| |
|
| |
 |  | | Welcome to Coach Matt's Corner |
The "Orca Way"
While the Orca Way is something that is hard to define (most parents describe it as a feeling of acceptance or love or community or that every swimmer, regardless of talent, matters), I hope that this description of our five values will begin to impart a sense of what it is about.
Spirit: I think this one is the key. All things start from within—thoughts become words; words become actions; actions become habits; habits become character. Our thoughts must be rooted in love for one another, our opponents, and our community—regardless of how we are treated in turn. If we get this right, the rest of the Orca way is easy.
Sportsmanship: Nothing leads to our internal decay faster than things like envy, boasting, arrogance, and rudeness. And if we are selfish and insist only on doing things our own way, we become intolerable (if we always get what we want) or irritable (if we don’t). While these things are easy to recognize in others, they are difficult to see in ourselves. We all have an excuse for every selfish thing we do. These must be rooted out. Then we can be gracious in winning and honorable in losing.
Dedication: We must be patient and kind. By patient, I don’t just mean put up with practice times and be devoted to the team during the honeymoon-like portion that comes with all new things. I mean that we must be patient in the hardest way, with who others are. After all, a team is made up of individuals with many quirks and flaws. True success in this area comes when you can then be kind, not out of some sort of obligation, but because you want to.
Motivation: We must be motivated to do things correctly. We don’t want to be motivated by resentment, or happy that we have done something well when others do wrong. We should do our best and not squander our gifts because that results in honor to our creator and a true sense of personal satisfaction.
Excellence: We have seen that when the above are aspired to, excellence is reached. Perfection can never be obtained, but excellence can even if you can barely swim across the pool. Personal bests are more important than medals. Virtue and character are more important than personal bests. When excellence is attained it carries over into all aspects of our life. But it starts and ends with agape love.
- Coach Matt
Here is the practice plan the WOW Coaches will be using:
 Orca Practice Plan
|
|
|
|
