Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Following up on our meet last weekend, I gave our top group (mostly 15-18 year-olds) a challenge this morning. Each swimmer re-swam his or her worst performance of the meet (based on percentage off of best time). The goal for the group was to get 2/3 to swim faster than they did at the meet. The reward would be no dryland today.
We did this because I felt we were mentally less-than-focused over the course of the weekend, and I wanted to show our swimmers that they are capable of better.
The result: We came up just short of the 2/3 mark, but over half of the group achieved the goal. The lesson here was that we have to take advantage of our opportunities and bring everything to bear on each race. 99% effort and focus is not enough.
I am looking forward to seeing how well that lesson gets absorbed.
The Swimming Wizard 