How fitting was it to top off our 2007 Mutual of Omaha BREAKout! Swim Clinic tour in the DC area!  After hitting over 80 cities, I thought it was so cool to do our final 2007 event at our nation’s Capitol.  Man, we live in a great country.  I’ve always been a patriotic and grateful person, but after this year I’m more convinced than ever that we live in the greatest country in the world! After visiting over 80 cities and staying with 70 plus families, I KNOW that America has some of the nicest people around!

Sam your spontaneous humor reminds me of why I love my father.  He’s funny!  His jokes keep the crowds laughing and the family healthy!  Thanks for your comic relief.  Also, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Marshall who shares a common interest–performing!  I had to admit that I was a bit envious that he was able to balance swimming and his acting/singing career.  Although I grew up with a professional pianist for a mother and an opera singer in my sister, I never really was able to experience the joys of the arts personally.  Keep it up Marshall!

The Streamline award goes to James and Elizabeth.  You’re on your way to greatness.  I also want to mention Jennifer and Marshall who won the Spirit award.

Kerstin thank you for making this possible for all of us.  I can’t wait to bring my Olympic friends your way! 

I love this time of year!!  Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday.  I love the food, family, songs, smells and presents!  My favorite, as a dad, is watching the faces of my children as they tip-toe into the living room to see their gifts from Santa.  What their eyes communicate is what I felt when I made the Olympic team-overwhelming excitement!

I’ll never forget getting a shopping cart and loading my cart with all the wonderful gifts you get from being an Olympian–new shirts, shoes, pants, sweats, caps, goggles, bags and more.  Anyone who knows me well, knows I love free gifts.  That’s  Mutual of Omaha!

They give you  free gifts!!!!  I couldn’t wait to get to Potomac
Valley to give the swimmers their gift bags and top technique tips.

 I was also excited to meet up with Davis Tarwater and Peter Vanderkaay.  They just returned from
Atlanta where they broke the American record in the 4 X 200 freestyle relay.  How cool is that! 

 What was even better was the 180 swimmers standing on deck ready to learn and race us!  Yes, that’s right.  We raced all one-hundred and eighty swimmers. 

 It was a great clinic and Davis and Peter now have 180 new fans ready to cheer them on.  In fact, Davis and Peter flew straight to Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center to launch their 2008 training.

 Streamline award goes to Saya and Brendon.  Great job you guys!

Can’t type long…I’m off to
Herndon,VA.

Josh

What an exciting past weekend.  This trip was a special weekend for me.  I asked my son to travel with me to the clinic.  Before I headed to you guys in WI, I had to make a stop in Vail, CO.   I know…it’s a rough job but someone’s got to do it!  I had the privilege to speak to a group of Orthopedic surgeons.   I hope I inspired them to keep pursuing excellence in their field of work.  I’m sure there are a lot of you swimmers out there who have benefited from great Orthopedic surgeons.

But I must confess, my goal in the swimming community is to put these guys out of business!!  Great stroke technique will almost 99% of the time keep you from needed shoulder repair.  Of course this wasn’t’ my message to the group but I couldn’t help but think of this in the back of my mind. J  I won’t to visit every club in America teaching you to swim with the ULTIMATE technique.

Well, after a couple of runs on the slopes, I was off to Lake Country Swim Team to teach you guys how to AVOID shoulder injuries by having GREAT technique!  I went from snowy Colorado to the biggest snow flakes I’ve ever seen! 

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Once again it was great to be in scenic and Pennsylvania.  This time the clinic was in Lancaster and I stayed with my host family who live in the town over of Millersville.  And once again my host family was incredible!  Ron and Melissa have 4 kids: Allison-10, Justin-8, and the twins, Lisa and Matt-7.  So I felt right at home playing and reading with the kids.

The clinic had 80 kids mostly from the Lancaster YMCA swim club with Coach Adam helping set up the program.  Special thanks also to Coaches Dan, Cindy and Jillian.  It was a little chilly in the pool but everybody had a blast!  It took me 15 heats of 25’s free to race everybody but thankfully I’ve been training some more and wasn’t too tired.  I especially enjoyed my match race against Clay and Justin! 

The streamline award went to Micheal and Melissa.  And the Spirit/Smile award went to Jess and Clay.

I had to change my initial flight so that I could speak to the University of Oklahoma football team @ the Alamo Bowl before I left town.  Most of you wouldn’t think this is a big deal but I’m a Longhorn and our awesome sponsor’s (Mutual of Omaha)VP is a Missouri fan [the team OU was playing]!!!!  Well, let’s say I might have had the “golden” touch!  Ou beat Missouri…as I was running through airports.

My last minute flight change pushed my departure time up on my return flight and with all the flight delays… I just got home- TUESDAY afternoon! 

I’ll be back in Lancaster on Dec. 16th for another clinic for any kids who couldn’t make the first one.  I can’t wait to return!

Okay, so I must confess…Weymouth you won me over!  It really doesn’t take much to impress me but when Coach Mike Riley showed up in a brand new Mercedes-Benz …I knew it was going to be an awesome day.  Thanks to the kindness of a local dealership Aaron and I were being escorted like kings!

The swimmers in Boston were excited for two reasons. 1). The Boston Red Sox were on their way to sweeping the World Series and 2). They had four hours of instruction with World-Record Holder Aaron Peirsol!  After demonstrating his amazing technique, Aaron raced everyone in the free or back…how cool is it to be able to say you raced a WORLD-RECORD HOLDER!  Well, you all at Weymouth can wear your shirts proud. You raced more than just a Gold Medalist.

I’m so excited you had a chance to meet my friend Aaron.  He is one of the hardest workers I know.  I miss training with him and it’s always nice to connect and watch a “super-star” swimmer be so laid back and kind to everyone.

I know you guys are known for your tennis but you also have some awesome swimmers.  As a whole you had great streamlines.  Congratulations to Kaitlin and Pat our “Streamline” winners.  The spirit award went to Al and Christine…keep up the great attitude!

Again a big thanks to Lisa Judge and Mike Riley for helping Weymouth swimmers BREAKout!  -Josh