The final entry comes from head coach Kyle Clements:
Another Florida training trip has come and gone, and we have made it back to Milwaukee safely. We take this trip annually, and it is a crucial part of are season training. These 10 days are the most demanding 10 days of our year, and the sun and the beach helps this team make it through the week mentally and physically. This year's trip went off without a hitch. In recent years we have dealt with freezing cold temperatures, team illnesses, hotel and van fiascoes. We were able to avoid all those issues this year and put in a full 10 days of uninterrupted training.
The trip started off with an early arrival to the Milwaukee airport for our A.M. flight. It's always fun for the staff to see how some of the freshmen react to the travel, because it always seems like at least one of them have never flown before. This year it just happened to be Emily McClellan, and she provided everyone with some good laughs through out the morning flights.
We made to it Florida after a short layover in Maryland without any delays, and then proceeded to get our bags and rental vans. It takes some good packing skill to get 66 people into these vans with their luggage, but like we do every year we made it work. It was then off to the hotel. For the first time in four years the UWM swim team changed their hotel accommodations, and it worked out wonderfully. We stayed at the Ocean Manor Resort and it was a welcome change of pace, and they did a wonderful job accommodating us. After we got checked in and dropped our bags off it was time for the training trip to begin.
Our first night there we do not have any pool time, but that did not stop us from getting a great workout in. We headed out onto the football field there at Pine Crest and then proceeded to have a great dryland workout that included a lot of lunges, abs, squats and a lot of running. That first dryland was amazing and it set the tone for the remainder of the trip. It did get cut a little bit short though. The fields sprinkler system went off in the middle of the girls teams stretches (the boys found this to be hilarious). We then returned back to the hotel to get a little 'R & R' before the next practice.
Throughout the week we went double practices from 8 am to 10 am and from 6 pm to 8 pm. As a coach, this is one of my favorite weeks of the year because I get to pull out all my favorite workouts and put them all right next to each other. Most of the workouts have names like animal kicks, goal 50's, power kicks and the infamous Pain Train. Everybody knows that these sets are coming, and they make it a point to mentally prepare for each and every one of them. Near the beginning of the trip we also got to swim against Hillsdale College, who is coached by a UWM alum and that helped break up the monotony of back to back to back practices. After the meet we had our team dinners with the boys going to their usual Bubba Gump Shirmp and the girls who like a little variation going to Aruba. Everyone always gets dressed up for these dinners (the ladies take it a little more serious then the men), but its always fun for the staff to see them in normal clothes.
The days continued on, and the workouts kept coming. I could tell that everyone was getting tired (some of them told me in case I could not tell), and I knew it was about time to give them their afternoon off. As a coach I always I like to help push these athletes further than they thought they could go. So before I gave them a practice off, I led up to it with our two hardest practices of the year back to back. On the evening of Jan. 12th (my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday Kristin - sorry I forgot to call) is when I pulled out the pain train set, and the next morning is when I introduced the first annual biathlon. Both practices went amazing and the kids earned their afternoon off. We then had two remaining practices left, one I would write and the last one I let the seniors write.
On Saturday morning we checked out of our hotel around 4:30 am and headed to the airport. After a little hangup with ticketing we were through security and headed back to Milwaukee. We arrived in Milwaukee a little before 11 am, and the team parted ways to their respective homes and dorm rooms to prepare for their next challenge. As I said before, I really enjoy pushing these kids, so I scheduled a meet for that next day against Carthage College at 1 pm. Everyone one was one deck 24 hours after we landed. I could see some tired eyes looking back at me, but it has been a point I have been making all year that if you can learn to swim tired, once we rest, the sky is the limit. This team has taken that to heart. They have given themselves to this team, this program and to UWM. Every time they step on those blocks they give it everything they have and it shows.
Twenty-seven hours after stepping off the plane we found ourselves catching our collective breaths, and looking at the scoreboard, and realizing that not only did we survive, but we set seven new pool records in process. Congratulations Panthers. The staff and I are very proud of you.
Kyle Clements
Head swimming and diving coach
