Lessons from Coach Mag

When I was younger I was on the community summer swim team. It was a big thing to do in my area. I loved being on swim team... well actually I liked going to swim meets and competing. I wasn't so big on the practicing portion of it all. For many years on the LMT swim team, us alligators and crocs (teams) had an amazing head coach called Coach Mag. He was an awesome coach and it isn't recently that I have really understood the influence he had on my life.

My family joined LMT when I was around 6. I can remember my first day of Swim team, not very well but enough. There were kids just as small as I was sitting on our stretched out beach towels getting ready to do some "dry land" (exercises not done in the pool.... if you were on a swim team you hated dry land for the simple fact that you weren't in the water). I am sure my parents were somewhere very near by as I was a shy kid and wouldn't do anything without the safety net of family or friends. There was a very tall guy standing in front of everyone, watching us all lay out our beach towels on the ground. I shyly walked towards the group and the tall man in front. I tried to go to the back.

"SMALL CHICKIES IN THE FRONT!"

Several of us shyer ones slowly made our way to the front of the group. Kids ranging from 6 - 10, maybe 12. The older ones had already finished dry lands and were well on their way to finishing their laps for the day. The tall man with the funny safari hat grabbed me gently by my upper arms and lifted me to his eye level.

"Do you want to swim?"

I nodded.

"Do you want to be on the team?"

......... "I guess" I whispered

"It will be fun" he whispered and set me back down.

From that moment on my summers were made up of swim team and being at the pool.

Mom, Dad, and Baby John sitting with the Barnharts

during one of our meets, you can see the pool in the background

Coach Mag, at least in my mind, was a tall benevolent Giant that pushed for your best   - I was terrified of him haha

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT YOU CAN'T DO!!! TELL ME WHAT YOU CAN DO!!!"

This phrase was constantly being yelled from the side of the pool as we swam laps. It is something my family still says to this day. Ok it usually is something my mom says when we didn't want to do chores. It hasn't been until recently that I realized how he was trying to change our thinking. I couldn't swim a 100 fly (still can't btw... that stroke is hard! I never got the flutter kick down) but I could swim a 50 fly. And if I could swim a 50 fly, then I could swim another 50 fly.

Many times in my life I have had the can't do attitude. It's time that I took Coach Mag's lesson to heart and decide on what I can do. Because if I CAN pass the financial exam, then I CAN pass the Regulation exam and then the BEC exam. I can't exercise every morning, but I CAN exercise for 45 minutes at night.

So here I come. Time to tell the world what I CAN do.

PS Anyone know what happened to Coach Mag?