5 things coaches always tell you

5 Ways to be a better swimmer.  Your coaches probably tell you these every day:

1. Streamline!  Seriously, just streamline.  This is the easiest way for a coach to see if you're focusing.  Streamlines are something that everyone can do, but it takes practice.  The more you do, the better you'll be.  This is my most used word at practice by far, and something that I'm OCD about.  The best swimmers in the world have the best streamlines in the world.  Its not a coincidence.  Lock it out, squeeze it, own it, and........STREAMLINE!!!
2. Wear warm clothing at meets!  This is easy, you warm up to get your body ready to perform.  Don't let your warm up go to waste by sitting around in your towel and letting go all of your heat.  Listen to your coaches, we don't tell you to get warm clothes on because we like saying it.  A warm muscle is a fast muscle.  Coach Rod's famous saying of "something on your shoulders, something on your feet" is a constant of a Machine swim meet.  The Olympians all wear clothes, warm ups, and always shoes.  It is important enough for them to do, easy for you to do.
   
3. Work on your turns every wall.  The biggest question that annoys coaches at practice is "can we work on turns".  Guess what, you do hundreds of turns a week.  Hopefully you are working on them every time you hit the wall.  That's how you'll get better.  This won't come from practicing 4 turns at the end of practice taking 20 minutes to do.  Create good habits and practice them at EVERY WALL.  
4. Make the intervals.  Sometimes they're hard, sometimes they're impossible.  Coaches test you with intervals, and want to see where you're at.  Sometimes coaches give you impossible intervals to see how you react and respond. We want to see if you have the ability to go outside of your comfort zone.  Go after it and challenge yourself.  Out of all of these 5 things to do, this is the hardest, but is something I think you can benefit from knowing.  
5. Have Fun!!
   
   This one is key if you ask me.  Swimming is a tough sport, some will say it's the hardest sport out there.  It takes determination, hard work, mental toughness, physical toughness, and sacrifice.  To make it all worth it you need to love it and you need to have fun with it.  Whether that's finding a group you love, finding parts of practice you love, or just finding ways to make this what you love to do.  You have to enjoy it.  It's easy to see as a coach who is working and having fun, who is into it, and who is really embracing the team.  Be a part of the team and do the team functions.  This goes a long way, this is where you build friends, and relationships with people from other groups.  We do things throughout the year and the more you do the more you will feel part of the team and really start swimming not just for yourself, but for your happiness and something you care about.  Things that we have done or will do are:

• team building activity
• bowling
• ice skating
• travel meets - this is HUGE
• putt putt
• boot camp
• group breakfasts
• There will be more, join in and have fun.  The same people go to all functions and they love the team, it really does help!