Mike's Notes: OCTOBER 1-OCT 7

UPDATES FOR THE WEEK: All practices are normal for the week. Parents now that you will be allowed inside the building I ask one thing. If you feel you must be in the bleachers during practice this is all right with me, but I do ask that you do not sit right above our lanes, and please do not try to communicate with your swimmer from the bleachers. Thank You!

This week I will be having a sub cover practice on Thursday-Friday-and Saturday, as I will be out of town for our vacation.

REFLECTIONS: We had a good week of practice, focusing on our underwater kicking, and our breathing patterns in fly (one up two down), and free (2-3-2, or every 3). Now that we have these pattern we will do sets this week where we try to hold these patterns. Age Group 2 swimmers we will focus on more chest pressing in the fly this week. We will build into Friday for a day of IM swimming!

It was great to see a lot of you at the clinic on Saturday! Hope you got some good pointers out of it. If there are some drills you really liked, e-mail them to me and I will build them into practice. The clinic did remind me of some of the drills that I used to leave, but have forgotten them recently. It wasn't that early and just think the Saturday practice starts at 6:30, so think about it!

GOAL SHEETS: We would like to get the goal sheets turned in this week. If you have trouble tracking your times, you can go to the Potomac Valley web site. If you do not have a goal sheet please ask me for one this week!

That's right you Redskins fans the boys are now 4-0, after beating the 35-7. I see the Redskins didn't lose this week!!

WEEKLY TOPIC: TEAMWORK

Swimming doesn't always seem like much of a team sport. You stand on the blocks alone, you swim in your own lane . Even the only team events, relays, require you to swim by yourself, but at least there are three others.

It's very easy to look at swimming and decide that results are only individual. However, how those individuals achieve those results are the results of a total TEAM effort! Let's find out what kind of teammate you are. Do you acknowledge every

teammate
when you arrive to the pool? Do you make an effort to learn the names of all your teammates and especially the new MAKO swimmers to our group? Do you greet  the people swimming in your lane or group and say  encouraging things to them throughout practice? Do you encourage your teammates to focus in practice if they are falling behind or are giving less than their full effort? Do you encourage your teammates to participate in healthy competition with you in practice and at the meets? Do you

teammates
for your teammates at meets, regardless of whether or not they are your best friends? Do you help redirect your teammates when they are misbehaving or doing things that will give MAKO'S a bad reputation?    Do you want your teammate to swim fast, just as bad as you want it for yourself?

If you answered YES to all of these questions, you are the best teammate you can be, if not you have some things you could work on.

Being the best teammate you can be in practice doesn't mean you have to be out going. BUT you do have to push your teammate to do their best, and be sure that YOU are doing yours! Most swimmers are afraid to encourage their teammates to race, because they may be viewed as mean, or too competitive. The swimmer who wants you to swim fast is clearly a better teammate than the swimmer who ignores your efforts, good or bad.

Being the best teammate you can be in meets means being supportive of EVERYONE'S swimming. Everyone wants to swim fast, but sometimes when that isn't happening, swimmers tend to draw away from the team and think more about themselves. That's when you need to immerse yourself in the experience. Make things fun, engage in healthy competition. HEALTHY COMPETITION MEANS THAT IT'S JUST FOR FUN AND ALWAYS ENDS IN A WIN-WIN SITUATION (EVERYONE SWIMS FASTER). As long as the competition is healthy everyone is working WITH everyone else and not AGAINST any swimmer or swimmers. Competition ceases to be healthy when it promotes finger pointing, taunting , put downs , or excluding others. Healthy competition brings out the best in a MAKO swimmer. Inspire that in your teammates, and suddenly you're part of a better team because of it!!