“WIN”. What’s Important Now

  I was having "writers block" the last few days to have a topic to discuss going into this weekends races so I reached out to a fellow coach and parent for suggestions and she said "teamwork", so let's see what we can do with this topic. Swimming, individual or team sport?  What are your thoughts on the subject?  You may have to think outside the box when you answer that one. Swimming by it's very nature can be a very individual sport if you allow it to happen. What do you think would happen to the dog in the picture if his little teammate/friend was not there to help him out ?  Probably would have been able to get his toy but then would have to do a little dog paddle to get to the side, and then would he have been able to climb out?  Endless possibilities, but all avoided because of TEAMWORK. As we said at the beginning swimming by nature can be a very individual and lonely sport if you allow it.  Think about it you dive in and begin your journey down that

  Hopefully today finds each of you safely at your Holiday destinations surrounded by family and friends.  Each of you should take a moment today and look around and really be thankful for all that you have and I'm not talking about the material things, I'm talking about the things that truly make your life a happy one. As for your swimming endeavors this is a great time to take stock and relish all the accomplishments you made in the last year.  For sure there were goods times and bad times, good swims and bad swims, vans with dents in them, finals in a thunderstorm, and long car rides with Heather.  But you all got to swim, race and meet new friends along the way and these are the things you should be thankful for in this sport for they will lAst longer than ribbons and medals.  They last a LIFETIME.  Where else can you dive in become fully submerged with only you, your dreams and goals away from all the Noise of daily life.  Be Thankful for that feeling. I know I'm thank

Another swim and rock has come and gone.  We hope that you all enjoyed yourself over the three days of racing.  I know that swim and rock was always my daughters favorite meet of the year. It was great watching a lot of you doing the things that we worked on in practice and doing at such a high level during the races.  Our walls are getting stronger with each meet and we will continue to put a lot of emphasis on them.  The effort on the UW was outstanding and we will keep doing our little "perfect set" as wee move through our journey.  Do I expect you to get to the 15M mark?  No not at this stage but what I do expect is that the effort is there to get better off every wall.  A lot of the UW is a mental block.  That mental block is "being comfortable when your uncomfortable", in other words, being uncomfortable underwater. We saw a lot of swimmers post "personal bests" throughout the weekend and you all should be very proud of your hard work.  A lot of swim

 "I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel.  At just the right moment, I light the match."   We have a big weekend of racing coming up with the annual Swim and Rock meet at Oak Mar.  Our first prelim/final meet of our journey this season.  This will be a good measuring stick to see where we're at, in our journey this season.  As  such we would like to take a moment to go over some information about the meet. WARM UP TIMES: FRIDAY AND SATURDAY FINALS 5:00-5:50 PM FRIDAY 11 and over 7:40-8:20 boys pool 3-7 WU pool 1-4 SATURDAY- 13 and over 7:00-7:40 Girls pool 1-8 WU 3-4                        11-12 year olds 11:25-11:00-11:50 Girls pool 1-8                          9-10 year olds 2:50-3:10 Girls pool 1-8. WU 3-4 SUNDAY- 13 and over 7:30-8:00 Girls pool 1-5 WU 2-4                   11-12 year olds 11:00-11:25 Boys pool 1-7                     9-10 year olds 3:20-3:40 Girls pool 1-8. WU 3-4 POSITIVE CHECK IN Those of you may have events that need to be

  You were ask to write down 2 practice and 2 meet fears that you all face in your swimming.  Some of you gave them to me and some did not but now the time has come to take a look at these fears.   Let's take a look at these fears and see if we can come up with some coping mechanisms that you can use to deal with them.  There are no guarantees or promises that your fears will disappear.  The hope is that you can get to a point were they don't control you, as you step onto the blocks and that you are in a better position to remain calm and relax and just GO FOR IT. The list; PRACTICE FEARS having a fear with some part of my body (shoulder, cramps, head, foot) (5) not making the interval (3) getting lapped (2) being in a hard lane not keeping up and being behind doing an easy practice for long time because I feel I won't improve never be as fast as friends (2) getting injured having to sit out because I'm tired and getting embarrassed  missing practice distractions Gettin