VMAC thoughts

 Swim lessons from swimming in a meet 

Things I forgot how they feel 

• Wondering when to warm up and how much to 
• What to eat and how much 
• How to respond to your results after your race 
• How to encourage and what to say to others 
• The amount of social battery it takes to be on a team and talking to people at a meet 
• The post swim crash after not swimming for a few hours and how you have to hype yourself up multiple times 

Things that I never felt before 

• The angst of putting on tech suit and how and when to pee (and what do girls do when they have their period?) 
• Figuring out my identity and what I swim and what I should or shouldn’t expect from myself 

Day 2 

• How to shake off a bad nights sleep and know that won’t determine the outcome, how I handle it will 
• Why when you ask people how their race was the first thing they say is what went wrong? (Myself included!)
• The 50 free and how it’s all the things. Easy because it’s short. Hard because it’s so precise. 
• Attitudes are contiguous on the team, feed off the team when you need it, build up when you have the energy. 
• The end of day 2 is legit feeling of relief 

Feedback and post swim thoughts: 

• My role as a teammate can be to see what you dos well 
• I have some feedback when do you want it?  
• Or…sandwich it: What do you think you did well?…Now what can you improve on…
• Also, we are in a sport that thrives on improvement. We are going to gravitate towards that. How can we be both honest but efficient? 

Random 

• How people greet you matters. How you greet others matters. This gives a sense of belonging. (There was nothing like walking in and being welcomed and people excited I was there. And people that give me credit for what I have helped them with.) 
• Staying to eat together after competition matters 
• Honoring people in award ceremonies matters

My hope from swimming this last weekend was to be a better coach when I remembered what it’s like to be the one in the pool. 

The pool that I wanted to swim in from the time I first saw it and Micah swam in it oh so many years ago. I cheered at that pool for many hours and I realized this weekend that where you swim doesn’t matter, who you are with and what it means to be a team…that’s the good stuff. Funny how we get so much more than we give when we are open. I just wanted to grow. And I knew I had to do something more than what I had. What I got in return was a whole lot more. 

What else do I need to do this in my life for?