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GREENSBORO THOUGHTS

 

We had a good weekend for our traveling Mako swimmers.  Swimming at a new venue is always exciting and fun and the Greensboro Aquatic Complex did not disappoint.  The coaches will get together and review the meet but moving forward my recommendation would be to add this meet to our schedule and drop the IMX meet in the future.  This meet is set up as a training meet coming off our holidays where we try different events and with that we can do some of our 200's, and the 400 IM.  That being said there will be no reason to add that long weekend of swimming at the end of January.  

One of the great things to come out of a travel meet is the team bonding that takes place.  It could take place both on the pool deck during the meet but also in the hotel lobby hanging and eating together.  As we were sitting around the lobby in the evening it was evident that swimmers were getting along and getting to know swimmers from other groups.  On the deck we saw Mako swimmers swimmers supporting each other from the first event on Friday evening to our last 500 swimmer Monday afternoon.  Those are all memories you will have forever long after the ribbons and medals are gone.

The most ask question I got early Saturday morning was, Can I wear this suit?  Over and over to the point

I didn't want to hear it again.  Calmly I asked Coach Courtney to take care of that issue.  Thanks a million Courtney, you saved me from going over the cliff.  After all that dust settled the Mako Swimmers headed to the blocks and had some really good races for where we are at this point in the season.


The swimmers did a great job of being on time for warmups and took care of what they needed to once they started.  You all did a great job of getting to the blocks on time for your races although a few of you must suffer from short term memory as you kept checking with me about your heat and lanes as if they might change.  Even are three 8 year olds got themselves over to the blocks and NO we did not have to hold their hands and walk them over.  They did it like the BIG KIDS DO.

Our Mako relays all swam at finals in the evening.  They all did an awesome job with many fast times and some GREAT lead off swims.  We had a lot of swimmers make it to finals in the evening and turned in some more excellent swims.  Both champ and Tampa cuts were achieved by some swimmers during this meet.

With every race there is the start from the blocks and the finish with the hand on the pad.  What comes after that is the inevitable look towards the scoreboard and that is when emotions come into play whether it happy, sad, mad, regret, disappointment, whatever it is there will always be some kind of emotional response.  It's human nature.  It's how you handle those emotions at that moment that will shape the bigger picture moving forward.

We had a few swimmers who experienced disappointment tears and maybe embarrassment and with each of them I put my hand on their head, had them close their eyes and take a deep breath and we counted backward from 10.  We were allowed to have a pity party for those 10 seconds and then it was time to let go and move on to the next thing.  Swimming like all athletics is a game and meant to be enjoyable and there will always be the highs and lows and if you swim long enough there will be more lows. It's unavoidable so lets learn to face it all and deal with it.

A lot of times swimmers will have a different view on what a bad or good race is so we as coaches try to hear them out.  An example is a swimmer who finished a race at this meet with a new best time but was very disappointed with the result.  To her it was a bad swim, because she wanted a bigger drop.  In my eyes I saw a great swim we just fell a little short.  It was important for her to understand that the season doesn't end with that one swim, but it could if you let it.  Learn from it, let it go and move on.  In athletics it about managing expectations.

Take out your journals and write notes to yourself.  What went well. What went bad.  Warmups, swim downs, 2nd warmups.  Writing it down will help you improve next time out.


Time to hit your reset button get back to work for the push into championship season.

Great job this past weekend.

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