• Swimming Home
• |
• Jones Aquatic Center
• |
• Swimming Camps
• |
• Coaches
• |
• Archives

Dec. 23, 2005

Finals are over, and the break has officially started. Thank God! What seemed like a long haul, looking back, only seems like the blink of an eye. We've survived the first semester and the first half of our season. Yesterday's challenges are now today's foundation on which we stand, building higher blocks for the prospects of tomorrow. Now more than ever is a time of challenge for our team, when great focus is called on not only to get us through long days of intense training, but to also keep our efforts directed towards our goals.

With the hype of Christmas and going home, the reality that the Southeastern Conference Swimming and Diving Championships (SECs) are only two months away is easily overlooked. As the swimmers train in Sarasota, Fla., we divers are here on the now deserted campus. From a diving perspective, training in our pool this break is a huge advantage. Other teams would love to train in the facility that they will try to claim as their own come SECs. When the week of SECs arrives, regardless of the meet's title, the competition pool will remain OUR pool. We know every aspect of this pool, from every flip turn and starting block, to every spot in the water and the way the diving boards echo in the pool. Having these mental and physical advantages over visiting teams is an example of how perspective is a powerful weapon.

Like anything in life, it's all how you look at it. Things will be as you make them. Christmas training can be challenging and unproductive, or it can be a time of building and great improvement. The showings made at SECs are a good representation of which path teams chose. Times and places are not reserved for anyone or any team. Finishes are determined by a season's hard work. Success will happen if that's what you choose to train for, not settling for anything less than your best day-in and day-out. That's just what we're continuing to prepare for, starting Christmas training: day one.

As many of my teammates have stated, the spirit and heart of this team are inspirational. No team has a perfect report card, but that's what drives success. Perfection leaves no room for change, and this program is changing in ways that sometimes even we can't put into words, but the understanding is felt. Twenty years from now, times and scores will only be remembered in record books. What I think we all will remember is what it meant to be a Lady Vol swimmer or diver. That is because of the vision that we all share for what this program is becoming and how it shaped us to be who we are.