Rust…

…never sleeps; so says Neil Young through his music on his iconic 1978 album of the same name. It is what we think of tonight, the night after our first weekend of racing since the first week in August.

If you are a guitar player, golfer, painter, carpenter, teacher, coach or competitive swimmer and you put down your Stratocaster, clubs, brushes, hammer, chalk, stopwatch or speedo for nearly two months, when you pick up the tools of your trade you will exhibit some rust.

And that is to be expected. The only way to get the rust off is to scrape it off through use.

We were a bit flabbergasted to hear some of our swimmers – who we think of as “professionals” – say things like, “yeah but I thought I would go faster…”

This proves – again – that not all folks are as wise as we would like to believe…HA!

Ask yourself…where was I a year or two ago at this point in my season?...meaning literally at the first meet of the fall. Put this experience in perspective and then see what you really see.

We – North Bay Aquatics – have been in the water 4 weeks. We have been training for 2 weeks. We have been in the weight room for 6 weeks. We have been training in that room for 4 weeks. We have rust in the pool. We have much less rust in the weight room.

If you are a swimmer…ask yourself, “Where am I in the grand scheme of things?” And then you will know what you need to do this week. Keep working on your game.

Olympic Trials begin June 26, 2016…get your game in order…keep your perspective…

Rust never sleeps…