Better dress warm the next few days! This is not the time that we want to miss school or practice. What you do away from the pool has a big impact on how you perform. 
DRINK, DRINK AND THEN DRINK SOME MORE! Also DON'T SHARE THOSE DRINKS!QUOTE FOR THE WEEK: "IT IS EASY TO PUT IN THE EXTRA EFFORT, BUT IT IS EASIER NOT TO."
UPDATES: All practices will be held at normal times through January 24. Yes, we have practice this Saturday and next. I will someone coaching for me on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, as I will be in Colorado Springs at the Olympic training center.
MEET INFORMATION: January Open is this weekend at the P.G. complex in Maryland. Warm-up times are 11 and 12 6:30 both days. 9 and 10 Sat 10:30, Sun 11:00. 13 and overs Sat 1:20 and Sun 1:50. Note that some of these times changed. ALL EVENTS MUST BE POSITIVE CHECKED IN (DO THIS BEFORE WARM UP?) IF YOU ARE COMING LATER YOU NEED TO LET ME KNOW AND I WILL CHECK YOU IN. I will be at all sessions. I may leave Sunday after the 9 and 10 if Coach Peter is able to make the afternoon session.
UPCOMING MEETS: There are two meets coming up in February. February 7 the meet with snow in Ashburn. This is the meet that most of you should be signing up for. The PM qualifier meet February 14 and 15 if ONLY for those swimmers that are near their JO cuts! By near I Mean within 2 seconds.
Mako Winter Invitational Wrap: As a group all of you swam AWESOME this past week. A lot of you got qualifying times for JO's and a lot of you stepped out of that box and tried some new events which was great to see! Others of you took the advice and tried new ways to swim certain events and we had a lot of positive responses from this. Winning events were Rachel A.2, Elise B. 4, Vincent C. 3, Mauve G. 2, Matt J. 1, Brendan K. 1, Faith L. 2, Roman L.,3 James M. 1, Matt M. 3, Anna O. 3 and Rachel w. 1. 
Rachel Anderson also got her 400 IM record back with a time of 5:06. Sophie Chase went 3 for 3 and did her first 200 IM.Jolly Dieu went 3 for 3 also with her first 200 free.Victoria Lewan had an AWESOME meet going 6 for 6 along with Anna Ober.Other swimmers who had perfect days were Meg Robertson 6 for 6, Alison Spaziana 6 for 6 . 
On the boys side having perfect days were Dylan Briese 5 out of 5, Jacob Doran 6 for 6, Conor McGrath 6 for 6, Michael Meister 6 for 6 Samuel Ober 6 for 6, Will Palfey 4 for 4, Joseph Spaziana 6 for 6, Tyler Springs 6 for 6 and Sean Tkacik 4 for 4. 
Rachel Anderson also got her 400 IM record back with a time of 5:06. Sophie Chase went 3 for 3 and did her first 200 IM.Jolly Dieu went 3 for 3 also with her first 200 free.Victoria Lewan had an AWESOME meet going 6 for 6 along with Anna Ober.Other swimmers who had perfect days were Meg Robertson 6 for 6, Alison Spaziana 6 for 6 . On the boys side having perfect days were Dylan Briese 5 out of 5, Jacob Doran 6 for 6, Conor McGrath 6 for 6, Michael Meister 6 for 6 Samuel Ober 6 for 6, Will Palfey 4 for 4, Joseph Spaziana 6 for 6, Tyler Springs 6 for 6 and Sean Tkacik 4 for 4. 
I would also like to thank all the parents from the groups who helped out at the meet. We had a well run meet without delays and this was because of all of you. So I do thank you a lot.
TOP BANANA AWARDS: 
VICTORIA LEWAN, ANNA OBER, MEG ROBERTSON, ALISON AND JOSEPH SPAZIANA, MICHAEL MEISTER, AND JACOB DORAN. GREAT JOB YOU ALL!TOPIC OF THE WEEK: "THE SCORE BOARD"
After talking to several of you as the this past weekend meet went on I thought I would share something with you as a coach and an athlete. A lot of us this past weekend talked about what you are thinking about as you prepare for a race and the answer I heard a lot was that I had to get a good time. We talked about that while it is good to get a best time in this sport there are other things that produce a good result. Unfortunately this sport is set up that the time you get instantly tells you if you are improving, but I don't think the time tells the whole story.
If you are to survive as an athlete especially a swimmer, you have to understand that every event is not going to produce the result that you had hoped for. The best 
in baseball also have a lot of strikeouts, but they have to move on. I did not say you have to accept it but you do have to understand how to bounce back from it. I watched a lot of you touch the wall and look toward that scoreboard, and when asked what were you looking at the answer was always the "TIME." When that time is not reached too many of you get upset and as you get older you start to lose interest because the big time drops as an age grouper are not there any more. This is not true those TIME DROPS ARE THEIR but only a few times a year and that time is CHAMPIONSHIP TIME. In summer it's Divisional and All stars, In High School it's Districts, Regions or States, in Our Season its the December meets and Jo's and Spring Champs.
in baseball also have a lot of strikeouts, but they have to move on. I did not say you have to accept it but you do have to understand how to bounce back from it. I watched a lot of you touch the wall and look toward that scoreboard, and when asked what were you looking at the answer was always the "TIME." When that time is not reached too many of you get upset and as you get older you start to lose interest because the big time drops as an age grouper are not there any more. This is not true those TIME DROPS ARE THEIR but only a few times a year and that time is CHAMPIONSHIP TIME. In summer it's Divisional and All stars, In High School it's Districts, Regions or States, in Our Season its the December meets and Jo's and Spring Champs.When you get lost in thinking only about times you forget what is fun about this sport and that is "IT'S A RACE EVERY TIME YOUR UP ON THE BLOCKS" When you were a kid at the pool you just wanted to race people it wasn't about the time. If you were faster you might give them a head start or swim a different stroke. That is the fun part of the sport. I challenge you to stop thinking so much about times and put some fun back in by thinking about racing the people in your heat and check your place and than look at your time. A lot of the time 1st to 3rd is usually getting best times, 4th to 6th chances of a good time go down, and 7th and 8th there is even less chance. Put yourself in position for a good time and swim to win not for time, and be a winner 
MIKE
