Winterfest/Sickness/Time for focus!!

What a great meet last weekend at the University of Maryland. There were over 1400 swimmers at this meet, and I know WSY was represented well (overall Team Champ for the 4th year in a row) at the meet. As Coach Guy mentioned below, many WSY swimmers had their first experience with a double ended prelim/final type of meet, and this is great experience. As many parents/swimmers are finding out, long days such these tend to lead to sickness, if the swimmers are not taking care of themselves. This is the 2nd "Travel Meet" we took this year (Swim International was the first), and after both meets I am hearing reports of our swimmers being sick. I talk all the time to the High School athletes about taking care of themselves (as they have 12 plus more meets representing their high school). It is very easy to get sick when your body is "run down" after long weekend meets. Parents need to be monitoring their swimmers eating habits (why are we still allowing the kids to eat junk/drink soda etc), parents need to be monitoring how much sleep the kids are getting. I know that when we are at a meet that requires a hotel stay it is great to socialize in the hotel lobby, and stay up late. The younger swimmers do not swim until 12 noon, so "lets allow our kids to stay up late", but what this does is take them from their normal routine, and then they get tired the next day..........As you all know I am not a parents (unless it is to my 4 legged dog Kobe), but over 18 years I have learned alot, especially when it has to do with swim meets. If your kids came home from the meet, and they are now sick, take some time to think back on what we can do at the next meet to perhaps prevent the sickness......as we all know it is not fun to be sick.

It will not be long, and those 9-12 year olds will be on the WSY National team going to 4-day meets, where it is even more important to remain healthy!!

I can not say enough about how every WSY swimmer "stepped up" at the meet at Maryland. We had almost 50% lifetime best times. We had several meet records broken, 3 new team records set, and one University of Maryland pool record set as well. We came together to swim some very fast relays, and the best part is how much fun swim meets can be with lots of WSY swimmers at the meet. Many of the kids do not go to school together, so the only time they get to see one another is at swim practice and swim meets, and I really like to see how they socialize as well as swim fast.

I know swim meets like this do take their toll on parents as well, and I did get to look up in the stands frequently to see some tired parents. Thanks for always being there for your swimmers. I tell them all the time to "be sure to thank your parents"

Now it is back to work with a few meets in January, a good number of WSY Hosted Meets in February, and them we will again come together in March and April to defend out titles at the Y District and State meets, as well as swim very fast at Y Nationals.

Thanks for the continued support......it was great to see so many WSY parents this weekend, and hopefully everyone enjoys the coaches new WSY Blog!!!