MEET THOUGHTS

 

What a weekend but we all got through it and made it to Monday, some of us even answered that call for morning workout and yes I did take note of those who hit their snooze button at 4:15.

Your absence was duly noted with an asterisk in my book and on that note be careful what you say to the coaches first thing at the meet.  You may ask, Why?, but when the first thing out of your mouth is, I'm tired! two things are happening, One you are setting yourself up to fail or only have a so-so meet and the second is that you will not get much sympathy from coaches who have been on deck all day.  So be careful of the words you choose and if you have any doubt then go back to our book to the section on talking positivity to yourself.  "Set Yourself Up To Succeed!"

Let's get to some observations from the weekend.  First off, you all overall had a good meet for early in the season.  It's been a while since the majority of you raced in this type of environment and you all were outstanding.  Were there disappointments, of course there were☹️, great swims, yes but that's what being a swimmer and athlete is all about and you have to balance all the success and disappointment together and come out the other side as a better person and you can't get there if you don't participate.

Take this meet for what it was and that is a learning opportunity, chance to race and take what you learned from those races back to practice, work on your weak areas and improve for the next time out.  We talked with all three groups yesterday to some extent about the meet and what we gather is that we had a lot of best times, new events and new distances from a lot of you.  As I mentioned to all of you that although I glance at your final time because I know how important it is to each and every one of you, I pay attention to a lot of other things such as

• BodyLanguage- how you carry yourself when you first show up, as you prepare for your race, how you react to your performance.  It tells me a lot and where we are and what we need to do.
• Warm Up and Warm Down-  how you go through it and do you have to be told to do it.  I think I posted this a few years ago that at when I was at the Championship game with Clemson and Alabama as the players came off the field a lot of them would head to the stationary bikes to ride. Why? to keep there muscles loose and warm.  Swimming is different we know but if you get out of the pool and just sit down again it will take longer to loosen them up for that next race and that is why performance drops off as the meet goes on.
• Splits-  Why do coaches take  splits.  To help you understand how to race your 100's 200's and for some of you those 500's. They tell you if you went out to fast or if you died like a big dog coming home.  They tell you what part of your race you need to work on for the next time out.  This is why having a small log is a great piece of equipment to carry in your bags so that you have a reference.  How many of you forget or even dismiss the information from a coach as soon as you turn your back.  Be honest with yourself.  That log is forever is as important as anything in your equipment bag.
• Turns- oh yes those dreaded transitions at the walls.  how you approach and attack those walls and how you come out of those turns and perform your breakouts.
• Finishes- how you approach the walls in your finishes, Are you attacking? or are you hanging back and just waiting for the wall to come to you.  Hint the wall doesn't move you need to attack and get your hand on the wall and stop the clock.

After reviewing all of my notes from the weekend I have decided to add 5-10 minutes at each practice and work on the same thing for that entire week and we will call this our critical skills set.  This week as you have guessed it is our underwater's that we will focus on.  Not unexpectedly I saw a lot of notes next to your names about not only longer wall (which will come with practice, growth and will power) but more aggressive kicks from the core with what ever distance you have.

All and all I think we had a Great first outing and you should all be pleased.  Later this week we will discuss my thoughts on times.

Mike's Tip of the Week "Staying 

Warm"

You all make a lot of sacrifices and put in a lot of work to swim fast at meets.  Do your body and your muscles a favor and keep them covered up and warm as you are waiting to swim.  You are about to ask them to go hard and help you succeed, the least you can do if help them by staying warm. A lot of you said I"m warm but unless you know what your muscles are thinking, help them up by covering up.  They will be grateful.