ISST Swimming Trip

By Chiara R., Grade 9

Excellent group dynamics, shared responsibilities, and fun, all combined into one, makes good teams. The MIS swim team showed all of this, when they went to The Hague, Netherland, March 12 – 14^th. With the help from the coaches Grace Wang and Heiko Horn and from each other, the students were able to achieve their goals, like reaching a new personal best and even won two medals. Although our team was the smallest of all, this didn’t let them down and give up! 

“To be honest, I really don’t care about the gold medals. Because I was a professional athlete,” Coach Grace said.  “In your age, in your level, I really want everyone to just enjoy and challenge their own personal record.”

This was the mindset of the team, which allowed us to believe in ourselves and not give up. It allowed us to create more self confidence in our achievements but also create a larger bond between each other as a team. During the races, everyone would be on the pool side and cheer the swimmers on. 

“My trainers taught me a lot of swim techniques and motivate me to continue,” 9th grade student Vasilisa K. said, who was part of the swimming group. This did not only give the swimmers a greater belief in them self but allowed them to understand that they should just try their best in the race. 

“Everybody worked together very well”, said Coach Heiko. 

From the beginning of the training season, as well as the trip, everyone from the team understood each other really well, ranging from the age of 5^th to 9^th grade.  

“I made a lot of friends.”, said Vasilisa.

This didn’t only allow us as a team to understand each other, but to just have a good time. And the fact that we were only 9 people at the ISST didn’t bother us either. In the entire Swimming ISST we were the smallest team, with also the youngest swimmer with us. 

“There was a lot of team spirit”, said Cora D., grade 9.

When we were waiting during the races, we would come up with fun games we could play, like Mafia or Hot Potato. And after we were finished with the races and drove back to the hotel, we would all chat with each other on the bus or listen to the ‘interesting’ music, the other schools would blast in their speakers. 

“Handworkers challenge themselves, always achieve the highest level they could and also the group dynamic, they encourage all the swimmers to get their best result from their personal record,” said Coach Grace.

This explains how the coaches placed trust in us for different responsibilities. The students were able to choose which strokes they wanted to swim, giving them a voice. Our coaches gave us a lot of freedom during this season, not only allowing us to choose which races we can choose, but also the amount and which strokes. We found this very helpful, because this helped us choose, what was most fitting. During the ISST, we were able to choose were we wanted to eat in a restaurant, which was an easy decision: an Italian Restaurant.  

In total, this was an extremely fun trip and a huge shout out to Coach Grace and Coach Heiko, for your dedication and motivation during the training sessions and also during the ISST trip. It was a full blast, and I look forward for next year and its trainings sessions and the ISST trip. 

“I was thrilled, I have to say it was outflying expectations, especially with the team dynamics. It feels like a warm family trip, everyone take care of each other,” concluded Coach Grace.