Perspective as a choice

To all of you who read my blog, thanks. Apparently there are a bunch of you in Russia who read it too, so спасибо. I will be blogging more frequently now that the high school swim season is over.

This year, I am going through life guard training again with the East Bay Regional Park District. One of the lectures during the academy (yes, it is called an academy) was on treating victims who are on drugs. Because we are only going to have the Title 22 certification (below an EMT, but above First Aid), there are only so many things that we can do to help the person who is doped out. One of the precautions given to us by the supervisors was to be aware that the person is going to be seeing "things through a different lens. Their perceived "reality" may be very much different than what is actually going on."

If this is how you view the human body in real life, then you are in trouble.

I would be lying if I did not say that this past season of coaching was not my most frustrating. Practice was from 7-9pm or 6-9pm weekdays, which obviously ate into my free time. The season started with 43 swimmers, and we ended the year with 35. For many of my swimmers, practice and meets were an option, not a priority. Their other activities took precedence over swimming, and most nights we only had around 20 kids in the water. When they were in water, full effort was rarely seen from all the swimmers.

It ate at me internally, but I did my best to hide it. My parents are usually able to see right through me. Whenever I came home for dinner with my parents, they could tell that I was struggling with coaching. They listened and offered suggestions on getting the students in the water more, asked why it was different with my past coaching experiences. They allowed me to express my difficulties, and usually that was enough for me to clear my head.

Through my struggles, I have been able to bounce my ideas off of my parents. Somewhere on all my problems, there is probably this sticker that only they can see.

For one anecdote that I could use to sum up the season, it would be this: Two weekends ago, the team had league championships. Entries were due the week before that, and I had verified with the swimmers their availability for the meet. (Why should I have the need to do this? Because some swimmers had already made plans that they would not change for the league championship meet, and they would not be able to swim). This email I received Thursday night before the meet on Saturday:

Hello Mr. Savage,

I don't think I will be able to make the swim meet this saturday because it conflicts with my youth orchestra's concert.

I know that it is the last swim meet and I'm sorry that I will not be abler to join the team for it.

Never mind the fact that there is a typo in it (abler, or the lack of capitalization on Saturday), this is less than 48 hours before the league meet starts, with an athlete that I had on two relays.

It's a good thing I got this email at home, and not before practice. I probably looked like this after reading it. 

In the moment, I was furious. How long had he known about his concert? Why was he just telling me this now? I needed to redo my lineups and relays.

With some frenetic work, I pushed swimmers around from relay to relay and made the lineup work again.

At the meet, we swam fast. A ton of personal and season bests. The relays ended up going fast. We qualified some relays for the sectional meet (a blog post on this later). Almost universally, the team got better and faster. It was a struggle, but the team got there.

At the end of the meet, I could choose to focus on how much of a struggle the season was. The low participation, the quitting, etc.

The video above is one of my favorites. Atmosphere (the musician), could either focus on staying inside suffering with his hangover, or he could go outside and enjoy the day. He chooses to get out on the single speed and admire the girls in the sun dresses.

My perspective can change. I am not doped out on drugs, my perception of reality is not altered. The season was a success by almost all measures: best times, fast relays, improvement for almost every swimmer. I could focus on the fact that the student did not swim at the league meet, or I could see that he is a talented musician.

I can't let the struggle taint the season. At the meet, the other assistants and I said that their success had made the struggle worth it. A sentiment that I still have looking back on it.

You're stuck in here with me

As a quick reminder-Mother’s day is coming up on Sunday (May 12^th). Share the love with the woman who raised you or who is raising your kids. You would not be where you are today without her. I love you, Mom.

My parents played a huge role in making me who I am today. 

This was written before I realized that today is teacher appreciation day.

One of the best things about teaching and coaching is the fact that I get to share what I love (the sciences and water sports) with unsuspecting high school students. At times, teaching is sometimes portrayed as a teacher stuck in a room full of rowdy teenagers who can make your life difficult. 

Look how unhappy this poor teacher is and how happy the students are. 

I tend to view it as the other way around. I have a room full of students who are now stuck with me for 90 minutes every other day for a school year. Now I have them and I can show them how cool chemistry and biology are. 

Hahahaha. From a good movie, but better graphic novel.

With the kids in my classroom, I get to show them how catalysts work, in ways like this: 

Or getting to share information about phytoestrogens. 

You mean I have to look up what that means?

Students have a tendency to think about plants being boring and static, and all they do is photosynthesize (whatever that means). But then you can get into secondary compounds, which are metabolites produced by a plant as a byproduct of photosynthesis or other cellular processes.

So what are phytoestrogens you ask? Let's figure it out. The prefix phyto means plant. Estrogen: A female hormone that helps regulate the menstrual cycle (and does a bunch of other things). So plants go through menstrual cycles? 

No. But what about female contraceptives? Most oral contraceptives contain a form of estrogen (usually paired with progestin). So why are plants producing contraceptives? If a sheep (or grazer) eats the plant, then they are effectively (and unknowingly) taking a contraceptive, which means the sheep won't reproduce, which means that there will be fewer sheep to eat the plants... BOOM plants are interesting again.

SAY WHAT! Plants make contraceptives?

As a coach, it is slightly more difficult to get them to appreciate the work that I am having them do. There are not many shortcuts you can take to becoming a better athlete. While some students may "get" a subject or some new concept, you don't become a good athlete without hard work. I get to push my athletes to better themselves. And every now and then, I get to share moments like this with them:

I convinced a couple of my swimmers and students to do a local sprint triathlon. Here we are looking like idiots. And having fun doing it.

And this: 

Watching the Jamestown High School Varsity Girls team beat their rival at district championships. 

And this:

Coming back in the final two minutes to overcome a 5 goal deficit to win JV league championships in overtime. I'm floating in the back.

So who really benefits from the students/athletes being stuck with me? Don't know, but I am having a blast doing it.

Hey! You! Look at me!

A motto that I have tried to live by recently is “if you are not being rejected, you are not trying hard enough” (this is paraphrased from a bunch of other quotes). This is applicable in a lot of ways. Two personal ways are described below. Just FYI, it starts out a little “emo”, but gets better.

When I moved out of California, I left behind my friends, my training group, a steady job, effectively everything that I had built over the past 7 years to be closer to home and my family. I was getting comfortable in Williamsburg, but I had a feeling that it wasn’t the place to be at that moment. I was 25, living in a town full of married couples with kids, college kids, and old people. I was stuck at an awkward age in a place that I did not yet belong (or no longer belonged, depending on which direction you looked). I didn’t belong anymore with the college kids, and I didn’t have kids yet, and I certainly don’t have my AARP card yet.

Look at how happy these old people are. It's probably because they have their AARP discount cards. A typical resident of Williamsburg, VA.

I randomly looked for a job at my old high school, and behold-there was one. Not only was there a position for a science teacher, but also a position as a water polo coach. This was my dream. To go back to California, teach science and coach water polo. I put everything into the application and interview. The high school where I went is a great school, and I knew that it would be a stretch for a new teacher to get the job. I contacted the assistant principal, who was the athletic director when I was a student, that I was applying. I sent her my application and letters of recommendation, just to make sure that someone past human resources got to see my application. A risky move, but I wanted to make sure I got past the initial cut off. I called human resources to ask questions. HEY YOU! LOOK AT ME. I needed to stand out among other applicants who would have more years of experience to draw upon.

I can teach! I can coach! Please hire me!

I was interviewed by a group of teachers and administrators, most of whom knew me. I did my best, answered the questions, and waited for their response. A few days later, the principal called and told me I got the job. Insert very loud EXCLAMATION HERE. I would be moving to California, where everything is sunny and beautiful and perfect.

The caption for this image is "excited white male in business suit celebrates". The internet has way too much stuff. But this is pretty much how I felt.

With the exception of my desk and my bed, I was able to fit everything I physically owned into my Jeep.  Friends, training partners, relationships didn't fit. I drove across the country, and moved home with my parents. I intended on living at home for a month or two, and then move out as soon as I found a spot that I could afford.

One last stop in Williamsburg at Sno-2-Go with my fully loaded Jeep. This car has gone across the country four times. It is awesome.

That one or two months dragged on to three, and then four. The first months were tough. What happened to everything being sunny and beautiful and perfect? The only people I knew in the bay were people from high school, some of whom I hung out with then, but had lost contact with since. I didn’t have their numbers to call, and the typical Friday/Saturday night was spent at home watching Star Trek with my parents and sister.  Exciting stuff. I also had no one to train with, so my workouts became infrequent, and worthless.

Was this in my future? Star trek plus crappy workouts...It seemed inevitable.

I finally got a chance to move out, and I jumped on it. I had struggled to find a place while coaching water polo because of the lack of time, and I ended up using Craigslist to find a roommate-who ended up being someone I already knew but didn’t know was looking for a roommate.

I joined a master’s swim team, and decided that it was on me to find workouts and friends. At the master’s team, a woman hopped in my lane, and she was loud, fast, and she had mentioned running. Boom. Stalked her on facebook, and I had a running partner. That running partner led me to a triathlon coach. Workouts became effective. One problem solved.

I started to contact old high school friends who had initially contacted me when they heard I was back in town. Friends from high school that were older than me. Socializing with my roommate and some of his friends. Occasionally, I got shot down, or didn’t hear back. Such is life. Some called me back. But I went from having nights of sitting on the rollers in my parents’ basement and Star Trek to actually hanging out with friends. Life was returning to normal.

One of my friends works for 21st Amendment Brewery. The Hell or High Watermelon Wheat, Back in Black IPA and the Bitter American are all solid choices. And a good friend to have.

The lesson? I need to make the effort. Just because I was back in town, it didn’t mean that people that I associated with in high school were going to call me. I had to go out to find them. Friends were not going to show up.

Part 2

I have just started to try and pick up sponsorships/join a team for triathlon. Whether or not I actually deserve it yet is a whole other question (probably not, but still worth a try). So far I have only contacted a few potential sponsors/teams, and so far it has gone like this:

Me: I have these race results from this season: 4 races-two podium finishes, all races top ten in age group. Is this good enough?

Them: Congrats. Get faster. Our guys are faster.

As with any form of ranking, there is an endless ladder, and the ladder only gets steeper. One of the teams that I contacted, Every Man Jack(EMJ), is very fast.

Every Man Jack sells male grooming products, and also sponsors a fast triathlon team. The former, is something that I should probably use more frequently, the latter, something that will help me get faster. A match made in heaven? We'll see.

I knew that it would be a stretch to get on their team. The athletes on EMJ beat me pretty soundly at Escape From Alcatraz . After exchanging some emails, they said that I could join the team at cost, and do some workouts with them. I think that I am going to take them up on the offer-an opportunity to workout with some quick athletes. It will require greater commitment from me to the sport to be a part of any team-traveling to workouts, being more disciplined through the workouts, making races. There won’t be an opportunity to hide. Am I ready to make this commitment? Can I with other time constraints-teaching and coaching? We’ll see.

This goes against my usual way of approaching things. I usually try and let things come to me, and let my actions speak for themselves. But I realized that there are millions of people in the Bay Area. To get noticed, I had to go out and have people look at me. Put the effort to call and organize. If I get shot down by the teams or the people I call to hang out, then it doesn’t change my current situation. I will still be without a team, or sitting on my couch. So get your ass off the couch and do something about it Savage. Don’t wait.

You have talent?

A few posts ago, I highlighted Tim Hahn, who puts out awesome short videos, and my students, who are far more artistic than I knew. This time, a shout out to Michael Kohl, a musician, and a call for help. He is a member of a band called XY Unlimited, and here is one of their songs:

Mike is in the black tank top playing guitar.

They are currently in a voting contest to try and win $10,000. You can vote once per hour. Here is the link: https://artistsignal.com/xyunlimited#_=_. You need to have a facebook account, and if you do, go give them some love.