Making it work, deal with what you got

Maybe I am to comfortable with this. I remember with the old Selma Pool making my 30 minute drive to practice wondering to myself, "I wonder if the kids can get in the water today." This thought happened way to often with that pool.

Today at Rancho-Simi we played Capture the flag and dryland took over 30 minutes, planned mainly because I knew there was a polo game and the Senior Group was in the water. I had no idea that when getting in 40 minutes in practice that I still wouldn't have any lanes to swim in. So, let's improvise, throw the practice out and come up with something. I remember doing the train swim in the diving well at Selma, and Jay from Canyons did it at our Holiday meet at the Rancho Pool. Well, there you go let's just flow with it.

So it took a little while to explain to the kids exactly what we were doing, but finally they kind of grasped it, and they tried it. It worked, but didn't work. I recognized the problems, and then thought about something that I already wanted to address the team about working as a team, and how to better communicate with each other, especially the faster swimmers who should be the leaders of the group. I talked about how getting mad at your teammates and yelling at them is not the solution, but working out the problems as we go along. The train put the swimmers in an awkward position as they were basically swim on each others feet to make it work, but the second time around the did do a little better. (Still heard some groaning about how someone almost kicked them in the face or how one person swam so close to them that their arms hit each other).

Totally unplanned, but out of chaos and just making a workout work, I actually was able to address something that I wanted to address the group about anyways, and it was with a different approach than just doing a team talk like I normally do. So, I didn't get the yardage or the intensity that I wanted, but the talk I had with them might have helped a few in the group practice better, and that normally means better performances as they prepare better. Come away with one victory as I told one of my age-group coaches in our one-on-one meeting the other day. We coach these kids year round, we have time to come away with one victory a day when they are young in their swimming careers.

Coaches be ready. There are going be times when you are not given the best circumstances. Just make something out of what you are given. You don't have pool time for a week. Figure out ways to utilize dryland, maybe do some things that you wanted to do, but you felt obligated to get more water time in. Sometimes it leads to the best results you've had. Learn to be on your feet and go to plan B even if there was no plan B written in advance.