Squad Speeches From 2013 Awards Banquet

BLUE Crest Squad

By: Katie and Heather Herbstritt

1. Team work is the cohesive bond that holds our team together no matter what group or level we are in, we are all connected by our love for swimming. Team work means sticking together and never letting your friends give up. It means when you feel as if you can’t go any farther you know that you have someone there to push you.
2. One time during dry land we were running around the lake and some of us were starting to get worn down, until one of us started singing Don’t Stop Believing and the rest of the group joined in. We finished running together. The point is that we helped our fellow teammates go on instead of letting them give up, we worked together.
3. Practice is hard, however, there are some fun moments. For instance, when we do the penguin drill, or when Coach Gabe tells funny stories and gives inspirational speeches. But the best part of practice is when you get out of the water and your muscles are sore, you are still catching your breath and you find yourself chugging the last bit of water from your water bottle. And you are proud of yourself for going on even when Coach Gabe pushes you past your limit, knowing that you improved is the most rewarding part of practice.
4. We are athletes and we are team mates but most importantly we are family, we are a team that cares about one another and helps each other out. We are a team that works hard together and train together. Through this team we have made friends, set goals and improved not only as swimmers but as people as well. Blue Waves is a team that we can all believe in because Blue Waves is our Family.
5. “Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten” -Lilo and Stitch

GREEN Tide Squad

“H₂O, two parts heart and one part obsession.” ~Unknown

Hi everyone we are Green Tide. Before we say anything, we want to thank all the coaches at Blue Waves, especially Coach Mike and Coach Gabe. Without their hard work and dedication to our team, we wouldn’t be the swimmers and people we are today. They’ve taught us many lessons throughout our long, hard, and tiring practices. They’ve taught us to never doubt ourselves, to always put forward your best effort in everything you do, and how to tie your shoes correctly. And without our great coaches, we wouldn’t be able to reach the many accomplishments we’ve achieved today. Lizzie Mandrgoc, Rachel Mihalic, Holly Williams, Trang Dinh, Elise Nguyen, Taylor Harper in our group made the 2013 14 & Under PV Junior Olympic Championships. Elise also made Zones for the 100 butterfly during the long course season. In our group, 12 individual and 4 relay records were broken over the course of the short course season. We’ve been inspired by many of the quotes that Coach Mike takes the time to put on the Window of Wisdom every day. “The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want now.” ~Zig Ziglar. When we first came to Green Tide, we were afraid the practices were going to be too hard, but now we have learned to appreciate the hard practices because we know they will make us better. “Pain is now, glory is forever.” Green Tide isn’t just a group we swim with; it’s a family we live with.

Speech written by: Taylor Harper, Cassie Holstein, Elise Nguyen & Kaitlyn Pollock

BLUE Tide Squad

Hello everyone! My name is Kayla Snider and I have been a member of Blue Tide for two years now. This past swim season has a been a very different experience for me, mostly because of what I was able to accomplish with my squad. This year we have trained harder than ever before and our hard work paid of in the end. As a squad we have broken 16 records so far this year. We broke 12 records during short course season, two of which were joint efforts with girls from rip tide because we don’t have enough girls in our own squad to form a relay. The other four were broken during our past two long course meets. As a squad we hope that as this long course season advances we can break even more records! Another major accomplishment for us was an improvement in our sense of team. We used to be focused more on ourselves than our team/squad as a whole. We soon realized that there truly is no “I” in team and over the course of this year we have been able to overcome the many differences we have, therefore enabling us to bond and become more supportive of each other. With this new support of each other we saw our work ethic and dedication increase leading to our many accomplishments this season. Blue Tide is very excited to welcome the many swimmers moving up to join us this summer. We strongly hope that they can feel welcomed and are able to train harder with us, so that they may see much improvement. On behalf of my squad I want to wish the very best of luck to the two seniors on the team, Nick Kost and Justin Allen. We hope that you guys have fun exploring the adventures of college life and we will be looking forward to when you visit! I hope that as the years pass and swimmers come and go that the friendships we have made here, on Blue Wave, remain constant and never changing, I hope the lessons that we have learned and the values that have been taught to us never fade from our minds, I hope our bonds grow stronger and that we may never forget this dear old team, because to most of us, Blue Wave isn’t just a swim team, it’s a family, our second home.

RIP Tide Squad

RIP Tide Squad Speech by Justin Allen

CONCENTRATION: THE MASTER SKILL OF MENTAL TOUGHNESS

5/7/2013

BY ALAN GOLDBERG, PHD//SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY CONSULTANT

What you focus on both before and/or during your races will largely determine if you soar with the eagles or gobble with the turkeys!
Your training and health being equal, what you concentrate on at meets is the main cause of your best and worst swims. When you struggle with going faster in practice than races, faster in your off-events than your best ones or being unable to break through and get a certain time, faulty concentration is usually the main cause.

What you focus on as you go into a race will dramatically affect:

• Your ability to stay calm and loose under BIG meet pressure
• How quickly you're able to bounce back from disappointing swims
• Your level of self-confidence
• Your skill in avoiding getting psyched out and intimidated
• How well you handle adversity

Did you know that you're ALWAYS doing a great job of concentrating, but most swimmers concentrate on the WRONG things?
That's right! When you swim your fastest and when you totally fall apart under pressure and add gobs of time, you're doing an excellent job of focusing! The key question here is, “ON WHAT?” When you go fast, your concentration tends to be on the RIGHT things both before and during the race, and when you struggle performance-wise, your focus is on all the WRONG things.

What SHOULD you focus on?
Championship concentration involves focusing on two, overlapping things: The first is the NOW, as opposed to the PAST or the FUTURE. Whenever you swim, your focus always has to be in one of these three “mental time zones.” The NOW is what is happening in the present and is the only time zone you have total control over and can swim fast in! If you're stretching behind the blocks, three minutes before your race, your focus needs to be in the NOW on your stretching, not on your last race, (the past) or whether you'll make tonight's finals, (the future).

The second important target for your concentration is on what YOU are doing as opposed to what everyone else around you is doing. In other words, before and during your races, you want mentally to“stay in your own lane,” focusing on yourself and no one else. All too often swimmers get caught up comparing themselves, paying too much attention to their competitors or focusing on what others watching (parents and coaches) might think of them.

What does it really mean to stay in the now and in your own lane?
Staying in the NOW and in your OWN LANE means that your pre-race and during race concentration needs to stay on the FEEL of what you're DOING before and during your swims. This means that if you're behind the blocks pre-race, you want to focus on the feel of the stretching, NOT your thoughts about the race. Focusing on feel during your swim might mean that your concentration is on feeling long and smooth, how much water you're pulling, your pace, feeling your chest pressing down just the right amount during fly or any number of other things depending upon what stroke you're swimming. FEEL IS THE “GAS PEDAL” FOR FAST SWIMS!

Performance-disrupting distractions come from both outside and inside the swimmer!
OUTSIDE: Swimmers need to let go of all of the external distractions, such as who's watching the meet, how their teammates or competitors are doing, the conditions of the pool, the clock, how crowded warm-up is, what their coach may do or say, who's in their heat, their lane assignment, how important their race is and what's at stake, their parents’ reactions to how they swim, etc.
INSIDE: Distractions from the inside encompass the swimmer's thoughts about everything above as well as how they feel that day, whether they got enough sleep, how their training has been, whether they missed critical practices because of illness, how the taper went, the last time they swam this meet, how the season has gone so far, how they felt in warm-up, how big and fast their competition is, things going on in their personal or academic lives, etc.

Concentration is a two part skill:
#1) Recognize that your focus has drifted from what's important
#2) Quickly return your focus to what's important

What hurts swimmers isn't that they lose their concentration. Breaks in concentration are absolutely NORMAL. What really hurts you, is when you lose your focus and you don't immediately catch it and bring it back!
How do I get good at recognizing that I've drifted and then bringing my focus back?

• You must spend regular time in practice deliberately working on this mental skill Throughout practice, for two minutes at a time, both during your warm-ups and through the main set, practice noticing when your focus drifts, and then immediately returning it to what you're doing in the NOW
• If you start thinking about what happened in school today, the past, quickly bring your focus back to your breathing pattern or keeping your stroke long as you swim
• If you notice that you're thinking too much about another teammate, return your concentration to your lane and the feel of how much water you're pulling, one stroke at a time
• In dryland training, focus on the feel of each exercise, one rep at a time

By regularly practicing this master skill of concentration, you will develop the ability to consistently swim fast when it counts the most!

As a sports psychology consultant, Dr. Alan Goldberg works with swimmers at every level. A presenter at the Olympic Training Center, swim coaches clinics and clubs around the country, Dr. G specializes in helping swimmers struggling with performance problems, get unstuck and swim fast when it counts the most. He works over Skype, providing one-on-one consultation with swimmers and other athletes around the world. Dr. G has written over 35 mental toughness training programs and books. In addition, he is a regular contributor to Splash Magazine.

For more FREE mental toughness tips and swim articles, go to Dr. Goldberg's website, www.competitivedge.com and click on “choose your sport” and then “swimming.” You can also visit him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and sign up for his free, monthly mental toughness newsletter.

Want to get a head start on your mental toughness training? Dr. Goldberg's BRAND NEW 7 CD Swim Program with track-by-track Training Guide now available! All products in his store at a 10% discount for USASwimming.org. readers. Coupon Code at check-out: USASwimming

Questions? I hope you'll feel free to contact Dr. Goldberg at Goldberg@competitivedge.com or call directly (413) 549-1085.

Taken from usaswimming.org