Broadcasting Life

can't wait...or can i?

so i signed on to coach bass this fall. i think my roommates will think i'm insane since i did already mention this to them. this is how my fall schedule will go:

mondays: work 8-10, class 10-12, eat 12-1, work 1-3, class 3-5, hour off, coach 6-8, habitat 8-10.

tuesdays: work 8-10, class 10-12, eat 12-1, class 1-4, 2 hours off, coach 6-8.

wednesdays: same as mondays

thursdays: same as tuesdays

fridays: work 8-10, class 10-12, afternoon off, hopefully no bass practice that night.

saturday: work 10-12

sunday: work 12-2

and that's it. my fall schedule. 8 - midnight every night will be homework along with friday afternoons and the 2 hours on tuesdays and thursdays. that leaves no time for procrastination and i'll have to be really on top of things.

yeah right. we'll see how long that will last. i am the queen of procrastination. but, none-the-less, i have never (well pretty darn close to never - there was one time this spring semester, but all was ok) handed in an assignment late, unless i didn't know about it. so, obviously, i can don't have much problems with getting er done. i think i like the adrenaline rush of lateness...unless it has to do with meetings or being somewhere on time, i'm all about not being that type of late. anyways.

i've been doing some random complaining to my mom about what i want to be done with this swim team and obviously i have to be the one to do it. i'm afraid of being shot down, which is what usually happens and i'm secretly afraid of the opinions of my co coach, although i feel that my ideas and my thoughts would be much better (but isn't that what we all think?). my co coach shot me down the other day when one of my swimmers came to me and asked if she could have some more practice time. i'm all for it. when a swimmer comes to me and asks for more practice time because she wants to improve, i'm not going to stand in her way. but obviously her other coach will. when i went to tell my co-coach this, this is what she said: "no, absolutely not. if she's bored she can find better things to do. she doesn't need another practice. she's just trying to make "a" times and she's not even close."

how's that for believing in your swimmers?

so, she continues to frustrate me as i'm not going to make her upset with me as i know she could potentially be horrid if i upset her and i don't like people mad at me. and life goes on.

here's my ideas for the swim team:

- team t-shirts. i'm working on a design now.

- new caps with new logo.

- team suits eventually.

- get kids to swim at meets...there's so much to be done to achieve this.

- end of the year banquet ideas: awards for hardest worker, most improved, high point winner, other random awards, tshirts for those who acheived a, b, c times and participants. hopefully the tshirts and the awards will make kids want to swim even more, compete in meets.

- parents meeting. first one at banquet, but then again at the beginning of each season and building to one each month. the parents need to be more involved in their kids swimming and need to realize how this club works. they need to know what us swimming is, how far you can go in it, why we need new board members and what the board members do and why it's vital their kids compete. we need to target the parents because they are who controls what their kids do.

- some sort of program to motivate the kids. they should want to swim in meets and i think its odd that they pick their events. the event picking should change. i have kids who swim the same events over and over again. no variety.

- i need to really work on some hard core sets for this fall. i want to work on the developmental kids strokes and endurance without having a co coach to hold me back. i want to push any age groupers there to work harder and i want to get novice swimming all four strokes for at least a 50 each and to not fear any of the strokes.

- some sort of dry land training has to start. it's key to help them develop their strength which in turn helps their endurance and strength in the pool which equals faster times.

- the kids need to learn how to compete. to race their opponents, not to just go out their and swim and not care. they should know their times, understand that to get better they need to tell themselves they can do it. swimming has a lot of mentality to it. it's also embarrassing to me at a meet when the kids take their events with a grain of salt.

i think that's it for now. there's so much to do. but as i was telling the board the other night when we were figuring out ideas, that to get kids to come to meets and to get them to figure out what a swim team actually is, it's going to take about a year. i don't know how long i'll be coaching, but hopefully i can help them get there.

this weekend i'm off to the lake after a gf swim meet. i need to try working with my digital camera and we are going to get pictures up on the big score board, then i'm going to be the photographer at the state meet for north dakota. i'll take pictures of the winners and we'll put them up on the score board. it'll be great for my resume. which is something else i need to work on. i need to figure out an internship for next year, and i know what i want to do, but i have a lot of work to do. here goes.