Monday, May 19, 2008

And This is Why I Coach

This last week I've done marker sets with my swimmers, both my Team in Training group and with the Swim Conditioning folks I'm teaching. It's always so very cool to see how much people improve and how excited they are! One of these years, I'm going to video every swimmer when they start with me, and then video them again six months down the road just so they can see the difference. I see it from the pool deck, but it's tough to put into words and "you're doing great!" just doesn't do it justice.

One of my TNT swimmers took two minutes off of her 500 yard timed swim in just a few weeks, another just blew right past his estimated time in the triathlon we both did this last weekend. Two of my guys from Swim Conditioning dropped 10 - 15 seconds and 5 - 10 strokes from their timed 100 yards! One of my guys there is now swimming a 1:25 for 100 yards, and his first 100 with me was 1:57. Now this is the reason I love to coach, when I can really help someone make a difference like that. Of course, it takes a whole lot of dedication and hard work on their part, and I'm just excited to be there helping them out with the details and technique.

1 comment:

Bonny said...

hey Robin,

do you have any advice for a 15yo girl who has trouble performing under pressure?

Her ability is REALLY *there.* Obviously developing still. She's only 15 LOL. But she doesn't do well under pressure. I think that most of her obstacles are mental ... and I'd love to see her work through some of this (and I know that any help she gets isn't going to heard if it's from her mama ...)