GO SWIM: "What We Learned from Ryan Lochte "

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Great post on GoSwim.tv from friend Glenn Mills. Click HERE to see it all, below are some excerpts that ALL of our KA swimmers should pay attention to:

I had the opportunity to spend the past week in Columbus Ohio at the Senior National Championship meet for USA Swimming. While there, I got to watch Ryan Lochte both in, and out of the water.

Here are a few things I learned by observing one of the greatest swimmers in history.

Dealing with Mistakes -
Yeah... even Ryan has things happen to him that are unexpected. During the start of the 100 back, Ryan slipped off the touch pads and was pretty much dead in the water. In races with the caliber of swimmers he was competing against.. that's pretty much it, you're done and I'm sure he knew it. However, he made his way to the surface and did his best to crank out a pretty darn respectable time. While it would have been easy for him to cruise, I was impressed that he at least tried while even knowing he had no chance of winning. Nicely done. You can watch all the races by following this link, but look for the men's 100 back A final to see Ryan starting behind everyone else.

Racing Tired -
It was pretty clear that he's been training, was unshaved and had come to the meet to stay racing sharp. It could have been very easy to skip this meet and get ready for World Champs, or just stay in the shadows... Ryan came to play and race. Again, it showed so many young swimmers that there will be a day you're expected to swim fast and compete even if you're not totally ready.

Professionalism -
I'll finish this with one last point. Ryan seems like a laid back guy who just kinda jumps in the pool and swims really, really fast. At one point in the meet, I was standing a couple of people away from his coach while he was swimming. I don't know what it was they were working on, but they were obviously making some changes from a previous swim and I overheard Gregg Troy exclaim... "Man can that kid make changes quickly." It was something every coach looks for in their athletes... are they coachable. Do they listen, and more importantly, can they make the technical, or strategic changes to make them more successful. While Ryan may seem laid back, there's a lot going on in there, and it's all geared toward performance.