October 29, 2007

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision...It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." Andrew Carnegie

Hey ya'll! (yes, all three Texans in a row...I had to continue the trend! :) I thought I would start out this week with a quote that sums up the direction towards which I feel SWG is moving. We have been back on campus now for a little over a month and everyone seems well adjusted. In addition, we have grown tremendously as a team, especially in recent weeks and days. The gym has been an exciting place and I really think we are beginning to practice as a unit.

Just a few highlights of the week that I want to mention, as they really stand out in my mind as significant in contributing to the development I’ve seen. We started out last Sunday with a beam intrasquad, which marked the first time any of us had done a full set this year. It was very exciting to get things kicked off in this way and though some of us were a little shaky, I think it was a great way to get people motivated and t0 begin our transition into the "competition" mindset of training.

On Wednesday, we took some time to watch the video from NCAAs as well as talk about some of our goals for the year. This was another wonderful team experience and really motivated us to train with the end of the year in mind. We have set our sights high but I have no doubt that with the effort, heart and determination of this team, we can make our goals a reality.

Thursday we had a "new skill" exhibition day during practice, which was extremely exciting. Not only are there some huge tricks being done, they are clean and aggressive and serve to represent a physical manifestation of the hard work people are doing in an effort to reach the goals we set forth in our meeting on Wednesday.

It is these types of things, among many others, that are enabling us not only to make daily strides and improvements but to make them together. And because they are made together, they are bigger and better than any one of us could have made on our own. Anyone that doubts the ability of SWG should take heed of Carnegie's words... the "uncommon" result might just become a reality.

Aimee Precourt