FILL THE BUCKET

PLUG THE LEAKS!

Now that we have our first meet of this young season in our bags, it’s time to look forward and see where we go from here.  That meet is done and we saw some great things from you all with the areas that we have been working on.

One area that I really wanted to see you buy into is that of becoming more of a process oriented swimmers as oppose to a results only swimmer.  We had talked about taking more of an approach of looking at the place you came in as opposed to your time in the race.  This was the first step in trying to change your mindset to help you become a better swimmer.  In the coming days and weeks we will delve further into this area.

In the first step I want you to think of your swimming as a bucket that contains everything that
contains everything you need to be successful in your swimming endeavors.  The fuller you can keep
your bucket the more you are able to draw from during your races.  The things that you should be
filling your buckets with might include the following;

OUTSIDE THE POOl                                                

• Proper sleep
• Proper hydration 
• Proper diet
• Keep up with school work
• Stay in a positive mind set

AT THE POOl

• Show up for practice
• Have the right mindset
• Have your water and DRINK IT
• Focus in on the sets
• Finish every set
• Streamline off every wall
• Dolphin off every wall fast
• Stop breathing on breakout stroke

What in the world does this have to do with a bucket.  Let’s use your imagination here and think of this bucket as something that you carry with you not only to practice but also to every meet.  The 

more of these things, or others that you may think of that you can add to this bucket the more chances  you will have to be successful as a swimmer.

The trick here is to try and keep the bucket filled because undoubtedly leaks are going to occur such as a missed practice, an illness, a negative thought and the list goes on, but you have to keep plugging those leaks in the bucket.  The more you can keep those leaks to a minimum the better your chances are and by all means DON’T open the faucet at the bottom where you let everything we have worked on fall apart!