| WEEK AHEAD: There is no practice on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday this week due to the Cassel meet at GMU. For this reason we may be crowded this week, please bear with us. Next week we will get back to normal! TOM DOLAN WRAP UP: This past weekend the Mako swim team participated in the annual Tom Dolan meet at GMU. We had about 23 swimmers from our group participating in the meet. This was a chance to be exposed to some very fast swimming against athletes from outside Potomac Valley, who were all in different phases of their training program. The meet started on Thursday night with our very own Maggie Shaw swimming a personal best in the 500 free, with a 13 second drop.  Also swimming that evening in the 200 back were John Kim with a personal best, and Katie Yost who was very close to her best time. We were also treated that night to a new AMERICAN RECORD being swam in the 1650. |
The rest of weekend produced some great swims, some good ones, and some that I was very frustrated with.
As a group we had 106 splashes 
over the weekend, 72 which resulted in personal bests. Now if you do the math that leaves 34 swims 17 of which were close to best times (I consider less than 0.90 as close, anything over that at this meet was very frustrating). I believe that works out to about 70% best swims which was outstanding, 15% close to best times, and 15% not good. As a group this was an outstanding showing, but we cannot rest as JO's a little over 2 months away.
As a group we had 106 splashes over the weekend, 72 which resulted in personal bests. Now if you do the math that leaves 34 swims 17 of which were close to best times (I consider less than 0.90 as close, anything over that at this meet was very frustrating). I believe that works out to about 70% best swims which was outstanding, 15% close to best times, and 15% not good. As a group this was an outstanding showing, but we cannot rest as JO's a little over 2 months away.As for the bad swims we can sit here and make excuses, but I am not one to deal with it in that manner, and I hope I have taught you better than that. We do understand that there are reason for bad swims and that they will happen, but WE cannot use excuses as a CRUTCH. Some of these I expected as the meet wore on due to factors that we can't control. Some of us started to feel sorry for ourselves because we were tired, well here is a news flash, so was everyone else, THE SECRET IS HOW YOU DEAL WITH IT!
We would like to recognize a few swimmers who had great meets, Rachel Anderson and James Chung swam 7 events and had a best time in everyone of them
Mitch Mahoney and Maggie Shaw swam 5 times and also had a best time in every event.
James Murphy had 4 swims with a best time on every finish. Zoe Hemmer had 8 swims (6PR), Amy Berglund had 7 swims (5PR), Don Tucker had 6 swims (4PR), and Meg Robertson had 8 swims (4PR). Overall I think you all were awesome and represented our group and the MAKO swim team very well.
Mitch Mahoney and Maggie Shaw swam 5 times and also had a best time in every event. James Murphy had 4 swims with a best time on every finish. Zoe Hemmer had 8 swims (6PR), Amy Berglund had 7 swims (5PR), Don Tucker had 6 swims (4PR), and Meg Robertson had 8 swims (4PR). Overall I think you all were awesome and represented our group and the MAKO swim team very well.Notes that I kept as the meet progressed and that we need to address are: WALLS-we need to be aggressive and use these walls to our advantage. STREAMLINES -- they need to be much tighter off the walls. ENTRIES -- need to be much cleaner. BREASTSTROKE TURNS -- need to be deeper off the walls. 50 FREE and FLY AIR IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT. FINISHES -- STRONGER INTO THE WALLS, need to change that speed and win the close races. Need to do more breaststroke in practice (thanks Ruthann)!
HOLIDAY WORKOUTS WEEK OF DECEMBER 26-30
Mako will be having practice this week at GMU from 8:00-9:30 for the High Performance Group, Senior Prep, and Senior groups.
TOPIC OF THE WEEK: "PLAYING FAVORITES"
A few years ago I was accused of "having favorites" within the group and my first thought was is that what people think. Well, this person was right I did have my favorites and STILL DO TODAY!! My favorites were those swimmers who always did what I asked of them. Those that did, I gave more attention to. I talked to them more. I spent time teaching them. I also expected more of them!
The implication that people think is that "my favorites got better than the others because of the attention they received. This was unfair to myself!
The truth is, that the swimmers who came to me ready to learn, ready to listen, ready to act on what they learned and try it my way, even if it was more challenging, more difficult then they imagined, were ready to get more out of the program. And they are my favorites.
As a coach, I have only one thing to offer to an athlete. That is, my attention. Which means that I attend to their needs. The reward for good behavior should be attention...attending to their needs. The consequence of inattention, lack of effort, unwillingness or unreadiness to learn or just plain offensive or disruptive behavior is my inattention to that athlete.
How could this be any other way? If you have three children, and you spend all your time and energy working with that one child who is behaving badly, what does that tell the other two children? It tells them that to capture your attention, they should behave badly. What we reward is what we get!
As a coach, I want athletes who are eager to learn, eager to experiment to improve, eager to work hard. I want athletes who come to me to help develop their skills both mental and physical, and are willing to accept what I have to offer. Otherwise, why have they come to me? And I am going to reward that athlete with my attention. In so doing, I encourage others to become like the athletes above. If I spent my time with the unwilling, the disruptive, I would only encourage that behavior.
The link I want to forge is between attention and excellence. Excellence in the sense of achieving all that is possible, and desired. My way of doing this, is to provide my attention to those who "attend" to me. This does of course result in increased performance for those that do so. I am a professional coach, and when I pay attention to a swimmer, that swimmer is going to improve! Over time, this makes it appear that my "favorites" are the better swimmers. NOT SO! The better swimmers are those that pay attention, and thus become my favorites.(JL)
WHAT KIND OF SWIMMER ARE YOU?
HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND ENJOY THE HOLIDAY SEASON!
MIKE
