Not a very glamorous shot, I admit. This is something I see a minimum of 2 times every day. I ask that my athletes do the same for themselves. I tell them: "Physically place your goal in front of you somewhere that it is important to be reminded of it". This is my garage door opener with an Olympic Rings USA sticker under it. When I leave for the pool everyday, I am reminded as to why I am going there. When I return home I ask myself if I got anyone closer. These two weeks at SBSC are about goals as individuals and as a Team. We had some deeply enlightening Team meetings last week that really had a profound effect not only on the athletes, but they really got to me. I decided to use a corporate cohesiveness exercise I had read about where everyone writes down a fear or concern they have for the team, then we drew them out of a hat one by one and discussed them. I wanted to do this so we could work them out and get closer to establishing Team goals. They absolutely blew me away! The concerns they had for each other were deep, well thought out, and very very real. Rather than trying to define what a Team is after this exercise, we became a Team during the exercise. I thought it would be a quick team meeting and we would move forward. It took the better part of two workouts to get through the 30+ cards in the hat. I've not seen a more supportive, cohesive group of young athletes come together. Now practice feels like everyone is present in the moment and there to accomplish something. This is a group of 13-17 year olds; most of which just moved into the senior group. It feels as if they are now training not only with the purpose of getting faster, but seeing to it that no-ones fears come to reality. I recommend this exercise to every team that wants to take their training to a new level for the individuals in the pool and the Team as a whole.
Getting back to the picture, we have decided to make our goals as real as possible this year and to stop hoping for them to come true and start seeing them as our reality. Are your goals full of hope or plans?
