizer bunny🐰 they just keep coming. For the Senior Prep group we know what’s around the corner just waiting for us. All I am saying is that remember the “process” that is the 🔐 key to unlocking those goals and dreams.
The things I will be watching for at this meet are
- How you approach and handle warmup and warm down
- How you handle that second warmup
- How well you keep warm waiting for your race
- Do you know your events, or do you have to ask
- Can you find your name, heat and lane on meet sheet, do you know your name (you’d be surprised kids who can’t find their name
- How are your underwater dolphins off the walls
- How is your breathing in and off your turns
- Are you aggressive into your turns
These are the things that we have worked on for the first few weeks, and are the areas that will help you get to your goal when crunch time is staring you in the face. Here are some reactions that you may face this weekend or for that matter at any swim meet or just everyday events.
Let’s start with the 🐘 elephant in the room, the one reaction no one likes to talk about and that is DISAPPOINTMENT. Your fingers hit that touch pad and you look up and realize that all your effort was wasted and immediately you may feel that you failed and let everyone down. I would say to you that the only way you fail is if you don’t get back up and get right back to it. Period
Along that thought is the ANNOYED 😑 reaction and I see this a lot. This is where you may have won the race or heat but did not get that goal or best time. Or maybe you get that goal time but don’ t win the race or heat. In this situation I would say to you take the victory no matter how small it is and move on. The one constant in this sport is the longer you get to do it the less victories you will experience, and again enjoy the process of the sport.
Staying in the same mindset the next reaction is being ANGRY😡. This is the one that bothers me the most as a coach. It’s the one is that you move past being disappointed and annoyed and become visibly angry and may say something or throw your goggles, your cap or maybe even slap the water and get the timers all wet. As a coach my first thought is great how am i going to deal with this and get them to understand that they were wrong and that’s unacceptable. Those poor goggles and cap or even the officials had nothing to do with your swim. The only person in that lane between those lane lines was YOU. Take ownership accept the results, grow as a person and move on.
The next reaction is the swimmer who may be EMOTIONLESS. That stone cold 🥶 swimmer look. This is a hard one and can be both funny 😄 and frustrating at the same time. It’s hard to know we’re this swimmer is mentally, do they just don’t care 🤷🏻♂️ or are they ready to explode and are just holding it in. Again let’s talk and let me know either way and we can deal with it together, learn and move on.
The next reaction that you may encounter is that of EXHAUSTION. Regardless of your performance and the outcome, you know you left it all in the pool. Your tank is empty. This should be a good feeling regardless of the result.
As you see we are progress through a wide range of emotions that can occur and the next one is that of SHOCK. You know the one where you have that race that came out of nowhere. The one that you didn’t think you had in you. I remember a few years ago when we were in Lancaster and at finals this 12 year old had a breaststroke race that was crazy and she looked back and you could see she was thinking, What just happened? They use different sayings for this such as being in a zone, or more appropriately for you all being the GOAT for that one race at that moment..
The next emotion that you may experience is just being SATISFIED. All of us have experienced that feeling of hitting simple little goals and the little wink 😉 of the eye standing tall with our shoulders up and our chest pumped out a little. We’re making progress and we know it. This is an emotion we need to have more often understanding that even in failure there are victories and we need to look for them and grow with them into better athletes and people.
The last emotion that you may encounter and one of the sweetest is of PURE JOY. You know that one where you get that cut to the big meet, you qualify for finals, you break that final barrier and get to the awards 🥇 🥈🥉 podiums and everything has paid off
As an athlete you are going to come face to face with this wide spectrum of emotions and not only in the pool but in your every day lives and I put it to you, the most important thing you can do it keep getting up and move forward both in the pool and your daily lives. There is always another challenge to be faced and another door 🚪 to be opened.
WILL YOU BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO OPEN IT AN GO THROUGH, That’s the challenge in life
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