Summer time means tired swimmers

As a coach, I realize that younger kids want to play during the summer, and that often means tired swimmers at swim practice. Today, I had just about half of all my Gold swimmers do something exhausting before swim practice. The fact that it was in the high 80's didn't help much in my pursuit of an excellent dry-land day. Between Junior Lifeguards, pool parties, sleepovers, beach days, surf camps, and just about everything a kid can do with all the time in the world, there hardly seems enough time in the day for a 2 hour dry-land/swim workout. But they come. They come tired, fatigued, and slow. But they still come. I know I may not be able to get 100% out of them, but I make sure to let them know that if they choose to come to any workout, that they are going to give everything they've got. I let the kids know that all those other things are totally cool and OK to do during the summer. I want them to have fun. However, if they show up, they have to work just as hard as the day before. If they are too tired to give everything they've got, then they should have stayed home and made that their day off. After all, they are only required to make a minimum of 4 out of 6 offered workouts per week to be in these groups. Today started slow and the kids were certainly not into the dry-land with the heat, but by the last set they were giving everything they had. And that is absolutely all I expect.