I hope you all had a nice little break away from school, and enjoyed your days at home. It was great to see many of you make an effort to stay in the water during the break. Those of you who made it in every day my 
is off to you. Oh wait a minute I don't wear a hat, (right Leah), well you know what I mean. WEEK AHEAD: This week all practices are back to normal except for Saturday when there will be NO PRACTICE due to the meet.
QUOTE FOR THE WEEK: "The pain of discipline is nowhere as big as the pain of disappointment" S. WIDMER
MEETS: Parents, Mako is sponsoring the meet this weekend at the Mason pool. We will need help with officials, timers, snack bar etc. Please pitch in and help and it would be nice to see different people helping out. We have all been to meets that lack the support and thus are run very poorly. As coaches we hear the parents and the complaints (Christmas champs). Let's not get that reputation, Please help.
SWIMMERS: Warm-up times are as follows for both days: 11 and overs 7:30 AM. 10 and unders 1:00PM. Please understand that this will be a long meet so be prepared. Any negative thoughts should be placed in our negative 
and put the lid on it for the weekend. Any snacks must be eaten off the pool deck, and no chairs are allowed on deck. Remember we are guests of Mason.
and put the lid on it for the weekend. Any snacks must be eaten off the pool deck, and no chairs are allowed on deck. Remember we are guests of Mason.
SHOUT OUTS OF THE WEEK: Rachel Anderson, Matt Jones, and Lauren Yi for swimming the 1000 free in the distance meet this past weekend. We also had Logan Coulson Moore swim the 1650 (mile) breaking Rachel Anderson old record. All three had great swims with good technique and a good pacing throughout the race. 
DID YOU KNOW: If a swimming pool is located in its own, separate building, the building is called a natatorium.TOPIC OF THE WEEK: "PLAYING FAVORITES"
A couple of weeks ago I heard a few of you all talking 
and it was said that I had my favorites, and as I drove 
and it was said that I had my favorites, and as I drove home that night it got me to thinking that it might be time to put this little story up again.
Well, that person was right I do have my favorites and always will. I offer no apologies! My favorites have and always will be those that do what is expected and what is asked of them. Those are the ones that I will give more attention to and talk to more, regardless of how fast that swimmer may be.
The truth is, that the swimmers who come 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 and more difficult then they imagined, are ready to get more out of the program. And they become my favorites!
As a coach, I only have one thing to offer an athlete and that is, my ATTENTION. This means that I attend to their needs. The reward for good behavior should be attention....attending to their needs. The consequences of inattention, lack of effort, unwillingness to learn or just plain disruptive behavior is my inattention to that athlete.
As a coach I am trying to develop swimmers who are eager to learn, eager to experiment in 
order to improve, eager to be part of a group on a team, be a good teammate, and work hard. I want swimmers who want to develop their skills both mental and physical, and are willing to accept what I have to offer. Otherwise why have they come to the group? Am I going to reward the disruptive uncooperative athletes in the group with my full attention? In doing so would encourage other swimmers to think I didn't care, and in the end only encourage that behavior.
order to improve, eager to be part of a group on a team, be a good teammate, and work hard. I want swimmers who want to develop their skills both mental and physical, and are willing to accept what I have to offer. Otherwise why have they come to the group? Am I going to reward the disruptive uncooperative athletes in the group with my full attention? In doing so would encourage other swimmers to think I didn't care, and in the end 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 offer my attention to those who "ATTEND" to me. When this link is forged I pay more attention to that swimmer, and that swimmer will improve! Over time, this makes it appear that my "favorites" are the better swimmers. NOT SO!! The swimmers who pay attention and do what is expected of them within the group, at practices and meets, get more attention, become better swimmers and thus become my favorites!
SENIOR PREP GROUP: NICE JOB YESTERDAY!! 
MIKE
