RESILIENCY

Hope that you all are enjoying the little break after a long weekend of swimming.  We were all witnessed to some exciting races with a lot of personal bests being posted from all of our Mako swimmers.  First off we would like to thank all the parents for volunteering throughout a long challenging weekend and for getting your swimmers back and forth to the pool on time and safely each day.  We could not have had the success without your support and we know your swimmers appreciate it even though they sometimes forget to say it.

Parents, have you ever wondered what coaches and swimmers talk about

after a race?  Some of it is very interesting and can pretty much cover A-Z and everything in between.  Some are short, sweet and to the point and then we have the ones who want to present their graduate thesis where your eyes start bugging out and when your done you look up and you've missed several swimmers.   To give you a better glimpse of how a coach has to become a psychologist with no degree or experience other than being a coach, here is the quote of the meet.  We had this 13 year old swimmer doing a 200 fly (prelims and finals) and at every turn she just floated to the wall almost as if she was waiting for someone to bring the bulkhead to her and then move it back.  As we worked through our post race conversation and without missing a beat she just smiled and said "That's my favorite part of the race".  Oh Cally I can't beat that one!

The Mako 12 and under's showed a great amount of resiliency throughout this meet, and they would need it.  It seemed like they couldn't buy

a break over the weekend.  Each day something would happen to alter the time line and change a short session into a very long day.  On Friday we had a mishap in the pool that would shut both pools down for over two hours.  Upon returning the Mako swimmers continued to rule the pool with some amazing races with both 11 and 12 girls finishing the day going 1-2 in the 400 free relays and the 9-10 boys and girls finishing in the top 3.  It was now time for a very quick nap, and I literally mean quick as final warmups began as soon as they got out of the pool.  Needless to say we were going to skip normal warmup and just do our 2nd quick warm up and get up and race again.

Saturday would bring another adventure for our Mako swimmers.  In the middle of the 200 breaststroke when the fire alarm went off.  With everyone moving towards the exits the swimmers kept swimming determined to finish this race, which they did.  Can you imagine the timing of all this?  Breaststroke,  the one race where your head is out of there water watching and hearing all of this with every cycle and not missing a beat and determined to finish the task at hand.  After moving outside we had most of the kids gathered on the hill but were missing some of our boys.  Of course they are all up hanging out with the firemen and their big shiny trucks.  Boys and their toys.

Would Sunday bring back a sense of normalcy, yes and no.  Time line was going to be off as we had to finish the 200 breast and 100 back from Saturday and only then could we work on Sunday's list of events.  This is where our 12 and under really showed amazing stamina and character.  With a lot of them moving onto finals their day look like a unsurmountable mountain that they were going have to find a way to climb.  Picture this list of events: 

prelims 

• 200 breast 
• 100 back 
• 50 free (relay) 
• 200 IM 
• 100 free 
• 50 breast
• 200 back 
• 100 fly
• 100 (relay) 

Finals :

• 200 breast
• 100 back
• 200 IM
• 100 free
• 50 breast
• 200 back
• 100 fly

A lot of Mako swimmers had 6 races during prelims only to return and have 3 more races at finals.  Thats 9 races (long events) from 1:30 in the afternoon to 8:30 in the evening.  Needless to say at this point we were swimming on sheer exhaustion but we were able to gather ourselves and some how rise to the occasion and have some great races.

Every once in a while and when you least expect it LIFE will sometimes reach out and smack you down and it is at that moment you find out who you really are.  Will you stay down or will you pick yourselves up and keep moving forward.

Sometimes in life you have to find the courage to get up no matter what face your fears and keep moving forward.  Here is a little clip from channel 9 news that you may find interesting.

 All of you were truly amazing this weekend.