At one of our training sessions we did an exercise with all the Groups and swimmers who attended the sessions at Sportspace where the swimmers decided on a list of attributes they felt coaches expected of swimmers, as well as coaches and they of themselves.
It was an interesting exercise and both sessions came up with almost exactly the same sets of words, and in all cases what they felt the coaches were looking for and what they looked for in their team mates, again almost exactly the same.

As a group we have agreed that all of our swimmers and coaches will try to adhere to these as a set of common standards, to live up to our ‘Twitter’ strap line:

#itsallabouttheteam

Because, at the end of the day we are only as strong as the weakest link in our chain.

Each week, I will ask one swimmer who I deem to have been an outstanding contributor in the pool at one of my sessions, to choose a word from the list which will be our ‘Word of the Week’ that we all need to consider at all times.

Which I think is an excellent starting point.

As I explained to those present, the coaching team want everybody to be ‘The Best They Can Be’ and by cementing these values we are a step further along that line.

I also explained that, in the pool, as well as in life in general, we tend to be as good as the choices we make at various times and the more often we make the right choice the better our chances of achieving our potential, hence we also now have the line:

#ChoiceofChampions

In other words, if you or a colleague are looking at options for anything, help yourself or them to make the best choice and not the one of least resistance or easiest.

The ‘Lexicon’ of Berkhamsted Swimming Club attributes are below for everybody to have a read through and, remember these are the words chosen by you and your club mates!

Happy swimming,

Geoff Wood
Head Coach BSC

Email: headcoach@berkso.org.uk

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