Relationships - Part I

I thought that I would start my first blog with something that I really stress on our team and that is RELATIONSHIPS.  I believe to reach your true potential it starts and ends with relationships.  How well does the team really know each other?  How well does the coach know his/her athletes?  How well do your athletes know their professors?  How strong is your and your athletes relationship with God?

I start each season telling our team that the better we know each other, the faster we will swim.  It's really as simple as that.  When we know our teammates and coaches, we build trust, we build accountability, we gain resources, and support as we go through the season trying to succeed in the classroom, in the pool, and in life.

Building relationships takes effort.  Relationships don't get built by clicking like on facebook, or simply knowing a name and future career.  Coaches need to provide opportunities for teams to spend time together, and get to know each other face to face, not phone to phone.  At Calvin, like many other teams, we start off the season with a camping trip out to Lake Michigan.  This is a great time to get to know the new freshmen, tell stories about the summer, and learn more about our teammates than just their times and events.  This is  just the start of the process.  As a coach, make sure you look at your schedule and make sure there is time for your team to be together and not swim.  Community Projects, dinners, trips, study time, and other things away from the pool, play just as important of a role in the speed and success of your team as do the hard workouts.

My goal for the team is that by the end of the season they are able to look to our section of the deck and see not just Calvin warmups, but true friends, stories and experiences from the journey.  If your swimmers can do that as they get up on the block for their big event, they will have a great swim, because they will have something bigger to swim for than just their best time.  They will swim for the Team that got them to this point.

Philippians 2:5

New International Version (NIV)

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: