Coach Casey shares about her ISL experience on Team Iron

As many of you know I was away at ISL for the month of November and just wanted to share with you all what an amazing experience that was. I was able to work with some of the best coaches and athletes in the world and learned so much that I am excited to bring back to work with me.

The ISL Playoffs were located in the city of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, which is an awesome little city and had lots of fun areas to explore. My teammates and I had a great time going into the small downtown area near our hotel in between all of our training sessions and Match Days. With the Netherlands tightening up their COVID restrictions, spectators only made it to the first Match of the playoffs. The rest of my races and meets were spectator free, which was sad but also allowed my team the opportunity to create our own energy and thrive off that.

Team Iron had 24 different nationalities represented with our swimmers and staff, which made it really incredible to meet and learn from athletes and professionals from across the globe. A huge emphasis was made on our team culture, team bonding, and taking pride in what we were doing each day. This experience really made an impact on my mentality in the water, as well as what I hope to be bringing to the pool deck as a coach. How intentional these athletes and coaches were with technique, how they design practices, nutrition, recovery, etc. was so great to see and learn from. I cannot wait to share more on this with our swimmers at practices.

It is hard to put into words what this experience has meant to me, but I am so grateful for the opportunity I was given and for everyone who poured into me while I was overseas. I had the time of my life and it really was an absolute dream to be able to compete internationally against some of the best athletes in the world. I am excited to be back on the pool deck and ready to put some of what I learned into practice!