MONEY IN THE BANK

 💰 Have you ever stopped and asked yourself this question; Am I improving as I travel 🏊‍♀️🏊🏻‍♂️along this black line on the bottom of the pool?  Sure everyone of you have your own goals and aspirations that you are trying to achieve as you make that journey back and forth, and no matter what they may be they are all important.

As competition day nears, you will be faced with this dilemma it’s time to pay 💰 the bill.  To be sure if you have been attending practice there will be something in that account to draw from, but how much you have to draw from will depend on the effort and focus to the details during those workouts. 

As you arrive at practice to make that deposit into your account, In say to you "Great Job", you've shown up.  In order to get the highest return on your investment the first and foremost thing staring you in the face is your the attitude you will have while making that deposit.

Is your plan for the workout go like so, show up, swim, get out and continue on my day.  I encourage you to honestly look at that plan and ask yourself, "Am I getting any return for my investment?  Yes it is an investment of your time and effort!  In monetary terms if you take $100.00 and put it in a 🐖 bank on your desk, when you go to spend it you have $100.00. 

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Let's break that down.  Put that $100.00 into an account where you can draw 5%interest.  you attend all your practices (for our purposes 3 a week 12 for the month) with a great attitude, great work ethic and focusing on all of the little things, your account will have grown to $254.00.  The interest you earn will be determined by how hard you work, the focus on the little things and the attitude you show up with.

Here are some  things that occur during a practice that will determine how much interest you will be able to get on your investment.  

• Breathing pattern.  It may be something as simple as not breathing off of your breakouts or into your finishes.  It may be more challenging such as breathing every 3 or 2-3-2 during our longer free sets or during fly our 1 up 2 down pattern and sticking with it even when your tired.
• Kick set.  Maybe you may not be there worlds greatest kicker but, you need those legs for body position and to be able to finish your races especially the longer ones.
• Turns. Oh yes the walls.  There are so many of them in fact I added up the walls from the Junior Gold workout last Monday.  
  
  There were 62 turns during a simple practice, 62 chances to make a deposit and draw interest for race day.  Instead of being lazy you might as well take ownership and do them all correctly not just when you feel like it.
• Drills.  These are built into the sets on a regular purpose and that is muscle memory.  Let your body and muscles memorize these movements so that on race day, all you need to do is show up and do what you do RACE!
  
  
  
• Warm Ups/Cool Down. Take ownership and prepare your body for what you are going to ask it to do.  Afterwards thank your body by preforming the Cool down properly.
• Streamlines.  How important are these.  Take a pencil and drop it into a bucket of water horizontally.  What happens?  Now the the pencil and drop it vertically.  Notice a difference? A streamline that isn't tight will make your body work harder and less efficient coming off those walls.

If you can take that step and change your attitude to one of taking ownership of YOUR swimming and make a commitment to excellence, I truly believe you will find a new love for your sport.  oh and by the way by choosing excellence you are making a great investment in a healthy life which will draw interest along the way.  It may also help on YOUR race day and instead of showing up and forcing yourself to swim well, it will come easily and naturally because of the investment that you have made.