Day 4: Recap

I arrived at day 4 of tryouts at the scheduled 8am start time only to find the pool occupied by the women's team and not a single member of CW on deck.  Obviously confused, I took a few minutes to stretch assuming that the team banquet went late and people were taking their time arriving.  After 10 minutes I decided to get some answers.  I headed over to the women's head coach Jim and introduced myself.  I had spoken to him a few times prior and he immediately recognized my name and connected me as "the technology guy from EMU".  He informed me that the CW practice had been pushed back and they were only notified as of late last night.  I spent the next 45 minutes discussing video and camera technology with one of the greatest swimming minds in Michigan.  He was excited to have me as a resource for his most recent technology dilemma.  I offered some pointers and also let him know I would do some further research.  Ironically we were discussing the video system for the summer swim camps.  A service I used back in 1992 when I went to camp there (I still have the tape!).  I look forward to helping him out with the new system.

Shortly thereafter the asst coach of CW showed up and offered an apology for the time change.  I let him know it wasn't a big deal and that I had a nice conversation with Jim in the meantime.  He took down my contact info so it wouldn't happen again.

Prior to the 9am start of practice, I made a few other connections on the pool deck including an owner of a swim school down in Tennesee by the name of Ron.  I also had a brief but meaningful conversation with Mike Bottom regarding the Eric Namesnik memorial scholarship.

Practice began shortly after 9am and it was yet another high intensity sprint workout.  I'm happy to report I actually did pretty well at this one!  I held it together and didn't add much time as the set went on (a good thing).  I finished up the set and shared some "good job" type comments with the other swimmers.  I'm noticing some nice comrodery thus far, people support each other on this team.  Coach Bottom came over, gave some feedback to others and then said "That was a good set for you", I said "thanks, it's been quite a transition over the last few days but I'm feeling like I'm making progress".  He then replied with a chuckle "now we just have to get some strength on you, you're as flabby as my mother and she's in her 80's".  A few other swimmers laughed along with me and I did my cool down.

I'd say overall I was proud of my set today, I held it together an swam hard.  Without trying to read too much into it, Mike's comment at the end seemed to indicate that there might be a future in training there.  I don't want to get my hopes up just yet but I'm feeling great about things so far!

I left the pool with a smile on my face.  It's been a great experience so far!