FLA International Meet

I thought I knew what hot was but that was before I went to the Fort Lauderdale International meet last weekend. More than anything I give props to every swimmer who stayed mentally and physically on top of their game although the elements sought to break them down.

This was a great meet. It is one of the biggest meets that we go to with more than 1500 kids in attendance. These kids came from all over the country and they all had A times or above so I consider it a elite meet. For us is was a practice in elevating our performance at the more elite level.

I believe that we did that. Many swimmers placed in the top twenty and we had one swimmer place top ten. What I always have to remember is that these are the fastest kids in the Florida Keys and every time they go out to compete they prove that. I saw lots of confidence exuding out of all of the kids and most importantly they had fun.

What I was most impressed with was our swimmers abilities to warm themselves up and mentally prep for a race. If you look at any other team they are all running group warm ups. I do not. I want to believe that I produce self sufficient athletes that can warm up on their own and swim fast on their own. I think that if they learn how to get themselves ready that any success is theirs more than anyone elses.

I give lots of props to all the kids and I hope we can carry the momentum through the summer and continue to grow and prosper as a elite level club.

Tamiami LC Meet

Finally back to long course season. I do have to say that I love swimming yards because of the speed, but lets be realistic for a second. No other country in the world swims 25yds except the United States. I would say that in order to be a successful meters swimmer, one has to be a good swimmer as opposed to someone who is just good at starts and turns. This meet gave me a chance to see what kind of swimmers we were with minimal meter training.

When I first opened the heat sheet I immediately relaxed. The times that I saw next to my swimmers names were going to get crushed. I had extreme confidence on that. Some of the best times that were on the heat sheet were intervals that we have been training in workout. Of course I really didn't let on too much. I wanted them to be confident, but not over confident.

This team has come such a long way in a year. Kids are so far in front of their former selves. Lets put it like this. Every swimmer at the meet swam 4 events each day. On each day only one or two kids didn't get a best time in one of those four events, but did best times in all their other events. EVERY OTHER kid did a best times in EVERY EVENT they swam on BOTH days. WOW! I hope they were please with themselves because I know I was pleased with them.

But the word that describes our team is EVOLUTION. I know that at the next meet it will be hard to get best times. The faster you get the harder it becomes. This meet was only the start. It has now motivated me to make sure our team keeps moving in a positive direction. If they are focused then so am I...and that is a dangerous combination for anyone swimming against us!