Finish What You Start

One of the most impressive lessons our sport teaches all participants (swimmers, coaches and parents) is the value of finishing what you start. What you start is your goal. What you finish is your personal victory…measured by you based upon what you set out to achieve – your goal.

We are working with our high school seniors right now. They have a 2+ month window for their high school season (California has swimming as a spring sport). And then they need to decide what to do with their summer training and racing block. If they plan on pursuing swimming in college – and thankfully most do – then the most important thing they can do is train and race this summer. If they do that, then they set themselves up for a good shot at transitioning into their college team and that season. If they punt the summer away (“I need a break, I’ve been swimming my whole life. I want some summer fun” – sound familiar?) Then they enter the ranks of college swimming a couple of steps behind. And college swimming is much more demanding than most of them have done before…finish what you start.

Let’s say you swim a 200 free in 1:45+. Your goal is to go 1:42. How can you get those next 3+ seconds? (The GREAT coach Jon Urbanchek says that at the big meet you need to be thinking about a 1 second drop per 50) The way you get those 3+ seconds is to go 24.0 – 26.0 – 26.0 – 26.0…= 1:42.0. You need to really sharpen your focus on training so that you are physically prepared for the task. Then you need to sharpen your emotional skills so you are able to handle the challenges of the race itself…then you finish what you start.

As a coach, you have goals – yes, you need them just as your swimmers need them. Whatever your vision is for your team, your season, your career…define your path and then stay on it come hell or high water and finish what you start.

You are a parent and you want nothing but the best for your child. First define, as specifically as possible, what for you constitutes what the “best for your child” means. Then map out a path and stay on it. A coaching colleague of ours – who is also a parent – remarked the other day that once you have a child you have made a 20 year commitment; the child comes first. That means all the usual sacrifices but more than that it means at all times under all circumstances putting the young one first. Oh, both parents need to have the same mindset on this one…if that is possible.

Great ones – not simply Olympic medalists – finish what they start. We’ve been coaching for decades and we still have this mantra in mind…we finish what we start.

See you poolside…as Dave Krotiak says, “Have an awesome day!”