The past two weeks I have been visiting East Coast swimmers. Some famous east coast Olympians are, Katie Hoff, Ryan Lochte, Michael Phelphs, and Erik Vendt .

On October 5, I hosted a clinic with Olympians Christine Magnuson, Kaitlin Sandeno and Peter Vanderkaay in Pittsburgh, PA for the Allegheny Moutain LSC. There were over 150 swimmers in attendance at the University of Pittsburgh! They have a beautiful pool and great people! The kids loved seeing Christine and Peter’s Beijing medals. If you recall Christine received a silver medal, and Peter received a gold medal for his outstanding record swim in the 800 free relay.

The next day, Christine and I traveled to Baltimore, MD for a clinic with the Columbia Clippers swim team. This was their 5th clinic with us! The coach Jody Frey is a professional at hosting clinics.

This past Saturday, October 11, Rachel Komisarz and I teamed up again to host a clinic in Stroudsburgh, PA for the Pocono Piranhas swim team at the Pocono Family YMCA. I enjoyed hanging out with the swimmers and coaches! Here is a local news story on the clinic,
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081012/NEWS/810120324

The next day, I met up with Peter Vanderkaay again to do a clinic in Whitewater, WI for the J-Hawks Aquatics swim team at the University of Wisconsin. Another great group and great pool. Check out some pics from the clinic below.

September went by so fast; I didn’t have a chance to blog! Let me catch you up…..I went to the ASCA convention, and had the wonderful opportunity to meet over 1200 coaches! Right after that, I met up with Rachel Komisarz in Reno, NV for a clinic with the Reno Aquatic Club. They were great hosts! Thanks Deb! The next day, I flew out to Salt Lake City, and met up with Kim Vandenberg. We hosted a clinic together for the Eagle Aquatic Team. I also, had the opportunity to speak to one of the local schools. Just the month before, Kim swam in the Beijing Olympics and won a Bronze medal in the 800m free relay. WAY TO GO, KIM! See pictures from their clinic below. Thanks guys!

Being on the road for five days straight, I was ready to get home and rest. The following weekend, Gil Stoval and I hosted a clinic, in his hometown of Germantown, TN for Germantown Swim Team. Everyone had a blast and was so excited to see him. The next day, Kim Vandenberg and I hosted another clinic together in Norton, MA at the Wheaton College for the Magnus Aquatic Group. We had over 100 swimmers! Check out their picture below.

The same day, Randall Bal & Ed Moses hosted a clinic together in San Ramon, CA. Great job guys!

Two weeks ago, I visited my good friends in Shreveport, LA, the Shreveport Swim Team. There were over 200 swimmers! WOW! It was super! While I was in the area, I spent some very much needed time with my folks. That weekend, Brendan Hansen and I, hosted a clinic for the Monroe-Woodbury Marlins, in Central Valley, NY. This was their third time hosting a clinic, thanks for the support Denise!

Last week, I hosted a clinic in San Marcos, TX, just outside my hometown of San Antonio, for a non-profit group Swimberley. I loved the small intimate group; we all became friends for life. Last Saturday, Kaitlin Sandeno and I, hosted a clinic for the Mason Manta Rays in Mason, OH. The clinic and people were awesome! What a beautiful town! Then to finish off my busy month, I met up with Davis Tarwater for a clinic in Paris, KY with the Paris Bourbon County YMCA swim team. Davis and I had fun! Thanks Jenny for being a great host!

WOW! I met over 300 swimmers! Next month, I am scheduled to meet about 1,000 swimmers! INCREDIBLE! I want to say Thank You to all the clubs that have booked a BREAKout! Swim clinic. All of you are a huge blessing to me!

Wednesday August 20, 2008

Just 5 more days of the Olympics and just 2 more days until I’m at Igo Library (2-3pm) for an Olympic book reading with autographs and a chance to enter a drawing to win the USA team backpack. So stay tuned for more information.

As much as I like swimming… track and gymnastics are the original Olympic Sports and some of my favorites to watch. We have seen some incredible performances so far in these two sports.

It must be cool to say like Usain Bolt, that you’re the fastest man in the world. Or to say like 16 year old Shawn Johnson that you are one of the best gymnasts in the world. Do you think you could be the best in the world at something? Do you really? Well, I never thought when I was growing up that I could be the best in the world at something? I didn’t think it was possible until I was 20. But I just kept setting my goals progressively higher and I kept doing my best everyday in school and sports. Then sure enough, years later it worked. Now whatever your gifts are, whether it’s a subject in school, music, art, fixing things, computers or sports always do your best for a long time and you will be amazed at where your life ends up!

The other original Olympic sport is wrestling. Henry Cejudo who’s mom and 6 siblings came here from Mexico has won a gold medal for men’s freestyle wrestling. I met some of the wrestlers on the plane to China last week. And although they are not very tall they are super tough and
I would not want to challenge them to a match. Henry just finished college and now has a gold medal, surely America is a land of dreams and opportunity.

The other athlete I met on the plane was the famous triathlete, Hunter Kemper, cool name isn’t it? As you may know, the Latin prefix “tri” stands for three. So, Hunter trains in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center for 3 events rolled into one: 1.5 mile swim, 20 km bike and then a 4 mile run, Have you ever “tried” a triathlon? You should try a “tri”. I did it once…once. I had fun but it hurt, but when I look back at my life as kid, that’s pretty much all I did was swim at the Harmony Hills Cabana Club all day, ride my bike all over the neighborhood every day and run around and play tag or just race. Most children are natural triathletes! I challenge you to swim 10 laps in the pool, bike twice around your block and run 5 times around your house and then read for at least 30 minutes. If you did that you would have a very fun, productive day!

Like I said when I was a kid I used to ride my bike everywhere. And now they have a new Olympic sport of BMX bike racing. How cool is that! Do you like riding your bike? Maybe this could be your Olympic sport? The 4 other new sports at the Games this year are: 10K open water(very difficult and crazy), Women’s steeplechase(very cool), Women’s team sabre and foil or fencing(our own Kelly Hurley is in that, Yea!), and finally Table Tennis team event or we call Team Ping Pong(very fast and contrary to what you might thing very difficult).

Certainly, there has been some incredible victories but there have been some sad disappointments. Even the very best in the world can have off days and make mistakes. It’s normal to be upset but to turn it around into a positive attitude is the sign of a true champion. Whether you have a things that go well or not so well today keep a positive attitude.

Hi everyone!

I told you I’d give you the links to my news clips from Beijing.

Beijing News Clips

Monday August 18, 2008

What an incredible weekend for this Olympics and
Olympic History! We witnessed the fastest man ever in
the world on land and in the pool. Usain Bolt broke
the world record in the 100m dash in track and Michael
Phelps, as everybody knows, became the greatest
Olympian of all time and easily the greatest swimmer
ever, by winning 8 gold medals in 7 world records.
Unbelievable!! And we got to say we saw it with our
own eyes. We can look back and remember that we saw
history being made.

Michael’s story began with a goal when he was 11 years
old. First he wanted to be the best 11-12 year old he
could, then the best 13-14 year old, then at 15 made
his 1st Olympics. I was with Michael on that team in
2000 and I never would have guessed that he would
accomplish all that he has. But he and his coach had
a dream and a goal and then they just worked really
hard for about 10 years. From age 13-23 Michael
worked harder than anybody else in the world and he
went on to do the most amazing feat the world has ever
seen. I read an article the other day about success.
It says that no matter who you are, no matter what
line of work: sports, medicine, businesss, one can
achieve greatness if they work very hard for about 10
years or 10,000 hours, regardless of talent! I think
that last phrase is cool because sometimes we think we
need more talent or genetic gifts to be better, but
it’s not true! Most of the time it’s just not giving
up. I’m so excited about where you and I will be 10
years from now as we keep reading and working hard!
We can be like Michael and set goals and work hard and
see our dreams come true also! (more…)