Age Group One September Wrap-up Corrected

Great meet AG1! I thought we did a great job of creating achievable goals and being willing to admit success or failure with them. As one of our own, Ella Wilson, told us on Monday: it’s not a failure unless you don’t learn from it. As young athletes, it's often hard to know what you can do in a race, at least in terms of dolphin kicks, fast turns, and things of that nature. I will continue to talk about goal setting and find ways to evolve it or create more opportunities to learn about goal setting. The link below, to a swim blog that often has great articles, breaks down what SMART goals are and how to maintain, create, and re-assess. I’m more than willing to answer any questions about goals (setting, measuring, achieving, and re-writing). Please read through the article (it’s short) and let me know if you have any questions. After the first few meets, we should better understand how to create SMART goals and at that point, I will hand out a sheet of goals that are long-term, short-term, and process goals. From there we will create goals through the rest of our short course season. 

https://blog.myswimpro.com/2016/02/19/how-to-set-smart-swimming-goals/

Stand-out swim performances and thoughts I was lucky enough to hear:

Blake: 500 Free and 100 Fly - Used a tall long body

 Audrey: 500 Free and 200 Free - Way to stick with dolphin kicks

 Alex C: Every event - such SMART racing from Alex

 Enung: 200 Free, Breast and Back - Great attention to detail 

 Stella D: 500/200 Free and 200 IM - Talked herself into FULLY believing she can

 Lillian F: 100 Back - Kept her mind on ONE task at a time, did not rush through details!

 Ryan: 500/200 Free, 100 Breast, 200 IM - Swam her races to nail her details, and she 

             went best times along the way

 Mikaela: 200 IM and 50 Fly - She told me she was happy with these swims and that was 

                  the first time I heard her say that, way to build your confidence, Mikaela!

 Elise: 200 Free, IM - Very intentional racing, swimming maturity is growing

 Ashton: 500 Free and Fly events - He has been working relentlessly on technique and 

                  this test has proven that his work has benefitted his swimming

 Leo: 200 Free, 100 Fly, 50 Back - Great technique, way to maintain the skills we have 

                  practiced in the last few weeks

 Zephyr: 500 Free, 200 IM, 100 Fly - Kept her mind calm behind the blocks by using 

strategies she talked about, it’s great seeing you practice that!

Stella O: 50 Free - I laid out a breathing plan, which made her nervous, but she just went 

                  and stuck to it, way to get out of your comfort zone

Ellie: 500 Free, 200 IM, 100 Fly - Consistent high-level effort and great resilience, way to 

                 step into a leadership role this meet

Rachel: All events - outstanding effort, I can hear the confidence growing in your speech!

Lillian T: 200 Free, IM - always smiling before and after races, great for you AND your 

                teammates

Truitt: 200 Free, both IMs, 100 Back - The necessity for Truitt to ALWAYS seek out limits 

               is so great to see, I love the passion!

Nathan: 200 Free, IM (first time) - All swims screamed confidence!!!

Sophia: All events - swam smart and confident races, knowing she had a few extra 

              obstacles to move around, under, over, or through

Riley: 200 IM and 100 Fly - great building through swims, energy management has been

              at the forefront of her mind lately

Ella: EVERY SWIM - I don’t think I’ve seen a breakout meet like this… Ella knew the 

            details that would help her to be fast and that was her focus. Instead of just 

            swimming faster, she picked the details that forced her to focus on the 

            whole swim

 Ander: 50 Back, 100 Breast - Great smart racing!

Gavin: 200 Free, 200 IM, 50 Free - Gavin has found a way to use his long arms to help him swim fast, he learned that more strokes           does not mean faster time!