I. Love. My. Kids. Absolutely love them. I coached the 8 & unders and the 11-12 age groups everyday from 9-11:30 AM May 30th-July 11th. Getting to know the kids not only on an athlete/coach level, but also a friendship level was a true gift. Coming in every morning and having kids run up to me to tell me about the fun things they did after practice the day before, or getting soaking wet hugs after successful races was my favorite part of the job. The sound of little 6 years olds screaming, "Coach Riley!" will forever ring in my ears, but I wouldn't trade my time with these kids for anything. It was interesting watching each and every swimmer grow from the first practice of the season to the last. Some kids went from barely being able to make it across the pool, to scoring in the top 3 at the championship meet! It's absolutely insane watching these kid's confidence grow in just a 6-week season. At the beginning of the season, we spent a lot of time evaluating each swimmer to learn their speed and technique in each of the four strokes (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle). There was a lot of repositioning of the lanes to try to find a combination of about 6 or 7 athletes that are similar in speed and worked well together. Once we felt confident in the arrangement of the athletes, we moved on from mostly drill work into the heavier, endurance building sets. For the 11-12 age group, we were able to quickly increase the difficulty of the practices since they are older and stronger. The first two lanes were more experienced since they swim all year round, therefore we were able to design a practice that would challenge them. In contrast, the remaining 6 lanes do not swim all year round and require a slightly less rigorous practice with less yardage and slower time intervals. For the 8 & unders, we spent lots of time doing kicking and freestyle in the first parts of the season since most of them were not legal in some of the other strokes. As the season went on, we developed the other strokes and entered them in events we felt confident that they would succeed in. My favorite part was teaching them how to do starts. It was slightly humorous watching the kid's cannon ball or belly smack off the blocks in attempts of a dive. But with time and patience, all skills were developed and we had fun in the process. We ended up going 4-0 in the regular season, since there are only 4 other teams in our league: Olentangy, Grandview, Annehurst, and Upper Arlington. Going into the championship meet on July 11th, my fellow coaches and I were excited to come out on top. Unfortunately, we fell second to UA. Even still, the kids stepped up to the plate and brought home many team records and hardware. I am proud of their hard work throughout the season and I cannot wait to be able to watch these kids grow in the years to come!
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