Professionalism

Top tips

• Look after you kit: your swimming equipment is vital to good training. Take pride in packing your own equipment, taking responsibility for looking after your swimming things. Goggles, costumes and flippers etc. are all expensive – look after them!
   
• Respect your team mates. Please do not cheat your team. There is nothing more frustrating than working hard during a set, watching someone sit out of a rep for a ‘stretch’ and then having them beat you on the next one.
   
• Arrive on time, listen to sets the FIRST time so team mates will not be hanging around waiting for you to understand.
   
• Work hard: ‘Nothing worth doing is ever easy’. Throw away your expectations of a set and challenge yourself. Some days you’ll feel good, and some days you won’t – as long as you’re doing your best you will improve.
   
• Look after your body away from the pool – injury and illness cause missed sessions which can add up massively over the year.
   
• During the winter season keep yourself healthy by wrapping up warm to and from training and drying your hair wherever possible after training. Wash hands frequently, and use hand sanitiser at school. Most germs/bugs are spread through touching contaminated objects/surfaces so keep your hands clean and (politely) keep yourself away from people with contagious illnesses. Remember that as an athlete your body is stretched to its maximum most days and this can compromise your immune system, meaning you have to take extra care to keep well.