Another Blog

I am slacking a little bit on my blogging.

Practices: We had a short time of pure back to basics for two weeks over the holidays, and then last week we still did some stroke work, but definitely focused more on strengthening the skills. I also added some conditioning in to make a good transition into this coming up week. I enjoyed my Friday and Saturday practices as there were times that they were doing some longer swim sets where I was able to step back and watch all of the swimmers and focus on what we focus on during the prior two and half weeks. I felt really good about the progress. The 4 new swimmers from the local swim school and the YMCA definitely not up to par when it comes to stroke mechanics, but I hope I am starting to get them to break there old strokes, and learn a different way to swim.

Last week, I also passed out ribbons and medals to the group. I talked to the whole group that I am not a fan of ribbons and medals (I actually haven't been a fan of them even when I was a swimmer), and reminded them of what my focus is, and that is personal individual development. You can't control the other swimmers, so just looking at the place on a ribbon doesn't really tell the whole story. Not to take away from the awards as they are significant and indicate one aspect, but it is missing the other aspects of what we are out to accomplish. I think it went over well; not completely sure though.

Dryland Game: Friday did some Crab Walk and Bear Crawl Relays. Kids enjoyed them and I got to see them use other muscles. Definitely need to watch out for the prickly stuff on the ground next time I setup the relay spot though. Lauren got some dryland stuff, and I may try to utilize these tools later on (Stability Balls, Vasa Trainer, and Med Balls). Can't wait for sun to stay up a little longer and get the kids a chance to play capture the flag again.