Welcome

Hello All!

I just wanted to welcome everyone to my blog and also to the 2011 Warrington Swim Season!  For those of you who were unable to attend our short meeting last Friday, I would like to reiterate some information and concepts from my speech. 

Steven has been offered to teach AP Calc as a second year teacher; therefore, he needs to do immense training over the summer.  We will miss him, but we are happy he is successful and I'm sure he'll come and visit sometime this summer.

I have three things that I aim to accomplish this summer as head coach. 

1. Equality in treatment of swimmers:  No matter what level your swimmer may be, advanced or struggling, I believe that every swimmer deserves equal attention.  Anyone who comes to practice regularly is relaying the message of: I want to be here to become a better swimmer.  That dedication deserves the attention of the coaching staff.  I want everyone to reach their full potential in swimming.

2. Attention to technique:  Practices will focus on HOW the swimmer is swimming his or her laps, as apposed to how MANY laps he or she is swimming.  If a swimmer has swam 100 laps in a practice, but the swimmer has swum these laps incorrectly, then nothing has been learned or gained.  Actually the swimmer is worse off because the bad habits are becoming ingrained in muscle memory.  Good swimmers are those who have refined stroke technique. 

3. Concentration on fun and team spirit:  Sure we all want to win, but I believe that if we concentrate more on having fun and enjoying ourselves, then winning will come later as a result.  It's summer swimming, not the Olympics.  Also if we concentrate just on points, then the swimmers in the later heats will be stressed upon less, which goes against my first point.  If I could pick a summer where we focused on winning every race of every meet, ignored certain swimmers in favor of the higher tier swimmers, and moved up a division, vs a summer where everyone got an equal shot, was cheered for in every race, and we stayed in the same division, I would always take the latter.   

Thanks for reading, and I'll see everyone soon! 

Julian