Pacific Masters Committee believes that the back bone of Pacific masters is the great coaches that serve our  community. When I look around the different area of the US, I see great coaching but I do not think that they match our depth. And one of the thing that makes you, our coaches, special is your professionalism.

The Pacific Masters Committee works to support our coaches. Last year we sent 25 coaches to SwimFest 2010 in San Diego. From all the reports I heard coaches learned a lot from each other as well as being able to network with your fellow coaches.

I was very very pleased when Cokie Lepinski took on the task of having a weekend where coaches could again learn from each other and network with each other.  In the Excell Weekend for Swimming, she and her committee have a first rate line up of speakers including Rowdy Gaines, Olympian and great motivational speaker and Dave Durden, the head coach of the University of California Berkeley Swim team - a team that is only the fourth school to win both the mens and women's Div 1 swimming championships in the same year. If you were attending a seminar with just these two speakers, you could expect to pay hundreds of dollars, yet  Pacific Masters is bringing it to you for free - we support our coaches. I know that what you bring back to your swimmers will increase their enthusiasm and passion for swimming.

This is the time where you can network with other Pacific Masters coaches, you can share your war stories, you can hear from many great coaches on what motivates the adult swimmer as well as how to train the adult swimmer to s/he can reach his/her peak performance.

The dates are June 10 -12 the place is the College of San Mateo. If you have already signed up for the Excel weekend, thank you and thank you on behalf of your swimmers. If you have not yet signed up, I hope you do. Register at http://pacmastersswimmingexcelweekend.com/

I am asking you also to remind your swimmers at your workouts that The Excel Weekend is also for them - swimmers of all abilities are welcome. There will be pool work, dryland training and advanced techniques under coach Dave Durden of UC Berkeley.

A lawyer friend of mine, said that if you did not attend a conference and know 70% of the material, you were not keeping up with the profession. The conference is there to help you fill in the other 30%.

It is your professionalism that keeps our swimmers in the water, it is your professionalism that helps the swimmer reach his performance peak, it s your professionalism that keeps you leaning more and more to help your swimmers.

Thank you for your help during the year, I look forward to working with you  during the rest of 2011 and I very much hope to see you at the Excell weekend.

Warmest personal regards