A couple pictures from my most recent trip to the Florida Keys.

Last Friday afternoon and Saturday morning I was leading two workouts for the Florida Keys Swim Club while Head Coach Jon Olsen was out of town. We were gearing up for some fast swimming during the Saturday morning session. You can download those two workouts for your use. Friday’s workout: FCSK20100813 – Saturday’s workout: FCSK20100814

My US coach and good friend, Jon Olsen, is back at the helm of the Florida Keys Swim Club as Head Coach. Read more about his return to the pool deck in a “Letter from the coach“.

Are you a swimming parent? This is for you then! Excellent write-up from the Florida Keys Swim Club website called “Ten Commandments for Swimming Parents“. And of course, it’s an excellent read even if you’re not a swimming parent.

It’s been two full weeks back to school for me after my three months summer of coaching in the Florida Keys. Mark Hill, former Head Coach of the Florida Keys Swim Club and assistant Race Club Coach, who left the Keys after two years to go back to work for his mentor Mike Bottom, former Race Club Coach, at the University of Michigan gave me this great opportunity to work with his team during the summer.

Swimming is my passion and I was fortunate enough to live it. Especially, after spending time serving in the Swiss Military and getting some classes for my Computer Science degree done over the last two years this was the single thing I was looking forward to for a long time. And once I was there and running the time went over way to fast. But it also was the one of the best things I did so far in my short life. So I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mark and the FKSC for the trust and support they gave me over those three months.

I was working with the kids from the FKSC, kids from the newly created Learn to Swim program as well as with the Fighting Manatee Masters. And for the first few weeks of their season with the Coral Shores High School Swim and Dive Team, one of my personal favorite. We went to simple meets and Championships, even got some Masters to compete for the first time in their life. And I even went to my first ever High School Dual meet with the Hurricanes the day before I left. To cut a long story short, we had a ton of fun (although we didn’t always have the same definition of the word)!

And I have to admit, it wasn’t always easy and there were times where I was close to failure to function. But in the end we always got the work done (creativity was key sometimes) and kept working towards our goals. Some of the kids may have seen big improvements, others may not have seen those same improvements yet. Believe me, I may know this better than a lot of other athletes. Swimming is a very demanding sport and you have to put in a lot of work, even to achieve only some of your smaller dreams. But as we told you, no one is going to remember what you did on a given day this summer (aside from your mom and dad). You did put in the work so people will remember the things that are still to come for you in the future.

I also want to let you know that the kids are in good hands as my former coach and friend Jon Olsen took over the reins of Florida Keys Swim Club once again.

If you visited my site over the summer you may also have noticed that aside from the work with the FKSC, I was also doing some work for The Race Club. Having the opportunity to be involved in what could possible be one of the greatest swimming projects is a big honor and an even bigger challenge to life up to the standards The Race Club stands for. And of course I would also like to thank the Hall’s and all the campers I had to opportunity to work with for their trust in my abilities.

To finish up, I have to repeat myself … this summer was an invaluable experience and a blast! There are some things cooking and I’m looking forward to the point where I will return back “home” to the Sunshine State once again.

I went through all the photos from my stay in the Florida Keys this summer and found some more random pictures to share with you.

Photos from the Clinic with US Olympian Ryan Lochte at the Florida Atlantic University Aquatics Center.

Photos from the first morning practice for the Florida Keys Swim Club and the Coral Shores High School team of the 2009/2010 season at Jacobs Aquatics Center in Key Largo.

Get up to date on all the latest FKSC news. Read on the success our athletes had at Junior Olympic Championships and Zones and the welcome back to Jon Olsen as Head Coach for the FKSC. As well as some news for the Coral Shores High School squad with their season kicking off on September 2nd with the first dual meet at Gulliver.

Photos from the Junior Olympic Long Course Championships.