CLUB DEVELOPMENT NEWS from USA Swimming

 


 
 
     
November 6, 2009
Dear Coach,
 
  1. Grand Prix Date Change.
  2. New Educational web site for coaches
  3. Chance to win $150.00
  4. A 5 star life
  5. The Leadership Coach TM
  6. Jim Collins Article
     
     
The Ohio State Grand Prix has changed dates.  It was previously scheduled for Easter Sunday.  It will now be
April 1-3, 2010.  This is a Thursday- Saturday meet.
     
     
The USOC coaches education department has rolled out a new resource for all coaches.
 
     
     
USA Swimming LSCs and Clubs-
 
There is still time left to win money from USA Swimming. If you haven’t submitted your link or screenshot you still can do
it for a chance to win!!! Please send entries to [email protected] If you have already sent it you don’t need to send it a second time.
 
For those of you who don’t know, Swimnetwork is a dynamic and exciting online swimming destination that delivers timely
and in-depth content, expert editorial analysis, major event coverage, and compelling entertainment. Attached is a button
(jpg) for linking Swimnetwork.com to your LSC or club website. This button is intended to share the content of Swimnetwork with your members. We would love for you to become a part of the “network” so please put the button on your website and then link the button to http://www.swimnetwork.com or simply add the link to your LSC or club site.
 
As a bonus, if you post the button on your website and send a screen shot or a link back to us. You will be entered to win a
$150 gift certificate to the USA Swimming videos and publications store. The store has items ranging from parent videos to meet books. The winner will be drawn at random on November 2nd. The winner must be either a USA Swimming member club or LSC.
 
Also, please feel free to share Swimnetwork’s facebook fan page and twitter page with your members. Please follow and
become a fan! Twitter.com/swimnetwork and Facebook.com/swimnetwork
 
To check out everything that USA Swimming is doing with social networking click here – USA Swimming Social Networking.
 
 
     
   
Excerpt: Living a Five Star Life by Betty Mahalik
 
In this day and age, we are surrounded by messages that virtually scream, "Your life would be perfect if..." My life would be perfect if I had a different job, a different house, car, nose, spouse, bank account (fill in the blank). Or my life would be perfect if I could be like some celebrity whose life appears so well-ordered and perfect-o. This week I encourage you to stop playing "my life would be perfect if," and start playing "my perfect life." What's the difference?
 
Three things: being in the present, an attitude of gratitude, taking action with what's available now. When we're caught up in the "my life would be perfect if" trap, we've lost touch with the present. And the moment we detach from the present, we can no longer practice gratitude. Think about it: it's difficult to be grateful for what you don't have...and what you don't have is always somewhere out in future-ville.
 
Look around you right now. Think of 10 things you're grateful for. Do you have a roof over your head and food to eat? I'm
guessing the answer is yes. Do you have at least a few good friends or close relationships? Then appreciate them too, right now.  Keep going, and practice being in the present and being grateful for what is here and now at least a couple times a day.  You're also probably sitting there thinking "yes but." Yes, but I want more money, a better relationship, more time to travel, to be thinner, happier or whatever. It's one of the great mysteries I'll never figure out. The minute you stop focusing on what you lack, start focusing on what you've already got, and add the "magic" ingredient of action, you actually begin to attract more of what you want.  It's an amazing formula for really living your perfect life!
 
Let's say you want to lose weight or get in better shape, but you don't have an hour a day to spend exercising at the gym.
Therefore, you've pretty well resigned yourself to not losing weight or getting in shape. What if you had five minutes though...just about everyone can find five minutes to exercise, stretch, walk around the block or walk the dog. Would you be willing to be grateful for five minutes and make the best possible use of it? Therein lies the beginning of your perfect life!
 
A simple formula may help you remember how to apply this principle:
 
The present
+ an attitude of gratitude
+ positive action
= my perfect life.
Try it for a day.
 
Each time you start dreaming about how perfect your life would be if...come back to this moment, give thanks for what is, and do one thing to perfect what you have and who you are right now. There's a saying that "when the student is ready, the teacher appears." If you're ready to start perfecting your life, your teachers are all around you.
 
What are you waiting for?
   
     
       
The Leadership Coach TM
 
Every so often we read an article where a phrase or comment will turn a light bulb on for us.  Such was the case when I
read a recent  magazine interview with Jim Collins, author of “Built To Last” and “Good To Great.”  In the interview he said
that the best people in your company do not have a job-they have responsibilities.
 
At that moment I reflected on the best people in our company.  They were the ones I could trust to get something done
without asking them to do something twice.  They don’t need specific job instruction manuals; they have responsibilities. 
I can count on them to take on their immediate responsibilities but also to care enough to grow the company.
 
Since reading this interview, I have shared it with many people.  I was not the only one whose light bulb turned on.  As a leader you can use this powerful guideline to gauge who are truly your best employees.
 
The Leadership Coach is Peter Burwash, President of Peter Burwash International, a company that manages tennis
instruction programs at top resorts in more than 30 countries around the world.  "Reprinted from SportsTravel magazine.
” For more information, visit www.SportsTravelMagazine.com He can be reached at [email protected], and his books are available at the Sportravel Media zone.  The article is referenced below.