THE BELL

 The ringing of a bell can have a variety of meanings for everyone. To you all maybe it signifies the end of the school day, the first sound you awake to each morning.  I know that the bell stirs memories of a former rugby coach I had who happen to be former a military and CIA guy.  He had this bell he would bring to every Wednesday practice, our hard day, and all we had to do to get out of practice was to go over and ring that bell, no questions asked.  The only caveat was that if you rang the bell you lost your spot on the team of 15 until the following Wednesday.

For some of you, your bell may ring ring internally and may even be what lives in your head between your ears, the voices always pulling at you. it's not always easy to practice at a high level day in and day out, but if you want a chance to be successful you must find a way.  Does that mean you need to swim all out every time you push off the wall, NO but you do have to focus on the purpose of the set.

There are sometimes where we are looking for an all out effort when your arms become heavy and your legs burn but if you want the chance to change your outcome and races you need to find a way.  There are times when we do drill sets, do you work hard on doing the drill correctly or is it done haphazardly, if you want to change your outcome focus on your technique.  

TURNS...TURNS...TURNS...  How do you approach your walls?  Is it with intensity? Or maybe its with

the mindset of "here we go again, another turn".  We have talked about how important each turn is in a short course pool.  Regardless of where your talent level falls the turn is a great equalizer offering an opportunity for all to increase speed, pick up an advantage and just maybe effect the outcome of your race.  Think of how many turns we go through during a single practice, those are opportunities to get better.  As you approach your turns in practice never give up, always look at a way to get better with this aspect of your swimming.

STREAMLINES...STREAMLINES....STREAMLINES... 

As with our turns the streamlines are a important component of your race and as with the turn the longer the race the more important they become.

Again, good streamlines require no talent, all they require is the mindset to master them every time you come off a turn.  They don't really care how tired you think you are.  All is needed is the will to work on them hard at every turn during practice and make it a habit.  It actually takes more of your energy to move your body through the water off a turn in a BAD streamline than it does in a GOOD streamline, energy that is taken away from your actual swimming.  If you want to affect your outcome work on your streamlines.

As we head into our Championship season our excitement picks up along with your intensity, so now is the time to double down on your efforts in and out of the pool, and if you want to be in a position to be successful, never ring the bell.