Friday Practice Thoughts

I hope everyone can learn from Friday's practice.  For those who were not there, I'll describe what happened during the main part of the workout:

We had some group goals to accomplish, and by the strict letter of the goals we set we really didn't come close to getting them.  I had dangled the idea of reducing the final set of the day if we were to get the goals -- but we just didn't get them.  

It's not that the athletes didn't swim well.  I think the goals were a bit too tough, and asking for 12 people to be there just wasn't in the cards.  I though people did a good job overall, nothing amazing but I felt that people were swimming well with their strong swims (our 2nd thru 4th breaststrokers were going 111-110-109s and our second tier of 100s back was 106-108….we've been worse)…and we did it straight for 27 minutes.  On the downside, no one really broke through.  The really good job done by our people will either be a girl who is in the top 3 performers (we've had that before on this team girls), or a guy who wins the Back, and the Breast, and the Kick.  Whichever his worst thing, he still is winning it or in a tie for the win.

Jennah and I decided mid way through the set that we was going to offer another chance for the group to get out of the end of practice.  I really didn't think I put up a "reasonable" goal…and our effort warranted at least another shot at another goal….so we decided to challenge the athletes who were not able to make the intervals on the set.  

Basically, during the set I asked people who were NOT able to make all the intervals (1:30 for 100s of Back Swim, Breast Swim, and Free Kick) to simply skip the Back Swim and try to do 2x100 in a row of Breast Swim/Free Kick).  These athletes had tried to do the first 3 and then the next 3, and were unsuccessful, so after about 6 they switched to going for two in a row instead of three, and just sitting there resting for most of the third one, while their teammates were swimming).

So we had about 10 athletes, 9 from the Senior Performance group and 1 from the National group, do the set again -- just for 3x100 on (1:30).

The results were eye-opening.   Of the 10 people who couldn't make the set, 8 made the 3x100 on (130) pretty easily in front of the group with the end of practice on the line.  It was great, but at the same time kind of discouraging and indicative of our group's mindset as a whole much too often: we wait around watching everyone else, with each person looking for the other to take the lead much too often in our training.  

Granted, most of the people who re-did the set were in the Senior Performance group, but I think we all should consider how we do not find that place in training where we are hurting and then we keep hurting and keep going.  We should consider what it's like to feel the power of others dropping off while you keep going.  We should all consider how we can outlast the competition!

Where are we missing training?  Are we swimming but wasting our time instead of moving forward?  Let's make the most of the time at the pool.  You're results will eventually get better with improved practice focus!