Humble pie

As coach of one of the most successful NFL teams in the last decade, Bill Belichick is known for dealing 'humble pie' after every game. Even during New England's undefeated season all his players would note how there was always room for improvement.

Running's version of humble pie is a race. If you want to know where you stand in your training, sign up and give it what you have. I'm over simplifying but shorter races are great measuring sticks for your progress. If your a male and your goal is to qualify for Boston, you have to run a 3:10 marathon. If you sign up for a 10 miler during your training and you struggle to finish at 8 minute miles, there's some work that needs to be done between now and the race. Racing is like all natural butter; there is no substitute for the real thing. Most training plans/schedules include and show when build up races should be run; these are important to include in the training. I would encourage to try and have these be real races, and not just you running that distance as if it were a race. Obviously timing plays a role in that, there may not be a race of the specific distance you need when you need it, but don't be afraid to vary the weekend training schedule to squeeze the real race setting in.

I haven't been taking my training serious enough and it wasn't until yesterday I realized how far behind I am. I set aggressive goals for myself and I think my first goal needs to be adjusted because I didn't put the work in up front. Now I'm left with 8 weeks and couldn't feel farther from a 3:10 marathon. I knew up front that it was a big under taking, but currently I'm not on pace because of lack of effort and lots of excuses. Last year while training for my first marathon I didn't care; I didn't know what I didn't know so there was nothing to slow me down. Now that I've gone the distance and been there and am confident I can do it again I've been less motivated to go out and reach new highs in miles run. I'm adjusting my goal not to accommodate a lazy schedule, but to remain realistic. Here's a strategy for building a training schedule and race plan:

1. Pick your race and distance
2. Set your goal finish time (if this is your first race at that distance, finishing is the goal)
3. Find a training schedule that you feel will help you achieve your goal finish time at the race
4. Take the shorter races that fall in the schedule seriously and learn from them
5. Adjust 1. or 2. based on what you learn from 4.
6. Always be realistic, finishing distance races is a huge accomplishment in and of itself, having an unattainable goal will only take away from the success of finishing.
7. Find a way to make it fun. Training isn't fun, running long distances is not fun; the fun and reward is finishing, it's making it farther than you thought you could go, so you have to find a way to make that hard work fun. I blog, what do you do?

Thank You

All,

I want to thank everyone for your concern and responses to my asking for help.  I want to let you all know that I have been both contacted by Dana and paid for my coaching efforts as of today.

Thank you again for your support.

Kelly

A favor from an old coach

All,

I know you are all deep in your daughter's basketball season sand I wish you all the best. I am writing to ask a favor, I've debated on taking this step for a while but have run out of options:

I have not been paid by Dana for coaching this summer. I have been patient and have made repeated attempts to discuss this with Dana, but have not been given a reason or even a response from Dana. I did not decide to help out you daughter's team because I needed the money, but because I wanted to coach. I am dissapointed to say that at this time I have no interest in ever being involved with the Swing in the future because of Dana's inability to communicate with me. I have tried to contact him to return your jerseys but I cannot get a response. As a final email I will forward this to Dana as well.

What I am asking as a favor is for you to let Dana know what you thought of me as a coach and what if any impact I had on your daughter this summer and how you felt I represented the Swing. I am not asking you to ask or demand he pay me, simply let him know what you thought I brought to the Swing. If you'd like to copy Lora in your correspondence, both of their emails are below.

I wish you all the best, and look forward to seeing your daughter's playing yet this winter.

Kelly

coachmackenzie@wisconsinswing.com
stavlor@hotmail.com or coachstav@wisconsinswing.com

Uniform returns

All,

From the responses I've gotten back it appears that an end of the year get together will probably not work into your busy end of the summer schedules. I have already made arrangements with some of you to get the uniforms. If we haven't made an arrangement yet, please email me (kfgriego@hotmail.com) or call me 608 469-3317 to do so. Also, my home address is 3739 Maple Grove Drive Madison, WI 53719. I'm on the south-west side of Madison near Verona. Thanks for your help.

If any of you would like contact information for other parents or players from the team, let me know and I can forward that information to you.

Kelly

Probably forgot all about me. . .

All,

I hope everyone's summer is finishing well. I received an email from Dana regarding uniforms. I wasn't aware of this previously, but apparently the uniforms you are all in posession of are not part of the gear that was purchased as a part of your daughter's registration fees. Dana has asked all of us coaches to hand in the jerseys and shorts. So here are my questions:

Would you prefer to get together as sort of a season wrap up party/cookout/or other, and hand in the uniforms then?
or
Would you prefer to arrange individually getting the uniforms to me?

Let me know your thoughts, I am sure you are all very busy wrapping up vacations and summer plans before school comes around, so I am open to what works best.

Kelly (coach g)

Accessing schedule and location of games

All,

I was having issues accessing the schedule and I know some of you were too. Here's what I did:

Here's what I did: Go to the Swing Site. Do a 'right mouse click' on the link for the 10th grade girls'. Some options should pop up, click 'save target as'. This will open up a box to save the file onto your computer. Save the pdf wherever you'll find it, then you can open it from your computer, not on the web.

Our game locations for Friday are the same: 12:00 Noon and 5:00 pm at Spring Hill Middle School. Which is a block away from the High School located at 300 Vine St. Wisc. Dells, 53965.

Our Saturday game at 4:00 pm is located at Baraboo High School at 1201 Draper St. Baraboo, 53913.

I will make arrangements to pick up the Waunakee girls as well as possibly Brooke tonight at practice.

I am going to try and 'pre-register' so I don't have to go to Just a Game Fieldhouse prior to our games, I should know that by tonight.

~coach g

Rides to the Dells

All,

I have been asked by Michelle Johnson to see if someone could provide a ride for the Waunakee ladies. Michelle has offered to transport the girls to a near by town if that helps. I know that Brooke's parents are also working on something for her since her sister is playing Friday at the same time as us.

I would be able to help out with the Bri's as well as Brook if need be because I am taking the day off Friday. Keep me posted.

Michelle's email address is : mjohnson5@tds.net

~coach g

IMPORTANT TOURNAMENT NEWS!!

All,

I spoke with Brad (who is making the schedule) since we are running out of time. We are now RR1 on the 10th Grade Girls Schedule which is where the Rising Force was. This means that our game times are as follows:

Friday: 12:00 noon and 5:00 pm
Saturday: 4:00 PM

Please let me know immediately if this is still a conflict since I do not have the Edgewood Tournament Schedule for this weekend. I will send out another email tonight or tomorrow with locations, but they will be what's currently posted on the schedule for RR1.

~coach g

Tournament New

All,

I've spoke with Lora a few times this week and she keeps reassuring me that our schedule will be changed with the Rising Force. I just emailed Dana to try and get his reassurance of that schedule change. I've already begun to try and recruit a couple players if we are unable to get our schedule changed. It's the only option I've been left with given our time constraints. I apologize if that's what it comes to, but I'm in a bind here with limited options. I'm open to suggestions if you have any.

See you at practice tomorrow 5:30 - 7.

~coach g

Practice is Thursday

All,

Practice is from 5:30 - 7:00 at Keva Thursday the 17th. As always, let me know if you will be in attendence.

I have not heard the final word back from Lora if we will be able to flip schedules with Hayes' team. I am trying to pull up the schedules right now on the swing site, but they aren't working. I will continue to check and update all of you as soon as I know something.

Again, great job yesterday. Our defense and toughness was the difference for us. We need to build off of yesterday and step up the intensity even more for this weekend.

~coach g

Schedule Change for Sunday!!

All,

There were revisions to our game times: Following is the updated information as well as the web address to view them yourself:

Sunday:
11:00 am
1:00 pm
3:00 pm

http://www.pcappleton.com/leagues/schedules/basketball/documents/14Ugirls7-13-08.pdf

Please be at the gym ready to go by 10:30, we never know if the games are ahead of schedule or behind, so that way we should be good to go. See you Sunday.

~coach g

Tournament Schedule

All,

We are in the 14-15U bracket in the PC Players tournament this Sunday the 13th. Our game times are:

10:00AM
1:00PM
3:00PM

The schedule can be found here: http://www.pcappleton.com/leagues/schedules/basketball/documents/14U15UGirlsBK7-13-08.pdf

Please let me know if you will be able to make practice tomorrow as well as availability for the tournament.

~coach g

Practice July 9th at 6-7:30 Keva

All,

We have practice scheduled for tomorrow night at Keva from 6-7:30. I know Bri Johnson is on vacation, and for those of you who don't know Alex broke a bone in her foot and is questionable for the rest of our season. I haven't heard back from her since Sunday and that was before she had seen her doctor to get more details on the injury. On another injury note, Brooke is back and playing, with some pain I may add, but she's back.

Please let me know if you can or cannot be in attendance tomorrow night. Hayes' team will be practicing at the same time, we may or may not scrimmage since its been so long since we've practiced together. Hopefully we'll have enough people show.

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

~coach g

Upcoming practice schedule

All,

Sunday, July 6 = 6:00 – 7:30 at Keva *****(same time as Hayes' Team)

Wednesday, July 9 = 6:00-7:30 at Keva *****(same time as Hayes' Team)

Thursday, July 15 = 5:30 – 7:00 Keva

I already know some of you cannot make it this Sunday or next Wednesday because of vacation. Please let me know if you CAN make it on these days and times so I can plan accordingly.

Thanks for your efforts to make practice, I knew this stretch of the summer was going to be tough with vacations and other commitments.

~coach g

Practice Schedule

All,

Lora has alerted me that there is an updated practice schedule on the "News" section of the Swing page, ALERT that is not the one we should follow!! There will be a schedule for us listed under the "Team" section under 15U - Griego. It is not up as of right now, but should be soon. She also said our next practice will be Sunday, I don't know time or location, but will send out an email as soon as I do. I already know some of you will not be able to make that practice: Bri Johnson is out, Brooke is probably still out due to injury, are there any others who cannot make this Sunday's practice?

~coach g

Appleton Tournament

All,

I've gotten some emails about a block of rooms for the Appleton PC Players tournament. That may not be necessary because the tournament looks to be a one day event, that guarantees 3 games. http://www.pcappleton.com/sports/basketball/documents/GirlsBattleintheValleyTournament.pdf

If this posting on the tournament is correct, we would be playing on Sunday July 13th ONLY. I am moving forward under that assumption unless I hear otherwise. Also, at the bottom of the tournament pdf is a release waiver that all players must have signed by a parent.

Does an all day event July 13th present any problems for any of you? If so let me know.

Lora hasn't given me a heads up on our July practice schedule, so I will bug her about it and hopefully let you all know something soon.

Any questions shoot me an email.

~coach g

Practice This Sunday

All,

We have practice 6-7:30 at Keva this Sunday. Hope to see many of you there. I know we're going to continue to have conflicts in schedules, we'll make the best of it so we can be prepared for July 12th in Appleton, and July 19th in Wisconsin Dells.

~coach g

Practice Thursday

All,

Thursday's practice is 8-9:30 at the Krantz Center at Edgewood Highschool. Hope to see you all there. If you can't make it, let me know.

~coach g

Practice Tomorrow

All,

I've started to get some emails about Varsity practices on Wednesday nights. Please let me know if this applies to you. But keep in mind that this week is the only practice remaining in June that is on Wednesday night: June 11 4:30 - 6 Keva, Thursday June 19 8-9:30 Edgewood, Sunday June 22 6-7:30 Keva, Sunday June 29 6-7:30.

If this Wednesday does not work, please let me know. Regardless, I will be at Keva, I hope to see you there.

~coach g

This Weekend's tourny and next practice

All,

From my drive home Saturday from Whitewater until right now sitting here typing, I've been wondering what to say in this email. I think of myself as an employee of you, the parents, for the benefit of you daughters. I am responsible for the growth and progression of the girls through this summer session, which is now 3/5 over. Personally, I feel that I can do more to help the girls. I understand most of us are frustrated. Frustrated in losing games we should have won, and frustrated in getting blown out when we should have been competitive. As the coach, your employee, I have to take a stand and do what's right for the team. I think I've been too nice; I haven't challenged your daughters enough as individuals or as teammates. Moving forward here is what you can expect from me: I will push your daughter to be the basketball player I think she can be, I will challenge your daughter to do what's right for the team as well as their individual growth as a player. I will be more direct with my constructive criticism. All of your daughters bring things to this team that the team needs, all of your daughters have a place on this team, this team needs to learn how to work as a team. My yelling and screaming from the sideline hasn't helped us to play better team basketball, so my direct approach will.

My coaching will only get harder starting this week as most of your girls' basketball time will be spent with their regular season school teams. Maybe your daughter will be on varsity, maybe JV. I can't control what offense they run there, I can't control what plays they will run. What I ultimately have to be reponsible for is how your girls do when they are on the court in a Swing jersey and in my practice. I won't enable a good team to not play as a team, but for letting that happen in the past, I apologize and now I'm stepping it up as a coach because I am responsible for our 2-10 record. I can handle losing, kind of, but I can't handle getting blown out and seeing the look on your daughters' faces like I saw at half-time of our last game.

~coach g