I’m sure that all coaches have been asked that question near the end of a long meet.  This last weekend I had a great opportunity to let the kids answer that question for themselves.

We were at our ‘big’ meet for the first 3 months of the year – a 2½ day meet starting on Friday afternoon, and with finals on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Overall, the meet was a  little slower than expected, and we were a little faster than expected, so we had an unusually high number of Saturday evening final swims. We’re a young team, so many of these kids made their first finals. The pool was also 45 minutes from home, so naturally when early Sunday morning warmups rolled around, the swimmers were tired. And I had quite a few ask me, “I’m tired. Do I still have to warmup?” Somehow, being fatigued was considered a…