by Cecil Marzo MIQUIABAS

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Age-Group Coach, Mercy Healthplex Sea Wolves Swim Club; Within the top 10 swim club in the state of Ohio and within the top 200 teams in the US.

Nominated-Ohio Coach of the Year 2014-2015 season.

Founder/Head swim coach of Iligan Aquatic Sports Association, Inc. (IASA) formerly: Iligan Amateur Swimming Association, Inc. - A small but very strong swim club in Iligan City known for it's swimmers' successes in national and international swim championships that includes age-group, senior and persons with disability swimmers.

Material Testing Engineering Technician at Metcut Research, Inc. Cincinnati, Ohio

3 IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS WHEN TRAINING ON A TEAM EFFECTIVELY:

Right Goal

Know your goals. Get help in setting your own long-term and short achievable goals. Whether you are training by yourself or in a group, you need to have goals.
Seek guidance from experts, which includes your experienced coach and teammates throughout the process.
Have a good assessment on your strengths and weaknesses and prioritize your plan on how to improve and get better. Knowing your strength also means that you know what your good personal skills are, or traits that involve sharpening and strengthening. It is like any bladed weapon, where you need to know which one or part to sharpen. Your strength usually protects your weakness. When you know your weakness, you will also know how to protect them with your strength. Getting better with your weaknesses improves efficiency by maximizing the usage of your strength towards achieving your goals.

Right Attitude

Be ready to work hard. Working hard doesn’t only mean that you need to be tired or very tired all the time at practice. It also means that you need to maintain good technique. Maintaining good technique is equivalent to working hard. If it were easy, every hard-working athlete would be doing it at practice and in competition. Technique endurance is one of the most commonly neglected and yet a very important part of training that needs to be incorporated in every great sports program. I personally believe that developing your habit of consistently doing things well for the right amount of time is the best way to get better in everything, which I also call developing your good attitude endurance.
Humility mostly comes with maturity but it is a very essential tool in learning. As the old saying says “You can’t fill the cup when it’s already full.”
Michael Phelps is the world’s most successful swimmer and yet, he is still learning and improving as a swimmer right now. No matter how good we think we are, we can always find ways to get better.
Learn how to make feedbacks and motivation from your coach and teammates useful. It adds more perspective in knowing yourself, particularly your strengths and weaknesses.
Ask questions to your teammates, coaches and yourself. While it is best to ask the right questions, it’s also alright to ask any question. It is very important to understand the power of asking questions and to admitting that you do not have all the answers. Check the web for any new techniques, videos and new studies. The internet is a very powerful venue for learning.

As most coaches are developing a program for everyone in the group (shotgun way), athletes need to know more detail on what is the reason/purpose of the drill or training set to make it more effective.

The James Councilman’s lecture (where they bring in non-swimming people to speak about what they are doing that made them successful) in every World Swim Coaches Conference has been very successful in promoting innovation and creativity in the swimming community when they learn something new from outside the sport and applying or adapting the principles to improve swimming.

Wear your enthusiasm at all times. Share positive energy to your teammates and to your coach. Everyone can have a bad day. It keeps you motivated, especially on the harder part of your training. The secret of having fun is being fun yourself.
Share what you learn. By sharing, it helps you think and understand your ideas in a more in-depth way. It even helps link into new ideas.
Lastly, when you do things over and over again to get better, it requires a LOT of PATIENCE.

Right Environment/Support

If you think your current team or coach is not the best around the area, research for the best option and pick one not just because it is convenient to you.
Learn to be a good student. Good students are always extra creative learners and get better no matter who their teachers/coaches are.
Be the right support and help your coach and teammates have a great environment and culture.
Develop your personal support group.

BAD STUDENTS CAN LEARN FROM GREAT TEACHERS.

GOOD STUDENTS CAN LEARN FROM ANY TEACHER.

GREAT STUDENTS CAN LEARN FROM ANYONE AND FROM ANYTHING.

Cecil Marzo MIQUIABAS is an Age-Group Coach, Mercy Healthplex Sea Wolves Swim Club; Within the top 10 swim club in the state of Ohio and within the top 200 teams in the US.