Swimming

I feel adrenaline pumping through my body.  My heart is beating fast.  I have butterflies in my stomach.  I'm concentrating on taking long deep breaths and I realize I'm rolling my ankles and wrists as I wait.  For those who know me, no I am not about to mount the balance beam, step up on the blocks, or walk up the diving board.  This time it is not my turn.   I am on the other side.  I am a coach; however, the nerves are almost worse.   Now I pace the pool deck, tap my clipboard and have a stopwatch in hand.

What athletes don't realize is how much coaches invest in them.   We live and breath the sport.   We agonize over line ups, replay races over and over in our head, analyze splits, research the best tapers, and spend hours writing practices designed to get the most out of them.  We put our heart in each and every one of our athletes.   We go through the ups and downs with them.  We rejoice in their success and are heartbroken with them in their failures.    We are their biggest cheerleaders.  We believe when they don't.  We learn what makes them tick; when to push, when to pull back and when to encourage.  It is a lot like parenting, except we do not inherently love them. 

Our love for our athletes grows with time.  They come in as freshman, totally clueless to what the next four years will hold.  Immature, but full of life and excitement.  They make us laugh, but sometimes we seriously wonder if they will ever grow up :)  Then we watch them change year by year ... and by the time they are seniors we have come to respect them.   We've seen them work hard, push through pain, and come out on top.   Our athletes become like our children and we would do anything for them ...