Thunder & Lighting – What do you WANT?

Posted Sept. 29, 2010, by John Leonard at http://www.swimfastteam.com/

Yesterday we had some thunder and lightening at practice. We had to get out.

As children will do, a few cheered and acted very happy that they got to get out of the water.

This drives me crazy, so i asked them all to come around, sit down and here is what i told them.....I ask you as parents to consider this, and support the message and reinforce it with your own children.

1. You don't have to swim. You chose to swim. If you don't want to swim, don't. Childhood and teenage-hood is the only time in your life that you'll have enough free time to chose to train very much...so chose carefully.
2. If you chose to swim, you should LIKE swimming and LIKE practice.
3. If you LIKE practice and swimming, then you should want to STAY IN PRACTICE and not be "happy" and cheering when the weather forces us to get out.
4. Being Happy to get out of practice is entirely the wrong mindset for success in our sport. It's 180 degrees from what is needed. You need to want to do MORE of something if you are ever going to feel successful about doing that activity.
5. Moaning about how tired you are does not help your neighbor feel energetic and aggressive in training, NOR does it help you do better, NOR does it make you FEEL Better.....it's just a way of "bragging" about how hard you THINK you are working....and you know what, you don't fool anyone. All your teammates know entirely how hard you work in practice. You can't fool 'em. Nor can you fool the coaches.  Moaning about "woe is me" does not help ANYONE...therefore, it has no place in our practice pool. We are in the pool to IMPROVE...and anything that does not help IMPROVEMENT is off target and unacceptable. Improvement requires energy, effort, and persistence, ESPECIALLY when you are tired and fatigued.  All great races have a fatigue point in them....you either learn to push through it, or you fail to improve.  It's all about creating a great training and racing environment...and EVERYONE...Coaches, athletes and parents...have  to be responsible for it and accountable to make it happen.
6. Mindset, and contributing a GOOD ONE to practice, is everyone's responsibility. It's what our tee-shirt saying #2 - "HONOR YOUR TEAMMATES WITH YOUR EFFORT" is all about. (it also means "EXPECT THEM TO HONOR YOU WITH THEIR EFFORT AS WELL!" Hold them accountable.

Cheering for thunder is just a minor, childish thing...i can understand it...but it has profound implications for the mindsets of our athletes...and all those things do matter, a great deal.

We WANT to be at practice when we come...otherwise, stay home and find something you can put your whole heart and mind into.....without putting the whole heart and mind into things, you'll never be much good at it and never derive the satisfaction you seek, from any activity.

     All the Best, John Leonard