Coach's Corner . . .

WHAT A COMMITMENT! LET'S GO PFL AQUATICS!

The PFL coaching staff cannot thank our members enough for signing up for our November 8-9 LSST swim meet. Last year we had 44 athletes go to this meet. This year……..74 are entered. This is truly amazing ladies, gentlemen and athletes. 78 % of our team is competing and representing PFL Aquatics. Most teams average between 40-50% for meet attendance with 50 % being on the high side. 

Not only do we have 78% but we have 25 athletes attending the swim meet 2 days. This is with Taylor high school swim team having a high school meet on Saturday, Nov. 8th. Last year we had 13 going 2 days and that was mostly our high school kids attending.

This is how we start to become a competitive team and not a team with competitive athletes. It is a process, and it will take time to truly learn how to race but it will be worth it in the long run. We are thankful for you and excited about the direction the team is headed. 

The coaching staff is going to continue to ask all parents to praise effort and change over time. It’s ok to slow down now so we can go faster later. However, if you praise change and effort, the kids are willing to experiment and try new things. It becomes about the process and learning from mistakes. 

We are going to ask you to really pay attention to how you respond to your athletes’ races. The kids will feed off your physical and verbal response. The kids need to be calm and relaxed. A relaxed swimmer is a fast swimmer. A stressed or anxiety ridden athlete is going to ride the struggle bus. Muscles are tight before they even race and doubt has most likely planted itself firmly in the brain. 

Be positive no matter what the outcome is for each race. The staff will let them know if they made a mistake or didn’t give the effort, they are capable of giving. What did you learn from the race and how do we get better next time is the message we want our athletes to receive. This will hopefully take our outcome-oriented athletes and start to make the change to a process-oriented athlete. Process-growth mindset               Outcome-Limited mindset

Here are some questions that you can ask to ask your athlete(s) after their races. The staff is going to talk to the kids after their races about what they need to focus on more at practice(mistakes), and what they did well after each swim.

• What did coach say?
• What do you think you did better than last time?
• What do you think you need to work on more at practice?
• If they made a great effort, please make that a big focal point. Wow what an effort. That was amazing. Are you going to give that effort for your next race as well? I sure would love to see that effort again…….
• If it was not your best effort, do you think you can give a better effort next time? I sure would like to see that…..
• Are you happy with that swim? Why yes or why no? Make sure to let them explain. Try not to lead them if you can.

We are really excited about the turnout and are looking forward to seeing you poolside at the meet. Please look for the meet itinerary to come out this Wednesday.

Thanks for being a part of PFL Aquatics!

COACH JASON & STAFF