Mike's Notes: WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 12

WEEK AHEAD: All practices are normal this week. Next week we will not have practice on Friday or Saturday (November 21 and 22). Plan your schedules now. For my Senior Prep and Junior Groups you are encouraged to make up this Saturday from 6:30 to 8:00 AM.

We now have a couple of new members to our 100 free under 1:00 club. It looks like this now; Matt Jones

, Logan Moore

, Miles Oakley

, Amy Berglund

MEET WRAP UPS:

TOP BANANA AWARDS: October Open Jacob Doran, Pumpkin Tri-Meet Matt Jones and Elise Bourdelais, November Open James Chung and Melissa Kratzke.

NOVEMBER OPEN: We want to thank all the parents for the support you gave us in getting your swimmers to the meet over the weekend. The drive was a little longer but the pool was much better than Cub Run. A lot more room for you and the swimmers. Other than the drive out on Friday night and a broken clip board, it was a good weekend. We had a lot of best times turned in by our swimmers, and some JO and Senior champs times were realized.

Some of you came out of your comfort zones and tried some new events. This will help you from becoming stale and swimming the same events over and over again. You will also gain extra confidence when you need it for "YOUR BEST EVENTS"

WEEKLY TOPIC: We will start our weekly topics this week and I think we will begin with "The Swimmers Job Description"

You all need to train you minds to accept this You have chosen to be an "athlete" and I expect certain things from the athletes in my groups as I always have. You might say that it is your Job Description.

SHOW UP: You can't get much accomplished if you don't show up. Understand that this is a nine month road trip, with each practice being like a day trip that is planned to accomplish an objective. Each of these day trips builds on the previous one so if you miss you will get behind, and when you lose a day you can never get it back.

LISTEN: I'm there to guide you through this trip So when I am talking there is information that you will need on the trip. I have the map for this trip and I am not there to negotiate with you about which Road we are going to take!

UNDERSTAND: Understand what we are trying to do in the set. Is our focus turns, streamlines, breathing, stroke count, pacing, drills sprinting? Understand our speed scale; A1=asnail pace, A2=a turtle pace, A3=Areal fast turtle, A4=just a little off our race pace, A5= a Race speed.

DOING: After you listen and understand it is your responsibility to do the things correctly 100% of the time. This means if we are doing 10x100 free working on pulling with the deep arm off the walls than you must do it 40 times correctly. Take care of doing what you need to do, because if you don't care, you just go through the motions, not making any progress and becoming frustrated with your races.

STAY ORGANIZED: Keep yourself organized away from the pool, which means keeping up with your school work and not falling behind. Once you start to fall behind it like a snow ball coming down a hill, it just gets bigger and bigger till your overwhelmed by it and you come crashing down.

STAY HEALTHILY: This means taking care of yourself away from the pool. Now that the cold weather has arrived, make sure you dress properly, especially when leaving practice when you are wet! Even though it's not hot your body still needs a lot of so drink a lot of it. Get the proper rest. Try to go to bed at the same time every night (Yes SAT and SUN too). Your body will thank you with more energy and fighting off all the germs. Wash those Hands a lot! If you do this you will stay a lot healthier this season. Don't forget if you get sick you miss school, you get behind, you don't feel organized anymore, you miss practice, and you're trying to stay ahead of that snowball coming down the hill !