Swim Like A Champion (a real life journal)

[Breeze]

I have been on these boards for a while, and I have done quite a few dynasties...including, Golf, Track & Field, and Baseball. However, I've never done a real life dynasty. I've thought about it a couple of times, because I've enjoyed reading some other real life accounts, but I've always held back, probably because I'm pretty private and I didn't want to bore anyone with the accounts of my athletic endevors. Now though, I've decided to go ahead a do one, but thankfully you won't have to read about my sorry performances...rather, if you are interested you can allow the efforts of my kids to bore you...

A little background is probably in order.

Let's start with the subjects of the dynasty

I have 3 kids, an 11 year old boy, and 9 year old boy/girl twins. All 3 are year round swimmers at Swim Atlanta, and all 3 are pretty good (in different ways too, which makes things interesting at times). When I say pretty good, I mean just that...none are world class, but they are good swimmers that post good times. They have their goals that they really work hard to achieve, and there is quite a bit of emotion between the 3 of them and their interactions with their friends. I will attempt to capture some of that as I go along so you'll know what is happening. I'll get more in depth about my kids and where they stand and what they've done in the past and what their goals are.

Year round swimming

The swimming season for my kids can be divided into 3 distinct seasons...

1. Short Course which starts in August and runs through March
2. Long Course which starts around April and runs through July
3. Summer/Rec league which starts in May and runs through July

Swim Atlanta

My kids are on the 3rd level of development for SA (Swim Atlanta)...they practice 4 days a week MWF & Sat for a total of 4.25 hours a week. At practice they usually swim about 3400 yards. While those of you unfamiliar with year round swimming might think this seems like a lot (and it is a lot), it is significantly shorter than most of the other year round facilities have their young athletes swim. It is not uncommon for some other groups to have their kids swim 5000+ yards. I say this so you will understand the philosophy of SA...they believe at the younger ages it is important for the kids to know the technique and to enjoy the sport. Swimming has a very high burn out rate, because practices are long, hard, and solitary (hard to talk while your face is in the water)...and forcing pre-teens to swim that many laps leads to more kids quitting. Moreover SA believes that until kids are fully grown, there is no need to have the extra effort, because what they don't put in now, will be a non-factor by the time they get full grown. In addition, they feel that pushing kids to swim that many laps leads to some poor technique due to fatigue.

I'll fill in more on the kids soon...

Please let me know if you have any questions or if you need more explanation on anything. Because I deal with this on a daily bases, and most of my friends I communicate with are parents of year rounders, it is possible I'll assume you know information that I have failed to explain or even post...

[Breeze]

As you can see from the post above...we are right in the middle of the short course season (25 yard pools), and so I've been trying to figure out the best way to present this information, and I believe the more entertaining way to do this is for me to go back to the beginning of the season and fill you in as we go...this means I'll be doing a good deal of posting on information that happened months ago. I'll do my best to be as detailed as possible..but the information will probably be more high level....

I have some pictures and videos I can post from time to time, but I'll have to figure out where to put them on the Internet to make them available...

[Breeze]

Brett
Age: 11
Birtdate: August 2000 (this is important because the birthdate will impact how old the swimmers are for each season)
Height: @55"
Weight: @70 lbs

Description:
Brett is a very small and skinny 11 year old, who wears glasses is very intelligent. He also but suffers from extreme ADHD, and is quite possibly the most stubborn child I've ever met. Many things have come easy to him through his life...he learned to read music (and write music too actually) and play the piano really quickly, then lost interest and gave it up. He is a gifted artist (so much so he drew portriats of himself and his siblings for my mother for Christmas and he drew my niece for my brother...and they are phenominal), and he is a bit of a geek. He isn't really all that athletic, though he was a decent baseball player prior to giving it up for swimming. Unfortunately, Brett is also a bit of a loner. Due to his late birthday, Brett is by far the youngest and smallest in his class (in fact he's over a year younger than 3 kids in his class), and as I said above, not all that athletic, so the other boys aren't trying to buddy up to him. His intelligence, ADHD and stubborness also cause problems in making friends...as he doesn't relate well with kids around his age. He is very sensative and gets his feelings hurt easily, though it is hard to tell because he internalizes everything. Swimming is the one place where he truely feels comfortable...he really loves the sport and it is part of his idenity.

Resume:

2008

7/8 Forsyth County Championships 25 Yard Breaststroke - Champion

Brett was not a year round swimmer at this point (in fact, it was this win that started the entire swimmer family train down the track). He won this race by 1.25 seconds despite the fact he didn't even know how to dive.

7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Medley Relay - 8th Place
Brett swam the Breast leg in the relay, and though he earned the spot by winning the county championship and there was no

one better in the county to swim in his place, he was the weak link on the team.

7/8 GRPA Championships 25 Yard Breastroke - 21st

Brett finished 21st in the state - not bad - especially given he still didn't know how to dive


2009

7/8 Forsyth County Championships 25 Yard Breaststroke - Champion

Brett defended his title winning by over 1 second.

7/8 Forsyth County Championships 50 Yard Freestyle - Champion

Brett battled neck and neck with a former baseball teammate in this event, but his year round swimming allowed him to take

a lead on the turn (due to being able to flip-turn) and then enabled him to out work his opponent to the wall.

7/8 Forsyth County Championships 25 Yard Freestyle - 5th

By finishing 5th in this event, Brett qualified to swim in the "B" Free Relay at the state meet.

7/8 GRPA Championships 25 Yard Breaststroke - 17th

Not his best swim, but posted a time similar to the one he won county with

7/8 GRPA Championships 50 Yard Freestyle - 14th

Good swim, but too many bigger powerful kids.

7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Medley Relay - 5th

Good race for Brett here. His split was actually a personal best

7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Free Relay - 6th

Swam the anchor and the team did well...the highest placing B team at the meet


2010

9/10 Forsyth County Championships 25 Yard Breaststroke - Champion

This was an amazing race. Brett's regular season this Summer wasn't particularly good. His times didn't improve much from 2009, and when the county meet rolled around Brett wasn't even in the fastest heat (the 10 fastest times swim against each other in the last heat - but the meet is run as a timed finals so every heat is factored into the final standings). Brett
swam an amazing race in his heat. Dropping 2+ seconds from his previous best. I was thrilled, I remember jumping up and down and running to the end of the stands (we swim our county meets at the Ga Tech Olympic pool - so we really have stands) to tell him I thought he probably did well enough to qualify for state (top 3 time qualify)...but I didn't think he would win. But before I could get there to tell him the final race had already started...and I starting watching it with 1 eye and watching the clock with the other. When the race ended, the winner was .8 seconds behind him. I yelled at him from the stands that he had won, and his face just lit up...(I had been preparing him for days that he probably wasn't even going to make the state team this time, telling him to do his best, but not to get disappointed. When he made it, seeing the joy on his face absolultely brought tears to my eyes.

9/10 GRPA Championships - 25 Yard Breaststroke - 22nd

Similar time to county, but we didn't have much hope it would be much higher in the final standings

9/10 GRPA Championships - 100 Yard Medley Relay - 4th

Just missed getting on the podium...sort of...2 seconds from 3rd...but only 1 spot which is what Brett remembered.


2011

9/10 - Georgia 14U Short Course State Championship - 100 Yard Breastroke - DQ
This is an event for year round swimmers and to qualify for this event you must swim a time that meets the event minimums (state cuts). Brett worked extremely hard during this short course season to get a state cut. He was very close all year to the 50 yard time but never achieved it. However, in the last chance meet (so named because it is your last chance to get a
state cut)...he dropped his personal best in the 100 breast by 3 seconds and qualified. This meet was in Savannah, but we decided he had put too much effort into this achievement to not be rewarded...so we took the family. It was expensive...hotel, food, entertainment. The day of the meet we get there for warm up...he does his prep work and we wait, and wait and wait for his event (the meet was running behind). Finally, his event is called and he gets in line. Then when it is time for him to step up on the blocks, he doesn't hear the whistle...so he's a second late getting up. The start says take your marks...then stand - another official walks over to my son, asks him to step down and DQs him for being late on the blocks. I WAS PISSED...in fact, I wrote a nasty letter to the Georgia Branch of USA SWimming. This was another moment where I got tears in my eyes. My son was devistated. Rather than being pumped up about swimming he was ready to quit. And to make matters worse we had a 6 hour drive home, where he would stew about what had happened to him.

9/10 - Georgia 14U Long Course State Championship - - 100 Yard Breaststroke - 18th

After a brief period of pouting we were able to get Brett refocused and ready for long course. He did great here. swimming a personal best at the meet. This 18th place is a MUCH bigger achievement than his finishes at the GRPA meets

9/10 Georgia 14U Long Course Stat Championship - 50 Yard Breaststroke - 22nd

Again a personal best and a great swim

9/10 Forsyth County Championships - 25 Yard Breaststroke - 2nd

Brett lost in this race by .04 seconds. It was a disappointment, but he took it pretty well.

9/10 GRPA Championships - 25 Yard Breaststroke - 9th

This was a huge disappointment for Brett. Coming into this season he really wanted to get to the state finals in breaststroke, which meant finishing in the top 8...and he would have had it if not for a bad dive. He was way too deep on the dive and he ended up finishing .04 seconds out of 8th. Had he swum what he was swimming in training he actually would have finished 6th...

9/10 GRPA Championships - 100 Yard Medley Relay - 4th

This time Brett wasn't a problem for the relay and they were just beaten by 3 better teams.

Summer League Team MVP: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011

Notes

You may have noticed that most of Brett's achievements have been in Breaststroke. He is a very natural Breaststroker...in fact, he was swimming Breast in the relays on the summer team as a 6 year old because there were no 7/8 boy that could do it legally. His year round coaches constantlytell us his form is amazing for a young swimmer, and Brett sees himself as a breaststroker. This is good and bad. Good in that he has an identity and bad in that he has ignored the other strokes a bit. As you may have noticed...he hasn't gotten any other state cuts and he hasn't even qualified for GRPA events other than Breast. Some of that is because the breast causes him to have a sloppy kick when doing scissor kick or dolphin kick, and some of it is because he mails in the drills on those strokes. He is only now starting to try to get better in those strokes. Also so many of these Forsyth County championships have come really easily and he's just now learning how to work hard in practice.

[Breeze]

Bailey
Age: 9
Birthdate: April 2002
Height: @52"
Weight: @62 lbs


Description
Bailey is an extremely athletic and competitive kid (especially competitive with her brothers). She is unquestionably the best athlete of all my kids. In fact, she is still to this day the fastest in a foot race (but she's also been the fastest girl and one of the fastest kids in her grade every year). Another good way to illustrate Bailey's athletic ability is to note that she also plays tennis and is currently ranked 38th in State's 9/10 age group, and she has another whole year to compete. Bailey is also very smart and popular. She has a big group of friends on the swim team, which helps, as they push and motivate each other to get better.

Resume

2010

7/8 Forsyth County Championships - 25 Yard Free - 3rd

Bailey finsihed 5th in this event, qualifying her to swim in the Free Relays at the State Meet

7/8 Forstyh County Championships - 100 Yard Individual Medley (IM) - 2nd

Bailey swam a strong race, but finished a distant second to the winner, but was ahead of the 3rd place swimmer by almost 7 seconds. The swim wasn't a personal best for Bailey, but it wouldn't have mattered if it was...she would still have been second, as there was 1 girl coming in that had times significantly faster than the rest of the swimmers.

7/8 Forsyth County Championships - 25 Yard Breaststroke - 2nd

In this race Bailey was still recovering from the IM (as the races are back to back), but she still posted a time within half a second of her personal best and finsihed 2nd, which is basically what I expected going in, as we knew there was 1 girl who was just a lot better than the field.

7/8 GRPA Championships - 25 Yard Breastroke - 16th

Bailey swam a personal best.

7/8 GRPA Championships - 100 Yard IM - 15th

Bailey swam a personal best in this one as well.

7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Medley Relay - 7th

This was a really cool relay for Bailey. Due to an amazing course of events at the county meet, Bailey ended up swimming at the State Meet with 2 other girls from her summer league team. So 3 of the 4 swimmers in the relay swam the same strokes all year long together in their Thursday night competitions.

7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Free Relay - 2nd

Here again, one of the swimmers in the relay was a summer league teammate (and another girl is one of her group of friends described above - but at this point they didn't know each other). The team swam very well, they were just beaten by a better team. The group swam 4 seconds faster than their seed time in the finals and they were 2 seconds faster than their preliminary time.

Summer League Team MVP: 2007, 2008, 2010


Note
Bailey was unable to swim in the 2009 Forsyth County Championship Meet due to illness. While she wasn't likely to earn a spot on the State team, she was seeded 5th in the back and 7th in the fly - so it wouldn't have been a complete surprise if she had managed to get into the top 3.

In 2011 Bailey just missed earning a State Cut for the Long Course season. She was a half second from the cut in the 50 back and the 100 back, unfortunately, there were only 2 events for her to try and qualify and she didn't make it. One of her best friends from the group did slip in though...it was a very disappointing time for her.

In Bailey's Summer League MVPs (listed above), she loses to another year round swimmer in her group of friends that is a year older in 2009 and 2011, but Bailey finishes second in MVP points both years.

[Breeze]

Bear
Age: 9
Birthdate: April 2002
Height: @53"
Weight: @66 lbs


Description
Bear is a super sweat kid, who wants to make everyone happy, and because of this he is a hard worker. He is also pretty sensative and has for a while stated that "I'm the worst swimmer in the family", "I hate swimming", and of course "I want to quit". His mother and I haven't forced him to swim, we tell him he may quit if he likes, but he'll still have to go to the meets to watch his brother and sister swim (no small thing considering each meet is a minimum of 3+ hours for both Saturday and Sunday). Bear also has some other sporting interests...he wants to play football and he does play golf (Brett plays golf too, but .


Resume

2009

7/8 Forsyth County Championships - 25 Yard Fly - 5th

This is noteworthy only because of the circumstances surrounding the results. Of the 4 people that beat Bear, the 3rd place finisher was also the 2nd place finisher in the 25 Free and he elected to swim the Free leg in the B relay at state rather than the Fly leg of the C relay team, and the 4th place finisher opted out of going to state, so Bear swam the Fly leg in the C relay (no individual events).

7/8 GRPA Championships - 100 Yard Medley Relay - 13th

Bear swam a personal best in his heat (of course the rolling start of a relay helps). He looked great as he was able to make up ground on several other teams during his 25 yard swim.


2010

7/8 Forsyth County Championships - 25 Yard Free - 8th

This qualified Bear to swim on the B Free Relay at the State Meet

7/8 Forstyh County Championships - 100 Yard Individual Medley (IM) - Champion

This was an unbelievable swim for Bear. His best time coming in was a 1:48.50. In the race he got out to an early lead with the fly leg (his best), then opened the lead with this back (2nd best stroke). He was up by about half a pool at this point, but his Breast is weak (not compared to his other strokes, but in general), however, he was able to hold the lead, then bring it home in the free. He ended up not only swimming a personal best, but he dropped his time by 5 seconds (1:43:55).

7/8 Forsyth County Championships - 25 Yard Butterfly - Champion

Bear swam a personal best in this race as well, and improvement of .6 seconds and he won by .8

7/8 GRPA Championships - 100 Yard IM - 8th

The GRPA Event is one where preliminaries are swum in the morning and finals for the top 8 qualifiers in the afternoon (I never mentioned it before now, because it wasn't necessary). In the prelims, Bear once again blew me away with his effort. Just like county Bear opened up a big lead in the fly and back legs, Unfortunately, unlike county he wasn't able to hold off all the other swimmers as 1 boy beat him in the heat. However, Bear not only swam another personal best, he improved from his 1:43.55 to a 1:36.12 (a huge 7+ second drop...meaning in his last two races he dropped 12+ seconds in this event). We sweated out the results and Bear finsihed 8th in the prelims, earning him a spot in the finals and in individual medal no matter where he finished in the finals.

Unfortunately, the finals didn't go as well for Bear. Fatigue really set in and he was unable to match is time from the prelims, swimming a 1:40.51, which placed him 8th. In all honestly though, even if he had matched his prelim time he still would have been 8th...and he honestly wasn't as good as the other 7 swimmers. I was thoroughly impressed he had even made the finals. He was disappointed however...in fact we have a picture of him sitting apart from the other swimmers before the medal presentations...(it is a great picture with him back lit by the glass walls of the facility). When he was handed his medal he was so upset he didn't look at it at first, but we snapped a picture when he peaked at it, finally accepting his accomplishment. In his eyes he had finished last...it took some significant explaining that he hadn't finished last but rather 8th in the State...

7/8 GRPA Championships - 25 Yard Butterfly - 10th

This one was a bit disappointing. The Fly followed the IM at this event, and Bear was still exhausted from the effort of his 1:36. He ended up swimming about half a second off of his personal best, had he been within .25 of that time he would have made the finals here as well. I will until the day I day, say that if the event order were different Bear would have made the finals here...

7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Medley Relay - DQ

This was a heartbreaker...Bear was on the A Medley relay for the county, swimming the fly leg. In the prelims they killed it winning their heat by a bunch...however, the backstroker turned over going into the wall and was DQed. Making matters worse...the County's B team finished 2nd in the state only losing to the first place team by .22 seconds - and Bear's relay came in with a seed time more than 2 full seconds faster....ugh...

7/8 GRPA Championships 100 Yard Free Relay - DQ

Another heartbreaker. Bear was on the B relay team, but an unfortunate thing occurred right before the meet...one of the A swimmers broke his arm, so the 5th place B team swimmer moved up to the A relay and the 9th place county swimmer moved up to the B relay. This means the boys that had practiced their relay starts for several practices weren't together for the preliminaries...and as you can guess the swimmer moved from the C to the B team - left early and the team was DQed. This became more bitter with the county's C team (including inserting a swimmer into the relay that didn't even finish in the top 15 at the county meet to take the place of the swimmer that left early) finished 8th. The A team finsihed 2nd. Bear's team, based on seed time probably finishes 5th if they aren't disqualified.

Summer League Team MVP: 2007, 2008, 2010


Note
Bear just missed qualifying for the C Relay in the GRPA State Meet in 2011, similar to the way he qualified in 2009, but this time the swimmer that qualified in both fly and free elected to swim the fly...rather than the free (same swimmer as a matter of fact).

Bear's Summer League MVPs (listed above): in 2009, and 2011 he loses the MVP for his age group to Brett...he is second in MVP Points both years...

[thealmighty]

Any 9 year old that swims IM (or even just fly, for that matter) is on my short list of heroes...and being called Bear is pretty cool, too, if you ask me.

[Breeze]

Now that I've introduced the subjects of this journal, I'll fill in a couple of more notes before going into performances for the beginning of the short course season...

1. I didn't fill in any Forsyth County Summer Team Relay information in their resumes...I didn't want to overly clutter that section, but relays are fun and on odd years Brett and Bear swim together...and Bailey has several of her year round swimmers in her relays regardless of year - so I thought I'd plug it in here...

2009 was the first year the Summer Team fielded relays at the County Meet...

2009 - 7/8 100 Yard Medley Relay - 3rd

Bear and Brett's relay team came into the event seeded 10th and finished 3rd. I may be a proud papa, but I can tell you in that race, Brett (who swam the Breast which is the 2nd leg of the relay) was 8th off the wall and 2nd at the end of his leg. Bear (Fly leg and 3rd swimmer in the relay) was 2nd off and 2nd at the end...and the freestyler was passed (by the best swimmer in the county at freestyle - so no shame there)...

Bailey's Medley relay finished 5th

7/8 100 Yard Free Relay

The boys relay finished 5th, Bailey's team finished 6th

2010 - This year the boys don't swim together as Brett ages up to the 9/10s...

9/10 - 100 Yard Medley Relay

This is where I knew that Brett might be able to get into the top 3 in the Breaststroke event later in the day. During the relay the team came in seeded 8th and again Brett was one of the last off the walls of the 10 teams swimming but passed 5 other swimmers and was 2nd at the end of his leg. The other two swimmers held on to a 3rd place finish.

7/8 Boys 100 Yard Medley Relay

Bear's group came in 7th seed and finished 3rd. Bear had a very strong swim and the anchor freestyler passed a kid on his leg to secure 3rd

7/8 Girls 100 Yard Medley Relay

This is Bailey's relay where 3 of the 4 girls swam together in the state meet as the B relay team for the county. The 3 girls that made county swam great, unfortunately, the one that didn't - didn't and they finished 2nd losing by .06 seconds.

7/8 100 Yard Free Relay

Bear's relay team included himself (8th in county) and RJ (5th in county) and those two were able to push the team to 2nd. Never challenged to win, but did beat 2 higher seeded teams.

7/8 Girls 100 Free Relay

Bailey's group included her (3rd in county) and Savannah (4th in county) and they finished 2nd in the relay as well. (the team that beat them had the 1st and 2nd place county swimmers in the 25 free...)

Brett's free relay finished 9th

2011 - Boys are on the same relays again...

100 Yard Medley Relay

Bailey's group came in seeded 2nd and finished a solid 2nd...well ahead of the 3rd place team but a full second behind the winners

Brett and Bear unfortunately finished 4th....the backstroker (who is a great swimmer) got a terrible start (didn't hear the starter) and was last at the end of his leg...the team finished 4th, but out of the medals. The team that finished 3rd was a team we swam against in the regular season and beat by half a pool length in this event...

100 Yard Free Relay

Bailey's group finished 4th, the boy's group finished 6th...

2. In case you haven't noticed...the girls field of swimmers is much tougher than the boys...there are about twice as many girls in swimming...so tougher to do well

I think that just about does it...if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions just jump in...

[Breeze]

2011 Short Course Season Goals

Brett

Brett, who had a good 2010 Short Course season, qualifying for State in the 100 Breast, ages up and the time standards drop significantly, due to many boys starting to hit growth spurts at this age. These growth spurts mean bigger, stronger boys and faster times. The time drop for Brett's state qualifying cut for the 100 Breast dropped from 1:39.78 to 1.25.99. That is a huge difference, and given that Brett's personal best was in the 1:38 range...he understood getting a cut in that event was going to be next to impossible unless he hit his own growth spurt. Therefore, he didn't really have any specific goals coming into the season. I urged him to set them, but (I did mention he was stubborn, right?) if he did, he never shared them with me.

Bailey

As I mentioned in Bailey's bio, she just missed getting a state cut as an 8 year old (in the 10 and under age group) in the 2011 Long Course Season (by the way, a state cut earned in an event short or long course, carries over to the next season automatically as long as the swimmer stays in the same standard...so a state cut last year would have qualifed Bailey to swim at state during short course season because she is still in the 10U age group). Her goal was to qualify for state in as many events as possible, and my goal for her was the same as it seemed pretty obvious she was going to make the meet.

Bear

Unlike Bailey, Bear wasn't terribly close to a state cut at the end of the 2011 Long Course Season. His closest event was the 50 Fly, but he was still 2+ seconds off of the required time. His goal was to qualify for state in at least 1 event, and I have to say that I was really hoping he would get a state cut. My fear here was that Bailey was going to get in easily and in a number of things and Bear would fail to make the meet. This would crush him as he would fall back on the "i'm the worst swimmer in the family" mantra...and in all honesty he probably would quit at that point. He would be too heartbroken to try again.

[Breeze]

2011 Short Course Season - Personal Bests (these are their personal bests coming into the season)


Bailey

50 Free - 37.33 - from 12/10/10
50 Back - 40.74 - from 2/11/11
50 Brst - 48.18 - from 2/11/11
50 Bfly - 43.37 - from 12/10/10
100 IM - 1:32:72 - from 2/11/11
100 Free - 1:25.64 - from 2/11/11
100 Brst - 1:46.81 - from 3/12/11



Bear

50 Free - 39.72 - from 11/13/10
50 Back - 43.16 - from 3/12/11
50 Brst - 55.07 - from 2/11/11 (I mentioned his Breast was weak...didn't I?)
50 Bfly - 42.79 - from 2/11/11
100 IM - 1:40.94 - from 11/13/10
100 Free - 1:33.76 - from 12/10/10

NOTE: Bear's best IM is actually the 1:36.12 described in his bio from the GRPA State Meet, but that is a different organization so the time doesn't count in the Short Course Season. Interestingly, more than a year after that swim he still hasn't come close to breaking that time, as you can see from his personal best above with is almost 5 seconds slower...he really rose to the occasion that day


Brett

50 Free - 36.92 - from 12/10/10
50 Back - 45.85 - from 11/13/10
50 Brst - 46.10 - from 12/10/10
50 Bfly - 44.78 - from 2/11/11
100 IM - 1:32:24 - from 2/11/11
100 Free - 1:23.41 - from 12/10/10
100 Brst - 1:39.50 - from 2/11/11

[Breeze]

Georgia Short Course State Cut Time Standards

Girls 10U

50 Free - 33.49
100 Free - 1.14.59
200 Free - 2.49.09
50 Back - 38.49
100 Back - 1.27.09
50 Breast - 45.49
100 Breast - 1.38.69
50 Fly - 39.89
100 Fly - 1.34.59
100 IM - 1.26.49
200 IM - 3.08.99

Boys 10U

50 Free - 33.39
100 Free - 1.16.09
200 Free - 2.46.69
50 Back - 38.89
100 Back - 1.29.29
50 Breast - 45.79
100 Breast - 1.39.79
50 Fly - 39.79
100 Fly - 1.37.39
100 IM - 1.24.99
200 IM - 3.08.99

I am not going to post the time standards for 11 year olds, unless Brett gets within striking distance of one and at that point I'll post the needed times in the write ups...

[Breeze]

Any 9 year old that swims IM (or even just fly, for that matter) is on my short list of heroes...and being called Bear is pretty cool, too, if you ask me.

Hey thealmighty...

I missed your notes in the process of doing my postings. Actually, Bear was 8 at the time...and his performance in the county and then the state meet really blew me away. I honestly didn't think he was capable of swimming the IM that fast. In fact, I always sort of come up with a time I think they might possibly reach in the event before hand to see where they might place, and my best case scenario was 4 seconds slower than he actually swam. Oh, and I agree with you...fly and IM are a serious workout...but those are what Bear loves the most...

Thanks for reading...

[Breeze]

I'll start posting meet results from short course tomorrow...

[Breeze]

Swim Atlanta Fall Time Trials - 9/10/2011

The Short Course and Long Course seasons always kick off with a time trial. This meet is typically shorter due to the fact many of the longer events aren't offered, and the reason they aren't offered is because this meet is used to provide swimmers with a baseline time that they will look to improve upon throughout the season.

For my kids...we swim the 50 in all 4 strokes and that's all (at least at this point). Coming into this meet these were my expectations...

Bailey - I really felt she had a great chance to get her 50 back state cut. I also expected her to improve across the board as she had been swimming extremely well in practice.

Bear - I was more curious for Bear than anything. He was working hard in practice (always does) but his technique isn't really the best. I expected some improvement in Back and Free...his Fly was already fast so I wasn't sure he'd improve in this stroke. I was hoping he might get a state cut, but not expecting it. And his Breast has been poor, so I expected an improvement just because it wouldn't take much to get better.

Brett - This one I was apprehensive about. As I mentioned in his bio...he really has for almost 2 years mailed in his efforts on all stroke but Breast. His times (as you can see from the personal best post above) were unimpressive in the other strokes, so I felt he might get improvement just because he was stronger and older, but I don't expect big improvements. Plus I was eager to see if his Breast had improved much (I was hoping for about a 1 second drop).


Note:Normally, I'll try to post unofficial results as they happen in order...then follow up once official results are released (typically a few days later). But in the case of the first few posts on results, I'm just going to follow the order of the official release because I can't remember the order of events


Girls 10U 50 Yard Free
Bailey swam a great race finishing in 35.47 a drop of almost 2 full seconds. Interestingly, one of the girls from her group (the newest one as she just moved to town from Chicago during the Summer), beat her by .01 seconds.

Girls 10U 50 Yard Back
Bailey improved on her 50 back...but not enough to get her state cut. Her time dropped to 39.63, so she's right at 1 second. This race was frustrating because he was swimming against a couple of her friends and she had a lead on them, but she didn't charge into the wall. She was unsure on her count (number of strokes from the flags to the wall) and she ended up gliding into the wall. This easily cost her more than half a second, but a good swim nontheless...

Girls 10U 50 Breast
47.15 a drop of 1 full second...and her stroke looks very good. She has been watching Brett in the Breast for a while and she has started to use his style of Breaststroke...very technically sound...

Girls 10U 50 Fly
This was a very entertaining race because Bailey was swimming next to 5 of her friends. MK, Haley, Lexi, Maddie all side by side. Bailey finished 3rd out of the group, losing to Maddie and Haley but beating the other two. But more importantly she swam a 39.44...and improvement of 4 seconds and our first state cut.

Bailey Summary - a great meet for Bailey 4 for 4 in personal bests, 1 state cut and close on the 50 back, and within striking distance on the 50 Breast.

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Boys 10U 50 Free
Bear improves by a second in the 50 free to 38.87

Boys 10U 50 Back
Surprisingly, Bear didn't improve in his back, swimming a 43.91. The drop in time isn't significant, and the reason for the drop was a finish worse than Baileys. This time add isn't concerning in light of the finish. He probably would have finished in a 42 flat if he had trusted his count.

Boys 10U 50 Breast
Bear's breast is still poor...way to much up and down motion and not enough drive forward, but it is getting better as he drops 2+ seconds to 52.75

Boys 10U 50 Fly
My hope here was that Bear would drop enough time to really get into striking distance of a state cut. I didn't expect him to get the time in this race, but I wanted him to get down in the high 40s to low 41s...he didn't. He swam a personal best of 42.15, but that number really concerns me because there is still a bunch of time he has to cut to make the state meet and this stroke is his best chance.

Bear summary - all and all a good meet for Bear. Some modest improvement in Fly, a drop in Free, Breast is getting better and the rise in Back isn't concerning...

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Boys 11/12 50 Free
Brett doesn't improve in the 50 free...he made some fundamental mistakes - like breathing every stroke and not flip turning so he put on 1 second, finishing at 37.90. I told him that if he wants to get better he'll have to clean up his approach to the stroke...and that there was no excuse for not flip turning at this point in his swimming career, and that he shouldn't be breathing every stroke (I'm sure he wasn't listening because he doesn't really care about these "other" strokes - and he's stubborn)

Boys 11/12 50 Back
No improvement here either...for all intense and purposes he swam about the same as his personal best 45.95 (only .1 off), but still no improvement from the previous short course season.

Boys 11/12 50 Breast
In the one event that Brett does believe in, he improved by just over 1 second, dropping is personal best to a 45.03. This is a good sign, in that the improvement will hopefully motivate him to work hard.

Boys 11/12 50 Fly
Brett added time in his Fly race...swimming a 45.28. His stroke in this looked pretty good, but he decided to breathe every stroke again, which causes his chest to get too high in the water and his feet too low...thus the strokes are less productive in getting him down the pool...

Brett summary - Brett's meet was disappointing but not surprising. This type of performance isn't uncommon for him. I keep hoping that he'll get stronger and start showing some improvement in the other strokes, then start believeing he can swim them well and put more effort in at practice - which will create better results and maybe we can get a cycle of improvement / increased confidence / more effort / improvement going - but it hasn't happened yet.

[Breeze]

2011 Short Course Season - Personal Bests @ 1st Meet


Bailey

50 Free - 35.47 - from 9/10/11
50 Back - 39.63 - from 9/10/11
50 Brst - 47.15 - from 9/10/11
50 Bfly - 39.44 - from 9/10/11
100 IM - 1:32:72 - from 2/11/11
100 Free - 1:25.64 - from 2/11/11
100 Brst - 1:46.81 - from 3/12/11



Bear

50 Free - 38.87 - from 9/10/11
50 Back - 43.16 - from 3/12/11
50 Brst - 52.75 - from 9/10/11
50 Bfly - 42.15 - from 9/10/11
100 IM - 1:40.94 - from 11/13/10
100 Free - 1:33.76 - from 12/10/10

NOTE: Bear's best IM is actually the 1:36.12 described in his bio from the GRPA State Meet, but that is a different organization so the time doesn't count in the Short Course Season. Interestingly, more than a year after that swim he still hasn't come close to breaking that time, as you can see from his personal best above with is almost 5 seconds slower...he really rose to the occasion that day


Brett

50 Free - 36.92 - from 12/10/10
50 Back - 45.85 - from 11/13/10
50 Brst - 45.03 - from 9/10/11
50 Bfly - 44.78 - from 2/11/11
100 IM - 1:32:24 - from 2/11/11
100 Free - 1:23.41 - from 12/10/10
100 Brst - 1:39.50 - from 2/11/11

[Breeze]

SCAT Fall Invitational - 10/1/2011

This meet, held at the GaTech Olympic Pool comes only a few weeks after the time trials, so I'm not expecting a significant difference in times for any of the kids, but here are my quit thoughts on each kid for this meet...

Bailey - I am still hopeful she'll get her 50 Back state cut at this meet.

Bear - I'd like to see him clean up his back and get a personal best and I'd like to see him cut into that Fly time so he can challenge for a state cut before Short Course season ends

Brett - I'd like to see some improvement in the "off" strokes


Note: again I don't know order of events for this meet, so fatigue may have impacted some of the results but I honestly can't remember what order the events were swum in...so I won't be able to elaborate on that aspect of their efforts

Girls 10U - 50 Free
Bailey doesn't improve on this one...her time is pretty consistent only .5 slower at 35.95.

Girls 10U - 100 Free
Bailey swam an amazing race, clocking in with a 1:19.97 - an improvement of almost 6 full seconds. I believe most of this is due to her being stronger than she was last year...but even with that ind it was an extremely shocking an unexpected result.

Girls 10U - 50 Back
Very similar swim to the time trials in time and appearance. Still a little hesitent into the wall...39.78...slower by about .15

Girls 10U - 50 Breast
Bailey's breast continues to improve rapidly...her time drops more than .7 seconds and she is not swimming her 50 breast in about the same times as Brett was last year...46.38. This time also puts her in a good position to get her state cut.

Girls 10U - 100 Breast
Bailey's good technique on the Breast serves her well in the 100 Breast as she posts a 1:40.66, another 6+ second improvement...and it puts her about 2 seconds from another state cut

Girls 10U - 50 Fly
A bad swim here for Bailey as she posts a time of 42.14...2.6 seconds slower. Not really a big deal due to the fact she already has her state cut and isn't going to obtain a sectional cut in this stroke anyway (Sectionals is the meet for the Southeastern region and requires an even more stringent time standard to qualify), but she was very disappointed in that time.

Girls 10U - 100 IM
Bailey again drops a chunck of time swimming a 1:29.30...almost 3.5 second improvement...

Bailey had an extremely impressive meet...no new state cuts, but some very significant improvements. The one stroke were she swam poorly was the one that mattered the least (50 Fly). She has now positioned herself to really challenge for more state cuts than I thought she'd be able to get. Now whether she obtains any or all of them will remain to be seen, but it should be fun going forward with so much on the line.

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Boys 10U - 50 Free
Bear again improves his 50 free, and again it is marginally...he drops the times by .3 seconds to 38.58

Boys 10U - 100 Free
Bear, like Bailey, improves dramatically in the 100 free, dropping his time to 1:28.98 - an almost 5 second improvement. Again I believe this is mostly due to being stronger than last year...but again a huge surprise. Some improvement was expected but not this much.

Boys 10U - 50 Back
A personal best here...but only BARELY...43.09...improved by .07. But a personal best is never something to take for granted...

Boys 10U - 50 Breast
Bear swam a personal best in this race, but he was DQed for an illegal pullout (the portion of the race after the dive or turn where the underwater strokes occur). Bear apparently did too much of his second stroke underwater before he surfaced...and the swimmer is only allowed 1 underwater stroke. He was very upset about the DQ...especially since it removed a personal best, but I told him not to worry about it, as it didn't help his time and he improved even if it didn't count.

Boys 10U - 50 Fly
Bear improves in his favorite stroke again, but again it is marginally...he drops down into the 41 level with 41.78, but we still aren't in the low 41s high 40s where I'd like him to be in his efforts to get a state cut. At this point he'll have 3 more chances to qualify and we still need to drop 2 full seconds...but I'm proud of him and I tell him so.

Boys 10U - 100 IM
Bear improves on his official IM best (but still isn't terribly close to his amazing swim at the GRPA State Meet), with a time of 1:38.79. Over a 2 second drop.

Bear's had a great meet he was 5/5 on personal bests for those strokes that he was given credit for and he did improve his Breast by about 2 seconds, even though he was DQed. He continues his string of improvements, but I am concerned that we aren't getting close to a State Cut and with Bailey already having one and now close on several more it will break his heart if he doesn't get one,

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boys 11/12 - 50 Free
Another swim where Brett's times backup...finished with a 38.12

Boys 11/12 - 100 Free
Brett swims better than he had been at the end of the year, but he doesn't come close to a personal best with a time of 1:26.75

Boys 11/12 - 50 Back
Brett has a typical Backstroke swim at 46.90...slower than his best but in the same time frame most his backstrokes fall...

Boys 11/12 - 50 Breast
Doesn't improve in Breast this time, which isn't completely surprising...his time falls back into the mid 45s, so only a half second off his last swim

Boys 11/12 - 100 Breast
Like the 50 Breast, Brett is off by .5 seconds and doesn't get a personal best

Boys 11/12 - 50 Fly
DQed...he forgot what stroke he was swimming, and started out freestyle...which eliminates him for non-simultaneous arms. This infuriated me and we had a long chat about taking this more seriously or giving it up for good, because I wasn't going to waste my money on his swimming if he was going to make mental mistakes like this...

Boys 11/12 - 200 Breast
I signed Brett up for this event, because his coach had told him, numerous times that he will do better on the longer Breast swims because his technique is so good. That he doesn't do as well on the short swims, because he isn't as strong at many boys that are bigger than he is, but those boys can't hold up their strokes and speed for the longer swims and his technique will allow him to beat them. Unfortunately, Brett was intimidated and refused to go...so we No Show...and I'm not happy...

Brett had a horrible meet. Now I must qualify something here. Brett was forced to go to the pool for the morning session because his siblings were scheduled to swim then...meaning he got up around 6 to eat and hit the road, then he had to sit around for hours waiting until the afternoon session when it was his turn to go. He doesn't do well when this is the case, but I did expect a little better effort from him. We have had issues with him of taking swimming for granted in the past, and I was serious when I stated that if he didn't take it more seriously then I was going to pull him out (though I'd really pull him out for a couple weeks intially to get his attention). We'll see if it comes to that...

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[Breeze]

2011 Short Course Season - Personal Bests @ 2 Meets


Bailey

50 Free - 35.47 - from 9/10/11
50 Back - 39.63 - from 9/10/11
50 Brst - 46.38 - from 10/1/11
50 Bfly - 39.44 - from 9/10/11
100 IM - 1:29:30 - from 10/1/11
100 Free - 1:19.97 - from 10/1/11
100 Brst - 1:40.66 - from 10/1/11



Bear

50 Free - 38.58 - from 10/1/11
50 Back - 43.07 - from 10/1/11
50 Brst - 52.75 - from 9/10/11
50 Bfly - 41.78 - from 10/1/11
100 IM - 1:38.79 - from 10/1/11
100 Free - 1:28.98 - from 10/1/11

NOTE: Bear's best IM is actually the 1:36.12 described in his bio from the GRPA State Meet, but that is a different organization so the time doesn't count in the Short Course Season. Interestingly, more than a year after that swim he still hasn't come close to breaking that time, as you can see from his personal best above with is almost 5 seconds slower...he really rose to the occasion that day


Brett

50 Free - 36.92 - from 12/10/10
50 Back - 45.85 - from 11/13/10
50 Brst - 45.03 - from 9/10/11
50 Bfly - 44.78 - from 2/11/11
100 IM - 1:32:24 - from 2/11/11
100 Free - 1:23.41 - from 12/10/10
100 Brst - 1:39.50 - from 2/11/11

[Breeze]

War Eagle Invite - 10/21/11

As you can guess by the name this event takes place at the Auburn University pool. A very impressive facility with a TON of Championship banners in the rafters and an impressive list of Olypic swimmers displayed on the wall (including like 18 former alumni that competed in the 2008 games...). This is probably the fastest pool we will swim in all year, so I'm hoping for improvements from the kids in this event.

Bailey - It is my hope that the faster pool combined with some good practices will allow her to get another state cup, probably the 50 back, but unless she gets better on the turn and finish, I'm not sure she can cut that 1+ second she needs. Middle of the pool is fast, but the other parts still need work/confidence.

Bear - Bear has made the switch to the "man suit" for this event. This is his coaches way of describing the briefs (before Bear wore the jammers, which look like bike shorts without the pads, now he wears what I grew up calling a Speedo). He is pumped up and he likes the new suit...hopefully he'll swim well.

Brett - Started working harder at practice...even his coach mentioned it...so maybe it will pay off in improved times. We need to have something good happen here, or Brett might shut down his efforts soon.

Note: All of the events (except the time trials) described above were 2 day events...but like I said, I don't remember the order of events. In this case Auburn reports the official results in the order they were swum. So, You'll see the results in order and I will try to note 1st day vs 2nd day, which I can't remember in the other cases

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Day 1

Girls 10U - 50 Breast
Starts the meet our well, but not quite an improvement but a nice swim regardless...only .3 slower 46.61

Girls 10U - 50 Back
This wasn't a good swim 41.31 - over 1.5 seconds slower than the last couple of time she swam it...

Girls 10U - 100 IM
Bailey's followed up her 3 second improvement from a few weeks earlier with another (almost) 2.5 second drop. She posted an impressive 1:26.94. Unfortunately the state cut is a 1:26.49...so she just missed it. But she is really close here and if she doesn't faid back in her next meet (possible given the level of improvement in the last couple of times she swam it) she should
get this one before the end of the season.


Day 2

Girls 10U - 50 Fly
Improved significantly from the bad 42+ swim a few weeks ago, but not a personal best...40.38. Again not a big deal due to already having her state cut.

Girls 10U - 50 Free
Bailey had reported to us, prior to this event, that she was being put in the front of her line every practice during kick sets because she was passing everyone. Well that hard kicking in practice paid off. Bailey blew away her best time posting a 33.96. That is about a 1.5 second drop, pretty significant in a 50 where you were already posting good times.

Girls 10U - 100 Breast
Bailey improved again in the 100 Breast...dropping her time another 2.4 seconds to a 1:38.28 - And in only her 3rd time swimming the event She gets her state cut. She now has 2...and she's still close on several more.

Bailey's meet was very up and down. Huge improvemens in the 50 Free and IM, plus a state cut in the 100 Breast, but she's still struggling to get her backstroke to down to where it was to start the season, and I'm starting to wonder if she'll be able get her state cut in this stroke at all.

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Day 1

Boys 10U - 50 Breast
Bear swims a 50.73 in the 50 Breast...not a great time, but still a 2 second improvement...and this is his weakest stroke.

Boys 10U - 50 Back
Like the previous meet, Bear improves his 50 back...barely. This time the drop is .11, but still a personal best (42.96)

Boys 10U - 100 IM
Bear's run of moderate improvements is over. In the 100 IM he drops 6.7 seconds to a true personal best of 1:32.08. He has finally bettered that amazing swim from the GRPA meet and he looked strong doing it. The improvement in his Breaststroke is the biggest driver in this time reduction, but I must say that his freestyle in warmups for day 1 and even in the final 25 yards of the 100 yard race looked particularly strong.


Day 2

Boys 10U - 50 Fly
Another improvement. The time drops .4 seconds to a 41.38. Still have about 1.5 seconds more to go in order to earn that cut, and we are running out of meets. We have one in November, but it is a slower pool, we'll be back at Auburn in January, then the last chance meet in February...

Boys 10U - 50 Free
Remember I said Bear's free look particulary strong in warm ups and in the 100 IM, well looks like my observations were right. He cuts almost 3 full seconds on his 50 Free and drops the time to 35.78.

Boys 10U - 100 Free
About that stronger Freestyle...the 50 showed that it had improved...the 100 showed just how much. He dropped 8.3 seconds to a 1:20.60, with a 50 split of 37.63 (faster than his 50 had been coming into this meet).

This was an unbelievable meet for Bear. He was a perfect 6 for 6 in personal bests and is now 15 for 16 on the year. This run is extremely impressive, especially when you consider some of the improvements are significant. I expect this streak will be coming to an end soon, as I can't believe he'll be able to maintain this level of improvement. This does give me hope that he'll be able to earn his state cut - it is still not a given, as he needs to cut a good bit of time on all the strokes other than the 1.5 on the fly, but the fact that he is getting stronger shows that 1.5 may be doable.

Also, in this meet Bear earned 32 points for SwimAtlanta, as he had several top 10 finishes. In fact, he was in the top 15 point earners in the boys 10 and Under age group (to give you a measuring stick, Bailey earned 4 points). In fact, had I entered Bear in a full slate of events (meaning giving him 2 more swims which was the max for the meet), he would have probably finished in the top 10 and earned a trophy. Regardless, he is very pumped up following this effort. Oh, and the "man suit" is here to stay...

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Day 1

Boys 11/12 - 50 Breast
Brett gets off to a good start in this meet. His time drops about 1.25 seconds to a 43.79. This a big drop in an event that he swims well. I was hoping for an improvement, but this was a bigger one than I would have thought possible at this point.

Boys 11/12 - 50 Back
After almost a full year, Brett has finally improved on his backstroke. The time of 45.41 still isn't good...but he improved and we will take small victories at this point.

Boys 11/12 100 IM
Brett was DQed in this one but not for a technical issue, he swallowed a bunch of water coming into his Breaststroke leg (ironic I know) and he stopped. It's unfortunate, because he was well ahead of his best time on the split with only Breast and Free to swim, he probably posts a personal best. He seems to have handled it well (hard to tell because he internalizes things), but I'm concerned at this point. He was 2 for 2 on personal bests, and this could cause a drop in confidence or simply cause him to lose focus, which could lead to a bad second day.


Day 2

Boys 11/12 - 50 Fly
The first race after the DQ from the day before, is also the event he was DQed in at the previous meet for swimming the wrong stroke. Thankfully, he rebounds strong with a personal best 43.95 - not quite a full second, but close, and a VERY good sign for the day (I Hope).

Boys 11/12 - 50 Free
Marginal improvement on his previous personal best. Posts a 36.32

Boys 11/12 - 100 Breast
With the improvement iinthe 50 breast, I was hoping we'd see one here to, since he's typically stronger in the longer breast events. Sure enough, he improves...but not a little - A LOT - his time drops 4.2 seconds to 1:35.39...


Brett has finally had a strong meet this season. He was a 5 for 6 on personal best and would have been 6 for 6 if not for the flukie instance of swallowing water. He had some big improvements in the 2 strokes he cares the most about and he is very happy with his performance. Thankfully, he seeing some rewards for his hard work in practice.

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[Breeze]

2011 Short Course Season - Personal Bests @ 3 Meets


Bailey

50 Free - 33.96 - from 10/21/11
50 Back - 39.63 - from 9/10/11
50 Brst - 46.38 - from 10/1/11
50 Bfly - 39.44 - from 9/10/11
100 IM - 1:26.94 - from 10/21/11
100 Free - 1:19.97 - from 10/1/11
100 Brst - 1:38.28 - from 10/21/11



Bear

50 Free - 35.78 - from 10/21/11
50 Back - 42.96 - from 10/21/11
50 Brst - 50.73 - from 10/21/11
50 Bfly - 41.38 - from 10/21/11
100 IM - 1:32.08 - from 10/21/11
100 Free - 1:20.60 - from 10/21/11


Brett

50 Free - 36.32 - from 10/21/11
50 Back - 45.41 - from 10/21/11
50 Brst - 43.79 - from 10/21/11
50 Bfly - 43.95 - from 10/21/11
100 IM - 1:32:24 - from 2/11/11
100 Free - 1:23.41 - from 12/10/10
100 Brst - 1:35.39 - from 10/21/11

[Breeze]

Swimming Notes

A couple of items that don't directly involve my kids, but are part of our swimming experience and could have some indirect impact.

1. Bailey friend from her group, Maddie (mentioned in the Time Trials Meet), has exploded...her times have plummetted so much so that she already has several Sectional cuts (she'll not only swim at State, but will go to Greensboro, NC this Spring to compete in regionals), and she is very close to Select Cuts (a motivational time that earns the swimmer rewards from the club - limited swim cap and some other items). Maddie is 10, and she is a big and athletic girl. She is at least 6" taller and 50% heavier than Bailey - and she uses her strenght well. It is exciting to watch her swim...and if she keeps improving she will be in a position to win some state championships.

2. Haley (another friend in the group and mentioned in the time trial write up), is closing in on a sectional cut for backstroke (both 50 & 100).

3. Lexi (see time trial write up), has had to stop swimming for a while. She (according to her mother) had complained about knee pain for a while, and they finally took her to get an MRI. It turned up some damage in the knee that required surgery. The surgery went fine, and she's recently started swimming again, but she's on a max of 1000 Yards, so she isn't practicing with the team, and won't be for several weeks. She's hoping to swim a few short events (50 free, 50 back) at Auburn in January.

[Breeze]

Woodie B Malone Invite - 11/19/12

This event takes place at a rival year round swim club's facility. We've swum here in the past, and it isn't one of our favorite venues. Crowded, old, and the event is typically over crowded. In the meet this time, Brett will be swimming in the morning, in the "outside" pool (it is actually under a huge permenant tent). It is a long course pool that they will swim from side to side
(Rather than end to end). Bailey and Bear will compete in the afternoon in the indoor pool (where we typically compete).

Bailey - Another meet, another chance for a state cut...and with numerous events in striking distance I feel pretty good we'll see her get one at this meet.

Bear - I'm hoping Bear will be able to continue his astonishing run of personal bests. He is getting pumped up about swimming for the first time in a long time and it is exciting to see.

Brett - Coming off a strong meet, I'm hoping we can build on that success and continue our improvements.

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Girls 10U - 50 Free
Bailey doesn't get a personal best, but she's close enought that I don't expect her to slide back for long. Her time of 34.13 is only fractionally slower than her best from Auburn.

Girls 10U - 100 Free
Bailey didn't swim the 100 free at Auburn...but like Bear did in his most recent 100 free, Bailey cut a bunch of time. She dropped from a 1.19.97 to 1.15.86. A very strong swim.

Girls 10U - 50 Back
Another shot at the State Cut missed, Back to the mid 40s in this stroke and still not confident enough going into the walls...

Girls 10U - 100 Back
This is a new event for Bailey (never swam it short course), but because she has 2 state cuts, I elected to have her not swim the 100 Breast and the 50 Fly in this event to try and get a cut in another race. I felt she had a good shot to get the cut...she didn't - swimming a good 1:28.90...but she stopped on the 3rd lap, sat up and looked around. Not sure what that was about. It was the strangest thing, but she honestly stopped swimming. Had she not stopped, I fell comfortable in saying she'd have gotten her cut. So we'll be swimming this one again at our next meet for sure.

Girls 10U - 50 Breast
Slid back here to a 47.28...about where she was before her improvement at the 10/1 meet.

Girls 10U - 100 IM
For the 3rd straight race, Bailey improved on this stroke. This time the drop wasn't significant (like the 5.5 seconds combined from the last two times she swam an IM), in fact, this time the drop wasn't even a full second. It was about .8 seconds, as she posted a 1:26.11. All she needed was about a half second for her cut, so Bailey got her 3rd State Cut
. It was actually cute when she got out of the pool following this race. This was her last race of the meet (though they aren't listed in any particular order), and she didn't think she had done well enough to get her state cut and she was upset. She really wanted to get another one this meet and It took a good bit of talking to convence her she had gotten it, at which point she perked up and gave me a big kiss...

Bailey continues her strong season, earning a 3rd state cut and showing that the 100 Back should be attainable (1:27.09 is what she'll need). Her strong kicking is really the catalyst behind much of this improvement. I brag on her about her efforts in practice and point our how well they are paying off. Coming into the season I thought Bailey would get 3 to 5 cuts...we already have 3 so it has been as successful season already in my eyes.

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Boys 10U - 50 Back
Another personal best - this time it isn't a minor drop as he posts a 41.60, that's a 1.3 second improvement and it moves him within a couple seconds of a cut (still a ways off, but reachable now).

Boys 10U - 50 Breast
Bear breaks the 50 second mark and swims his breast in 48.18. Another drop of 1.5 seconds, and his streak of peronal bests continue

Boys 10U - 50 Fly
Bear gets another personal best here - swimming in 39.76. So his streak of personal best is still going strong and more importantly he got his state cut by .03 seconds. Thank God...now I can relax a bit...as he won't be left out when the state meet rolls around. He was so pumped up after he found out he got his cut he was jumping up and down, giving me "bear" hugs...it was a truely awesome moment.

Boys 10U - 100 IM
A 4th straight personal best at this meet, as he posts a 1:28.40...1.5 seconds off again. And Bear's strong swimming continues. In this event Bear has dropped his time 12 seconds in the last 2 meets...

Boys 10U - 50 Free
In his second to last event of the meet (and I do remember it was his second to last event), his string of something like 18 straight personal bests came to an end...(which is how I remember it was his second to last event of the meet). He swam a good 36.18, but .4 slower than he swam at Auburn.

Boys 10U - 100 Back
I decided to Bear in the 100 Back due to the way the order of events fell (there weren't a whole lot of other options, and I felt he could do well in this one). He wasn't too thrilled about it...he was concerned about executing all those backstroke flip turns, but like the champ that he is, he attacked it. And he did extremely well, posting a 1:26.43...which is a state
cut. In fact, it is 3 seconds under the required time for a state cut...

Bear continues his incredible season with another strong meet, going 5 for 6 in personal bests (by the way, I was never so specific in counting how many personal bests out of how many swims the kids had, until Bear got on this run). And more importantly he has 2 State Cuts. I honestly don't expect another one, and that's fine, he got in which was my goal for him coming in. However, I will qualify my statement about not expecting another one...if he continues to improve the way he has all season, he certainly might get additional cuts.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boys 11/12 - 50 Breast
Brett starts the meet with his favorite stroke, so I was hopeful this would lead to a good meet. It didn't. In fact, just the opposite. Brett's coach worked in practice on him extending in his Breaststroke...wanting him to really reach on the streamline portion of the stroke, telling him that he has been shorting up in an effort to increase his stroke rate to go faster. He told him that he isn't strong enough to compete that way and he was slowing himself down a bit. Good advice, but unfortunately, Brett's execution of the
change caused him to slow way down. To times that he hadn't posted in over a year. He ended up swimming a 46.88...and he was crushed. You could visably see the fight go out of him following this race. I tried to keep him focused and positive, but he was not listening...

Boys 11/12 - 50 Fly
Breathed every stroke on the Fly (something he hadn't done since the time trials) and added 4 full seconds to his best time from the previous meet. Again, his heart wasn't in it...posted 47.30

Boys 11/12 - 100 IM
I was able to get a little spark of life out of him prior to this race, and he worked hard in this event, but he came up .4 second short of a best time. He thought he had it getting out of the pool...and was disappointed to find out he didn't.

This meet was a heartbreaker for Brett. He was coming off a good performance in Auburn, and he laid an egg in this one. It demoralized him so much he didn't go back to compete the 2nd day, and I didn't make him. It was a tough decision for me...I'm one that says you fight through your problems and you don't quit...but when I looked at the situation, his mom and I felt that if we make him go and he performs poorly again (which is possible given his state of mind isn't all that good at this point), it's liable to cause more harm and further depress him. To make matters worse, Bailey earned her 3rd cut and Bear got 2 in this same meet. Brett was proud of them and happy for them (he even told them so), but you could see the hurt in his eyes, and the knowledge that despite the fact that he was the one that truely loved swimming...he was doing poorly while his bother and sister were tearing things up. He feels like he is getting left behind...

We talked to his coaches following this meet, and told them how depressed he was. We asked if they could suggest some things we might do in order to build him back up. They explained that the jump to 11/12s can be a hard one (we knew that already), especially for small 11 year olds (that's us), because they just lack the raw strength needed to compete. Great insight but not terribly helpful...they did say they were sorry to hear that and they would try to do some positive reinforcement to build him back up. They were genuinely concerned. They don't want him to quit, because they believe he has a bunch of talent (in Breaststroke) and that he'll grow into a competitive swimmer.

-----------------------------------------------------

[Breeze]

2011 Short Course Season - Personal Bests @ 4 Meets


Bailey

50 Free - 33.96 - from 10/21/11
50 Back - 39.63 - from 9/10/11
50 Brst - 46.38 - from 10/1/11
50 Bfly - 39.44 - from 9/10/11
100 IM - 1:26.11 - from 11/19/11
100 Free - 1:15.86 - from 11/19/11
100 Brst - 1:38.28 - from 10/21/11
100 Back - 1:28.90 - from 11/19/11



Bear

50 Free - 35.78 - from 10/21/11
50 Back - 41.60 - from 11/19/11
50 Brst - 48.18 - from 11/19/11
50 Bfly - 39.76 - from 11/19/11
100 IM - 1:28.40 - from 11/19/11
100 Free - 1:20.60 - from 10/21/11
100 Back - 1:26.43 - from 11/19/11


Brett

50 Free - 36.32 - from 10/21/11
50 Back - 45.41 - from 10/21/11
50 Brst - 43.79 - from 10/21/11
50 Bfly - 43.95 - from 10/21/11
100 IM - 1:32:24 - from 2/11/11
100 Free - 1:23.41 - from 12/10/10
100 Brst - 1:35.39 - from 10/21/11

[Breeze]

Swimming Notes

A new meet popped up on the schedule...the Gold Invite (another year round team's hosted meet). The meet is scheduled to take place 12/17...right in the gap between the Woodie B (listed above) and the Auburn meet in January. It is also in our town (read 10 minutes down the road), so we'll swim it.

However, a golden opportunity popped up for us. The Duel in the Pool is taking place at Ga Tech on teh 16th and 17th. It is a duel meet between the U.S. and some European All-Stars, and we can get tickets for $25 each. Typically, we wouldn't do anything the night before a meet because we like the kids to get to bed on time, but this is just a once in a lifetime type of event that we can't pass up. So not only do we get tickets, but we get front row seats at the turn end of the pool for Friday night.

The kids have a blast, cheering the entire time and seeing some elite athletes do their thing (they are already asking about the London Games now...). This also seems to have pumped them up (especially Brett). Not sure how it will ultimately affect their swim at the meet the next day, but I'm not concerned and I've told the kids not to put any pressure on themselves. Just go swim and have fun...

We'll see...

[Breeze]

Gold Invite - 12/17/2011

This meet is held at a new facility in the City of Cumming. It is a nice facility, but results from high school swimmers who have had meets there suggest it is a slow pool. Most of the swimmers reporting it is slow because the water is kept to warm for the senior citizens that use the pool for physical therapy and fitness. Again we came into the meet with no expectations and are just doing it so we don't practice for 2 months without competing.

Bailey - I expect another meet similar to her recent ones, with a few improvements (though not ones with significant time drops) and several that are similar to what she swam coming in. I feel pretty good she'll get her 100 Back cut unless she does something silly like stop in the middle of the pool again.

Bear - I have to believe he won't continue to get personal bests, but I'm hoping his amazing season continues. I don't expect any state cuts though

Brett - Got my fingers crossed...please let him do well...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Girls 10U - 50 Back
A better effort on Backstroke for Bailey this time around. She didn't get a personal best, but she did break the 40 second plateau she had hit - 39.89

Girls 10U - 100 Breast
A personal best, but by the slimmest of margins. Her 1:38.21 drops her time .07 seconds...

Girls 10U - 50 Free
34.92, not a personal best, but right in line with where she has been swimming this event.

Girls 10U - 100 Free
Bailey 100 free fell back a bit, and it upset her. She swam a 1:17.45, down 1.5 or so seconds from her best. I believe it upset her because she doesn't want to fall further behind Maddie (who won the event outright with a ridiculous time of 1:05.44). Of course I could be misreading it...she could just be disappointed by the big drop. The problem in the event was she didn't get an early catch on the water, so there were some inefficiencies in the early part of the pull...easily corrected...

Girls 10U - 100 Back
Well, she didn't stop, when she was swimming the event this time, and she was able to post a 1:25.66, which is 2+ seconds under the required state cut time Bailey gets her 4th state cut. This one I felt she'd get easily and she did...

Girls 10U - 50 Breast
A Personal Best of 45.48 is also .01 under the state cut time, Bailey now has 5 state cuts. Surprisingly, her stroke doesn't look as good right now as it did earlier in the season. She appears to be a little flat with her pull, so she may have more speed in this stroke when she figures it back out, but it won't really matter...

Bailey earns two more state cuts on her last 2 swims (yes they are in order this time). She has 5 on the year and is doing really well. It is a bit surprising to me that the 50 back remains the stroke she can't seem to get, and it was the one I expected her to get first. Because she has so many state cuts now, and because she has requested this in the past, I'm going to be entering her in some longer races during the last few meets. This is the plan 200 free (and based on how she does possibly the 200 IM or 100 Fly)...she'll decide, but first I want her to do a 200 in freestyle so she'll know what it is like before she jumps into a 200 IM...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boys 10U - 50 Back
Another Personal Best - 40.48 so a drop of 1.2 seconds...and it moves him only .6 seconds from the state cut.

Boys 10U - 50 Free
Another low 36 swim...36.10 so no improvement here, but still showing consistency in his speed...

Boys 10U - 100 Free
Back to the Personal Best...a drop of 2.5 seconds puts his new time at 1:18.05. In this race Bear showed off some really greatly improved underwater swimming. Having watched the elite swimmers at duel in the pool take control of races on turns, Bear decided to try and do the same, and in this event it was obvious. He would hit the wall slightly behind a swimmer in a close by lane, but after the turn and underwater work, he'd come up head and shoulders ahead. It was pretty cool to see this executed on a smaller scale (we have some need video on this...).

Boys 10U - 100 Back
Not a personal best and not even a very good swim. Time was fine - 1:28.76 and would have been good enough for a state cut had he needed it, but he completely screwed up his turns - twice. He got wrong armed and it tied him in knots. He got out laughing about how badly he executed those turns. He said he'd work on it hard in practice.

Boys 10U - 50 Breast
Bear swims a 46.70...I NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THIS POSSIBLE...his breaststroke was so bad, he didn't even want to swim it, ever...but now he's less than 1 second from a state cut as a 9 year old (albiet an old 9 year old)...oh, it is another personal best in case you didn't figure that out on your own.

Boys 10U - 100 IM
Another 1.5 second drop from his personal best...a time of 1:26.94. Hard to believe he started the year swimming the IM in 1:40.xx. Another interesting tidbit from this race. Bear is working on swimming fly a little differently. He was the type of kid that swam fly fast, but he did so by working hard and "wiggling" fast, rather than creating that big smooth, beautiful motion the great flyers have. He's trying to go fast with that bigger motion now and from the first let of the IM, he's doing pretty good. I don't believe currently he is as fast as he was, but it's close and he'll benefit in the long run from making the change.

Bear's season is just mindblowing to me. He has set a personal best in 24 our of 28 swims...I wouldn't believe it if someone told me that and I hadn't seen it for myself. The kid is super pumped up about swimming. After this meet, he's put himself into striking distance of another couple of cuts...I'm not holding my breathe that he'll get them, but he might...(if he gets Breast I'll be completely floored)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boys 11/12 - 50 Back
Brett has to start on his most hated stroke...the backstroke. I was hoping that he'd get off to a good start to maybe set the tone for the meet, and I was scared for the tone to be set with him swimming back. But he looked good. Got his feet up in the kick and made that more productive and he increased his stroke rate, plus his turn was perfect...personal best 43.10. Yes I know it isn't a great time, but for him it is a monumental improvement on a number of levels. He drops his time by about 2.5 seconds, and he get a personal best (regardless of how slow it is still confidence building for him).

Boys 11/12 - 200 Breast
I finally got Brett to agree to swim this event. In fact, all morning he was talking about it as his nervous energy was building...when the race came, because he had an NT (no time), in the event he was in the first heat with 2 other NTs. Only neither showed up. So Brett, in his first 200 of any kind, swims solo...He looks awesome doing it posting a time of 3:18:94. In fact, that time is so impressive I look up the state cut, which is a 3:15.99...so we are only 3 seconds shy. That sounds like a lot, but if you read back and notice how often we have significant drops in 100 yard races, the getting 3 seconds in a 200 yard event is definately doable. Also Brett had no one pacing him or racing him so no adrenaline or guide...Regardless if he gets it or not...(and I'll go more in detail on how likely it is in his summary) it has pumped him up and will hopefully be the spark he needed to push him through this tough time

Boys 11/12 - 100 IM
After finishing his 200, Brett has to turn around and swim the IM...and he does great...he posts a personal best of 1:30.90...and without fatigue I bet it would have been even better...

Boys 11/12 - 100 Free
1:18.35...a 5+ second improvement over his previous best...He still needs to clean up the stroke a bit, but he worked harder in a Free race then I've seen him do in years...I was very proud of this effort.

Boys 11/12 - 100 Breast
A personal best of 1:33.28, which is 2 seconds better than his previous best. I believe he's starting to figure out the coach's suggestion of going long, and his more recent suggestion to delay the breath just a bit (which i think is an effort to keep him lower in the water). Regardless, it worked...

Boys 11/12 - 50 Fly
Brett's fly looked really good. Nice rythem and movement. He needs to get stronger doing it but the form was good. He posted a best time of 42.22, another 1.5 second (or so) drop.

This meet was just what the doctor ordered. Not only did he go 6 for 6 on personal bests, and get some significant drops, but he put himself in a position with the 200 Breast to earn a state cut. He was so pumped up after the meet that he asked me to work with him on our exercises at night again. This is something we've done in the past when he wanted to get faster for some reason. We don't do anything major, just some chin ups, push ups, jumping exercises...but the point is he believes he has a shot now and he's willing to work harder to get there.

He does have a shot...3 seconds in a 200 is not much...but I do have a few concerns...first - when I look at his splits and I compare them to his personal bests, I'm not sure there are 3 seconds to gain. I've explained above why I think he can go faster (pacing, racing, familiarity with the race, etc.), but here is why I'm concerned. First, he swam his opening 50 in 47.02...a great time for a 200, but also less than 1.5 seconds from his personal best at the beginning of this season and only 3 seconds slower than his personal best now. His first 100 time was 1:38.37, his personal best just a couple months ago was 1:38.xx. His best has now dropped to 1:33...so maybe we can cut a few there. But here is where the real crux of the issue is in my mind. Typically the time gains come from understanding the race and having the strength to finish stronger...but Brett's back half was only 2.2 seconds slower than his first 100. That is an amazing bit of info in my mind, and extremely impressive as well. It also illustrates what his coaches have been telling him, that his techique will allow him to swim longer races better. They have told him he can swim breast all day and never stop. So will he be able to cut 3 seconds, I'm not sure, and he'll only have a couple shots at it...We shall see...

-----------------------------------------------------

[Breeze]

2011 Short Course Season - Personal Bests @ 4 Meets


Bailey

50 Free - 33.96 - from 10/21/11
50 Back - 39.63 - from 9/10/11
50 Brst - 45.48 - from 12/17/11
50 Bfly - 39.44 - from 9/10/11
100 IM - 1:26.11 - from 11/19/11
100 Free - 1:15.86 - from 11/19/11
100 Brst - 1:38.21 - from 12/17/11
100 Back - 1:25.66 - from 12/17/11



Bear

50 Free - 35.78 - from 10/21/11
50 Back - 40.48 - from 12/17/11
50 Brst - 46.70 - from 12/17/11
50 Bfly - 39.76 - from 11/19/11
100 IM - 1:26.94 - from 12/17/11
100 Free - 1:18.05 - from 12/17/11
100 Back - 1:26.43 - from 11/19/11


Brett

50 Free - 36.32 - from 10/21/11
50 Back - 43.10 - from 12/17/11
50 Brst - 43.79 - from 10/21/11
50 Bfly - 42.22 - from 12/17/11
100 IM - 1:30:90 - from 12/17/11
100 Free - 1:18.35 - from 12/17/11
100 Brst - 1:33.28 - from 12/17/11
200 Brst - 3:18.95 - from 12/17/11

[Breeze]

ok, i'm caught up now...I'll post updates or interesting tidbits as they occur...

The next meet is the middle of Jan at Auburn...hopefully, the kids won't slack off too much during the holiday...

[Breeze]

ok, I'm going to try and get some video up...

[Breeze]

alright, I can't seem to get the embed to work from my online location (not really interested in posting my kids videos on YouTube)...unfortunately, I guess I'll post links to the videos - unless someone wants to advise me on the best way to accomplish this...

[Breeze]

Bailey's 100 Yard IM @ Woodie B. Malone Meet (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39094490/swim/Bailey-IM-11182011.wmv)

This isn't one of Bailey's swims from our most recent meet, but I decided to post this one for a couple reasons.

1. Because it is the IM, you'll get to see all of her strokes, and with her qualifying for state in numerous events you'll have an idea what she looks like in all of those strokes.

2. This swim qualified her for the State Meet so you'll get to see her in an event that she earned a cut.

Due to the layout of the facility this recording was taken from the side, making it a bit harder to find Bailey. She is wearing a black suit with a white Swim Atlanta cap, and she is the 4th lane from the top of the screen. She'll be the one of the first off the blocks and the last in the picture to surface (dove too deep)...

*Note: To strip out the background noise I had to convert the file to a WMV. I hope that doesn't cause any problems for anyone. Also because the race is almost 1.5 minutes it is a pretty large file.

[Breeze]

Bear's 100 Yard Free @ Gold Invite (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39094490/swim/Bear-100Free-121911.wmv)

This is Bear's 100 Free swim from our most recent meet. This isn't a state level swim, and in fact, he hasn't qualified at all for state in this event (a bunch of kids swim Freestyle very fast - and often only Freestyle - drop the qualifying time), but this is the swim where his strong turns are pretty obvious. If you watch the first turn you'll see him enter the wall slightly behind the swimmer in the lane closer to the camera, but comming off the wall, he's clearly pulled ahead, by a decent margin.

The angle of this, and the flow of the race will make identifying Bear easier than Bailey's video above. But at the start of the race he's the swimmer with the "man suit" (briefs), and white cap. He's also 3rd lane from the top of the screen...

[JAG]

Good read buddy.

[Breeze]

Hey JAG,

Long time...thanks for checking in...

Breeze

[Breeze]

Brett's 200 Yard Breaststroke @ Gold Invite (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39094490/swim/Brett-200Breast-121911.wmv)

Here is Brett's swim which put him in striking distance of a state cut. A couple of warnings here...

1. This is a 200 Yard race, twice as long as the two posted above, so it is a large file.

2. This will be 8 laps of Breaststroke (you'll get a good look at his form), but you'll also see a lot of it over 8 laps.

3. He swims this race solo...no competition whatsoever. So he's basically exhibitioning it

I do think this race illustrates his breaststroke pretty well, but you might not want to sit through the full 3 minutes of the race...


Oh, and I just watched it again myself and I forgot about the extra on the end. My wife doesn't always get the camera turned off when she does the recordings...sorry about that

[Breeze]

We got some bad news for the Auburn Meet...we found out that Brett won't be allowed to swim the 200 Breast...

The meet didn't offer a 200 Breast for 11/12s, so I entered him in the open race. But his coach informed us tonight he won't be able to swim that race (actually he could swim that race, and only that race - or he can swim all the strokes and not that one. It has to do with a rule of swimming in the Open category). He also isn't allowed to swim against 13/14s...so he'll have to withdraw from that event.

That's terribly disappointing. This means he'll have only 1 shot next month at the Last Chance Meet to get his state cut, and it will only be the 2nd time he's ever swum the race.

[Breeze]

Bailey came home from practice last night all excited (not our turn to drive the carpool). 2 time Olympic Silver Medalist Amanda Weir had worked out with the Swim Atlanta National Team just prior to the Gold Team practice and was in the locker room. Bailey got her swim cap and bag autographed...

When she got home she was talking 100 miles an hour and bouncing all over the place...she couldn't stand still...

[Breeze]

There have been some new secondary issues that are interesting occur. You may recall from reading the Gold Meet information that it is a new facility in my area and a rival swim club. Well 3 of the members of Bailey's group (and members of our Summer team), elected to go over there and investigate, and they all came away throughly impressed. They reported the facilities are great, the teams are much smaller, and the instruction is much more personal. So, MK, KJ and Raylee were planning on changing to Gold Swim Club.

However, Raylee was really attached to her coaches at SA and after talking with the SA coach, her parents decided to stay put. When SA coaches were notified by MK and KJ's parents of the switch they asked to have a conference to talk about the decision. MK elected to pass and will change. KJ's parents met with the coaches and are still considering their options.

I have to say, that we have known MKs parents for a while (MK and Brett started year round swimming together)...and every time MK hits a plateau her mom starts complaining that she isn't getting better and starts looking to change. 4 years ago it was Dynamos she was thinking about going to, 2 years ago it was a new SA facility in our proximity she was going to take MK to, and now it is the Gold Swim Club. I figured eventually she would actually make the change. That being said...I do think she will do well at the Gold facility. She has a few things she needs to clean up, which will make her faster, and she's about to grow, which will also make her faster - so they'll see some good results...it will be interesting to me to see how long those improvements will calm the parents from looking to find something better.

[Breeze]

The meet this weekend is in Auburn and the wife and I are wrestling with the decision on when to head down. We know from experience that our kids don't swim as well if we drive down on the same day as the meet, but with Christmas so close behind us, we could certainly stand to save the $100+ by staying home an extra night...

Not sure what we are going to do...

[Izulde]

What are the prospective state cuts available for the Auburn meet? I know Brett's been removed from the 200 breast, so that's out, and Bear and Bailey have a bunch of cuts already.

I suppose I would look at it from the standpoint of what benefits could be derived from the night in the hotel other than presumably better times.

[Breeze]

Hey Izulde,

Thanks for reading...that is what my wife and I are doing. Plus we try to keep in mind that meets are their rewards for the hard work at practice and the out of town meets are especially fun for them.

We do have a shot at serveral cuts...I'll be posting an update on that later...

[Breeze]

Here is an update of the events the kids will be swimming this weekend.

Bailey

Day 1
100 Breaststroke - 1:38.21 - Qualified for State Meet
50 Freestyle - 33.96 - Needs to cut .47 seconds to achieve the cut
200 Freestyle - NT - She's never entered this event, needs a 2:49.09

Day 2
100 Freestyle - 1.15.86 - Needs to cut 1.27 seconds to achieve the cut
50 Breaststroke - 45.48 - Qualified for State Meet
50 Backstroke - 39.63 - Needs to cut 1.14 seconds to achieve the cut

Bailey is competing in 4 events she needs a cut in, and in 3 of the 4 her personal best is within 1.5 seconds. The 4th is an event she has never swum, but she is a strong kicker and may be able to power through to the needed time. I think she'll get at least 1 cut this weekend...


Bear

Day 1
100 Breaststroke - NT - Bear's Breast is finally good enough to swim this one
50 Freestyle - 35.78 - needs to cut 2.39 seconds for a State Cut
50 Butterfly - 39.76 - Qualified for the State Meet

Day 2
100 Freestyle - 1:18.05 - needs to cut 1.96 seconds for a State Cut
50 Breaststroke - 46.70 - needs to cut .91 seconds for a State Cut
50 Backstroke - 40.48 - needs to cut .59 seconds for a State Cut

Bear has 5 races that he needs a cut in, and 2 are less than a second. He'll be hard pressed to get the 2 Freestyle times, but the way he's been improving I won't completely rule it out. My bet is he comes up just short of both the Back and Breast. I just can't believe he'll continue to improve at the rate he's been going. I hope he will, but I don't expect it


Brett

Day 1
100 Breaststroke - 1.33.28
50 Butterfly - 42.22

Day 2
100 Freestyle - 1:18.35
50 Breaststroke - 43.79
50 Backstroke - 43.10

My hope for Brett is he continues to improve in his off strokes. His level of effort in practice has gone up even more, but because of his sloppy form, often he can be stronger and work harder but also swim slower. We will probably enter him in the 50 Free the day of the meet to take the place of the 200 Breast we were forced to drop. If he can cut time and get to around his siblings in some of the other events, I think it will have a very positive impact on him

[Breeze]

About to head out of town...we decided to try and make it as special for the kids as we cood, so we'll spend the extra money.

Of course, after making the decision on Wednesday night, on my home yesterday my car starting having problems and it's going to cost a bunch to get it running right again...

[thealmighty]

Come on wit it!!

[Breeze]

Sorry thealmighty

I was waiting for the official results...

Posting soon...

[Breeze]

Ralph Crocker Meet @ Auburn - 1/14/2012
Day 1

Back at the Auburn pool for the second time this season, but unlike the first time, this time the facility is over packed, and the meet organizers aren't nearly as prepared. Heat sheets (where we learn which event number, heat, and lane the kids are swimming in) are sold out and it takes 4 minutes a piece to print a new one. There are no seats available in the stands and we are forced to sit on the floor of the walkway, pressed up against the back wall (even though we arrived at the facility over an hour and a half before our warmup session). The whole experience was a little stressful, but we made do...

------------------------------------------
Bailey

Girls 10U - 100 Yard Breaststroke (Personal Best - 1:38.21)
Bailey's stroke her is a little off...I think it is mostly caused due to her being a little flat through the pull stage, which is causing her to be just a bit slower than she was at her peak. Time = 1:39.53

Girls 10U - 50 Yard Freestyle (Personal Best - 33.96)
Quick dive, but too deep. She has also developed a strange move with her left arn on the freestyle. She is pulling her arm out of the water with a cocked wrist (similar to what you might see someone do in butterfly), but because in freestyle you don't reach all the way above your head, but rather to in front of the shoulder, the hand isn't rotating flat and is entering the water thumb first. Her kick is still real strong though, so the poor arm work isn't killing her. She's just off a PB with a 34.15.

Girls 10U - 200 Yard Freestyle (NT)
In her first effort on the 200 Freestyle Bailey did a tremendous job. The funky left arm looked painful - but she was fast covering the distance in a very respectable 2:50.82 seconds. Only 1.73 seconds shy of a state cut on her first atttempt. In fact, for a good portion of the race she was on pace to get the state cut. She swam the opening 50 in 38.30 and opening 100 in 1:21.50. The back 100 was completed in (quick math here) 1:29.32. Not a bad slip for a first time. Here are all 4 50s in order...38.30 : 43.20 : 46.48 : 42.84. Nice strong finish in the last 50, which gives me hope she can put out a bit more effort in the middle 100 and get the time needed for the state cut.
-----------------------------------------------

Bear

Boys 10U - 100 Yard Breaststroke (NT)
With Bear's recent strong showing in the 50 Breast I decided to put him in the 100 Breast to see how he would fair. I expected his time in the 100 would not be as close to the state cut as his 50, but wanted to get a baseline time. As expected he wasn't as fast, swimming a 1:46.xx. His lack of comfort in the stroke caused a bit of a breakdown in form before the swim was over which cost him time. Unfortunately, because he is such a butterflyer he also over kicked during one of the pullout turns and was DQed for a double dolphin kick.

Boys 10U - 50 Yard Freestyle (Personal Best - 35.78)
Bear still looks strong with his turns and underwater work and his form is good. The dive was quick but a bit deep which hurt his time some, but he still posted a personal best of 35.65...it is a very marginal improvement, but I never undervalue a personal best swim.

Boys 10U - 50 Yard Butterfly (Personal Best - 39.76)
I believe I mentioned above somewhere that Bear had been really working on getting a more fundamentally sound stroke with the bigger "wiggle" through the stroke. This was the first time he actually attempted it in a race. His stroke looked much more sound (if a bit slow in execution). However, while he was slower through the stroke, the improved form was also more powerful and efficient as he posted a very respectable 40.01 - just fractions off his personal best. I expect this will position him for a big improvement in this stroke by this time next year.
-----------------------------------------------

Brett

Boys 11/12 - 100 Yard Breaststroke (Personal Best - 1:33.28)
Brett gets to start the meet with his 100 breast. I was really hopeful that he would get off to a good start. He looked great in warmups especially in the breast, where he was staying low and driving foward. His mom mentioned to him that he looked good doing his breast in warmup and if he swam like that he would do great. Unfortuntately he took the suggestion literally, and he attempted to swim his 100 like it was the 50 sprint. He went out hard and with quick strokes (rather than using his good glide phase of the stroke). It worked pretty well as his first 50 was a 44.31, but his fatigue in the back half killed him as he came home in a horible 52.70 to finish 1:37.01. He was very upset by this...and I was afraid it would impact the rest of his meet (as I've seen it do in past meets), and I encouraged him to forget it and rebound strong in the rest of his swims for the day.

Boys 11/12 - 50 Yard Freestyle (Personal Best - 36.32)
This was the write in event that took the place of the 200 Breast we were forced to drop. Brett got a great start and had a good dive, and he looked strong (though he still needs to kick better) through the race. He posted a personal best of 36.06. A nice rebound.

Boys 11/12 - 50 Yard Butterfly (Personal Best - 42.22)
Brett's fly looked good in this race. His kick is looking stronger. He did shorten up the arms of the stroke in order to relieve some of the stress on the kick, which unfortunately causes a reduced pull (which is where he is stronger in the stroke) and therefore a bit of a slower time 43.34, but still a good looking swim for him. Unfortunately, he was DQed in this race...the reason given was "Both arms not moving foward above water at same time". I have watched the video numerous times and didn't see the stroke that resulted in the DQ, and Brett's coach admitted to not seeing it during the race. But because this race didn't results in any points and wasn't a personal best there was no point in fighting the ruling. (if anyone is interested I'll post the video and you can look for the bad stroke).

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Day 2

Day 2 started off a bit better, as we were able to find seats (albiet all the way down at the diving well). One of our group got good seats by the 10U pool which the whole group rotated the extra seats based on who's kid was swimming.

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Bailey

Girls 10U - 100 Yard Freestyle (Personal Best - 1:15.89)
The left arm issue was still present in this race, but Bailey looked strong, beating her personal best and posting a 1:14.94. Putting her about 1/3rd of a second off of the state cut.

Girls 10U - 50 Yard Breaststroke (Personal Best - 45.48)
Bailey's flat stroke was still a problem here, and it caused her to be a full second slower than her personal best at 46.49.

Girls 10U - 50 Yard Backstroke - (Personal Best - 39.63)
Another shot at a cut in an event that she would have had the cut all the way back at the time trials (1st event of the season) had she simply pushed all the way to the wall rather than glide in. But the cut for this event still eludes us. She does manage to post her 3rd best time ever with a 40.14. Staying in striking distance, but not getting over the hump.
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Bear

Boys 10U - 100 Yard Freestyle (Personal Best - 1:18.05)
Bear's stroke looked good in this race, but his speed wasn't there. It was very strange as he appeared to have good body position and consistent strokes, but the time states he wasn't going very fast. He was the slowest in his heat, and may have burned himself out early trying to keep up with the other swimmers, but he posted a poor time of 1:23.24...this is his worst swim in this event since the SCAT event at the beginning of the season. He was extremely upset following this race.

Boys 10U - 50 Yard Breaststroke (Personal Best - 46.70)
Bear came into this one really hoping to get a state cut, since he was just a second off of it. But unfortunately, he had another poor swim. I contribute this to 2 factors...First, it is partially my fault for putting him in the 100 Breast the day before. I believe the longer swim caused his form to breakdown a bit and when he attempted to swim it on Sunday he was out of rythem and very inefficient. In fact, his stroke looked very similar to the way it was in the beginning of the year - a lot of up and down with very little forward push. The second reason was a combination of wanting the state cut and wanting to redeem himself for his bad swim in the 100 free. In essence, he simply worked to hard, trying to power threw the water. He posted a 50.68 and was demoralized after the event.

Boys 10U - 50 Yard Backstroke (Personal Best - 40.48)
I was really pulling for Bear in this one. I wanted him to end on a good note, but it wasn't to be. He again tried way to hard, so much so that he was bouncing up and down in his stroke. He ended up finishing with a 41.57...
-------------------------------------------------------

Brett

Boys 11/12 100 Yard Freestyle (Personal Best - 1:18.35)
Brett was excited to swim again this morning, and decided to go down for his event a bit early. Unfortunately, while he was standing on the bulkhead waiting for his event/heat, he got shoved off and into the warm up pool by a girl who needed to get around him. He ended up hitting his knee and shin on the lane rope. He got out of the pool and was barely able to walk (typical initial pain from a bruise on a joint). He didn't recover in time to swim his event.

Boys 11/12 50 Yard Breastroke (Personal Best - 43.79)
Brett iced his knee for about a half an hour following his incident. Coming off of his bad 100 Breast, and his missed 100 Free, he was hoping to swim well here, but he was still walking gingerly heading down for the race. His strong breaststroke from warmups on Saturday and again on Sunday showed up in this race, as he stayed low and really pushed forward. In fact, he does a nice job in the race of closing on the swimmers around him (as he is often behind after the dive and turns due to being much smaller than the kids he swims against). He posts a personal best at 42.32.

Boys 11/12 50 Yard Backstroke (Personal Best - 43.10)
Brett's form in this race was even better than it was at the Gold Meet the previous month. Legs were up, body low in the water and arm rotation was quick (for him). I'm not sure how this wasn't a personal best swim, but regardless the form is coming around and if he keeps this form, we should see some improved times during long course. Posted 44.24.
---------------------------------------------------

Summary

Bailey
Immediately following the meet you'd have to say this was a disappointing one for Bailey. She was expecting to get another cut here and it didnt' happen. Several of her friends came away with additional cuts, and she is feeling like she isn't as good right now. She needs to clean a couple of minor things up in her strokes and she'll do fine. I also think she needs to relax and not put too much pressure on herself during the races. I think she's tightening up which is causing her to swim slower. A couple of days removed from the meet and she is showing some excitement about going for the 200 free cut in the last chance meet. I believe she will get at least 1 cut in that meet....just not sure which one it will be.


Bear
This ended up being a terrible meet for Bear. It was the dreaded fall back to Earth that I was afraid of. The constant drops in time just aren't normal and this meet was the official crash. On the positive side, his strokes still look very good and I don't feel these fall back times are going to be the norm...in fact, I expect he'll get back to around his personal bests at the last chance meet. His coach told him following the meet, not to be upset, that he's improved so much and been working extremely hard in practice for so long that he thinks Bear is worn out. He told Bear to take Monday off, and maybe miss a Saturday practice in the next couple of weeks to allow his body to recover. I can also add, that Bear has been eating like a horse, and in the past when he's done that he has grown shortly thereafter, so we may be looking at a growth spurt - and when growth spurts hit, times suffer as the kids energy level isn't as good and their form seems to suffer a bit....


Brett
Despite his bad performance (poor strategy) in the 100 Breast, he actually had a good meet. An improvement of 1.5 seconds in his best stroke and a 50 is a pretty big accomplishment. He got a second personal best in the 100 Free (though we still need to kick harder), and his fly and back looked pretty good. This is 2 good meets in a row and we still have the last chance at the 200 Breast coming up in a month.

[Breeze]

Note: I thought I'd add this in, because it was mentioned above and is a nice story...

Lexi, the girl in Bailey's group that had to have knee surgery a couple of months ago, returned in this meet, and she was able to obtain the state cut in both the 50 and 100 Backstroke events. She was the last of the kids in the group to not have a state qualifying time. Now all 5 will be swimming at state together.

[Izulde]

Yay for Lexi!

And here's to hoping everyone finishes strong at the Last Chance Meet.

[Breeze]

Did a little search and found out MK will be swimming her first meet for her new club this weekend. I will be interested to see if there is much improvement.

I wouldn't expect a bunch, as she's only be practicing with the new coaches for a couple of weeks.

Also saw where the Gold Swim Club will be invited to the same last chance meet we will attend...so we'll see her swim next month.

[Breeze]

Quick Update - I have some news to pass along and because of that I figured I'd go ahead and give an update on the kids...

Bear missed practice as scheduled on Monday. It was funny but my wife said he really was moping around about having not gone. Last night (Wednesday), he was back in the water, working hard and looking good.

Bailey did a much better job at practice last night of fixing the funny move she has with her left wrist. It was a little stiff in the execution, but the hand position as it entered the water was good, and the more she does it the more it will become natural.

Not the real reason for the update...

Brett was forced to miss practice yesterday. We (parents) found out that he had failed to turn in a couple of pretty big assignments in Science class. The failure to do the work wasn't that it was too hard (one of the assignments was a study guide for a test he got a 100 on that he didn't study for), just that he felt it was unnecessary (here is that stubburn streak again). He was told that until he got caught up in all his work (and at this point the teacher may not even accept the assignment, but he is going to do it regardless), he won't be allowed to swim. He was very upset about missing practice, but we had to send the message that school comes first.

Now he could have completed the work last night, but the arguing, pouting and lack of effort prevented that from occuring. He did attempt to get the work done (sort of), but what he did do, didn't meet my standards (and I told him, you don't want it to get to a point where I am involved or you'll work significantly harder than if you had done it when you were supposed to). He should get the work finished tonight and be able to practice tomorrow, but that doesn't mean he will...he is just as likely to die on his sword by continuing to say what he did was good enough...

Unfortunate timing...but not surprising. We have similar issues to this several times every year.

[Breeze]

Brett got his late work finished, but we had issues getting the work from last night completed. He is basically on a day-to-day status...if he gets his school work done (and does it well) and he is respectful, then he can swim.

Sorry, this isn't intended to be an airing of family issues, but I believe it is pertinent to the story, because if he misses practice he will definantely impact his ability to get his cut in the 200 Breast.

[Izulde]

Re: The Science thing. I do see his point after getting 100 on the test, but I'm also wondering, based on that and the fact that the issue wasn't difficulty level, if perhaps he needs to be challenged more in that class?

Not to derail the thread here, but I know a lot of times when I was in school I wouldn't do the work because it was too easy and it bored me.

[Breeze]

Hey Izulde,

I appreciate the input so don’t feel bad about interjecting whenever you want… just because this part isn’t specifically tied to swimming doesn’t mean it is off limits, and moreover, I appreciate suggestions and observations.

Your assessment of him needing harder work is accurate. Brett is extremely bright and this often causes problems...His mother and I have been attempting to get the school system to recognize this as well, but we are fighting a real uphill battle. As I mentioned in his profile section above, Brett is extremely ADHD (to give you a measuring stick, when we got him diagnosed the Psychiatrist we used specialized in ADHD and Autistic Children and she said, “He is not only ADHD, he is ADHD for ADHD kids…”), and the school system seems to be incapable of handling a gifted ADHD child, (In the Georgia school system, the gifted program is for children that reach certain high standards on some specific tests).

All through Brett’s elementary school years he was identified as needing to be tested for the gifted program…but because of the way the test is designed, he was unable to get in. He qualified on several of the areas, but he can’t qualify in motivation (the test administered for determining motivation is one of the same tests that were used to diagnose him with ADHD – and you can’t score as motivated and having ADHD). This becomes the major sticking point…because he is viewed as not motivated and unorganized so the gifted program doesn’t want him (he would require too much effort on the part of the teachers).

Thankfully, in middle school we were able to reference his grades and we got him placed in advanced classes (and because he is doing so well in Math – he’s currently targeted to go to Accelerated Class in 7th Grade – which is even faster paced harder classes). However, for him to get into any more Accelerated Courses, like Science, he’ll have to do a better job on the basics (like study guides and worksheets) and not just concentrate on the tests and projects. The teachers don’t see the lack of doing the work as an issue of being bored, but rather an attitude of not caring or being so unorganized that he can’t remember and thus can’t handle the harder curriculum in the already advanced classes (we actually just had meeting with his teachers a few weeks ago, where they were arguing that he should be in on level classes, even though he got mid-90’s grades in all his courses last quarter).

It is all very frustrating. I really wish I could afford a private school for him, because he could honestly do high school level math and science right now, but he is always going to struggle with the little things because they don’t seem important enough to him for him to remember them (like a study guide when he doesn’t need to study). I have tried to impress upon him the need to get all his work done (even explaining how it effects the teacher’s impressions of his abilities), and that failing to do it, is only holding him back – but he is 11 and getting great scores on his tests and he doesn’t see the big deal with missing the work or turning it in late.

Hope this makes since...Thanks for chiming in, and your instincts are good on this one…nice interpretation of the underlying problem…

[Breeze]

Follow up on the Brett school/practice issues

Because Brett had no homework over the weekend and because he was very respectful, he was able to practice both Friday and Saturday. As Saturday's practice was winding down, his coach found me in order to let me know that Brett had "Really killed it" the last two days. He said Brett was keeping up with everyone in the pool (not something I thought he was even capable of unless they were going to do a full hour of Breaststroke)...

So I'm really pleased with that - but today will be real test when he comes home with homework...

Got my fingers crossed

[Breeze]

Quick Updates:

- Brett did an awesome job with his homework yesterday...

- MK swam her first Gold Meet and did the following
- pulled a NS in the 50 Fly
- @ .7 seconds slower in the 50 back
- @ .85 faster in 50 Breast
- @ .5 faster in 50 Free
- Maddie (the girl in Bailey's group that has been dominating this season - so much so she's been tabbed "The Beast" - and yes she likes the nickname) is, according to her mother, once again talking about quitting year round swimming. This has happened several times in the past - so we'll have to see if she goes through with it (at this point I have to believe she will eventually give it up, but I doubt it will occur now).

[Breeze]

Quick Note

The last chance meet is approaching next weekend, and while we were hoping to get Bailey in a tennis tournament in January the rainy weather prevented that from happening, and now we are in a position of needing to start off Bailey's tennis season. Therefore, Bailey will miss swim practice this weekend in order to compete in a Level 4 Tennis tournament. We didn't want to do this but her state ranking is going to be impacted if she doesn't start playing. She hasn't played in a tournment since early December and is a little rusty, but she has a new practice group that is much better and it pushing her more. Hopefully, she'll do well to start the season...

I know this isn't swimming, but it impacts her swim practice and I felt I should fill everyone in...

[Breeze]

The Psych Sheet is out for the Last Chance Meet, and it appears that some of the parents didn’t read the signups very carefully. This event is only supposed to serve as a last chance to get a state cut, meaning if a child already has a cut, they aren’t supposed to swim that event in this meet. But there are several kids who already have cuts who will be swimming. Here is where my kids stand…

Bailey

200 Free – 2:50.84 – cut time 2:49.09 – Bailey is the fastest of all the swimmers in the event to not have cut

50 Free – 33.96 – cut time 33.49 – There are only 6 kids with a faster time then Bailey that don’t have a cut

50 Back – 39.96 – cut time 38.49 – Only 5 kids closer to a cut in this event

100 Free - 1:14.94 – cut time 1:14.59 – Bailey is the 3rd fastest not to have a cut in this event.


Bear

200 Free – NT – cut time 2:46.69 – This will be the first time he’s ever done the event

100 IM – 1:26.94 – cut time 1:24.99 – Only 4 kids faster without a cut

50 Free – 35.69 – cut time 33.39 – Quite a few here looking for a cut, Bear is about 11 back

50 Back – 40.48 – cut time – 39.89 – Only 3 kids closer to the cut

100 Freestyle – 1:18.05 – cut time 1:16.09 – 7 in front of Bear in this event

50 Breast – 46.70 – cut time 45.79 – 5 closer to the cut here


Brett

200 Breast – 3:18.94 – cut time 3:15.99 – Brett is the closest 11 year old not to have the cut. There are four 12 year olds with faster times trying to get their state cut (which is 9 seconds faster than the 11 year old time)

[Breeze]

Tonight will be the last day of practice for the kids prior to the meet this weekend. We give the kids the Friday before the meet off to save their legs for Saturday and Sunday races...

I'll fill in my thoughts on their chances later this week...

[Breeze]

Unfortunately, our chances of getting another state cut have taken a hit for all 3 of my kids.

On Wednesday morning Bailey woke up with a nasty croupie like cough. By Wednesday afternoon congestion had set in, and there was no improvment this morning (didn't expect there would be any). This will make it difficult for her to swim a personal best...as it is hard to swim fast when you can't breathe well...

Bear actually missed practice yesterday due to nausea. We are hoping that it is related to his acid reflux issues and not a sign of a stomach bug. Regardless, missing practice hurt (especially with our plan to skip Friday), and if he gets a stomach bug, he won't have the energy to swim a state cut time.

The hit to Brett's chances aren't health related...in fact, it is due to a quirk in the way the event is organized. In this Last Chance meet, in order to give the kids every opportunity to gain the time needed, the races will be run in a Preliminary/Finals format. Meaning if a child finishes in the top 20 in the premlims they will swim again that evening in a consulation final (places 20-11) or a finals (places 10-1) - this gives kids 2 chances in the same event to get their time. Sounds great right...well the problem for Brett is that the prelim/final format is only for 100 and 50 yard races. Any 200s or greater will be run as a timed finals...so for the 200 Breast, the top 20 kids will swim in the finals in the evening session only, and Brett is seeded 7th. That means on Sunday Brett will be at the morning session for his other events, then have to come back just to swim the 200 Breast that evening. To make matters worse, evening races aren't typically good ones for Brett, as his ADHD becomes more pronounced later in the day.

[JAG]

Sorry to hear about the sick kiddos, hope they get well soon. Good luck this weekend.

[Breeze]

Last Chance Meet @ Georgia Tech - 2/18/2012

Predictions

Bailey
Bailey is in a prime position to make a move this weekend. She is only swimming 4 events because she already has 6 cuts and we aren't going to swim the 100 Fly or the 500 Free, because we have seen several cases where young kids try these events only to adversely affect their strokes, probably due to fatigue. We'll plan on tackling these two events next year when Bailey is 10.

On all 4 of her events she is less than 2 seconds from getting her cut...therefore, assuming she is feeling ok and can breathe this weekend, I think she'll get at least 1 cut. Predicting which cut it will be is difficult, but if pressed I'd say her best chance is the 200 Free. She has cleaned up her freestyle form with her left arm and she is less than 2 seconds on a 200 yard swim, add to that the fact that this will be the second time she swims it and I think she'll understand what it takes from an effort standpoint to get the time needed.

I'd love to say she's going to get the 50 back, and I've basically predicted she is going to get it since the beginning of the season. However, I now believe that she is trying too hard on this stroke, rather than relaxing and racing, she is tightening up and this mental block will probably keep her at about the same time she's been posting. The 50 Free is easily attainable, but so much of that will be dependent on the dive - good dive, good shot. 100 Free I don't think she gets because it will be last race on her schedule and she'll either be exhausted (mentally as much as phsically) from the effort of the previous races, or if she's failed to get a cut coming into this race, she'll put too much pressure on herself and she won't get it.

Now for Bailey, while getting these cuts is nice and certainly a huge boost to self-esteem, it isn't terribly necessary. In fact, to be honest, even if she qualifies in all 4 events, she won't swim all of them next weekend at the state meet.

Bear
Unlike Bailey, Bear's chances of getting a cut is much more precarious. While he has more events to swim, he also isn't nearly as close. In fact, he only has 2 events that are around 1 second, and 1 of those is Breast, and he hasn't been swimming it as good lately as he did in the middle of the season (just isn't a natural stroke for him and he'll fight to get the form right on this event for years still).

Bear's best bet at a cut is the 50 Back. He has been pretty strong in this event recently. One of the biggest keys to his chance here is the start. He's been diving too deep and taking to long to get to the surface. A better start could be the 1 second he is missing. He'll also need to have a good turn. If his count is off going into the wall, or if he ends up on the wrong side with the count (meaning he as reached the stroke he needs to flip to his belly for the flip turn and the wrong arm is up), he may struggle to do it cleanly.

I'd say his next best chance is the 100 IM. Unfortunately, he'll swim the 200 free earlier in the day, and I don't know if he'll be recovered enough to get the 2 second time drop to meet the cut time. I do not believe Bear has a 2 second improvement in him for the 100 or 50 Free, and as I've mentioned above he isn't swimming Breast well right now so I don't expect a cut there either. He also won't get the 200 Free...he might be able to get a cut for the girls time, but he isn't going to swim a 2:46...

All and all I think Bear comes up empty tomorrow. He has had an awesome short course season, even the coaches have mentioned (without prompting from us) how impressive he's been, and they are really excited about his future, but I think these last few seconds are going to be too much for him to overcome. My only fear here is that Bailey kills it and Bear doesn't get a cut, and he starts to mope about it, adopting the "I'm the worst swimmer in the family" mantra he had earlier in the year, ignoring all the good he's done this season...

Brett
I'm not going to go into Brett's extra strokes, that he clearly doesn't have a chance to get a state cut in. In fact, I'm really not sure how he'll even do in those events. His form has improved significantly but his focus recently has been on breast, understanding his lone shot at a state cut was the 200. I hope he improves in his off strokes so we can maintain the momentum...but I'm not terribly concerned about them this weekend.

As for his 200 Breast...I was ready to predict that he would get the cut, until I found out the race wasn't going to occur until the evening session. This is a huge blow to his chances and I don't think words can express my level of disappointment with this arrangement. I'm not upset or angry with anyone, this is just a scheduling quirk that negatively impacts us and it is unfortunate.

This isn't to say Brett won't get the cut, but my prediction is he won't (and maybe that's my way of preparing myself for disappointment). For him to get the cut I figure he'll need to be sub 47 seconds on the opening 50, and around a 1:36 in the opening 100. Then if he can maintain his back half time he'll be right on the number. My bet is he'll finish in the 2:16s...

[Breeze]

:D

[JAG]

Sounds promising.

[Izulde]

Can't wait to hear the results.

[Breeze]

Georgia Open "Last Chance Meet" - @ GaTech - 2/18/12 - 2/19/12

I don't think words can express the levels of emotion I experienced this weekend...from extreme highs to unbelieveable lows. Surprising in that, other than Brett's 200 Breast, there really wasn't much riding on this event. Sure additional cuts would be great, but they weren't pressing. Brett's was big because he would be able to compete at state with his siblings and he wouldn't be the only one of our group not to get a cut (not a completely accurate statement, Maddie's older sister Carmen doesn't have a cut either, but she is older and doesn't hang out as much with our kids unless all the families are together for dinner and she has no-one her own age to spend the time with).

To give you an overview of the entire weekend and what was involved...on Saturday we got up at 7 to get the kids ready, pack the car and feed the kids...we headed down to GaTech around 8:15 and walked into the facility around 9:15 A. M. We left that night at 8 P.M. On Sunday, we had to be there earlier so we awoke at 6, headed down around 7:15, arrived about 8:15 and left at 7:30...(long weekend, and also why I didn't supply details earlier)...

-----------------------------

Day 1

10+U 200 Yard Free

The day started with the 200 Free. Coming into this event I had high hopes for Bailey's chances. Only needing to improve 2 seconds over 200 yards, I felt she had a great chance of getting this one. Bear on the other hand, I didn't think he would be able to make his cut. I thought he could get the girls cut, but he'd need to be 3 full seconds faster than that to get the boys cut. As it turns out, because Bear entered the event with a NT for seeding he raced in the boys pool before Bailey who was in the fastest heat raced in the girls pool.

To give myself an idea of how the kids were doing in this race, I printed up the splits from Bailey's 200 at Auburn when she nearly got her cut. Those times were...

38.30
1:21.51 (43.21)
2:07.98 (46.47)
2:50.82 (42.84)

Bear starts off the 200 with an opening 50 of 37.25. My first thought is, "Off to a great start". but it is followed quickly by "He hasn't ever done this event before and he's going to run out of gas - he can't keep up this pace." The second fifty was 1:21.50. That means the second 50 was swum in 44.25, and his 100 time is only .01 faster than Bailey's time from Auburn. Now I'm thinking, "Ok, this is more of what I expected. I felt fatigue was starting to set in and he clearly had fallen into Bailey's pace," which of course puts him 4 seconds off the state cut time. In the 3rd 50, Bear picked up the pace significantly, finishing it in 43.54 and putting him at 2:05.04 for the race...this put him in striking distance of a cut, but he still needed to swim the final 50 around 41.5 or better, which is asking a lot at the end of a 200 yard race. As you can see above, when Bailey did it in Auburn she swam a closing 50 in 42.84, and Bailey is a faster freestyler than Bear...Watching the race, I could see Bear pick up his effort in the final 2 laps, the question was whether the increased effort was translating to increased speed. Often with fatigue in swimming, the athlete will increase the effort to go faster, only to find the times don't drop, due to poor form. As he was coming into the wall, I could tell he was going faster and he would be real close to the number...he touched and scoreboard read 2:46.15...

Thats a final lap in an amazing 41.11...The cut is 2:46.69...so good enough. Giving Bear his 3rd state cut. (interestingly, Bear has cuts in 50 fly, 100 back, 200 free...3 different strokes, 3 different distances).

Shortly after Bear finished Bailey hit the water, and it was pretty obvious early on that she wasn't swimming her best. Her initial 50 was 38.79, almost a half second slower than in Auburn. The next fifty was worse...she came in at 1:23.12, now a second and a half off her previous time. The 3rd fifty was 2:09.44 still a second and a half slower, and she finished at 2:52.54 just over a second and a half off. I believe her cold from earlier in the week really impacted this race, as she never seemed to get going in high gear and she was breathing much more often than usual.


11/12 100 Yard Breast

Brett did extremely well in this event, improving by 1.1 seconds to a 1:32.28. This time was also good enough for 10th in the event, which also qualified him for the A finals in the event (which was held that evening...which is why we stayed).

11/12 100 Yard IM

Brett looked real good in this one as well. His fly was strong,as he kept up with the rest of the pool, and his back looked better than it ever has, keeping him in contact with the rest of swimmers. On the breast leg, Brett went from 6th to 2nd, but he was unable to hold off the rest of the swimmers in the free and he finished 4th in his heat. His time was 1:28.53...a full 2 second improvement...

10+U 100 Yard IM

Coming into this meet, I felt this was Bear's best chance at a cut...and I had high hopes coming off his strong 200 (with reservations that he might still be fatigued). His fly leg was good, but on the back, he tried way to hard from the moment of pushing off the wall, where he tried to almost duplicate backstroke race start. He ended up over working and got up against the lane rope, which prevented him from getting the speed he needed. He did good considering those issues, posting a time of 1:29.17, but it wasn't a personal best...

11/12 50 Yard Free

Brett continued his strong meet, with another personal best 35.70 (improvement of almost .4 seconds). The best thing is his kick looked much stronger...

10+U 50 Yard Free

Bear swam first (because the boys pool was way ahead of the girls pool...he looked strong, especially with his kick, but he came in at almost exactly the same time as his personal best. 35.69 (only .04 slower...and only .01 faster than Brett - though we never tell the kids how they did in comparison to each other - sometimes it is just interesting to look at)

Bailey 2nd event was also the last event and heat of the morning session. So she swam first and last with nothing but sitting around in the middle. She did better in the sprint than the distance, but she didn't improve swimming a 34.19...

coming up...info on the evening session

[Breeze]

Evening Session

So we end up staying for the evening session because Brett qualified 10th in the 100 Breast, he had 3 personal best and he was feeling good about himself and wanted to race. This is a huge self-esteem boost for him so we wanted to capitalize on it. Plus it would give us a chance to see how he would react for an evening session, since he's 200 Breast would be at approximately the same time on Sunday.

AS it turns out during the waiting around, he started to get way to anxious. His nerves got the best of him (combined with the fact his morning meds were about gone so handling his emotions are tough until the afternoon meds kick in), and said he didn't want to swim. Of course we had to urge, coddle, cajole, fuss and explain, but eventually we got him to accept the situation, understand that there was nothing bad that could come out of the swim and that he had earned the right to be there, so to go have fun with it. As it turn out he didn't get a personal best (didn't beat his time from the preliminaries) but he did get a 1:33.32 almost identical to his personal best coming into the mornings prelims of 1:33.28...

[Breeze]

Georgia Open "Last Chance Meet" - Day 2

10+U 50 Back

Bear was the first to swim on the day, and he was very pumped about getting this cut. I reminded him not to overwork the stroke (like he did during the backstroke lap of the IM the day before). Bear got a great start and was swimming real well, but his turn while fine looked strange...then as he was approaching the wall he appeared to raise his head a bit for several strokes which slowed him down. I found out after the race he had swallowed water on the turn and was trying to clear it the entire second 25, but couldn't until he lifted his head. He finished with a 40.93, about 1 second slow...

Bailey's 50 back was a personal best...unfortunately, it was not a state cut. She managed to get to the wall in 39.38 further cutting into that state cut time, without getting it. She missed it by about half a second...

11/12 50 Back

Brett's 50 back was the best he had ever swum. From a time and form perspective. His feet were much higher in the water and his arm rotation show more urgency then normal. He'll have to get more comfortable with the stroke before we see the reflection of this improved form in his times, but he did manage a 42.38 which is a full second improvement.

-----------------------------------------------

10+U 50 Breast

As I mentioned before the start of the meet, Bear's breaststroke form isn't as strong as it was earlier in the year, and because of that I didn't expect him to improve his time. In this race, he did a nice job of moving forward and gliding rather than bobbing up and down, but he didn't improve his time 47.35

11/12 50 Breast

Brett again looks strong improving by about a second and finishing in 41.92. This time was also good enough to seed brett 8th in the finals for the evening swim. NOTE: corrected...read the wrong result from the official times sheet when initially posting - left my notes at home this morning...

----------------------------------------------

10+U 100 Free

Bear entered this 100 free needing a couple second cut to make the state meet. But his freestyle was awesome in the 200 and his form in the 50 (despite the fact he didn't get a personal best) was really good...so I figured he had about a 50/50 chance of gettig the cut...In the race, Bear had an unbelievable .54 second reaction on the start a full .1 better than the next closest swimmer in the event and about .3 better than the average start time. Bear's first 50 was a 36.29 (really good when you consider his 50 free personal best is in the 35.6 range). In the back half he swam a strong 40.14 and finished with a time of 1:16.40 - the cut is 1:16.09...


During the second day, Bailey was more interested in socializing with her friends then she was in prepping for her races (which is fine, like I said earlier she already had 5 cuts, and I want this to be fun for her, so I wasn't going to ride her about getting off her feet, drinking to stay hydrated and eating to give your body fuel). In this race, she worked hard, but she wasn't terribly affective...her opening 50 was 36.38 and the closing 50 was 40.11...for a final time of 1:16.49. This is around 2 seconds off her personal best. She handled this disappointment well...and I was proud of that, but I did let her know that if she wants to get state cuts, she needs to do the little things to get ready, not play around with her friends (though next season it will be irrelevant, because she'll probably have all her state cuts prior to this meet - though we might still be pushing for sectional ones)...

------------------------------

night time session results (and Brett's 200 Breast swim for the state cut)are coming up

[Breeze]

Evening Session

We waited through the 500 Freestyles and the break between sessions, and Brett was a champ. He laid down for about an hour and a half, drank Gatorade and water throughout that time, and ate a good lunch, plus some fruit to stay charged. He was really focused on this race. Just like Bear and Bailey's 200 Free, in order to get an idea of how Brett was doing compared to the cut, I printed off his splits from the 1st time he swam the event, when he came up just 3 seconds short. I was hopeful that he would get his cut, but as you may remember from my comments at the time, I was fearful that there may not be 3 seconds in the pool for him to get. His times the first time in this event were...

47.02
1:38.37 (51.35)
2:28.60 (50.23)
3:18.94 (50.34)


Race starts with a .72 start, good enough for a tie for 2nd best out of the 27 kids in the event, and only .04 off of the best start. He opened with a strong 50 finishing it at 44.11...at this point he is way ahead of his previous swim and right where he needs to be for a state cut. The second 50 he completed in 50.05, which is much faster than his second 50 last time, and actually faster than all the 50 from the first race but the opening one. He was sitting on a time of 1:34.16 at the half way point - 4.21 seconds faster than the previous swim. The 3rd 50 Brett was much slower and appeared to be tiring...when he touched the wall he was at 2:26.04 (51.88)...only 2.5 seconds faster than the last time and not fast enough for the cut. In the final 50 he really increased his effort level, sprinting with everything he had. He got to the wall for the final turn and he was right on pace. He drove it home to the finish and posted a 3:14.71...a final lap in an impressive 48.67, and good enough for a state cut...he was thrilled...




Until




He found out he was disqualified for a single hand touch on the final turn of the race...He was devastated...it was painful to watch the elation go out of him when he was told. He was on the opposite side of the pool on the deck and we were in the top of the stands but we could see it happen. When he got up to where we were sitting, he basically collapsed, completely spent and an emotional wreck. He wanted to go home, but we urged him to stay for the 50 Breast.

He did swim the 50 Breast, and while he didn't match his time from the morning he did post a 42.96 a time almost idential to his personal best prior to the prelims earlier in the morning, and good enough for 9th place overall...

[Izulde]

Ouch! :(

[Breeze]

Quick Note from the Last Chance Meet - Lexi was able to earn 2 more state cuts...

50 Fly
100 Fly

A great recovery after missing several months with knee surgery.

[Breeze]

The State Meet is this weekend and the Psych Sheet is already out...so I'll review it and provide my thoughts soon, on not just my kids but some of the others from the group that I have mentioned in passing.

[Breeze]

Georgia State Championship

The biggest thing for us this year, was just being a part of this event. It is a huge accomplishment to be here, and we aren't particularly concerned about results. In fact, because this is the state championships...I'll post where we are seeded out of how many kids to give you an idea where we stand, and you'll see that we have no hopes of doing anything more than soaking in the
experience and potentially swimming a personal best. In fact, if you'll remember, most of our cuts were just under the number...so we will typically be in the slowest heat at the event.

Bailey

50 Yard Breaststroke - 45.48 - 73/74 - Only 74 kids made the state cut in this event, and only 20 kids that aren't 10 made it...Bailey is seeded second to last, and due to the fact, he Breaststroke has looked a bit off to me recently, she could easily end up last in this event...

100 Yard IM - 1:26.11 - 84/87 - Again we'll be in the slowest heat. This time Bailey is one of the 23 kids not 10 to earn the cut. I'm torn here on her potential...with her breaststroke and freestyle slightly off, I don't think we'll get a personal best here, but I bet we are close.

50 Yard Butterfly - 39.44 - 94/101 - This is the one stroke that Bailey appears to be swimming very well right now. She is staying low in the water when breathing and she is really drivng hard. We haven't done much fly in races this season because she got this cut so early and we were focused on getting more cuts, but I really think she will drop time here...

100 Yard Breaststroke - 1:38.21 - 54/59 - Only 14 kids 10 or under did better than Bailey here, but as you know from the 50 writeup above...the stroke is slighly off and I don't expect a drop in time

100 Yard Backstroke - 1:25.66 - 72/91 - Bailey is the 15th under 10 in this event, and her backstroke is looking good. If she doesn't overwork it, I could see a personal best here.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Bear

200 Yard Freestyle - 2:46.16 - 55/59 - Bear is the 11th sub 10 year old in this event. Even though he swam an amazing race at the last chance meet, I really feel he might go lowerer at State. I have a couple of reasons for this feeling. First, this will be second time he's raced the event, so he'll understand better how hard he can work without hitting a wall. Second, I've seen him come up big before in big events, espcially in the first race of the day (often he'll expend all his energy in the first race) and this will be his first event.

50 Yard Butterfly - 39.76 - 77/78 - 21st under 10. Bear is still working on the more technically correct stroke. I think he'll approach this time, but I don't think he beats it.

100 Yard Backstroke - 1:26.43 - 58/87 - 15th under 10. Bear has been strong in the longer event recently, and I expect if he isn't spent from his 200, and if he doesn't screw up a flip turn, he'll improve on this time.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Brett

200 Yard Breaststroke - 3:14.71 - 62/63 - 19th 11 year old - ok, I'm sure you are scratching your head, saying...I thought he was DQed and failed to qualify, and you would be right about that. However, I have elected to enter him in this event anyway. The only problem is...if he fails to swim a state cut time, I will be fined $50. We felt it was too important to him to be in this race, and his coach agreed. Plus we all feel (wife, coaches, and me) that he'll be able to beat the 3:15.99 time. My only fear is he gets sloppy or does something stupid and gets DQed again...

[Breeze]

Some terrible news to report. It is Friday night, with our race in the morning and Bailey just woke up because she was sick. She threw up, but doesn't appear to be running a fever (yet). She went to bed with a bad headache so we are watching that...could be the pain just made her nautious...(hopefully). I'd hate for her to get the flu and miss swimming in the State Meet...

[Breeze]

Bailey was able to swim this morning...I'll post updates on the meet later...

[Breeze]

Georgia State Championships - 2/24-2/26 @ GaTech

Day 1

---------------------

Bailey

50 Breast
Bailey had 1 event on Saturday, the 50 Breast, and as I said in the preview section, her stroke is slightly off. I really didn't expect much from her here, but she did end up getting a personal best. It wasn't a huge improvement, about half a second, but still better than she's ever done before. She posted a 45.44, and finished 69th, an improvement over her seed coming in of 73rd...

---------------------

Brett

200 Breast
Brett's 200 Breast was on Saturday and he was very focused for it. To give you some reference I'll post his splits from his 2 previous swims...



Swim 1 Swim 2

47.02 44.11
1:38.37 (51.35) 1:34.16 (50.05)
2:28.60 (50.23) 2:26.04 (51.88)
3:18.94 (50.34) 3.14.71 (48.67)



He opened his race with a 44.13, the posted a strong second 50 as well, coming in at 1:34.70 (50.57). The 3rd 50, like the swim last week was off the pace of the first two quite a bit and he posted a 2:26.19 (51.49)...at this point he is almost exactly where he was in the last chance meet...but this time he didn't seem to have the energy to bring it home. He finished in a slow time of 51.34...and posted an official time of 3:17.53. This time is shy of the state qualifying time and we'll probably be fined $50 for allowing him to swim. I am disappointed he didn't get the cut, but allowing him to swim appears to have been the right call. He was very excited and motivated by being there. He also is talking about developing his "off strokes" so he'll be able to swim more events at the state meet in the future (we'll see if he sticks with that, but for now it should get us through long course season with good effort).

-------------------

Day 2

-------------------

Bailey

100 IM
Bailey's first event of the day was the 100 IM, and she did well. She opened with a good first 50 of 38.93, and he fly leg was very strong. She lost some time on the Breast, but held on through the fatigue of the Free to post a personal best time of 1:25.20...almost a full second improvement over her time coming in. She also finished 76th and was seeded 84th

50 Yard Butterfly
This is an event that Bailey hasn't raced in quite a while and I had high hopes for a significant improvement. Her form her looks really good and it also looked good in the IM early that morning. She goes out strong and doesn't disappoint swimming a time of 38.43 a full second faster than her seed time (and 1 second in a 50 is a good improvemment). She ended up 68th, she was seeded 94th coming in.

100 Yard Breaststroke
I didn't get a chance to talk with Bailey after the start of the meet through this race (her events were too close together and she wanted to watch her crew swim there events). I did get her attention from the stands and try to let her know she needed to explode the upper body into the reach/glide portion of the stroke. I felt she was just laying forward rather than really driving her upper body into the water. She apparently understood my signals because she appeared to do what I was trying to tell her and it worked. She posted almost a full second improvement in this race too...1:37.52. She finished 41st and came in seeded 54th...

100 Back
Fatigue and the inability to trust her counts going into the walls really hurt her in this race. She was a full second off her personal best time posting a 1:26.59. It wasn't a bad swim for Bailey, in fact, it was actually a bit comical as she went into the first wall in about 3rd in her heat, can came off the wall about 6th...she closed the gap on those that passed her but then lost ground again on the turn...this happened the whole race. Her turns are fine for everyday meets, but this event was all state level swimmers and ok turns don't cut it. It will be very interesting to see how she does in back in long course where the impact of a turn is minimized a bit...

--------------------

Bear

200 Yard Freestyle
Bear once again uses his adrenaline to post a big improvement in the first race of a major event. Just 1 week after swimming the 200 Free for the first time and posting a time good enough to make the state meet. Bear goes out and improves on that time by 4 seconds...He posted a 2:42.61...here are his splits and those from the last chance the week before...


37.84 37.25
1:20.15 (42.31) 1.21.50 (44.25)
2:02.53 (42.38) 2:05.04 (43.54)
2:42.61 (40.08) 2:26.15 (41.11)



I was extremely impressed with this effort, and he was very pumped up. Unfortunately...

50 Fly
As we have seen before...when he goes out and blows away a time to open a big event, he also tends to suffer from over expending his energy and he doesn't tend to improve in his other events. This was exactly the case in this race. He didn't get a personal best and infact cam in over half a second slower. Not terrible considering he is still working on the more classic approach to the stroke...official time is 40.39

100 Yard Backstroke
Bear again overworked the backstroke (like he did in the IM the previous week). The over working and the fatigue combined to pose a much slower time that his personal best. In fact, he came in 2.5 seconds off his best pace, posting a 1:29.07.

[Breeze]

General Update

I figured I'd take a moment to update you on the state results for other swimmers I have mentioned in this thread...

Lexi
50 Yard Backstroke - 39.07 - 60/66
100 Yard Backstroke - 1:25.06 - 68/92
50 Yard Butterfly - 38.00 - 64/101
100 Yard Butterfly - 1:31.52 48/60

Haley
100 IM - 1:24.40 - 67/87
100 Free - 1:13.27 - 74/93
500 Free - 7:16.60 - 44/48
50 Back - 36.31 - T23/66
100 Back - 1:20.32 - 34/92
50 Fly - 39.67 - 90/101
Big note here is Haley missed her chance to qualify sectionals in the 100 Back...she may swim it anyway...the way we had Brett swim the 200 Breast at state

Maddie "the Beast"
200 IM - 2:47.80 - 17/70
50 Free - 29.46 - 7/84
100 Free - 1:04.68 - 7/93
200 Free - 2:25.96 - 10/75
500 Free - 6:22.18 - 10/48
50 Back - 34.48 - 6/66
100 Back - 1:15.69 - 8/92
50 Breast - 40.08 - 12/75
50 Fly - DQ - non-simulaneous arms
100 Fly - 1:16.93 - 11/87
Also Maddie earned a Gold Medal in the 200 Yard Free Relay, and a Bronze Medal in the 200 Yard Medley Relay (she swam the Free Leg)

[Breeze]

The Long Course Schedule has just been released...and unlike the last couple of years where my kids were able to swim in 2 or 3 meets...this year it looks like they will have the opportunity to swim in 5, not counting the state meet.

[Breeze]

We have elected to skip the final short course meet of the season for a number of reasons...

1. It is only a 10 and Under meet, meaning Brett won't be allowed to swim it.

2. In the meet, Girls swim in the morning and Boys in the afternoon so it would be an all day event for us.

3. With Bailey and Bear only 9, while they would perform well at this meet, they certainly won't be in a position to earn medals (next year will be a different story at this meet)

4. With State already completed and so many long course meets to choose from this year, they will ultimately swim more meets (long and short course)even with missing this one than they have in the past.

5. We need to save some money...meets get expensive with every event costing money x 3 kids...(and we feel the money will be more wisely spent on long course meets at this point in the schedule)...

[Breeze]

General Update

The Sectional Meet for short course finsihed a couple weekends ago and Maddie continued her staggering improvements. She drops significant times in most of her races including the 50 back, where she finished 5th overall and broke the Swim Atlanta record for 10 and Under girls from our facility...

She also managed to get AAAA times (best time standard possible)...

Monday 3/26 was her last day practicing with Bailey on the "Gold" team. She has moved up to the AAG (Advanced Age Group) level. At this level she will practice 9 hours a week (I believe). The rest of Bailey's group (Lexi, Haley, Raley, etc.) are apparently going to move up over the summer...

Brett and Bear are not currently earmarked to move up yet (not surprising as Girls are typicaly ahead of boys at this age)...

[Breeze]

General Update

Long Course Season starts this weekend with a time trial at Georgia Tech. I'll update more on that when the Psych Sheet is released.

Unfortunately, I have bad news...Lexi, the little girl who had knee surgery during short course season, but was able to rebound and get a couple state cuts, just found out today that her other knee has the same structural deficiency that was fixed in the one operated on 6 or so months ago. She is scheduled to have another surgery next week. She will miss all of the Summer Rec League season and all of the Long Course Season...

[Breeze]

SCAT Long Course Time Trials @ GaTech

This is one of two time trials for the long course season. I entered the kids in the 50 Meter swim for all 4 strokes to get a baseline on how we are doing. The only problem was the turnout for the younger age groups was small and therefore the kids had almost no recovery time between events. In fact, the entire meet took about a hour and a half...

Bailey

50 Fly - Bailey started off the meet really strong. She posted a 41.94 in the fly, and finished 5th in the 10 and under age group. She would have been 2 other girls, but in the final 15 feet or so, she breathed every stroke, which is a killer in fly (for almost everyone not named Michael Phelps), because it causes your feet to sink and creates a more upward kick rather than a kick that drives the swimmer forward. I could see Bailey break 40 seconds in this race if she gets enought attempts...(she already has a state cut in this event due to qualifying in short course)

50 Breast - Bailey had a good swim here as well...coming in at 51.51. her coach told her to work on extending more and holding the streamline portion of the stroke a bit longer...(already has cut from short course)

50 Free - Here is where fatigue started to set in...Bailey did extremely well in the first half of this race, she was keeping up well despite the fact she was one of the outside seeded lanes, but then she seemed to hit a wall, as the other swimmers began to pull away. She posted a respectable 39.39, but she really needs to work on getting a better catch and pull in order to gain speed...(state cut is 37.89)

50 Back - Once again the 50 back...and we still don't get the cut. Fatigue was obvious here. Bailey just didn't have the energy to push through 1 more time, and she posted a 47.31...(state cut is 46.39)

-------------------------------

Bear

50 Fly - Bear's fly was terrible. In his efforts to create a more fundamentally sound stroke with a larger "wiggle" he has developed a bad habit of throwing his shoulders back and coming very high out of the water to breathe. This slowed him down significantly and caused his time to be a poor...45.18, not sure that he could have matched Bailey's time, but he should be much closer. If he gets the breathing figured out, I expect to see him around a 42 flat...(he has the state cut from short course)

50 Breast - Huge improvement for Bear here. He dropped his time 8 seconds from last year and posted a very respectable 54.24 - (state cut is 51.99)

50 Free - Bear's extremely hard efforts in practice are really paying off again, as his freestyle time dropped a good bit to 40.56, (needs a 37.89 for a state cut though)

50 Back - Bear held up better than Bailey as far as fatigue and he swam a strong 46.70 in the back, and this time could have been better if he had charged into the wall rather than glide in...(State cut is 46.39...so just missed)

------------------------------------

Brett

50 Fly - Brett has been trying to get better on his off strokes, and his form does look better here...though his time improvement from last year is minimal...46.96. While the improvement wasn't significant, he did keep up with Bear, more because of Bear's bad habit of coming up too high to breathe than anything Brett did, but he still felt this was a major improvement, and I wasn't going to burst his bubble. He needs some positive reinforcement on this stroke.

50 Breast - Brett's breast didn't look very good. He posted a time almost identical to last year, but that was because he (like Bear in the fly) was coming up too high to breath, which created a bit of a stall in his forward progress. He posted a 49.90. Once he get's the breathing technique ironed back out, he should challenge for a state cut - (state cut time is 47.19)

50 Free - Kick looked better and form was good, breathing to both sides. Just needs to increase the effort (faster arm rotation and faster kicking), but all in all a better swim...41.12

50 Back - just like free, the form was good, kick was better, but the rotation and effort in kick has got to increase to create more speed. Still a pretty good swim for Brett - 51.25

[Breeze]

It has been a long time since I updated this and there is a good bit to report...

1. We skipped the second long course time trials meet which took place just two weeks after the SCAT meet (Above), because the only events open to the kids were the same ones that they saw at SCAT. So we decided there would be very little point in that, and we elected to save our money instead.

2. The Summer Rec. Season has started (I'll fill in results shortly)

3. Bailey is getting promoted this fall from the SA Gold team to Advanced Age Group (AAG) - (Brett and Bear are not getting promoted). While we are very proud of her, this creates several issues...The practice for AAG goes from 7 until 8:30 P.M. - lmeaning we won't be getting home from swimming until 9 or so...and Bailey is still in elementary school getting up at 6 A.M. (and she is a real pain in the ass when she is tired). The AAG team also practices 6 days a week, rather than 4. Moreover, this also creates a situation where we will need to attend two separate practices each week. However, we met with the coaches and while we were not inclined to move her up, they have convienced us to give it a try.

4. Brett is really wanting to improve his off strokes, but he wants to do it where he doesn't feel like he is being compared to his siblinings. He has asked to continue swimming away from Bailey and Bear. Seeing as how we are all swimmers because of his love of the sport (and he is my one kid that truly loves to swim), we are going to move him to the Chattahoochee Gold swim team over the Summer. This will allow him to step back, and work on fundamentals without the fear of being embarassed because the other swimmers see his younger siblings out swimming him. He seems excided about this opportunity. At the end of the Summer we will reassess the situation and allow him to decide what he wants to do...(SA or Chatt. Gold)...
(SA is aware of this change as we discussed it with them. They are very open to his returning and would like him to return...but they understand his feelings on the issue and they think this might be a good move for him).

5. We will be swimming at a long coures meet on 6/3...
- Bailey will swim - 200 Free, 100 Back, 50 Free
- Bear will swim - 200 Free, 50 Breast, 50 Free
- Brett will swim - 50 Breast, 100 Back, 50 Free

[Breeze]

Summer Rec League Time Trials

Our Summer team (CRC Stingrays in case I mention the team by name in the future you'll know what I'm talking about), held their time trials on 5/18. During Summer league meets the kids have basically 6 events and 2 relays that are available to them. The 6 events are...

- All 4 strokes in the short distance (25 yards for U10, 50 yards for 11 & up)
- Long Free (50 yards for U10 and 100 yards for 11 & Up)
- 100 IM (all ages)
- Medley Relay (each swimmer swims their short distance from above in the relay)
- Free Relay (again the short distance from above)

In our time trials the kids swim all 4 strokes in the short distance, this gives the coach a baseline on the kids abilities so she will first know who can legally swim the stroke and secondly, where to place the swimmers to maximize the team points.

CRC used to have a very good team, we've finished 4th in the County 2 years running and would have been 3rd last year if not for some underhanded tactics by one of the other coaches. Unfortunately, this season will be much different. We have lost quite a few of our older swimmers, which will impact our ability to even field a relay at those age groups. But most impactful is the loss of numerous year round swimmers and some state and regional level talent too. All in all, I believe we've lost:


- County Record Holder in the 18U 50 and 100 Free (now 19 swimming for NC State)
- 15 year old who is a State Record Holder in the 50 Breast and 100 IM (13-14)
- 13 year old County Record Holder and State Champion 50 Fly (11-12)
- 13 year old County Record Holder and State Champion 50 Breast (11-12)
- 14 year old placed 2nd in County in IM and Fly
- 14 year old girl County Champion 50 Breast (13-14)
- 4 other year round swimmers and point getters for the team

so as you can tell this will significantly hamstring the team, especially since our schedule is based off of last years results and we will be facing the top teams in the county.

Now for the results from the meet. One thing to keep in mind here is that unlike year round meets where time is everything, in the Summer it is really about where you finish. The times can be very misleading because they are all done by hand...so a slow thumb on the start and a quick thumb on the finish can create a VERY misleading time...

Bailey
Bailey has 5 other year rounders in her age group so they should be strong. In fact, 1 of the other girls really stepped up during the time trials which makes it look like these girls can potentially be quite good...

25 Free
Finished 2nd to Cameron who same a strong 14.9. Bailey came in with a 15.4 (she should get sub 15 before the season is over...)

25 Back
Finsihed 2nd to Cameron who just out touched her at the wall. Bailey did a better job on the finish, but she reached for the wall 1 stroke to early and lost out because of that. She swam around a 19.3

25 Breast
Bailey finsihed 3rd here, a bit of a surprise. The winner wasn't a surprise. Reese dominated with a time in the mid 19s (that is potentially good enough to win county). Bailey was out touched for second by Jordan, they were both right a 22 seconds...Bailey needs to work on getting back to her explosive stroke in this event, as I've said earlier in this thread, she just isn't swimming this event as well as she did last year.

25 Fly
This stroke for Bailey has gotten quite good...in fact, she was able to beat Reese in this event, and Reese is exceptionally good here (in fact as a 9 year old she made the county team in this stroke)...Bailey swam a 16.5...

---------------------------

Bear

Bear's team has 1 other year round swimmer (Riley) and he is a good one. Big kid, probably ways almost 2x what Bear weight (it's pretty funny to see them walking next to each other because of the differences)...The remainder of the team is suspect...but potentially decent for a summer team.

25 Free
Bear finished 2nd here to Riley, which isn't a surprise given that Riley is a freightrain on Free...powering through the water. He made the county team as a 9 year old for the Free Relay and he has a chance to be top 3 in the county in this stroke this year. what was surprising was how well Bear kept up. He finished about an arms length behind and recorded a time of 15.32.

25 Back
This was the other stroke that Riley was dominating in, but Bear beat him and won this event. Bear posted a 18.5, but would have been faster if he hadn't gotten caught up in the ropes while trying to see where Riley was during the race.

25 Breast
I'm so proud of Bear. It's just summer league, but my kid that could barely keep his head above water in this event at the beginning of the season won this event. He posted a very respectible 22 second time.

25 Fly
This was a huge surprise. Bear is a good flyer as I've mentioned before, and he is working on changing his stroke (in fact it looks really good right now - I'll need to get a video up to show you if you're interested), which has slowed him down some, but he's still fast...however, he lost this race to Riley. It was strange Riley was a full body length ahead when he surfaced after the dive. Bear swam him down but was beaten by about .75 seconds. We found out later that Riley did freestyle kick underwater after the dive...which make since because his fly kick isn't that good and in fact he never swims the fly because he hasn't been particularly good at it.

---------------------------

Brett

Poor Brett...the 1 other year round swimmer in his age group elected not to be on the team this year, and the rest of the team is bad. Not below average or poor...Bad. Just to put it in perspective. As you know Brett is a breaststroker that struggles with the other strokes. Because of this he is basically a good summer swimmer in the off strokes. He is also very small for an 11 year old (have I mentioned that Bear actually out weighs Brett now), and he is swimming against 12 year olds...but despite all of this he won all 4 strokes at time trials...and they weren't even close...

50 Free

Swam a 36.06 and won by 2 seconds over 2nd place

50 Back

Swam a 43.25 (not bad for him), won by 4.5 seconds over 2nd place

50 Breast

Not a great swim for him, but he posted a 46 second time and beat 2nd place by 10.25 seconds...

50 Fly

47.31 which was also not a great swim for him, but good enough to win by 4 seconds...

(his relay teams are going to be AWFUL)...

[Breeze]

Summer League

CRC vs Windemere

The first Summer swim meet is tonight, and likely this will be our only chance at a win (and we would have to be considered an underdog in this one)...

Bailey

100 Medley Relay - Breast (she should be swimming fly and the girl swimming fly should be swimming breast to get the best splits, but oh well)

25 Back - This probably isn't a bad thing as she really needs to focus on sprintng and finishing...probably helps her in the long run

25 Breast - Again, fly would be her best stroke, but Breast might be Bailey's second chance at getting points for CRC at county and earning a spot on the county team so getting the sprint this might be good for her.

100 Free Relay - Leadoff leg - which if she is focused is good because she can get very good starts...

----------------------------------------

Bear

100 Medley Relay - Fly - Bear was very happy about this and it will be good to get him quicker in the short Summer sprints

100 IM - Bear loves this event, but he'll have strong competition...should be a good race

25 Fly - hoping to see his time drop into the low 17s...

100 Free Relay - Leadoff Leg - remember what I wrote about Bailey, Bear is the same, only better...he can really get off the blocks quickly...

-----------------------------
Brett

Well Brett's new coaching is already starting to pay off and he's only gone about 5 times. His freestyle form and kick is much better and I'm eager to time his split in the free relay to see if it is improved...

100 Medley Relay - Fly - Yes that says fly...not breast. Unfortunately the coach is afraid that Brett is the only child in the 11-12 age group that can swim a 50 fly legally...and since you get more points for relays she doesn't want the team DQed...

100 IM - despite the fact he isn't fast in his off strokes, he is the fastest swimmer in every stroke in the age group, so not sure who else she'd put here. He won't win this one as the other team has a great IMer...but hopefully he'll post a good time with his improved strokes

50 Breast - Brett will be racing the kid that beat him at county by .04 seconds. Could be fun...

100 Free Relay - Anchor - but it won't matter...the race might actually be over before Brett even hits the water....(not joking)...

[Breeze]

Summer Swim Team

We won our meet on Thursday night...(not sure what the official score was yet...I'll try to remember to update this when the score is posted). There was an interesting effect that I hadn't considered when I posted that we were probably underdogs. We did lose quite a few year round swimmers, but we also lost a bunch of swimmers that weren't any good. This allowed the few remaining year rounders to compete in additional events (in summer league you are allowed to swim in 2 events, until everyone on the team in your age group has competed in 2...then you may swim a 3rd, etc...). Thus a few of our elite swimmers got to swim 6 events, thus maximizing the teams points. The lack of swimmers hurts us in the relays (in fact, we swam a 9 year old in our 13/14 boys relay, just so we could have 4 swimmers...), and it will kill us at county where our elite swimmers will only be allowed 2 events, but overall in the dual meets we'll score about the same as we would have last year...

As for my kids...

Brett

The relays were as I expected awful...but they did manage to finish second (not losing to the other team's B relay). Brett's IM was 1.27.25 and he looked good. He finished 3rd but kept up with both of the boys that beat him. In fact, he was only about a second behind the winner. In the Breast rematch from last years county championships, Brett had the lead by a fraction at the 25 yard turn, but lost at the wall...outtouched, he was beaten by less than .5 seconds...

Bear

Bear's IM was impressive. He swam against another year round swimmer and beat him by over half a lap...posting a 1.26.00 time. That time has historically been good enough to finish in the top 3 at county and often 2nd. His Fly form is starting to turn into speed as he posted a personal best 16.22...that would have been 2nd last year and will probably be 2nd this year (as the kid that finished 2nd last year is back and he is an exceptional flyer)...
Bear's relays both won....both had to come from behind on the anchor but they won...

Bailey

Bailey's relays were very strong...both won by over half a lap. Bailey's Breast looked much better as she posted a 20.10. That wouldhave won the event at county last year, but it won't win this year, as her teammate has beaten that time several times and Bailey actually finished 2nd in her race. She also finally charged into the wall in back and posted an 18.10...that would have won county last year as well...it won't win it this year though as her year round friend Haley is swimming in the upper 16s I believe....but all in all extremely impressive performance from Bailey...

[Izulde]

Sounds like a fantastic meet all around. Glad to see things are improving for everyone.

[Breeze]

Betsy Dunbar Meet @ Ga Tech

The twins will be competing in the Betsy Dunbar Long Course Meet this Sunday (6/3). We were unable to attend the first day of the meet because I was stuck in a D.R. test. Brett will not be competing. He was given permission, and he even registered to swim, but because his new team won't be present, and his new coach isn't there to provide guidance he will skip this meet...

Bailey

200 Free- Seed Time 3:00.78
I am going to be very interested to see this swim by Bailey. Her free in the summer meet on Thursday looked exceptional...with her reaching further and getting a good early grab on the water. This could translate into a very good swim if she can maintain that form over the entire race. (Note: I believe the seed time is actually a conversion from short course and not an actual long coures result)

100 Back - Seed Time 1:42.07
Bailey has always been pretty strong on back in the middle of the pool and with long course there is a lot of middle...with her improved finish on Thursday maybe she'll trust her counts into the walls more and significantly improve on her seed time. (Note: I believe the seed time is actually a conversion from short course and not an actual long coures result)

50 Free - Seed Time 39.39
Like the 200 Free, Bailey could improve significantly here if she can maintain the great from she had on Thursday...really excited about the potential here...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Bear

200 Free- Seed Time 3:00.78
No this isn't a cut and paste error....the seed time for Bear is the same as Bailey's. Bear's free has been stedily improving with his strong level of effort in practice. I don't expect a big improvement here... (Note: I believe the seed time is actually a conversion from short course and not an actual long coures result)

50 Breast - Seed Time 54.24
This is still Bear's weakest stroke, but he gotten much better. Not sure what to expect. If I had to guess I'd say a slight improvement.

50 Free - Seed Time 40.56
Bear has looked exceptional in his free for a while and the speed is starting to come. He has posted some good times in the short summer sprints...and endurance really hasn't been an issue for him in the past. I'm expecting good things here as well...(fingers crossed)

[Breeze]

Betsy Dunbar Results

Well the results from Sunday weren't exactly what I expected...In fact, I was really quite surprised...

Bailey

All and all Bailey had a pretty poor outing...in her defense she was starting to come down with a cold that I fought with on Thursday night and am still dealing with the after effects today - so that had to hinder her performance a bit...

200 Free - 3:14.55
This was a very disappointing result. I was shocked at how slow Bailey looked here. I did find out the seed time wasn't a conversion time, but rather a made up time by the coach in an effort to put Bailey (and Bear) into a heat of swimmers of similar ability levles...unfortunately, Bailey didn't do well. We really need to get her catch worked our on the Free...

100 Back - 1:42.12
Another poor result...way to much bouncing in the stroke and the chin was down creating too much drag. These are issues she didn't have on Thursday so I'm not sure why they cropped up here, unless she is putting to much pressure on herself in a year round meet.

50 Free - 40.12
This was about where she's been recently, and being the last event of the day I can write off a 1 second drop in time to fatigue, though I really believe improved arms will drop this time significantly...

(also need to clean up our dives...Bailey has gotten really deep for some reason which is slowing her down)

----------------------------------------

Bear

Bear had an excellent meet...

200 Free - 2:56.74
Bear swam an impressive time, but Bear really embraces the longer distances and more difficult strokes (fly). He prides himself in being tougher than his competition and it showed here. This is now one of his favorite events and his time is almost 20 seconds faster than Bailey...so that toughness is starting to show...

50 Breast - 54.41
Bear's time here is almost identical to Time Trials...and he was actually high in this stroke. If he'll clean up his lines and concentrate on pushing forward I could see a 52 flat range swim...but he won't get many more chances at this before the season ends.

50 Free - 38.04
Bear's time here is faster than Bailey's best by a good bit, and Bailey has for quite a while been the fastest Freestyler due to her strong kick. Bear's hard work in practice continues to pay off. He just misses a state cut here by .15 seconds (actually made the girls cut time).

[Coffee Warlord]

C'mon, tell the kids to man up and swim the 500. :)

[Breeze]

C'mon, tell the kids to man up and swim the 500. :)

They will swim this during short course this fall...

Gotta get older before they will be allowed to swim the 1650...but it's coming...:devil:

[Coffee Warlord]

I still find it annoying we capped out at the 500 in high school. I wanted a 1000 yard race, dammit. :)

[Izulde]

I hated swimming the 500. My mind always wandered when trying to swim a race that long.

[Coffee Warlord]

Heh. That was my primary event, but yeah, your mind does tend to wander, and in practice, when we didn't have lap counters...I ALWAYS was second guessing myself on how many laps we had left.

[Breeze]

Summer Swimming Results

CRC Stingrays - 433
Windemere - 363

[Breeze]

I hated swimming the 500. My mind always wandered when trying to swim a race that long.

It takes dedication to be a distance swimmer. We had a girl on our Summer Team (she was also a Swim Atlanta swimmer - that signed to swim at NC State last year) who was a distance specialist. Someone asked her what are you thinking about when you see the lap counter numbers as you approach the turn. Her response....

"Why the hell am I not a sprinter..."

[Breeze]

Summer Swim Team

Laurel Springs Piranhas vs CRC Stingrays

Last year when we swam against Laurel Spring we won by 4 points - 400 to 396. This is the difference between a first and second or a second and third place finish - flip flop the order of any finish and we've got a tie...

This year will be close again because of the fact our good swimmers in the older age groups will be able to swim multiple events, but I think we'll lose by about 30 points...

----------------------------------------------------

Bailey

After her strong backstroke last week, she has been moved to that leg in the medley relay...the freestyler will take over the Breast and the Backstroker will move to Free...

Bailey will also swim the IM and Fly. She is excited about the fly because she fells (and rightfully so in my opinion) this is her best stroke right now. I have urged her to work on sprinting it and only taking 1 breath...thus improving her chances of reducing her time. In the IM I'm hoping she'll beat the 1:26 time the other year round swimmer on the team posted last week.

-------------------------------------------------
Bear

Bear will not swim the fly this week and he's a bit disappointed. That stroke is going to the other year round swimmer. Bear get the back and IM. This will be an important week for Bear as he'll need to decide what he's going to swim at County and these two strokes are the top choices to go along with the fly. He'll still swim fly in the Medley Relay

------------------------------------------------
Brett

No change for Brett in his individual strokes. Still has the IM and Breast. He'll have a shot to win in Breast I believe, but he'll get killed in IM...In the Medley relay they have moved him back to breast (but it won't matter they'll still get killed)

[Coffee Warlord]

It takes dedication to be a distance swimmer. We had a girl on our Summer Team (she was also a Swim Atlanta swimmer - that signed to swim at NC State last year) who was a distance specialist. Someone asked her what are you thinking about when you see the lap counter numbers as you approach the turn. Her response....

"Why the hell am I not a sprinter..."

Or, "fuck, me, it's only at 9!?!?"

[RPI-Fan]

I'm confused. I thought Brett was not swimming on the same team as his siblings?

[Breeze]

I'm confused. I thought Brett was not swimming on the same team as his siblings?

Sorry about the confusion...you're right, Brett has moved to a different year round team...Chattahoochee Gold, but in the Summer League they still swim together. CRC is basically our neighborhood team, and Summer League is like Rec Ball for swimming.

The Summer League is mostly just for fun. There are 2 big meets, the County Championships and the State Championships (which you only get to swim in if you qualify at county). My kids only go to an occasional practice with the CRC team, because they are excused due to attending year round practices which are much harder. The CRC team and Summer League in general is set up to give kids that aren't year rounders a chance to compete and get exposed to the sport (there is a bunch of socializing that goes on as well - including the parents that hang out and drink at the meets). Just to give you an idea of the difference. Bailey and Bear are swimming around 3400 yards in a hour at practice. Brett swims around 4000 yards in an hour and a half, and CRC practices are 1250 in 45 minutes on a hard day...

Thanks for reading and chiming in, hope that helps clarify things...

[Breeze]

Summer Swim Team - County Meet

I don't want to confuse things by getting ahead of myself on the schedule, but this is the part of the Summer League that is extremely exciting, nerve racking and has a considerable amount of drama. We have seen some amazing things at the county meet, and in fact, it is our results here that led us to being year round swimmers (I'll gladly narrate some of the past results if anyone is interested, but I wasn't planning on going into the past. Just let me know if you'd like me to go into those races). Anyway, the reason for this post is...it is time for the kids to choose which events they are going to swim at county. In the county meet, each kid may choose 2 events and exhibition 1 (to explain: when a kid exhibitions a swim, they are not allowed to win the event even if they have the fastest time, but they do qualify for the right to be on the appropriate relay based on their time). This is from a statisical perspective a very interesting time, because based on what other good swimmers choose to compete in, the field to qualify for the county team can be VERY strong...or extremely easy...


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Bear
Bear is absolutely planning to swim the fly, and why not. If he can continue to duplicate his 16.22 from the first Summer meet, he should make the county team. Bear finished 4th in the fly last year as a 9 year old in the 9/10 age group and two of the kids that finished in front of him aged up. The one that returns is exceptional...and he finished 8th in the state last year (was the fastest 9 year old at state), and he is probably the favorite to win the state championship this year (his time last year as a 9 year old was @ 15.5). Bear's 16.2 time is typically right on the cusp of making the state finals (fastest 8 times in preliminaries).

As for Bear's second stroke. He's wrestling between IM and Back. Both are good choices but I think he should swim back, and here is why...

- The IM will most likely have the same kid that swims the 15.5 second fly from last year, and Bear's not going to beat him
- There is a second kid that moved into the county that has a 1:22.xx time in the IM...Bear is @ 1:25.xx, and while he is good at coming up big, that is asking a lot. Plus with these two out there, he'd have to beat the rest of the field to get to state.
- If he were to make it to state, he'd need to swim @ a 1:20 flat to get into the finals, and I've seen him drop tons of time when he needed to, but I can't expect that from the kid
- In back, his best time would have put him 3rd last year...and the fastest returning swimmer in the stroke wasn't as fast as Bear's best last year (Bear slipped on the start last year and it cost him...)
- Bear's best time in the back is boarderline finalist in state...

Bear will exhibition the sprint Free in hopes of getting on the Free Relay. His best time would put him 8th, which is the B relay and typically good enough to get to the finals and earn a medal (anybody that swims the finals gets a medal)

Will update this once he makes a decision...

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Brett
Brett will obviously swim the Breast, but this will be the first time he won't represent the county at the state meet. He's best time would put him @ 10th last year. This year the group won't be as strong (I don't think), but he'll still do well to finish 7th...

Not sure which other stroke Brett will choose. He's leaning toward IM to help the team get as many points as possible (fewer IM Swimmers so the chance of earning better points goes up)

He'll also swim the sprint free as exhibition, but he has no shot of getting on a relay

------------------------------------------------------------
Bailey
Here is my kid that will have the toughest time...mostly because the number of girl year round swimmers is exceptionally high and there are so many that are about even with Bailey in ability.

Bailey will swim the fly, as this is her best stroke right now...but unfortunately, her best time 16.2 puts her in a large group of sub 16.5 second swimmers. Not sure who's going swim it at county, but regardless it is going to be a tight one. Interestingly, this will be a very strong Fly this year. Last year 16.22 would have finished 2nd by .8 seconds...and it is typically good enough to be a borderline state finalist...

Bailey's second stroke is up in the air. It looks like she'll choose between IM and Breast...I'm not sure what to advise here. Unfortunately I think she'll finish around 5th in either race...

We are working on trying to improve her catch in the Free, hopefully, we'll get that and her sprint free time will drop. As it stands, her free would have put her 5th last year. This year things will be tougher, but baring something strange, she should get top 12 and on a Free Relay...hoping to get sub 15 so we can potenially make the A or B relay...

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[RPI-Fan]

I'd read the stuff from past County Meets if you want to write it up!

[Breeze]

I'd read the stuff from past County Meets if you want to write it up!

Cool...I'll put some stuff together and post it...

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League - Results

CRC Stingrays - 457
Laurel Springs - 339

We won the second meet of the season, and I was surprised to see how decimated Laurel Springs was. This is a team that for about 5 years was the second best in the county. This year, judging from the results of our meet with them, they might be hard pressed to get in the top half of the standings (or course they still might beat us at County when our good swimmers are limited to two races). Laurel Springs is a nice subdivision/country club in our area, and apparently the economy has hit the facility pretty hard, which has trickled down to the swim team. Sad actually. Brett asked a former SA Gold teammate to join our team and the kid said his parents had talked about finding a new team next year...

------------------------------------------------

Brett
Brett had an amazing meet. It all started with the Medley relay. Brett's A relay backstroker was not only behind the Laurel Springs A team at the end of the first leg, but he was also behind the CRC B team, and the kids swimming Breast for Laurel Springs was a the same former SA Gold teammate of Bretts...but Brett dove in and had reeled them in on the first 25, and by they time he got to the wall Brett had a 4 body length lead. Unfortunately, the flyer dove in and stopped (thinking people were telling him no, no, no...not go, go, go...kids nice, but not the smartest)...but even with the stop, when he started swimming he still had the lead, held on and the freestyler was able to hold of Laurel Springs (the CRC B team faded fast).

Brett's IM competition was...you guessed it, same former teammate (Luke). The fly leg was surprisingly close as Brett kept up pretty well...then the back and again Brett was right there with Luke, in fact, I'd say their touch for the turn was almost simulaneous. Then came the Breast...and Brett blew by Luke, opening a good 4 body length lead, which was important because Luke's specialty is the Free. Brett turned quick and used his new form to charge back. Luke turned and started his chase. He closed slightly, but Brett won going away. His time was recorded as a 1:28.47...that seems slow to me, as he looked real strong, but it doesn't really matter.

Breast stroke was a non-event. Luke (there best breaststoker) didn't swim this event and Brett won by about 8 seconds...

In the free relay, Brett's team got an early lead, and Brett brought it home. Luke was the anchor on their team but Brett's lead was too big for him to even try and mount a charge.

(note: for full disclosure...Laurel Springs only had 3 11/12 boys and were forced to use a 10 year old in their relays. This explains some of why Brett's relays were able to win)

-----------------------------------------------

Bear

Bear's medley relay team was well ahead when Bear dove in, and Bear actually lost ground to another swimmer that has been on the State Team (in Fly too) in the past, but they won going away. I was however admittedly concerned with the fact Bear lost ground in his leg. He was a little deliberate in this strokes and he breathed several times...so that could have been most of it, but I made a note to watch the fly leg in the IM

Bear's back started out great. Got a huge lead and was cruising until he got into the lane rope. This allowed his competitor to get back in it...at the wall Bear actually out touched the Laurel Springs swimmer, but he did the underwater dive to finish and the stupid place judge (and I can say that because that's my job as well) gave it to the other team(...this judge was bad - so bad our coach had demanded she not be allowed to work that job in the future - this wasn't the only result she screwed up) (oh, by the way...each team provides a judge and it was the judge from our team that we weren't happy with...)

Bear raced the same kid in the IM he raced in the fly leg of the relay and the back...the IM started out with the other kid (who is much larger than Bear) getting a better dive. Bear was a bit high in his stroke early and it took him a while to hit his rythem, but he did and it was a close touch on the wall to turn for back (Bear was slightly behind). The back was a blow out, bear opened a big 3 body length lead, lost just a bit of that on breast, and pulled away on free.

Free relay was very exciting. Bear opened a big lead, but the 2nd swimmer lost all of it on his leg. The 3rd swimmer got down by about 2.5 body lengths but Riley (freighttrain) the anchor below by the Laurel Springs anchor to win by about a body length.

---------------------------------------
Bailey
Bailey's medley started out with Bailey getting an amazing start in the back...she surfaced late and about a full arms length in front. Real good underwater work. She then opened the lead until she go in the ropes. Still managed to win her leg and the team won going away.

In the IM, Bailey faced a fellow SAer...and it was close. Bailey had the lead of the fly, and was opening the lead on the back until....you guessed it...she got in the ropes again (she's working on staying lower in the water and keeping her head up, but that change removes her normal ability to see where she is in the lane...thus the problem staying straight). This hurt as they touched the wall to go for breast at the same time. Bailey got a very small lead in the Breast, but the opponent is a better freestyler and she passed Bailey. Beat her by .3. But it was a personal best at a time of 1:23.34

In the fly, Bailey was facing a girl with a seed time faster than hers, but it wasn't even close. Bailey nailed the dive, again good underwater work brings her up last and out in front, then she hits her stride and pulls away. Swimming a 16.13 and winning by over a second.

Free Relay was over the moment Bailey hit the water at the gun. She immediately opened up a big lead and the team slowly built on it.

[Breeze]

Summer League - County Meet Update

So we have made our initial submissions for the events we will be swimming at county. It is just an initial submission because I am such a stat geek that the team has asked me to look over the entries and try to location areas where we should make changes to maximize the team's points. This will allow me to make a change if I need to prior to making the final submisison for the meet. Though I have to admit I think the kids made the right selections.

Brett
Brett will be swimming the Breast and the IM. He'll get killed in the IM at the county level but he'll still earn around 7 points for the team...

Bear
Bear's swimming the back and fly...I've seen some times that make me nervous about his chances in the fly. He's fast with his new stroke but inconsistent with it as well. He's just as likely to swim his 16.22 as he is to swim a 17.5 (which won't get it done). In back, his times look good, even though he hasn't matched his best time from last year yet.

Bailey
Bailey's going the fly and IM...my only concern is that she won't get a bunch of time to recover from her IM before she swims her fly, and the fly is her best chance to get on the county team (even though the race will be tight) and with that a spot on a good relay team...

[Breeze]

Swim with Dad Invitational @ GaTech Pool

We have our first Chattahoochee Gold meet this weekend. Brett is signed up to swim 7 events over the 2 days...

200 Free
100 Breast
100 Back
50 Free
50 Breast
200 IM
200 Breast

He does have a chance to get state cuts in all 3 Breaststroke events, but that's not our focus with him right now. He's really pumped up about swimming again (so much so in fact, he has an appliance in his mouth to spread his jaw in preperation for getting braces, that appliance broke on Monday, but he begged my wife to let him practice and take him to the orthodontist afterwards), and I'm just hoping he sees some improvement here (his coach is even talking with him about making improvements that might not show up on the stop watch yet...but they are improvements regardless...and will ultimately create faster times).

With Chattahoochee Gold we don't pick the events that Brett swims his coach does. This is a huge change for us, and a really good thing for Brett because he won't be able to avoid the longer swims in strokes he doesn't like. Right now he's pretty intimidated by the line up of events, and he's really concerned about the 200 IM. He's been negotiating (which is his personality) with us and his coach about not swimming that one, but agreeing to swim the others. The coach is urging him to give it a shot and building up his confidence by saying things like "you can do it", "I believe in you", and "you do it everytime you are at practice"...we'll see if he can convince Brett to swim it when the weekend rolls around (remember, he's quite possibly the most stubborn child I've ever met)...

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League - General Information

The Summer League is always full of interesting developments (and one of the reasons I started this thread was to outline some of the stuff that goes on during the season, even if it doesn't directly involve my kids - so I figured I'd hit on this one for you). In this case the drama revolves around Maddie. Anyone who's been reading for a while is familiar with Maddie and her accomplishments. She is unquestionably the best 9/10 year old swimmer in the county and will ultimately win whatever 2 events she enters, but that's not the issue...the issue is that she has positioned herself in the GRPA Summer League to potentially set state records. Her best shot at this is the 25 free where her personal best is only .2 seconds from the current record.

To try and give Maddie her best shot at State Records her parents signed her up to swim 25 Free & 25 Back in the county meet (to qualify for state a swimmer must finish in the top 3 in county and a state record can only be broken at the state meet), and they had her exhibitioning 50 Free, which is a waste of time because the whole purpose of exhibition swims is to get an opportunity to be on a relay (so this was a mistake on the parents part).

Now, in order for you to understand the situation I have to take a minute to give you some background on the Summer team that Maddie swims with. The team is Grand Cascades...and they take this stuff WAY to seriously. To begin, they have won the county team championship something like 17 years in a row, and they don't just win, they typically score about 800 points more than 2nd place. They have well over 300 swimmers on the team. They have an 8 lane heated pool and they start Summer practices in mid April, where most teams start in mid May (assuming a mild Winter). They have touch pads in all the lanes and an electronic scoreboard (pretty flashy equipment for a summer team).

The organizer for this team is also the organizer for the league in Forsyth County...so all other county teams must submit their county swim plan to him ahead of time...and it has been reported (by people that used to work with him on setting lineups) that he uses this information to adjust his county entries to place swimmers in areas where he can improve his team's results (like he really needs to do that...without it he might only win county by 785 points).

Back to Maddie...because her parents put her in something for Exhibition that was useless the organizer changed her to 25 back and 50 free, and she's now scheduled to exhibition 25 Free (which is the most important one to the family). They requested he switch the 25 free to a regular event and exhibition 25 back, but his response was that he has another swimmer that he thinks will win the 25 free which means he'll get 2 first place results rather than a 1st and 2nd in free and less points in back...(again like he needs the additional 3 points, which is the difference between 1st and 2nd at county). The parents were going to impress upon him that it is important to them that Maddie swim 25 free at county so she'll have a shot to swim it at state and thus get a state record...but we'll have to wait until close to next weekend to find out if he listened or if his selfish desire to blow out the rest of county was more important to him...

[Breeze]

Swim With Dad @ GaTech (6/16 - 6/17)

Brett's first meet with Chattahoochee Gold was a huge success...he was very concerned about swimming so many long races leading up to the event (in fact, it wouldn't be an overstatement to say he was stressed out). Before warmups he had a borderline panic attack, because things were so different for him...(he didn't have his siblings with him, doesn't really know anyone on the team well, couldn't find his coaches, was scheduled to swim long events, and I was out of town and for the first time ever would miss on of his meets). Thankfully, one of the team coaches came by...got him to relax, took him to his coaches and they were able to calm him down and focus him on the swimming...

Day 1

200 Free - First time ever swimming this event (long or short course) and he did a very nice job. Form looked so much better and effort was unquestionably greater (saw the wife's recordings)...3:17.41 - not far off of Bailey's time a few weeks back...

100 Back - was really not excited about this race as he doesn't like back and it is a longer swim than he had ever done before in this stroke. Form was pretty good...time was acceptable for him 1:45.10

100 Breast - Brett swam this one well and posted a personal best time of 1:44.22...an improvement of 2.25 seconds, and good enough to finish 8th out of 25 swimmers


Day 2

50 Breast - Brett swam this at time trials and he swam a 49.9...in this meet he swam a 47.72 for a personal best and he missed a state cut by less than .5 seconds...

200 IM - This was the huge stressor...really was scared about it, but he talked to his coaches, didn't fuss and jumped up on the blocks when it was time to swim. He was DQed for an illegal fly to back turn (he got on his side to much...I think he was so focused on the swim he actually thought he needed to swim another leg of fly...like he was swimming 200 IM short course). Regardless, the error didn't help him and he posted a nice 3:33.xx time...

50 Free - Brett's improved kick and effort showed up here as his best coming in was a 41.12 - he again improved by about 2 seconds swimming a 39.xx (unfortunately, I don't know the exact time because the timing system messed up and officially recorded his swim as a 24.37...we are getting that deleted before he ends up swimming in heats with national level competition)...

200 Breast - Finally, he got a chance to swim the 200 Breast. As you may remember from short course he got the state cut but was DQed for a one hand touch on the final turn. We entered him in the State Meet but he failed to get the cut time, which cost us $50...but because he never actually recorded a state cut in this event, he hadn't qualified for state in long course. Brett had never swum the 200 Breast long course so we didn't have a time for him....but also because he is faster in the middle of the pool and turns and pullouts are where he struggles I felt he had a decent chance of getting the cut time of 3:52.39...I wasn't there to record the splits and the official results didn't post them either (unfortunately)...but he swam a...3:43.04...almost 10 seconds below the cut time :eek: :D ...I didn't expect that...his coach also told him there are some pacing issues they can clean up to improve the times significantlly....

[Breeze]

Ooo...got some summer league results to fill in...plus our county meet is this weekend...

I'll try to update all the information tomorrow...

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League - week 3

In week 3 we matched up with The Polo Fields. They owere for years, ne of the worst teams in the county, but last year they hired the swim coach from the high school around the corner (and she demands her high school swimmers swim on the Summer team) and a YMCA and SA facility opened around the corner. Plus there are no other neighborhood teams on that side of town. So now, they are far and away the second best team...and we know we'll get killed...

Polo Fields - 425
CRC Stingrays - 364

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Bailey

Her medley relay swam the best they ever have...posting a 1:09.50. Bailey handled the fly leg, Reese moved to breast and they were quick. They were also out touched at the wall...the freestyler couldn't hold the lead and they lost by .35 seconds

Bailey did the backstroke in the individual and she was clean through the swim...not her fastest time at 19.11 but she won by almost 3 seconds

Bailey then did the breast and it was a touch/touch situation, so close we weren't sure who won until the official results came out. Bailey swam a 20.23...her opponent was a 20.28

In the free relay the girls got a bit of revenge as they swam a best time of 1:02.02. Bailey established a lead on the opening leg and they held it.
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Bear

Bear swim the back leg in the medley and it was a touch/touch at the wall...but the rest of the team swam well and they were able to win 1:14.55

Bear swam the IM against the best kid in the county and had a very respectible showing, posting a best time of 1:23.53, but he lost by about 2 seconds.

In the fly Bear swam against the same kid and lost by .2 of a second...

In the free relay Polo got the revenge. Bear gave the team a lead, but it was lost on the 2nd and 3rd leg and the strong anchor was unable to make up the gap, losing by 1 second

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Brett

Brett's relays were laughable. In both cases the other team was finished with race before the CRC team even dove in for their 4th leg...so no point in beating that dead horse with details...

Brett swam IM and did a nice job...strokes look much better, but their team is ridiculously strong here and he settled for 3rd.

Brett was also asked to swim the fly...which he did very well for him. Almost a personal best time, posting a 42.25 (best is 42.22)...

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Note: this meet will cost Bear the MVP for the team. Because he matched up with one of the 2 best swimmers in the county in his age group in both events and took 2nd both times, he will earn less point than Riley, who by simple luck of the draw didn't have a difficult night

[Breeze]

Summer League Week 4

Week 4 is a match up with the team that beat us out for the 3rd place trophy (Aberdeen). They also beat us heads up in 2011 by about 50 points. They will also be the team that we will most likely battle with for 3rd again this year at county. Before the meet I looked at the Psych Sheet and figured they'd beat us by about 10 points...as it turned out we beat them by 7...

CRC Stingrays - 400
Aberdeen Breakers - 393

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Bailey

The Aberdeen girls 9/10s are pretty weak. Bailey's good friend Haley is the only real good swimmer they have. The others are solid Summer swimmers, but they don't compare to our relays. Bailey swam the breast in the medley (Reese the fly) as we were looking to get a comparison on time from last week...The team won but was over 2 seconds slower. The free relay was also an easy win and the time was only slightly off their best without having anyone pushing.

Bailey swam the IM and matched up with her good friend Haley...The fly leg was touch/touch, but Haley is a sectional level backstroker and while Bailey's back is getting better she's still just borderline state level, so she fell way behind. Bailey is a better breaststroker, but she didn't seem to have the drive to chase her down...and Haley won by about 3 seconds. Bailey posted a respectable time of 1:23.xx

Bailey also matched up with Haley in the fly. Haley has a faster seed time...but the race started and Bailey out dove Haley...then held the lead for about the first 2/3rds of the race, then Haley pulled even, but Bailey out touched her. Winning by... .04
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Bear

Bear's relays were both winners as the Aberdeen team was good, not great at this age group. Bear swam fly in the medley and had a lead he extended off the wall. In the free, he led off and opened a good 2 body length lead. Times were good (but unfortunately two of the swimmers that typically swim the A relay for this team will not be going to county...more on that later).

Bear swam the back in individual, opened a big lead - and - you guessed it, got into the ropes. Cleaned it up to out touch his opponent...but he can't afford to do that on Saturday...

In the IM, it was a cake walk...he won by almost a full length of the pool. With no one pressing him his time suffered...but he did great...

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Brett

Brett's relays are laughable...as average as Aberdeens 10U swimmers were, the 11/12 - 15/18s are quite good. The only fortunately thing that occurred was, the A 11/12 Aberdeen Medley team was DQed because the Breaststroker had an illegal pullout. Otherwise this team finishes 3 in both free and medley relay...

Brett finished a strong second in his IM...time was similar to the previous weeks. Coasted a bit in the free because he couldn't catch first and he had a big lead on 3rd...so time could have been better

In the breast Brett also took second. The kid with the illegal pullout in the medley relay cleaned it up and won going away...of course Brett didn't even come to his shoulder so the stroke and glide for his opponent was significantly longer...


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Note: Bailey's loss to Haley in the IM will pretty much guarantee Reese will win team MVP. It's pretty sad, because of the 6 strokes Bailey can beat Reese easily in 4, Reese wins the Breast, and the Fly is a toss up. But unfortunately, Reese hasn't had to face other year round swimmers this season and Bailey has faced a bunch....

[Breeze]

Summer League - County Championship

The County Championship meet is this weekend (6/23) at Ga Tech. The psych sheet is out and here is how things break down...

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Brett

Brett is going to have a tough time. He's so much smaller than the boys he's racing and he's still cleaning up his strokes that he has no shot at making the state team.

He is swimming the IM, and seeded 9th out of 13 kids. With a good swim he could get to 6th...he shouldn't do worse than 9th (unless some of the seed times are really old for the kids behind him and they don't represent how fast the kids actually are - which is possible if they haven't swum IM in a long time...like since last year)...

Brett will also swim the breast and he comes in seeded 9th (with 2 kids exhibitioning the stroke - meaning they can't win the event, but can based on times swim it in the state relays). Brett is the second fastest 11 year old (behind the kid at Windermere that out touched him by .06 in the first meet of the season and beat him for the county championship last year by .04). There are several kids that are almost 10 seconds faster than he is...so 8 or 9th is about the best he coudl do. A poor swim could drop him to around 14th out of 35...

Brett's relays will do go not to be last...
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Bear

Bear's individual events look pretty good. He is seeded 2nd in fly, behind the best swimmer in the county (Alex) at this age group, and mabye the best in the state. His seed time is several seconds off of the 1st place time, but also .78 seconds faster than 3rd. In fact, even when he doesn't hit his best time, Bear has been below the 3rd place time...His chances of getting on state are good here...

Bear is also swimming backstroke...we selected this over IM because we knew about Alex and the kid from Polo Fields that is the second best in county and we figured both would do IM. As it turns out Alex is doing back...ugh....anyway...he outclasses Bear there. Bear is seeded 2nd, but he hasn't hit that seed time all season, because he ends up in the ropes. If he swims clean he'll battle Riley, his team mate for 2nd. If he gets into the ropes, he'll have an outside shot at 3rd....

Bear's relays, if their best were swimming would be solid choices for top 3 in county, but because they aren't swimming it looks like 5th or 6th is the best they can do...

Bear will lead off in the free relay and swim fly in the medley (riley get's the back leg)
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Bailey

Bailey is swimming the IM at county...and she comes in seeded 4th. She is in a tough spot, as top 3 go to State, and she has strong swimmers in front of her - 4 year round swimmers. The top swimmers time if accurate is untouchable by Bailey. The other's she could reach, but she'd need to swim a personal best...and improve by about 2 seconds (doable in a 100)...The girl that beat her from Laurel Springs is currently 3rd.

Bailey is also swimming the fly...and she is also seeded 5th in this event as well. All 4 in front of her are year round swimmers. This time things are bit more confusing, Bailey's best time of 16 flat was swum with a dive off the side of the pool not blocks, the others ahead of her all had the benefit of blocks (which they won't get at county)...so hard to tell how we stack up...She has already beaten 2 of the girls seeded in front of her...but there are 4 behind her that are only a half a second behind. This is going to be extremely thight.

Bailey's relays are in a tough spot too. They are fast, but Grand Cascades has Maddie along with 3 other year round swimmers are are on pace to break the county record in both the free and medley relays...so the won't win county. There are several other relay teams that are close on their heals. Currently Bailey's team is seeded 2nd in the Medley (my guess is they finish 3rd) and they are 5th in the free (my guess is they finish 3rd)...

We'll see...
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Overall it looks like CRC will finish 4th again, but this time we'll lose out to Aberdeen by only about 10 points....

[Breeze]

Stu Hixon Invite - @Mt. View Swim Center

Just because we aren't busy enough...Brett will swim the Sunday events of the Stu Hixon long course meet. He will swim...

50 Fly
200 Breast
50 Free

I would not be at all surprised if he swam personal bests in the Fly and Free given is confidence and improved strokes. Might be hard to improve on the 200 Breast. I know that his coach says he can cut some time with pacing changes, but they haven't practiced them yet, so not expecting it there...

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League - County Champoinships (@ GaTech)

In order to accomodate everyone that participates at the County Championships, the meet is divided into 2 parts...11 & overs and 10 & unders, so lucky me, I got to stay there the entire day.

Brett

So Brett and I got up early and caught a ride with a teammate down to Tech. We didn't want to get the twins up early and force them to sit at the meet all morning with nothing to do, as we wanted them as fresh and prepared as possible.

Medley Relay
The meet started with the Medley Relays...Brett was swimming the breaststroke leg for his team, but it was irrelevant as they are so bad. They did manage to beat 1 team, and 1 team was DQed for the anchor leaving the blocks early, so they finished 11th out of 13.

50 Free
Brett exhibitioned the 50 free next. I didn't expect him to do much here as his form is better, but he still needs to learn how to use that form to create speed. He swam a personal best of 35.51, which is nice, but isn't nearly good enough to get him on a free relay.

100 IM
In this race, Brett came in seeded 9th, so he was in lane 1...he started off with the fly and he did a nice job staying with the boy in lane 2 (this is the same boy, JB, that beat him by .04 in the county breaststroke champoinships last year, and beat him by .06 in the breaststroke at the beginning of this season). In the backstroke Brett lost a bit of ground but was still within a body length. On the Breast brett caught JB and passed him, opening up a lead of about 3/4th of a body. He held this lead for about 2/3rds of the free leg, but lost it at the wall and was out-touched by .1 second. He did swim a personal best time of 1:26..35, but still ended up 9th.

50 Breast
Brett came into this event also seeded 9th, and again in lane 1. However, 2 of the kids seeded in front of him were exhibitioning so they are not considered in the overall placing. Brett dove in a looked strong, pulling away from the boy in lane 2, who's seed time was 1.5 seconds faster. At the turn, Brett and JB (yes, same kid), who was in lane 9 on the other end of the pool were about dead even. On the back half though, Brett pulled away and finished with a personal best time of 41.72, JB finished with a 43.01. Brett is credited with 6th place overall. As he beat 2 people seeded ahead of him (But 1 was an exhibitioner - so wasn't going to affect Brett's standing in the event anyway).

The interesting thing here is...3 of the boys that finished ahead of Brett didn't exhibition anything in the meet. This may be an indication that they aren't planning on attending the State Meet in late July (of course it could also be that they are typical Breaststrokers who only like to swim Breast and Free and didn't see a point in swimming anything else). If for some reason all three of these kids don't go to state, Brett would get the nod as the 3rd Breaststroke representative and swim the C 11/12 boys medley relay.

Free Relay
Brett's Free Relay team is just as bad as their Medley team...they finished 10th out of 12 teams...
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Bear

Medley Relay
Bear's relay teams came in at a bit of a disadvantage, in the Medley relay their Breaststroker who isn't pretty, but he's tall and pretty fast, and their freestyler who isn't a world beater but can swim a 16.2 25 free, didn't participate. So the team plugged in two other swimmers. A 9 year old, Ian, that had looked pretty strong in free in the previous weeks (though his times weren't reflecting the improved technique), and a kid, Sean, that had been on vacation for 2 weeks and hadn't even been to practice since the first meet of the season. The big guy Riley started the race with the back, but he slipped on the start and that put the team in a bit of a hole. It was a shame actually, as Riley is a very strong back stroker, but in this instance the team was 5th after the first leg. The breaststroker was Sean, and he did an adequate job, maintaining his position in the standings and getting to the wall in 5th place. Bear then took the fly leg, and from the moment he hit the water he was flying. He ate up ground with every stroke and got to the wall in 2nd place...an impressive swim. This left Ian, who was not the typical free anchor. But he performed extremely well, holding off all comers and finishing 2nd...

25 Free
Bear's next swim was the 25 Free exhibition. And it started with a false start. Luckily Bear heard it, stopped and returned to the bulkhead quickly (due to Tech being a long course pool, to make is short course, bulkheads are added so the pool will be 25 yards. 10 and Unders when they swim 25s, go off of the bulkheads so they swim towards the electronic touch pads), while the officials rounded up the rest of the swimmers. Unfortunately, because he returned to the bulkhead quickly, he also dripped all over his starting point, and when the restart occurred - he slipped - BAD. He managed to swim a 16.02, but he lost to 2 kids he outswam earlier in the season...He ended up 13th overall. This is 1 swimmer outside of those that automatically qualify to swim in the free relays at state. We are in wait and see mode to determine if anyone that beat him isn't going...

25 Back
Bear's next swim was the 25 back. He attempted this event last year, but he slipped on the start and ended up way back in the standings. Had he swum his typical time he'd have been 4th or 5th last year, and would have made the State team due to people not going. This year he came in with the 2nd seed time...and he looked good in practice leading up to the race. The race started and Bear - Slipped...:( By the time he got going he was a full 2 body lengths behind the rest of the field. He swam hard, and actually passed 4 guys, but he ended up 6th (got credit for 5th because 1 person exhibitioned). He swam a 19.23. The boy that ended up second in this race was one that Bear raced during the regular season, and beat bad, even though Bear got into the ropes about 2/3rds of the way down the pool...very disappointing...for his sake.

25 Fly
Bear's last chance to make the state team outright is in the fly. In this case, he doesn't slip on the dive, but he does go a tad bit deap, which puts him a little behind at the start. But, once he surfaces, he starts blowing by people He ends up running out of pool and has to settle for 3rd, but he was clearly going much faster than the boy that finished 2nd. Bear's time was a 17.00. So Bear makes the county team, will swim 25 fly, and will probably be on the C medley relay

Free Relay
Bear's relay team, with all their normal pieces was seeded 3rd. The race started with Bear at leadoff, and he was the first to finish his leg. The second swimmer was Ian, and he was able to open a bit of a lead on the 2nd and 3rd place teams. The 3rd swimmer lost some ground and the top 3 teams pretty much came off the wall together, but Riley, the anchor brought it home and Bear's team takes the gold in this event...
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Bailey

Medley Relay
The girls medley relay was very frustrating. I was asked pretty early on to help make sure that we had people swimming the right events this year. And pretty much from the start I told the coaches for the 9/10 girls medley relay you will be much faster if you put Bailey in the Fly and Reese in the Breast. Moreover, my opinion was proven out during the season, as the best time recorded by the girls came with this configuration. It was easily 2.5 seconds faster than any other combination, but during the meet Bailey swam Breast and Reese swam fly. Bailey urged Reese to switch with her, but Reese replied "We don't need to switch, I'm faster than you in both strokes to it won't matter..." ...(more on this later)...(of course Reese's parents realized they were not configured right too and were upset). Well the team swam their typical 1:12.xx time in this configuration and finished 4th, out of the medals. Alternating the swimmer to right set up, and based on time they would have taken 2nd pretty easily...

25 Free
Bailey continues to struggle getting speed in the free. She swims a 16.04 and is currently sitting at 14th, out of the free relays. From looking at the names in front of her, it is doubtful 2 girls won't be going to state, so she'll probably miss out on the free relays...

100 IM
Bailey raced the IM against a very tough group. In the fly leg, she was even with the other 4 good swimmers. In the backstroke she lost a little ground but not much...unfortunately, when she did the turn, she did a touch and go, and failed to do a pullout...3 of the other 4 good swimmers all did their pullout and they opened a body length lead on her that she couldn't make up and she ended up 4th...so 1 spot away from the automatic bid to state. Time 1:23.63...

25 Fly
Bailey like, Bear comes into her final race, needing to get into the top 3 just to make state, and as I detailed previously, this is a star studded cast of swimmers. The race began with Isabella false starting, but it not being caught by the start (an terrible mistake...the entire stands saw it and a gasp went up when they weren't called back). Making matters worse, Isabella is one of the swimmers with a better seed time than Bailey, so she's already beind at the start. The entire field in this one is tightly bunched, but Bailey appears to be moving up...they get to the wall, and Bailey is 2nd...16.23. The overall winner was 16.22 - :eek: And Miss "I'm better than you in both strokes" Reese finished 3rd at 16.33 and has now lost to Bailey twice in this race this season...Because Bailey was so close to the girl that won, and because that girl also won backstroke, Bailey will probably end up on the A medley at state and Kayla (the winner) will swim the Back leg...

Free Relay
Bailey led off here and did a nice job, as she was second at the end of the leg. Reese swam next and lost ground back but held 2nd. Jordan went next and lost 2nd barely, and the anchor Cameron wasn't quite able to swim down the other team. So Bailey's free relay settles for 3rd...

[Breeze]

Stu Hixons Invite @Mt View Aquatic Center

Brett's performance at this meet wasn't as good as last week, but after the emotional meet on Saturday I didn't expect it would be. Moreover, he woke up Sunday morning with a migrane like headache...so just being able and willing to swim following that was a minor victory.

All in all his fly was about .5 seconds slower than the previous meet. His free was about 1 second slower and the 200 Breast was about .3 slower. All were close enough to show that he is consistently able to swim these times and while they weren't personal bests they continue to show his improvement, as he didn't fall off the map with these efforts.

[Breeze]

Summer League County Championships

Standings

Here is the top half of the final standings


GC - 1723.50
Polo - 1244.50
Aberdeen - 1084
CRC - 1052.50
Lake Forest - 977
Windermere - 851.50
Creekstone - 709.50
Laurel Springs - 638.50



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Prior to this meet I was asked by the team to look at our line up and project how many points we would get. I told them we were going to be around 940 assuming everything went well (no DQs, sick kids, etc.). Then they asked me to make some suggestions on where we could put kids in order to maximize our points. So I did and my projection increased to 1043.75, but unfortunately, I still had us calculated to finish 4th. As you can see above, my projection was pretty close on the points and the position was perfect. In fact, my projection of the order of finish for all 16 team was only off by 1 team (which failed to field some of its relay teams, and thus significantly through off the prediction).

[Breeze]

Summer League - County Team

The county team has been announced and unfortunately, Brett just misses getting in, as 2 of the 3 kids that I mentioned in the county results posts elected to skip the state meet, but the kid that finished 1 spot in front of Brett is going.

Bailey will swim the fly (we knew that already), and she will also swim the fly leg in the A Medley Relay. Since 2007 this relay is the 3rd fastest the county has fielded. She unfortunately didn't get into a Free Relay as all the girls that beat her in the 25 free elected to swim...

Bear will swim the fly as well at state. He also gets the benefit of moving up to the B Medley Relay (the 2nd place finisher at county isn't going to state), so his chances of medalling just improved dramatically. His relay is the 8th fastest since 2007, trailing 2 other B teams and faster than the '08 A team. Bear also snuck into the C Free Relay. Interestingly, his C team is the second best the county has fielded since 2007, and actually with Bear's slip and another child's poor swim (based on seed time)...this team could be as fast as the B team...we'll see, but I don't expect the Free Relay to make the medal round.

[Breeze]

Summer League - Week 5

Our last Summer meet was against Grand Cascades. I'm not going to go into many particulars because it really isn't worth it...

Bear did win both his backstroke (yes he got into the ropes again, but still won) and his IM. Bailey won the fly, and beat 2 girls that finished in the top 8 at the county meet in the process...

The final score was

CRC - 234
GC - 556

So we finished 4th in the county...only 35 points from 3rd and GC more than doubled our score in a dual meet...:rolleyes:

[Breeze]

Tara Invite @ Steve Lunquist Aquatic Center - July 7 - 8

The Tara Invite is the last long course meet before the state championships and all 3 kids will be swimming in this one. The twins will swim for SA and Brett will actually swim for Chat. Gold (up until now he was swimming unattached as there is a waiting period when kids switch teams to reduce recruiting of swimmers). This meet functions a bit like a last chance meet as quite a few of the great regional a swimmers are skipping the meet because they have no reason to swim it, as they have already qualified for state in everything they want to swim.

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Bailey

200 Free
Last time Bailey swam this it was a big disappointment. Bear was able to swim this event 15+ seconds faster and that shouldn't happen. I'm hoping for a better time...something around 3:05 would be good. Seed time is 3:14.55 and she is seeded 7th overall at the event.

100 Breast
Bailey hasn't swim this event long course yet, so it will be interesting to see where she ends up. Her breast has looked a bit better lately...but I really don't have a good guess here. If I was put on the spot, I'd say sub 1:50 would be good...

100 Backstroke
Bailey's 1:42.07 is probably a bit slow...but she has to stay out of the ropes. If she can do that, I expect this one will improve

50 Breast
Current time is listed as 51.51...she could improve this if good form holds up through the race

50 Back
Still no cut in this race...47.31 coming in...we'll see how brave she is with the walls on the finish. That plus not getting into the ropes are the key.

50 Free
Still need to clean up the pull portion and get an earlier catch to improve. Has the potential to do much better than her 39.39...but won't until she figures the upper body part out...

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Brett

200 Free
Seed time is 3:17.xx, he can improve on this a good bit if he is willing to push himself. Because he's never done many distance events (and I know 200s aren't really distance, but they are for him), he has a tendancy to hold back and conserve energy. If he'll go harder we could see a good bit of improvement.

100 Breast
Here brett is seeded 6th overall...and only 3 seconds from 4th. He could do well here...seed time 1:44.22

100 Back
Form is much better here...but the kid still doesn't like being on his back in the water and he doesn't race this well. Needs to increase effort significantly. If he does, he'll improve a bunch. If not, we'll see more of the same regarding time. Seed time 1:45.10

100 Free
Improved form here too... and again it is about effort. Gotta work harder to improve...and can pretty easily if he has the stamina. No official Seed time -

200 IM
Swam this in the meet in mid June and recorded a 3:33.xx, but was DQed for a minor mistake on a turn. No big deal, the bigger issue was just getting him to swim the event. He'll probably try to beg out of this one again this weekend...we'll see. If he doesn't I don't expect a time improvement as I would guess he'll conserve his energy so he'll finish. Officially he comes in with a NT

50 Breast
Overall he's seeded 4th in this one, and 1 second from 2nd place (no shot at 1st). Seed time 47.72. Hopefully, he has a good race here with swimmers around him and it pushes him to a Personal Best, because if he improves by about a half a second he'll have the state cut.

50 Back
See 100 Back...no official seed time (though I believe he swam a 51.xx at time trials earlier this year)

50 Free
No seed time, but I swear he swam a 39.9 in mid June (wasn't at that meet or I'd know for sure)...I know he swam a 41.12 during time trials earlier this year (lack of times is due to switching teams and not having access to the SA Database with times recorded)

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Bear

Bear is set up to do real well in this meet as you'll see below...

200 Free
Bear comes in seeded 2nd and only a fraction of a second behind the top seed. Seed time 2:56.74...if he gets his adrenaline going in this one he could win it...and post a personal best.

50 Fly
Bear is seeded 3rd here, less than a second from 2nd. Seed time 45.18.

100 Breast
Bear continues to improve in this stroke, but it is still by far his weakest. He has no seed time listed, as we've not asked him to swim the 100 Breast until now as his stroke was too weak. No idea where he will finish...and here is why...

50 Breast
Amazingly, the boy is seeded 4th overall, with a time of 54.24. Less than a second from second. I don't expect much here, but wouldn't be totally surprised with a personal best.

50 Back
Seeded 8th overall with a time of 46.70. A good swim and he could get the state cut. But of course he has to stay off the ropes, which has become a big problem for us during summer league.

50 Free
Bear is tied for the top seed time here, and I believe he is faster than his time, but I expect someone from the back of the pack, who hasn't swum this event in a while and is seeded based on an old time to come out of nowhere and win this one. Seed time 38.04

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Note: Unfortunately, we recently returned from a vacation, where the kids missed a full week of practice. So they won't be in top form this weekend, which could have a significantly negative impact on their performance....keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't, but expecting it will...

[Breeze]

Tara Classic Results

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Brett
This was another good meet for Brett. While he didn't place well in mos to the events, he did have a number of improvements...

200 Free
Brett came into this race with a seed time of 3:17.41. He looked pretty good during this race, with solid form throughout. He'll need to learn to push himself a little harder as, to me, it appeared he was holding back a bit to make sure he didn't overexert himself early. He finished with a good improvment though...3:13.87 - so a drop in time of around 3.5 seconds. PB

100 Breast
Next came the 100 Breast, and Brett started out strong, he was in an outside lane and he was keeping up with the swimmers to his inside, but about midway through the opening lap he momentarily stopped, thinking their might have been a false start. He was distracted by one of the coaches whistling (and as he was on the side of the pool where the coaches were - the whistling was pretty loud). He restarted and swam
an exact match of his personal best 1:44.22 - he clearly would have beaten this if he didn't hesitate in the race...PB (tie)

100 Back
Brett was feeling pretty good by the time this one rolled around...he was determined to do better in back and so he went out the first 50 much harder than he normally does...and he made the turn at a pretty good split, but unfortunately, this new form of his didn't stand up to the fatigue on the back half and he posted a slower time by about 2 seconds...1:47.24 - but there were some good signs in the early part of this race.

100 Free
to end the first day Brett had the 100 Free...It's been a while since Brett swam this event, he hasn't done it at all this year, and last year his best time was around a 1:39.xx (I believe). He looked real strong in this one, actually racing the kids to both sides of him. He finished with a personal best time of 1:29.17 - Even given a year off...the 10 seconds is a huge improvement and earlier this year he would not have been close to this time. PB

200 IM
Brett started the second day with his dreaded 200 IM. It ended up being a really cool race. He started in Fly and was behind early on the dive. The boy next to him was easily twice his size (height and weight), but Brett caught and passed him before the leg was over. In the back, the big kid swam by him and left him far beind, but in the breast Brett caught him again and passed him before he got to the end of the 3rd 50. The big kids free was much stronger than Brett's and he fell a good ways back before the finish, but it was fun to see him swim someone down and push himself. He gets credit for a personal best with a time of 3:32.07 (I'm not sure if this is slightly better or slightly worse than the DQ time from his last meet, but it's a good effort regardless) - PB

50 Breast
Brett had a good swim here. He finished a bit short armed and it cost him a personal best. His seed time was 47.72 he swam a 47.75...

50 Back
Brett was listed with a no time in the 50 back according to the event, but he did swim the 50 back in time trials for SA, and his best time was around a 51.50. In this race he took it out hard again, like he did in the 100 and it paid off. Official time was 47.45, a huge improvement...PB

50 Free
Brett's 50 free officially from his first race with Gold had to be dropped because of a timer issue. I know it was in the upper 39s but I'm not sure the exact time. So he entered here with his seed time from the long course time trials at the beginning of the Summer...41.93. He swam a 38.68...an huge improvement from May and a good improvement from even the first Gold meet. PB

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Bailey

200 Free
Started with the 200 free and improved over last time, but her swim still seemed labored to me...she is still missing the relaxed gliding form that works so well in the longer freestyles, and with her naturally strong kick this shouldn't be the issue. I think her body posture is wrong and I'm a little upset that SA hasn't done more to address the issue of why her Freesytle is so much slower than many of her teammates when she is by far the fastest on kick sets. Regardless...it was a 1.5 second improvement 3:12.95 - PB

100 Breast
Bailey had no time in this long course and she like Brett stopped in the middle of the pool because she thought there was a false start. In her defense, because she came in with a no time she was swimming in the slower heat, and when she stopped to look around she was already over 2 body lengths ahead of the entire field...I'm sure she was wondering where everybody was. Had she not stopped she would have probably finished in the top 5. As it was, she finished 7th with a good time of 1:50.88 - PB

100 Back
Bailey improved on this stroke, but she wasn't terribly happy with her swim. She wanted to go faster. Official time was 1:40.71 about a 1.25 second improvement...PB

NOTE: at the end of the first day, Bailey was very upset. She is feeling that she isn't measuring up to her friends Maddie, Haley, Lexi and others. She is stating she is the worst of the bunch...While this isn't true - her back and free are slower and in some cases considerably slower. I think once she figured out what his holder her back from a speed persepctive she'll catch right back up...but right now it is severly impacting her confidence.

50 Breast
Day 2 started with the 50 breast, and Bailey improved by just over a second 50.42...PB

50 Back
Bailey swam the 50 back and went through spirts of real fast swimming followed by slow swimming with the head up to make sure where she was. But in the end, she put her head back and charged into the wall to post a 45.85, which is a personal best and the state cut (finally)...PB

50 Free
In the 50 free, I suggested bailey drop her hips a bit to get a better leverage point for her kick, she didn't, but she did try to increase her reach on both arms. And it helped. She posted a personal bset 38.78, but she missed the state cut by less than .5 seconds - PB

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Bear

200 Free
Bear swam hard in this race, and actually probably a little too hard early, as he faded a bit on the 3rd 50, but he only added 2.7 seconds to his time, and given we were out of the pool for several days it isn't overly surprising his time suffered in this event. 2:59.38

50 fly
This was an exciting race. There was 1 kid that jumped out to a big lead, but then the rest of the pool was battling for second most of the rest of the race. Bear was slighly trailing coming into the final 10 meters, but he put his head down, charged into the wall and outtouched th rest of the field to finish 2nd and post a personal best time of 42.69 (an improvement of 2.4 seconds) - PB

100 Breast
Bear swam a great 100 breast, in fact, he won his heat going away and his time held up to be 3rd overall. He posted a 1:57.27 and earned a state cut - PB

50 Breast
Bear started out this race real well. He was actually leading coming into the mid-point, but then his form started to suffer and he ended up 9th...and he missed a personal best by .4 seconds. Official time 54:67

50 Back
Awesome start for Bear, he was the last to surface, which sometimes is a problem because he isn't going fast enough underwater and he finds himself way back when he does come up, but this time he was even with the rest of the leaders and he had good momentum out of the hole, which he carried to an early lead. He ended up losing ground but charged to the wall for a 4th place finish a personal best time of 44.30 and a state cut - PB

50 Free
This was another race like the fly, only this time no one pulled away from the field. Bear was in the middle of the pack and he worked hard, coming in 4th again and posting a time of 37.57 wich is a .4 second improvement on his best time and another state cut...PB
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[Breeze]

Long Course State Championship @ Ga Tech - 7/19 - 7/21


We are now signed up for the Long Course State Championships, and thankfully the event is at GaTech, because this year it starts on Thursday and runs through Saturday, rather than the typical Friday through Sunday set up. There is no way that my wife and I could have taken 2 days off to go to Augusta (where the state meet has been held for the past several years), so being in the Atlanta area is very helpful. However, the meet will start each day with an afternoon session, because of this we are going to be unable to get the twins to all of their events. In fact, sadly, it is the 50 Back (that Bailey has been so close to for so long) that they will be unable to swim.

Basically here is how it works out...

Thursday Afternoon - 10U Session

50 Free - Bear
100 Breast - Bailey and Bear
50 Fly - Bailey and Bear

Friday Afternoon - the only event we qualify for on this day is the 50 back so we changed the day my wife doesn't work (she usually only works Mon-Thu) to Thursday so she can take them to that days competition since we have 5 events to swim, and she'll work on Friday instead, and we'll just have to miss those 2 events.

Saturday Afternoon - 10U Session

200 Free - Bear
50 Breast - Bailey
100 Back - Bailey and Bear


Saturday Evening - 11/12s Session

200 Breast - Brett

I'll update the thread with anything interesting I see once the Psych Sheet comes out...

[Breeze]

Long Course State Championships @ GaTech - Day 1

Bailey and Bear kick off the long coures state championships today. They will be swimming around 2. I'm going to take a late lunch in hopes of seeing some of there events. I don't expect much...in most of the events we are seeded either in the mid - 30s or mid-50s....so personal bests are a good goal...

[Breeze]

Long Course State Championships

I wasn't able to leave the office and see my kids swim...:( :( :(

However, I do have some results to pass along...

Bear's 50 Free - he finished at 37.82....33 seconds slower than his personal best. He finished 49th, after being seeded 41st coming in...

Bailey's 100 Breast - Finished with a Personal Best 1:50.29, an improvement of 3.5 seconds...

Bear's 100 Breast - Finished with a Personal Best 1:52.82, an improvement of 4.45 seconds....

Bailey's 50 Fly - she swims a 43.30...a poor swim...a full 1.46 seconds slower than her personal best. This one concerns me with GRPA State coming up next week...

Bear's 50 Fly - swims a 44.58...also a poor swim...a full 1.89 seconds slower than his personal best. Also a concern with GRPA State...

[Breeze]

Long Course State Championships

I probably should have logged on here before the races on Saturday to predict the results...but I didn't so I try to frame them in the context of the write ups below...

Bear

200 Free
I was hoping Bear would be able to maintain his times in the mid 2:50s.xx...but I did have some concerns. When he was swimming well a month or 6 weeks back, he was really working hard on his rowing machine, which had greatly increased his stamina. Unfortunately, he stopped the extra work, shortly after his PB in this event, and my fears that his lack of stamina would be a problem came into play. He swam a very poor 3:01.53 time. He was extremely disappointed. He also said after the race that he was trying to swim the way the coach framed the race....which was to build his effort every 50. This is a complete departure from Bear's normal practice of going out hard, resting on the 3rd 50, and then bringing it home best he can, and he didn't execute the style very well...

100 Back
Bear didn't have an official 100 Back Long Course time. He quaified for this event during short course season. So I didn't have a seed time to compare to. If I take his personal best from short course and run it through the swim tie conversion tool, he was supposed to be around a 1:38.xx (typically I find the conversions to be a bit faster than the kids actually swim). Also, due to an error on the part of the coach, Bear was in the fast heat for the back. The coach entered Bear's short course time without conversion into the meet registry and thus Bear was swimming against the best the state had to offer, and he wouldn't be able to keep up. As it turned out Bear did pretty well. He didn't get embarrassed in the event and his PB (of course it is a PB he had never swum the race before...) time was officially 1:36.73...also better than the conversion time (which I was proud of)

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Bailey

50 Breast
This was a real ugly race. Not sure what Bailey was doing but she clearly wasn't concentrating on her swim. At the begining she was busy looking around...and she actually looked like she was swimming a warm up lap...then she dropped into race mode and closed on the field...looking real strong in the process...but at the wall she started overworking the stroke and she lost the nice glide part, which cost her some time. Officially she swam a 52.46...a full 2 seconds slower than her PB

100 Back
Like Bear, Bailey was entered into this event with her Short Course time, and was in the fastest heat. I was concerned she'd get intimidated and shut down during the race...especially since her best long course time coming in 1:41.xx was a good 20 seconds slower than the best swimmers in the state. However, she looked good, worked hard and swam a solid 1:35.03. A huge improvement from just a couple weeks ago and a PB

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Brett

200 Breast
Brett has another anxiety attack...in fact, this one was before we ever left the house. Not sure why he's all of a sudden become so high strung about swimming, but it was painful trying to get him out the door. But we got him to Tech, and he went through warm ups. Once he started on our trip down to the pool, he settled in. Before the race he talked to his coach, who told him the goal was to improve by 3 seconds to he'd get his 12 year old state cut in the event. The race started and Brett did a great job keeping up with the kids around him. At the first turn he was tied with both swimmers to his inside...coming off the wall he was over a body length behind (gotta get a stronger pull-out). He closed on the two swimmers in the middle of the pool, only to again lose ground on the turn. This continued for most of the race, but Brett swam a strong...His 100 split was 1:45.29 (which by the way - would have been a personal best for the 100 Breast). This was such a strong effort in the beginning of the race, I was afraid he was going to fade bad, but I had faith because he has such a technically sound stroke that he'd be able to ride the glide portion a bit more on the back half to keep from fading too badly. In the back half he posted a 1:52.21...and overall he swam a 3:37.50 for a Personal Best, an improvement of 5.5 seconds and his 12 year old state cut... I was super proud of this effort (and so was he, which is the most important thing)...

[Breeze]

Summer League - State Championships

There has been a change in the schedule for the Summer League Championships this Friday. Due to a couple of injuries Bailey will now be swimming in the C Free Relay. They will be hard pressed to make the finals...the team comes in with the 4 individual race times combined to equal 63.5...to make the finals they'll probably need to get below 60 seconds. With the rolling relay starts it is possible, in fact, last year 2 of the relay teams improved by over 3 seconds...

As for individual races...it looks like Bailey and Bear will both finish outside of the top 8 in the state. They could get close with a great swim, but my guess is best they can hope for in an alternate (9th or 10th place)...

[Breeze]

Next Season Plans...

We'll it is time to sign up for next year (actually it is past time) and we have some very difficult decisions to make...

Brett is the easy one. He has improved so much and his confidence is so much higher now that he is part of Chattahoochee Gold that there is no question he'll be returning there. He'll be on the Region team (which is like a promotion for him from SA). His practices will be 1.5 hours long accept on Saturday when they are 2 hours. He'll be expected to go to practice 5 days a week...(we'll see how well that works out). Brett has been very excited about the team and has been urging Bear to switch over and swim with him. Notice, he hasn't talked to Bailey about joining...he'd rather Bailey stay away, as the two of them have a very competitive relationship...

----------------------------------------------

Bear is the frustrating one...We received news from SA that they'd like to move Bear up a level to AAG (Advanced Age Group), which is very rare for any 10 year old, but extremely rare for a 10 year old boy. Part of the impetus for this promotion in my opinion is SAs move to get younger and open some lower level spots with the bump in enrollment they will see with it being an Olympic year. That isn't to say he can't do the practice, he can, but I'm not sure a 10 year old should be doing it.

We would prefer that he move to Chattahoochee Gold for several reasons. One it is potentially more convenient for us. Two it is about $40 cheaper per month. Three the coaching of fundamentals and technique is much better (which Bear could benefit from...as effort and conditioning isn't his problem). However, Bear isn't much for change, so he's not really interested. We are still trying to determine where he'll end up...

--------------------------------------------

Bailey is the difficult one. Bailey has also been told that she'll be moving up to AAG (see above comments about age and reasons for promotion). This is more problematic for Bailey because she also plays USTA tournament level tennis, and AAG will require more time. Ideally, the coach would like for the twins to be at practice 5 of the 6 days that it is offered, but said 9 days in a two week cycle would be ok for now. That still limits the days where Bailey can practice tennis. Moreover, we really can't afford to pay the higher fees for both boys and Bailey, plus pay for Bailey's tennis lessons. Ideally, we'd keep her back for another year so as not to force her to make a swimming vs. tennis decision as a 10 year old (it's really a shame that kid sports have become so specialized that in order to compete you have to dedicate yourself to a sport so early). However, all of her friends were promoted to AAG as well and she'd be left behind if we do that (and if we move her to another SA facility in the area, she wouldn't be with her close friends that way either). We are still looking for a solution here...but at best we'll be able to hold off the tennis vs. swimming decision for 1 year, then she'll have to choose (and if you are wondering...in my opinion she has a much higher upside in tennis).

We need to get the twins signed up somewhere tonight (or risk losing out on a spot)...I'll update the thread once we've decided what we are going to do...

[RPI-Fan]

You should add tennis to the dynasty! Also, can you provide more background on how all these meets work? -- I get confused about the various state meets, how you qualify, who is qualified for which meet, and why being in the top 8 is important, etc.

[Breeze]

You should add tennis to the dynasty! Also, can you provide more background on how all these meets work? -- I get confused about the various state meets, how you qualify, who is qualified for which meet, and why being in the top 8 is important, etc.

RPI...thanks for checking in.

I had thought about adding in Bailey's tennins, and in fact, I believe I mention it a few times in as much as it impacts her practice schedule for swimming. I'll start adding in that info, when she gets back on the court. Her coach suffered a stroke at the beginning of the Summer, and with that being our busy swim season, and with us not terribly fond of our other options for coaching, we allowed her a break. She's been idle for over 2 months...so she'll be real rusty when she returns. Currently she is ranked 34th in the state...and she'd be higher if we had a doubles partner for her to play with (doubles gives kids extra ranking points...and Bailey doesn't have a set partner, because she doesn't play out of a tennis center).

Now let's see if I can adequately explain the different state meets, etc...

Basically the swimming I describe here is divided into two separate organizations or leagues.

1. USA Swimming
2. GRPA Swimming


USA Swimming (yes the same group that runs the USA Olympic Swim Team), is the bigger of two organizations by far and it is for the year round swimmers, thus all of SwimAtlanta, Chattahoochee Gold, Dynamo and more. There are a number of meets during each of the seasons (Long Course & Short Course) that are hosted around the country, and results from the meets are maintained in the USA Swimming Database. Each state has their own time standards, and if a person swims faster than the standard they are eligible to swim at the State Meet. In fact, the time standards are in place for Sectional, Regional, and National meets, and the Olympic Trials Cut is also part of this same process. So a kid that swims an exceptional race and gets an Olympic Cut time (even in the same events my kids are in), they are then "invited" to compete at the Olympic Trials.

Bringing it back to my kids level, the Long Course State Championships that were held last weekend, were the results of the kids efforts during the season. The events they swam were the ones that they qualfied for during the season (except we weren't able to do the 50 back because we couldn't get them to the meet). Also the cut times to swim at state change as the child ages up. The first level is 10U, then the cut changes every year. That is why it was such a big deal that Brett got his 12 year old cut in the 200 Breast during the state meet. Next year the twins for short course will be still under 10, so they will have a majority of their cuts before the season even starts, and we'll be pushing for Sectional Cuts, while keeping an eye on 11 year old cuts for Long Course (they age up prior to the start of the long course season).

The second organization is GRPA (Georgia Recreation and Parks Association). This is the state meet taking place over the weekend (7/27 - 7/28). Here the kids swim on a neighborhood team each week leading up the county championships (which were held about a month ago). If a swimmer places in the top 3 finishers in their event, they represent the county at the state meet. Which is why Bailey and Bear are going. Bear finished 3rd in fly, Bailey finished 2nd. They also get put on relays for Medley and Free (free relays are the top 12 finishers)...The interesting thing here is - even though this is just a summer league, the county team is better than the year round teams at any singular year round facility. This is because there are so many year round swimmers at so many different facilities and when they race off you get the best of the best. In the county I live in alone, there are 7 year round organizations that can feed swimmers to the county team, so it is a big deal to make the team.

So basically if you think about this in the context of other sports it's a bit like having a child that plays on a travelling team but also plays in the rec league during the week. Then ends up on the rec. league all-star team that goes to the state tournament.

Hope that makes since...let me know if it doesn't and feel free to ask questions, I'm more than happy to answer them...

[RPI-Fan]

Perfect, thanks. :)

[Breeze]

Summer League - GRPA State Championships

HISTORY

Before I explained what happened in this meet I figured I'd provide a bit of perspective by writing out the medals we've won in the past here. I'm pretty sure all this information is writen in the thread earlier, but it gives you some insight into why this is a big event for us...

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2008 – Boys 7/8 Medley Relay, A Team – Brett (Breast) – 8th Place
Brett didn’t even know how to dive and was scared to death to go off of the blocks during this meet, but his team still managed to make the finals. They swam the prelims in 1:23.96, and improved in the finals to 1:22.76,

2009 – Boys 7/8 Medley Relay, A Team – Brett (Breast) – 5th Place
Brett was able to dive (though not well) this time around, and his team was vastly improved over 2008, finishing 4th in prelims with a time of 1:16.59, and 5th in the finals with a time of 1:17.72.

2009 – Boys 7/8 Free Relay , B Team – Brett – 6th Place
When Brett was younger he was a decent freestyler…and he just missed getting on the A relay here, but they finished 5th in state, so it really didn’t make much of a difference. Brett’s team snuck into finals in the 8 spot (1:10.85), got 6th overall with a time of 1:10.19.

2010 – Girls 7/8 Medley Relay, B Team – Bailey (Breast) – 6th Place
Bailey Medley team consisted of 2 teammates from the CRC Summer Team and Maddie (at this point Bailey and Maddie didn’t know each other). The group qualified for finals, finishing 7thwith a 1:20.53, in finals they finished 6th with a 1:22.88 (note: the Forsyth County A Team was DQed in the finals, along with the Dekalb County A Team).

2010 - Boys 9/10 Medley Relay , A Team – Brett (Breast) – 4th Place
Qualified for the finals in 6th place with a time of 1:07.15. Finished 4th with a time of 1:07.20.

2010 – Boys 7/8 Individual Medley – Bear – 8th Place
This was a real emotional race for us. Bear qualified for the finals, our family’s first ever individual finals, and he had to improve by 6 seconds over his personal best to get into that 8th spot (only beat the 9th place swimmer by .2 seconds). He then went on to finish 8th in the event, and was very upset. We have a picture of him sitting apart from the other swimmers, almost crying because he felt he had finished last (took a lot of convincing to tell him he was far from last…just didn’t get the whole prelim/finals set up at this point in his life), this was an unbelievable effort, and I was extremely proud of him, and thankful, given both of his relay teams were DQed this year or he would have had 2 more medals at this meet.

2010 – Girls 7/8 Free Relay , A Team – Bailey – 2nd Place
Bailey’s relay was extremely strong…they finished 3rd in qualifying with a 1:08.55, but swam a 1:06.21 in the finals to get 2nd place and a silver medal. This was our first appearance on the podium…and it was exciting and memorable.

2011 – Boys 9.10 Medley Relay, B Team – Brett (Breast) – 4th Place
Brett was stuck on the B relay because he was out touched at County by .04 seconds, had he made the A team he would have earned a Bronze medal in this race. His relay was strong though and they qualified for finals in 4th place with a time of 1:06.91, the finished 4th overall with a time of 1:07.02…

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship

Every year this event is exhausting…physically, with the overwhelming heat, mentally, trying to coordinate all the items that need to be accomplished before and during the event, and emotionally with the highs and lows of a tough competition…and this year was no different.

We arrived in Carrollton, Georgia Thursday night around 5, checked into the hotel, and almost immediately headed out for dinner reservations with 30+ other people in swim families. I was concerned the meal was going to turn into a nightmare of waiting and hyperactive kids, but it actually worked out well. The kids ate well, and carbed up for the next day, which came really early…

We got up at 5:45, dressed, grabbed the swim bags and went down to eat breakfast before heading to the pool. It was a little difficult to get Bailey to eat (she has problems eating first thing in the morning), but she finally choked down enough to sustain her. We headed out to the ball field where we would set up our chairs and sit under a big tent for the rest of the day.

Warm-ups started at 7…the meet started at 9…

Now, unlike most of the events that I write about here…the GRPA state meet is run more like a major event, in that the swimmers don’t do timed finals, they qualify for finals through a preliminary swim. Similar to what you are currently watching in the Olympics. In order to make the finals at GRPA the swimmer has to have one of the top 8 times in the preliminaries (RPI-Fan…I believe I failed to explain this in my answer to your questions above…), and if a swimmer can get a top 8 time, assuming they aren’t DQed in the finals, they will receive a medal regardless of what place they end up in…with the overall winners getting the typical Gold, Silver, Bronze awards.


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PREDICTIONS
While most of our success in this meet has been team driven, this is still one of the few meets where my kids actually have a chance to earn a medal, and thus it makes this meet special. I had intended to give you guys some insight into how I felt we would perform here…but apparently I failed to do the post with how our seed times match up with past years results. Here is what I meant to say about our chances coming in…Unfortunately, this meet doesn't release Psych Sheets or Heat Sheet ahead of time, so I had no idea what to expect when we got there...here were my pre-event predictions...

9/10 Girls Medley Relay, A Team – Bailey (Fly) – Prediction 3rd
Bailey's Medley team was very strong coming in. In fact, it is the 3rd fastest combined time the county has sent to the state meet since 2007, only falling behind a team that had 2 multiple event state champions competing on it (they were together for 2 years). My initial reaction was they would be hard to beat at state, until I found results from other county meets and noticed quite a few swimmers as fast or faster than our group. I did feel the team would have a shot to win it all, but ultimately I felt 3rd was going to be the spot.

9/10 Boys Medley Relay, B Team – Bear (Fly ) – Prediction – not in the finals
Bear’s B relay was solid, but not spectacular and I felt they’d have a chance to get to the finals, but I expected they’d be an alternate in the 10th or 11th spot…

9/10 Girls Fly – Bailey – Prediction – not in the finals
Based on Bailey’s time I felt she’d be close to getting into the finals…her 16.22 was recorded without the benefit of diving off of blocks, which would make her faster…but she’d need to get sub 16 to really have a change to get into finals, and I felt it would be close. I felt an alternate spot of 9th or 10th was likely.

9/10 Boys Fly – Bear – Prediction – not in the finals
Bear was going to be hard pressed to make finals. If he swam around his personal best of 16.2 he might slip in, but most likely he’d be mid 16s and finish 12th or so…

9/10 Girls Free Relay – Bailey – Prediction – Not in finals
Bailey’s relay team with combined times averaged out to around 64 seconds, to make the finals she’d need to be sub 60…relay starts allow for some improvement, typically around 2 seconds, but to drop 4 and still beat all the other teams isn’t very likely…

9/10 Boys Free Relay – Bear – Prediction – Not in finals
Bear swam poorly at county because of a slip on the dive. Another boy based on his seed time at county swam poorly as well. If both swim close to personal bests in this meet, they could beat the B team and make the finals…of course they probably won’t both swim well, and there is no guarantee the B team will even make the finals…

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship
After arriving at the event, and purchasing the heat sheet we determined the follow…

9/10 – Girls Medley Relay, A Team – Bailey (Fly) – Seeded 3rd
Right in line with my prediction coming in, but I still felt they had a shot to win it all...and the seed times showed they weren't far off the top 2 teams...

9/10 – Boys Medley Relay, B Team – Bear (Fly) – seeded 11th
Bear’s group was seeded 11th and thus would require a strong swim to make it into the final 8, but not undoable…

9/10 – Girls Fly – Bailey – Seeded 7th
Once I saw this, my expectations changed. With her seeded 7th, and getting to dive off of blocks, I felt pretty sure she’d have a shot at making finals.

9/10 – Boys Fly – Bear – Seeded 14th
Even with his personal best time, Bear would have been seeded 11th, so this was going to be a tough field for him to make top 8

9/10 – Girls Free Relay – Bailey – seeded 14th
Need strong swims from all 4 to make finals, not likely

9/10 – Boys Free Relay – Bear – seeded 16th
See above

Note: seed info is from memory and I might be off a bit...

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship

So the meet started out for us with the event that has the best shot of competing for the state championship – Bailey’s medley relay. The team was the fastest seeded team in the second heat…and the race was over early. Maddie (swimming back), opened a huge lead on the opening leg. The Breast swimmer opened it up a bit, then Bailey swam a strong 15.2 split in her Fly to open up the lead, and the freestyler touched the wall a good half pool ahead of everyone else. The time was 1:01:55…

At the end of the 4th and final heat, the Forsyth County Tide (FCT) A relay posted the fastest time in qualifying, and would be heading into the afternoon finals as the #1 seed.

Here is how the event broke down…


FCT – A - 1:01.55
Cobb – A - 1:02.62
Cobb – B - 1:04.90
Alpharetta – A - 1:06.41
FCT – B - 1:06.55
Carrollton – A - 1:07.36
Gwinnett – A - 1:07.96
DeKalb – A - 1:08.06

Note 1: The FCT – C team finished 9th
Note 2: Bailey's friends Lexi, Haley, Lily and Reese were all on FCT - B

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship

Bear’s medley relay was our second race of the day, and we were really hoping Bear could make the finals here, especially knowing Bailey might be in a position to get a gold medal. We really didn’t want him to go home empty handed. With the relay coming in with the 11th fastest seed time, they were going to have to beat someone to make it in.

Things started out bad for Bear. Two teams in the opening heat swam strong, posting times that I didn’t think Bear’s team could match…thus 2 teams that were within striking distance for the relay were now looking safe into the finals, reducing the number of targets that Bear’s team could beat.

Bear’s group was in the 2nd heat, and they were the 3rd fastest team in the heat. The race started, and the backstroker swam a decent lap, getting to the wall in the middle of the pack. The Breaststroker was good as well, getting to the wall a distant 3rd…Bear dove in and closed the ground on, and then passed the team in second place, giving his freestylers a lead for 2nd…which he held on to (1:07.62) This was a big swim, because by finishing 2nd, they had beaten a team that seeded above them coming into the event.

The 3rd heat was fast with several teams bettering Bear’s time…in fact, Bear’s team was seeded 7th overall going into the last heat. This means if the 2nd place finisher in the fastest heat beat their time Bear would be an alternate. The race started off fast, but other than the top seed the rest of the teams faded in the back half and Bear’s team held on to the 8th seed…by .3 seconds

Here is how the event broke down…

Cobb - A - 1:02.86
John’s Crk - A - 1:04.25
Fulton – A - 1:05.71
Alpharetta – A - 1:05.85
DeKalb - A - 1:05.86
FCT - A - 1:06.71
Cobb – B - 1:07.40
FCT – B - 1:07.62

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship

The 3rd race of our afternoon was Bailey’s 25 Yard Fly. She came in seeded 7th, and after her strong leg in the Medley relay I felt pretty confident she’d qualify for the finals.

The race started and Bailey got a poor start…she was last off the blocks and my confidence immediately dropped a bit. In a 25 yard race a poor start can be a major impact…but Bailey swam strong blew by most of the field. Finished 2nd in her heat and posted a strong 15.69 time.

After all the heats were run, Bailey ended up in 7th place and swimming in the finals.

-------------------------------------

As soon as Bailey was finished, it was Bear’s turn to go. He was going to have a tougher time making the individual finals, and even after his strong swim in the Medley I didn’t think he’d make it.

At the start of his race the official blew it…For some reason the starter had the swimmers take their mark, but then held them a bit longer than normal and half the field started leaning forward….which should have resulted in a false start, but the starter fired the gun instead…thus allowing half the swimmers a rolling start. An audible gasp went up from the stands when the swimmers weren’t called back to the start…and many coaches protested the heat. As far as Bear is concerned…it hurt him because he wasn’t one of the ones that rolled through the start - and he typically is one of the best starters in a heat, but he wasn’t going to make the finals anyway. He swam a pretty good 16.86 and finished 15th…To make finals, he would have needed to be 15.7 or better and he has never come close to that number.

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship

At the end of the morning session, the free relays took center stage. Bailey was up first with her C relay. Bailey got on this team in the last minute due to an undisclosed injury…in fact, 2 of the 4 swimmers on this relay (including Bailey) were replacements due to injury. The team was going to be hard pressed to make the finals. The team came in with the 3rd fastest time in the heat, and a seed time of 1:03.xx…to make the finals they would need to post a sub 60 second time…

The race started and the leadoff leg swam 14.34…and was as fast as the top seeded teams…
The second leg was an ok 15:35…this leg the team lost ground on the top two teams…
Bailey was third and she swam a very good 14.73…and passed the 2nd seeded team in the heat and pulled up on the first team…
The anchor swam a 14.34 as well and they FCT – C team finished 2nd in the heat with a time of 58.85… an over 4 second drop from the seed time and sub – 60, which should get them in…

The final heat ran, and only the top 2 seeds beat Bailey’s team…and they not only qualified for the finals but they ended up with the 5th fastest time in prelims…

Here is how it broke down…


Cobb – A - 55.54
FCT – A - 55.74
Cobb – B - 58.21
FCT – B - 58.31
FCT – C - 58.85
Carollton - A - 58.88
Alpharetta – A - 1:00.09
DeKalb – A - 1:00.49


Note 1: Haley and Maddie are on the FCT - A team
Note 2: Lexi and Lily are on the FCT - B team
Note 3: the times might not add up perfectly...the spits were my hand times...not official...

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship

Bailey’s free relay making it to the finals gave me a bit of hope for Bear’s chances…even if he had a tougher road. Bailey’s C relay was seeded 5th going into finals, maybe Bear’s could get 8th…like the girls the boys needed to be sub 60 to have a shot at finals and Bear’s team came in with a seed time of 1:03.68

Bear’s team was in the last heat…and it appeared to me from quick figuring it would take even better than 59.5 to make it in…

The heat started and it was pretty obvious early on they weren’t going to make it in…

The leadoff leg swam around a 15.78
Followed by a second leg of 15.9, at this point the team is sitting in the back half of the heat and well over 60 second range…
Bear went 3rd and swam a strong 15.05, but he was still over the 60 second split…
The anchor swam 15.10…

Total time 1:01.83…and the team finished 5th in the heat…no way they were in…

Officially they finished 14th…and interestingly the FCT – B team swam exactly 60 seconds and they finished 12th. It took a 58.51 or better to make finals...:eek:

This was an extremely strong event this year…for perspective...Bailey's C relay that finished 5th in the girls event, wouldn't have made finals in the boys event either...

[Breeze]

Summer League - GRPA State Championship - FINALS

Girls 9/10 Medley Relay Final (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/39094490/swim/10UGirls_GRPAMedleyFinals.mp4)

The link above is the race...however a couple of items to note...

First, this was filmed by one of the parents of the FCT-B team, so they are often the lane in the middle of the screen, and it is hard to see the finish. Second, here is how you can locate Bailey's team...when the video starts they are in lane 4...with lane 1 the furthest from the camera. The backstroker in Bailey's group (Maddie) is wearing a bright red swim cap. After her, all the other girls on the team wear a white cap with the American Flag on it. (Note, FCT-B is in lane 2...just in case you were wondering).

I'll leave this post up for a while so you can watch the video and then I'll post my comments in the next thread below...

[Breeze]

Wow...no comments...

I expected someone to say "we'll your daughter is the reason they lost..." :)

After lunch I'll fill in info on the race...

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League - GRPA State Meet - Finals

Girls 9/10 Medley Relay - Bailey (Fly)

If you've seen the video you may not be able to tell what happens and you may not be able to read the scoreboard at the end of the race...but ultimately Bailey's team finished 2nd. They lost to the Cobb - A team by .17 seconds...

There is one thing that is important to note here before I get into explanation. The girl that swims the fly leg in for the Cobb team (the one that blew by Bailey in the video), Addie, is an exceptional swimmer. She was within .5 seconds of breaking the state record. Addie and Maddie (the backstroker for Bailey's team) were the two best swimmers at this meet, and we knew going into this race that Bailey would not be able to beat Addie. We were hoping she'd be handed a big enough lead to hold her off, or stay close enough for the freestyer to catch Cobb's anchor.

As it turns out, Maddie started off the race in the backstroke and she got the team the lead. But being honest, I have to say as soon as the backstroke leg was over, I turned to my wife and said, "That's not a big enough lead"...

The breaststroker opened up the lead slightly so Bailey was the first one in on the fly leg. However, before she even takes 3 strokes, Addie has already caught her. Bailey swims a great leg. She only breathes 2x and her split is around a 15.2. Unfortunately, Addie's split is a 12.79...

When the freestyler hit the water she was about 1.4 seconds back, and she lost by .17...it was an awesome swim and had the pool been 26 yard she'd have gotten the win...

Unfortunately, it looked as if Bailey was the reason the team lost, and in fact, she took it quite hard...but I told her it wasn't her fault and when I looked at the splits I was right...

In the prelims Baileys team was faster than it was in the finals. In fact, had they matched their prelim time they would have won the race. So I looked at the official splits in the race, which are done in pairs (Back/Breast split and Fly/Free split). In the prelims it broke out this way...

Back/Breast - 33.10
Fly / Free - 28.45

In the finals these were the splits

Back/Breast - 33.62
Fly / Free - 28.67

So Bailey and the freestyler were .2 slower but the back and breast stroker were over a half a second slower...that tells me the biggest impact was on the front end of the race.

Also when I look at the video and get the fly splits for all the swimmers I can see start I get the following...

Lane 1 - 16.02
Lane 2 - 15.75 (this is Bailey's friend Lexi)
Lane 3 - 15.08
Bailey - 15.20
Addie - 12.79
Lane 6 - 16.59

Here were the final results with the splits included...


Cobb - A - 1:02.12 34.67 : 27.45
FCT - A - 1:02.29 33.62 : 28.67
FCT - B - 1:04.99 35.33 : 29.66
Cobb - B - 1:05.05 no splits listed
Alpharetta - A - 1:05.33 34.53 : 30.80
Gwinnett - A - 1:06.82 36.35 : 30.47
Carrollton - A - 1:06.91 36.66 : 30.25
DeKalb - A - 1:09.46 38.80 : 30.65

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship - Finals

Bear’s Medley Relay race immediately followed Bailey’s…Bear’s team came in seeded 8th. They were in striking distance of 7th, but that would probably be the best they could hope for., especially given the fact the 6th seeded team was Forsyth County’s A team.

While Bailey’s relay was in the staging area preparing to go on deck, Bear decided to go to the bathroom (as he would be in the staging area next…and once in there, he wouldn’t have a chance to go). Unfortunately, while he was gone…someone slammed his right hand in the heavy oak door. He came out of the gym crying, his hands had 2 huge purple indentions on them right above the knuckles on the first and second fingers, and the underside of the finger was already turning purple. We got him some ice, but this was literally just 10 minutes before he was supposed to race. He was in serious pain, and it looked like he wasn’t going to be able to swim...but I explained to him that if he didn’t swim…the first alternate team would move into his teams spot and he wouldn’t get a medal. So Bear swam his fly leg…it was obvious he was in pain, because his right arm was slightly slower than his left through the stroke (I was so afraid they were going to DQ him for asynchronous arms). They finished last, and a full 3 seconds off their preliminary time…amazingly Bear’s back half split with the freestyler was only 1.3 seconds slower (I expected Bear’s split alone would have been closer to 2.5 seconds off).

We had the paramedics at the event look at his finger after his race, and they suggested if the swelling didn’t go down in a couple of days to have it looked at. Well, the swelling didn’t go down so we took him to Children’s Health Care to get it X-rayed and evaluated, and it turns out he broke the second knuckle (the big one) on his right index finger. The ER Doctor refused to treat the injury because it was a knuckle, on his dominate hand, and he is still young and growing. He referred us to a hand specialist.

The hand specialist casted the entire hand, several inches past the end of his middle finger and told us the cast will stay on for 3 to 4 weeks, but we have to go back and have it evaluated in 10 days…

Poor kid won’t be able to swim at the swim banquet and awards ceremony in a few weeks and he won’t be able to write when school starts on Thursday…
But he swam with a broken hand to make sure he and his 3 teammates got the medal they earned and I’m extremely proud of him…

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship – FINALS

The next race was Bailey’s 25 fly final. She got a better start this time, but fatigue was a bit of a factor at this point. She looked good and strong, but she was only a hair faster…she posted a 15.68. That’s .01 faster than her preliminary time, and she came in seeded 7th and finished 7th…

----------------------
Finally, we end the meet with Bailey’s 100 Free Relay.

The leadoff leg swims well, but not as fast as she did in preliminaries…her split was around a 14.7

The second leg was way off, and any chance Bailey’s team had hoped for to challenge for a higher placed finish was gone. The second legs split was 15.9+

Bailey sway a pretty good 14.8+

And the anchor was in the 14.6 range.

All in all the team swam basically where I expected they would in qualifying. ..1:00.37
This placed them 7th overall…

[Breeze]

Offseason Notes

Not much to report right now as the kids are still enjoying their time out of the pool. Swimming will start up for Brett and Bear on Monday (8/13) (though Bear will be limited...he'll probably just do kick sets the whole time). Bailey will start a week from Monday (8/20). We haven't discussed any goals at this point but I'll fill you on on them and the odds that we achieve them later.

Right now the biggest thing we are doing is trying to put weight on Brett. When he went for his checkup recently he weighed in at 66.5 lbs. The doctor told him at that time that if he didn't put on weight we'd have to readdress his lifestyle (read as...change your meds to a non-stimulant or pull you out of the pools so you don't burn so many calories or both). This has my wife and I very concerned, as his meds are working very well for him and swimming is his only sport.

We've really been pushing him to eat more (man is that frustrating), and we've provided him with a bunch of junk to eat (Doctor's orders, believe it or not)...but we are still fluctuating quite a bit. In fact, it is suprising how much his weight varies.

We are basically doing the following to try and gain weight...

Breakfast (try to get 800 Calories)
Snack - (300 Calories)
Lunch (800 calories)
Snack (300 Calories)
Dinner (800 Calories)
Bedtime snack (600 calories)

Plus we try to get him do drink juice throughout the day to add a few hundred more calories. Honestly, he isn't great about any of this...and he often comes in under the target numbers. Which may not seem like that big of deal...but when he comes in under on all of the meals and doesn't drink (which he almost never does), he ends up around 2200 to 2500 calories, which isn't going to put weight on. We have gotten him up to 70 lbs., (actually over 70...the highest we've recorded is 71.8), and I've challenged him to keep it above 70. We'll see. He was dead on 70 last night, so he'll really have to eat to keep above that number. We'll see what happens. Hoping to get him to 75 lbs by the end of the year...

[DaddyTorgo]

Offseason Notes

Not much to report right now as the kids are still enjoying their time out of the pool. Swimming will start up for Brett and Bear on Monday (8/13) (though Bear will be limited...he'll probably just do kick sets the whole time). Bailey will start a week from Monday (8/20). We haven't discussed any goals at this point but I'll fill you on on them and the odds that we achieve them later.

Right now the biggest thing we are doing is trying to put weight on Brett. When he went for his checkup recently he weighed in at 66.5 lbs. The doctor told him at that time that if he didn't put on weight we'd have to readdress his lifestyle (read as...change your meds to a non-stimulant or pull you out of the pools so you don't burn so many calories or both). This has my wife and I very concerned, as his meds are working very well for him and swimming is his only sport.

We've really been pushing him to eat more (man is that frustrating), and we've provided him with a bunch of junk to eat (Doctor's orders, believe it or not)...but we are still fluctuating quite a bit. In fact, it is suprising how much his weight varies.

We are basically doing the following to try and gain weight...

Breakfast (try to get 800 Calories)
Snack - (300 Calories)
Lunch (800 calories)
Snack (300 Calories)
Dinner (800 Calories)
Bedtime snack (600 calories)

Plus we try to get him do drink juice throughout the day to add a few hundred more calories. Honestly, he isn't great about any of this...and he often comes in under the target numbers. Which may not seem like that big of deal...but when he comes in under on all of the meals and doesn't drink (which he almost never does), he ends up around 2200 to 2500 calories, which isn't going to put weight on. We have gotten him up to 70 lbs., (actually over 70...the highest we've recorded is 71.8), and I've challenged him to keep it above 70. We'll see. He was dead on 70 last night, so he'll really have to eat to keep above that number. We'll see what happens. Hoping to get him to 75 lbs by the end of the year...

He likes swimming right? Maybe point out how much some of the Olympic swimmers eat (Michael Phelps' whole joking thing about 12,000 calories or whatever) to try to get him to like...live up to what his "idols" are doing in that regard?

[Breeze]

He likes swimming right? Maybe point out how much some of the Olympic swimmers eat (Michael Phelps' whole joking thing about 12,000 calories or whatever) to try to get him to like...live up to what his "idols" are doing in that regard?

Hey DT...

Brett is aware of the calories Phelps eats...he read his book that came out after the '08 games that outlined the diet in detail. He also gets Splash Magzine, which does a great job of outlining nutritional needs of swimmers...and he's learned that on average swimmers consume around 8000...but the fact that we struggle to get 3500 into him doesn't seem to register. We have attempted to create that relational mindset of do what your idols do...but he just doesn't...

It crazy...one day he'll eat like a champ then the next he fight and slow play eating so he'll run out time. Remember I said he was the most stubborn kid I've ever met. Also remember that he takes stimulants every day, which makes it so he isn't really interested in eating.

Anyway...he's currently hovering around 71 lbs. My bet is he'll be around 71.5 when practices start on Monday. I'm just not sure how much of an impact swimming is going to have on the weight. I'm sure we are going to drop below 70 several times and miss some practices before he'll finally buy in to the need to eat more. The kid just has to learn the hard way...

Thanks...

[DaddyTorgo]

Aaah...gotcha. That's tough. I don't have kids, so I can't really say I know how to get them to eat more or anything.

[Breeze]

We had our Summer Team end of the year banquet last night...and the kids had a good time...

Our team hands out quite a few awards during the event. We have...

- 2 MVPs per age group - 1 for year round swimmers, and 1 for non-year rounders
- Most improved for every age group
- 2 coaches choices for the entire team

As expected Brett got the year round MVP for the 11/12 boys age group...

Surprisingly Bear got the year round MVP for 9/10 boys. This was a surprise because I felt Riley was going to win this award (and actually Riley did out-point Bear during the season), but the team gave Riley the Non-year round MVP. In my opinion this was wrong. Riley was a year round swimmer until Christmas time, so to call him a non-year rounder was a bit of a stretch. Honestly, Riley should have gotten the year round award and some other kid would have earned the non-year round medal, but Bear was happy...

Bailey lost out on the year round award to Reese when we expected...

[Breeze]

Chattahoochee Gold - 2012 Short Course Season

The Short Course Season practice starts today for both Brett and Bear.

Bear with his cast will probably only do kicking for the next couple of weeks.

Brett is very excited to get started (we'll see how long that lasts), and he weighed in a 71 lbs on the nose last night so he's go to go today...and seems to be aware of staying above 70. We'll have to see how much swimming impacts his weight going forward and how quickly he responds to drops...

We still haven't laid out firm goals yet...but they are coming. We'll probably discuss them this weekend...

[Breeze]

General Update

Bailey's new short course season starts tonight. She's really excited to get back into the water with her friends...

Brett has for the first time this season fallen below 70 lbs. He's stayed above the number for 2 weeks, but was 69.2 last night. We are giving him through the day to add the extra weight (though it isn't likely as he eats best in the morning and evening). It was his birthday this weekend, and he got very distracted messing with his presents and he didn't want to stop to eat (and when he ate he rushed through it to get back to his stuff). Because he's done so well recently, I will hedge a bit on the weight. If he can get close to 70 I'll allow him to swim.

Bear gets his finger reexamined tomorrow (8/21) and if it has healed as expected he'll get his cast off and will be able to practice in full...

[Breeze]

General Update

Bear did get his cast off and is back to full steam and he seems to be really warming to the Chattahoochee Gold practices, coaches and teammates. Of course it helps that half the team is boys so he has some friends that he is swimming with.

Brett is continuing to keep his weight above 70 lbs...averaging out around 71 now...the only problem we are having with him is getting his homework done. But unlike in the past when he fought us about doing it, now he's willing, just can't focus well by the time he gets home from practice to get the work done efficiently

At the end of the season last year, Bailey developed some pain in her shoulder. We figured having a month off at the end of the season would resolve the issue, but apparently it hasn't as she mentioned Friday after practice that her shoulder still hurt. We are now doing some more serious, swimmer specific stretching exercises and we are going to work on strengthening the shoulder through exercise, but if things aren't some better in a few weeks, she will be going to the doctor to have it looked at. We believe the pain is coming from repeatedly swimming her freestyle incorrectly (I think earlier in the thread I talked about Bailey's poor left arm motion on the free). We are also working to clean that up as well...

Still need to post goals for the upcoming season. Short Course Time Trials will start in about 3 weeks...

[Breeze]

General Update

Took Bailey to the doctor to get her shoulder looked at, and it turns out we are dealing with a strained rotator cuff and rhomboid muscle. She has no restrictions from a swimming standpoint other than to reduce practice time for a while. She will also be required to do physical therapy 2x a week for 4 weeks...

[Breeze]

General Update

Bailey is at the physical therapist today...will update any news when I hear the results...

[Breeze]

Short Course Season Goals - Bear

Bear has been the most vocal about his goals for the season, and he is getting very pumped up about his prospects. His goals are:


Get state cuts in all events
Get at least 1 sectional cut
Swim for Chattahoochee Gold's relay team at the state championships


Bear has some other time specific goals, but they aren't as important as they'll change based on results, and in all honestly he might smash the numbers he currently has set with a good season, so I'm not going to list them here.

As for the ones listed...Bear has a great chance to achieve his goals. He basically has almost all of his state cuts already (though the state cut numbers will be changing this season, we are still waiting for the Georgia Swim Association to publish the updated figures). Based on last seasons times Bear is only missing the 50 Breast and the 100 Free. He'll undoubtedly swim some races he's never done before with Gold like the 200 IM, 100 Fly, and maybe the 400 Free...so he'll need to get cuts in those as well, but things look good on this one.

Getting a sectional cut will be a bit harder, but if the cut figures stay the same, he's about 3 seconds off on a couple of them. That level of improvement is very attainable. This would be a huge achievement to make the sectionals.

Swimming on the Gold Relay will also be within reach. In fact, one of the parent volunteer coaches last night told me (without prompting), that the Gold Relay team for the 9-10 boys will probably all come from our facility. With Bear being one of them in both the medley and free teams. This coach has been with Gold for several years and knows the boys from the other facilities so this was very encouraging.

[Breeze]

Short Course Season Goals - Brett

Brett has been a little more reserved in his goals. He's excited about swimming again, and looks forward to practice, but he understands his position and that he has some work to do, so he's not getting carried away with setting goals right now.

Basically, all he wants to accomplish is to get the state cut in all 3 breaststroke events and in 1 outside event.

As for his prospects. I believe by long course season he will have all 3 state cuts (actually he only needs 2 as he already has the 200 Breast). I'm not sure he'll be able to get the 50 and 100 Breast in short course. He's a couple seconds off in the 50, but several seconds in the 100...

I don't believe he has any shot at getting a cut in another stroke (though his off strokes are improving signifcantly...). If he can start swimming similar times to Bailey and Bear in his off strokes it will be a huge improvement and indicate that he might be able to become an all around swimmer...

There is 1 other goal for Brett...he has a chance to swim Breast on the Chattahoochee Gold Medley Relay team at state...

[Breeze]

Short Course Season Goals - Bailey

Right now Bailey's goals would be almost exactly the same as Bear's. However, Bailey's chances of achieving those goals are much slimmer...

First, the shoulder issue she is currently dealing with will limit her ability to practice and thus reduce her improvement. If this can get cleaned up before November, then the impact will be significantly reduced and Bailey should have time to catch up before the state meet in February. Getting the state cuts in all strokes shouldn't be a huge deal as she already has almost all of them. She's only missing....the 50, 100, and 200 Free. Obviously, if she can't practice the chances of getting the Sectional Cut will become much more difficult. However, like Bear she's only about 3 seconds from that time in several events.

Second, making a relay at Swim Atlanta is much tougher...The sheer number of Swim Atlanta swimmers will make it difficult...Swim Atlanta has over three times as many kids in the program compared to Chattahoochee Gold...so much more competition for the 8 relay spots. Also Swim Atlanta has some very high end swimmers. For instance, there are 2 sisters that are both 10 and under and both are ranked in the top 3 nationally for the age group in multiple strokes. They will undoubtedly get 2 of the 8 relay spots.

Based on what we find out in physical therapy her goals may be downgraded a bit...

[Breeze]

Bailey - Update

The Physical Therapist basically told us that the muscles in the front of Bailey's shoulder are getting too strong compared to her rhomboids and rotator cuff. She's been given strengthening exercises to do everyday. She'll continue to work with the PT for the next couple weeks. The only restriction she is currently under is not to swim more than 2 days in a row...meaning we'll probably have her swim 4 a week...

I'm hoping we get this fixed soon, so she can start going 5 days a week in mid December to get fine tuned before the Short Course State Meet in February...

[Breeze]

General Update

I have some really sad news to report...

Bailey's friend Lexi, the girl that had surgery on both of her knees as a 9 year old, has just found out that she has torn the meniscus again in the first knee that was operated on. She will be having surgery later this week...

I'm not sure on the time table for her return...she's a tough little girl and extremely competitive, which may be why she's back in this position so soon. I felt she rushed back last time...we'll see how long she'll be out this time.

Also, it wouldn't surprise me if Lexi never swam Breaststroke again...

[Breeze]

Chattahoochee Gold Time Trials @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 9/15

The boys will be cranking off the season this Saturday. The will both swim 3 events at the time trials...

Brett

50 Free - Brett's short course personal best is 35.70...but that was swum in February, and he has improved his form significantly since then. In fact, if I use a conversion tool to take his best long course time from July (38.68), it states his time for short course should be around 34.12...so hopefully we'll see a significant improvement here...

50 Back - Brett's back is also getting better. He still over reaches across his head a bit, which doesn't allow him to get his arms in a strong pull position, but he's much more comfortable on his back. His best short course time is 42.38...again, I'm hoping for an improvement...but it will probably come down to - does he trust his count on the turn and finish.

50 Breast - This is one of the state cuts that Brett thinks he'll be able to get. He's personal best is 41.93 (year round short course), he did swim 41.72 at the Forsyth County Championships last year...to get the state cut he'll at least have to get to 38.29 (though this is subject to change as the new cut times haven't been released yet)...

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Bear

50 Free - I did some research on Chattahoochee Gold and found out that had Bear been on Gold last year during short course, he would have swum on the B relay at the short course state championships. He needs to swim well in this stroke, as there are 3 very strong swimmers moving up from 8U. He comes in with a personal best time of 35.65. His long course converted is 33.14...

50 Fly - Bear's best time here is 39.76 with a conversion time of 37.64...his form here keeps getting better, even if it hasn't translated to speed yet. Hoping we see some drop this weekend. Interesting note...In my research on Gold, I found out that Bear would have also represented the Gold team at state in the medley relay in either back or breast...yes breast...

50 Breast - This is one of the only events Bear doesn't have a state cut. He is very close (assuming the time doesn't drop signifcantly when the new times come out). He has gotten stronger in this event...and I think he has a pretty good chance of getting his cut. His time coming in is 46.70 (current cut time is 45.79)...

[Breeze]

SA Time Trials @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 9/16

Bailey's season starts on Sunday, and unlike the boys, we'll get a good baseline on all the strokes...

50 Free - One of the few strokes Bailey doesn't have a cut in...she was extremely close at the end of the last long course season...and could get the cut during the meet. Her current best is 33.96 the cut is 33.49...

50 Back - Bailey got a bit of instruction on proper form from Brett (who still doesn't do it exactly right yet...but regardless)...and it has seemed to help a bit. I'll be interested to see if it is translating to improved times. She has the cut based on Long Course...and her best SC is 39.38...

50 Breast - Bailey's breast is starting to look stronger again. Her form has been better as she's stayed lower in the water and continued to push forward, rather than the up and down motion she got into in the middle of the season last year. Of course, she could overwork when racing and fall back into the bad from trying to go to fast. We'll see...best time is 45.44

50 Fly - Bailey's fly has looked real strong. She has just built on her summer league swimming and her confidence in this stroke is high. Not sure how'll she do on Sunday, as she hasn't raced and 50 in a while, and if she over breathes she'll lose her body position and it will cost her time. But I'm thinking a personal best should happen here, her time to beat is 38.43

100 Free - The 100 Free is another stroke that Bailey doesn't have a cut in...her best time is 1:14.94 the cut time is 1:14.59. She could certainly get the cut this weekend. However, I have to say, I'd much prefer her form to hold up and have her be slower than see her revert to the bad form that led to her shoulder injury...

One point that I need to add here...because this is the first race of the season, and because she'll be swimming 5 events, I expect there will be a fatigue factor that will potentially impact the last couple of events...

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The Psych Sheet for this meet has been released and Bailey is seeded:

100 Free - 10th / 8th for 10U -

50 Fly - 11th / 8th for 10U

50 Back - 11th / 8th for 10U

50 Breast - 11th / 9th for 10U

50 Free - 14th / 9th for 10U

Note: In the seeding...the first number is the actual seed, the second number removes those swimmers that will age up before the short course state meet...

[Breeze]

Chattahoochee Gold Time Trials @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 9/15

The Chattahoochee Gold Meet went real well...the boys had fun and did a good job...

Bear

50 Fly - Bear's fly is still a work in progress, as he is still trying to learn the longer stroke, which of course can impact times, but he look much better and still managed a strong personal best time of 39.66. But the more interesting thing is that he finished 2nd overall, and the boy that beat him will be 11 by the time the state meet rolls around...

50 Breast - Still up and down with this stroke. While his form is much better than it was last year at this time, he still lacks a powerful kick and can get to up and down. However, he has a great pullout..was off of his best time posting a 49.46. In case you are curious his time placed him 5th, and his best time would have ben 4th...

50 Free - Bear again had a personal best...form was a little sloppy, but he busted his butt to post a 34.31. Again this was 2nd overall at the meet, and in fact, it was the same kid that beat him in fly that beat him here...

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Brett

50 Back - Brett's back was pretty good...he definately looked more comfortable than he ever has before swimming on his back. He had a nice start and good turn. There are still some flaws in his stroke which are keeping him from increasing the stroke rate enough to go fast, but it appears to be coming along nice. He posted a personal best 41.94

50 Breast - Brett, as it typical was quick off the blocks, but behind after everyones pullout. The boy just lacks the strong dolphin kick to propel himself in the pullout. However, once he was up, he was fast...blew past most the field only to lose ground on the pull out after the turn. But he swam strong coming home and finished 2nd overall. He improved his time by 2 seconds to post a 39.82. Like Bear, the boy the beat Brett will age up before the state meet...

50 Free - Brett's form was much better, as he continues to build on the improvements from the end of last year. He's still not an elite freestyler, but he's now officially caught up with his siblings and he's sitting squarely in the middle of the pack in results. He posted a personal best 34.38

[Breeze]

Private Lesson Update

Following the Chattahoochee Gold meet when signed Bear and Brett up for some private lessons. The reason for the additional work was different for both kids.

For Bear, we wanted to further solidify his comfort level with the Gold team. He's really liking the change, and in fact, he received the 1st Red Cap award of the season, given to the swimmer who has worked the hardest in the pool, at dryland, and been well behaved. He was pumped about that...this was just a way to allow bonding time between he and his coaches. Also, as I've said before, Bear is a hard worker, who will push himself to be good. But his strokes are lacking, and we want to clean up mistakes now before he moves up.

Brett on the other hand has already moved up, and while he's doing well, we were starting to see signs of struggling. We noticed him cheating (breaststroke kicking) during free kick sets and during fly laps, and we felt that this was mostly because he is so inefficient with his off strokes he has to work to hard just to finish the laps. So the extra work is an attempt to improve form and allow him to be more successful.

Bear's work was good, though mostly uneventful. He enjoyed the work and gave the coach all he had. He'll benefit greatly from this instruction, mostly by learning how to "feel" the differences in his stroke and understand the efficiencies in swimming rather than simply trying to overpower everything with hard work.

Brett on the other hand had a very interesting session. Before it ever started the coach wanted Brett to point his toes and show how the flutter kick should be done. The whole pointing of the toes was a funny routine as he seemed to not understand what she wanted him to do. However, it became pretty evident that the issue wasn't that he didn't understand, but rather he can't point his toe easily. In fact, the coach asked him to sit on is heals with his toes pointed straight out, so that the top of his foot up to his ankle would be flat on the ground, and he can't do it. He has a flexibility problem with his ankle and this is a big part of what has been holding him back in his off strokes. He will now be doing some stretching exercises to loosen up his ankle and hopefully free things up to improve his kick....

[Breeze]

Swim Atlanta Time Trials @ Cumming Aquatic Center

Bailey did very poorly at her time trials. In fact, with the exception of Fly she added about 2 full seconds to every stroke, and in my opinion the only reason she didn't in fly is because Reese was right next to her and she didn't want to lose. The poor performance was alarming and concerning, and as I expected at the time - directly related to her shoulder injury. Initially the conversations about the shoulder indicated that it as causing discomfort, but after the meet we learned that following the 100 free Bailey went to the bathroom and cried because the shoulder hurt so bad. She also admitted that it was painful in all of her strokes, had been hurting at practice for weeks, and got as high as a 8 on a scale of 10.

Her swimming has now been completely shut down. She will not return to the pool until the shoulder is better, and once she returns she will be under restrictions to come back slowly in freestyle and to clean up the stroke. This is a problem for Bailey because Swim Atlanta isn't good at stroke mechanics in their lower levels, so I'm not sure who is going to work with her to clean it up, and the older level teams won't allow her to go slow enough to clean it up. We have asked both her SA coach and the Chattahoochee Gold coach how they think we should handle it. I'll let you know what they say...

[Breeze]

Bailey Injury Update

Bailey's SA membership has been suspended...since she is injured we won't be going to the pool for a while and the team was nice enough to suspend her account so we wouldn't have to keep paying the monthly dues.

We have talked with the doctor and basically this is what we will be doing.

1. Stay out of the pool until the shoulder is feeling better and the middle back is strong enough to counteract the affect of the shoulder being pulled forward by the strong front side muscles.

2. When she starts swimming again she will need to get into it slowly and be monitored very closely to insure her stroke is corrected and she doesn't immediately reinjure the shoulder...

3. once the stroke is cleaned up we will put her back on a team, but she will be on restrictions as to how long she'll be in the pool and how far she'll be allowed to go...

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We reached out to the coaches of both SA and Gold to see what they would suggest. I will be posting our correspondence to both teams below so you can see how this has played out...I'd do it in this post, but it will get pretty long...

[Breeze]

Bailey's Injury Update - Swim Atlanta Correspondence

Me to coach
One of the parents of another swimmer found us after the meet yesterday to tell us that Bailey was in the bathroom crying because her shoulder was hurting her. This was news to us, as our understanding of the injury was that it caused some discomfort, but certainly nothing to the level of causing tears from pain. The doctor told us when we had Bailey examined that if the pain was severe she'd need to stop swimming. Unfortunately, we feel that the pain has been significant for a while, and that Bailey has been hiding it from us so she can stay in the pool. In fact, she admitted last night that she is in pain every day at practice. We feel it is in her best interest at this point to pull her out of the pool for a couple of weeks and hopefully allow the physical therapy to work.

Moreover, once she is feeling well, we feel that she's going to need to fix her freestyle before resuming the yardages she is currently practicing, or we'll simply be looking at her reinjuring the shoulder due to poor form. We are strugging to determine the best way to accomplish that. Do you have any suggestions?

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Coach to Me
I am sorry to hear that bailey has not been honest to you guys and me about her shoulder. Every time we work on it she says to me it feels better. My question is does she want to swim or be social with her friends?

We diffently can try a different group here if she feels aag is to hard.

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Me to Coach

(Comment: intially I thought the coach was saying that if the practice was too hard we could move her down...so this was my response)

I don't think she feels it's too hard...from a work standpoint. I think the issue is that the shoulder is injured and with her having the bad freestyle form swimming so many laps the physical therapy isn't having a chance to work.

Then my fear is, even if we get the shoulder right, she'll just reinjure the shoulder unless she can take some time to clean up her form. That's where I think the problem is...getting that form cleaned up to avoid further injury. I certainly am not opposed to backing her down until the freestyle is fixed...

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Me to Coach

(comment - after thinking about what the coach said, I realized I may have misinterpreted his meaning. With this second response I was working under the impression that he was thinking as long as Bailey is willing to get away from her friends we have some options available)

I may have misinterpreted your email initially. Basically, the social aspect has to be put on hold at this point. She is under doctor's orders to come back slowly with a good bit of supervision to insure her stroke is cleaned up. I know that you can't do that during the AAG practice, so we'll have to find another way for her to re-learn the stroke and to build back to AAG level practices...

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Coach to Me

Sounds like a plan. Sure is more than welcome to swim White practices so we are only doing drills and kicking.

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Coach to Me

(Comment: He followed up the short response above with this)

Just let me know what you guys would like to do. The tuesday thursday group has the most space and Fridays in AAG are the easiest of the days. So she could do White 2days and AAG 1day. Gold group would be an option on Saturdays since they have the whole pool. In the beginning I am not sure she is going to need 4 days in the water.

For us that would be the only options we can do for Bailey. I would suggest gold more but am scared that she would want to push it to hard.

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[Breeze]

I should probably provide some explanation of the conversation above...

The coach I am communicating with is the same coach for the White team referenced in the emails. He is offering to allow Bailey to slide down 2 team levels (to the second lowest team level). She'd be swimming with good 8 year olds and average 9 year olds. The practices are 3 days a week (MWF or TTS), and they run for 45 minutes. The White practices are just kicking, drills and laps, no interval training so no need to rush through sets. However, the white team (even the smaller TTS group) is still around 30 kids...

I think it is also important to remember (and I think I mention it here quite a few posts back)...we noticed that while on the SA Gold team Bailey had developed the bad habit with her left arm in the freestyle last fall, and we pointed it out to the coach and told him that needed to get fixed. He didn't get it fixed and because of that we are dealing with this issue. Now I realize Bailey is partly at fault for not fixing it - this isn't meant to be a blame game. Lord knows I told her repeatedly to focus on fixing it, and I know the coach told her a couple of times, but when she didn't fix it, I feel the team should have taken a more firm stance and drastic approach to clean it up before something bad happened. One of the reasons that we aren't even considering allowing her to move back down to the SA Gold team.

[Breeze]

Bailey's Injury Update - Chattahoochee Gold Correspondence

I can't cut and paste emails from Chattahoochee Gold because they responded to my wife's intial inquiry by calling. However, I can and will break down their suggestions and comments...

The Gold team was sorry to hear that Bailey was hurting and alarmed that it was a problem, stating it is a huge red flag for a 10 year old to have shoulder injuries.

They also commented that it was unfortunate that the problem was with freestyle, because that is the most basic stroke and most of practice is build around that. If the problem was another stroke, she would be able to go through most of practice regularly, but be pulled aside and monitored when the other bad strokes comes up (often this is breaststroke for swimmers).But with free being the problem, she will be limited in the entire practice.

Here is how they said they'd handle this situation...


To begin with, once she is cleared to begin swimming again, they feel she should do private lessons to work out the kinks in her stroke. This will insure someone is watching and working with her, it will also allow the coach to limit the amount of time she swims. They suggest doing this "until she gets it right".

Once she returns to practice with the team, Gold suggests having her initially isolated from the rest of the team (in the injured lane). Make sure one of the coaches or volunteers keep an eye on her at all times. Still limit what she does and keep practice times to about 30 minutes

Once she has graduated to real practice, keep her in the back of the lines, especially during freestyle, and keep reinforcing the correct mechanics and monitoring her for backsliding.

[Izulde]

Seems to me like CG has the better idea of how to handle this situation.

[Izulde]

Oh and just now caught up on State, which I missed because I was in Japan at the time and not reading the board as regularly.

Congratulations to you all on your successes there. :)

[Breeze]

Thanks Izulde...appreciate you following along...

We have basically laid out the situation to Bailey and she understands the advantages of moving to CG. She isn't happy about leaving her friends, but she's prepared to make the move. She won't be able to get in the water for another 3 weeks or so...but once she does, she'll move over.

Following your swimming thread. Good luck...

[Breeze]

General Update

There is a swim meet this weekend at GaTech, and I will be updating the boys' events shortly, but here is where things currently stand...

Since we have taken Bailey completely out of the pool her shoulder is going much better. There is no constant aching any more, and we just put her in the pool for a VERY short private lesson on Saturday. The coach really worked hard on her form, and I don't thing she even finished 5 laps. We are planning to put her in the pool 1 night this week for a similar type of effort, and then again next week as we slowly ease back into this.

Bear is not feeling well. He started practice on Thursday but got out early due to feeling poorly. He didn't go Friday, as we took him to the doctor who said it wasn't strep, just a virus. He tried again on Saturday, but again cut the practice short. To make matters worse he's gotten into poison something (ivy, sumac, oak...not sure), and it is all over his legs and right arm.

Brett had quite possibly his best practice ever on Saturday. He was lapping the 3 other girls in his lane, and doing it with pretty good form for him. The practice was 2 hours and he was strong throughout. Then he had a private lesson where the coach was able to get him to understand the free and back kick better. He was kicking more from the hips and he was going much faster. The coach was very pleased...hopefully, he'll remember how to do it and focus on doing it correctly this week in practice. If he does, and he starts building muscle memory for this new kick, his times will drops significantly in the next couple of events...but it is a lot to ask for this weekend...

[Breeze]

SCAT Fall Invite @ GaTech - 10/6 - 10/7


So I messed up and didn't post the pre-race events and thoughts. So I'm going to post my thoughts heading into each event and the actual results below...

Day 1

Bear

200 Free - Bear heads into this event having finished the week of practice strong after being sick at the end of the previous week. I was hopeful that he would be able to challenge his personal best time of 2:42.61. Bear did swim a strong race. He was unfortunately seeded with a NT and therefore had a pretty weak heat. With no one pushing him he managed to post a 2:40.98. That was good enought to finish 13th overall in the 9/10 age group.

50 Back - Bear's backstroke has gotten much more consistent under Gold coaching. They have forced him to focus on rotating his body without moving the head. He's starting to get it, as his head is much more still, but he tends to sway the hips rather than pivoting them. Still all-in-all a better stroke. His personal best coming in was 40.48...leaving the race it was 39.90. Now when he starts being able to swim this stroke without thinking about technique I think his time will drop a good bit.

100 Breast - Bear's breast is still a work in progress. He was showing signs of improvement in the stroke, but Gold is making a slight change to his kick in an effort to get his hips up a bit, and it has reduced his power. Thus he is swimming slowly. He didn't have a short course time in the event...but he did qualify for the state with his long course performance last season. He ended up swimming a 1:46.29. This isn't really a very good time considering his conversion time from long course puts him around a 1:37.7...He's got work to do in this stroke again...and unfortunately, it's also going to hold back his IM until he figures it out.

100 Fly - This is Bear's first time swimming the 100 fly and he is working to retool this stroke as well. He is much further along with this one than Breast, but he still has moments, and his rythem can get off, but he's still pretty solid here. I did have concerns with him swimming a 100 fly as the 4th event of the day, I was afraid fatigue would be a big problem, but he handled it like a champ and posted a good 1.31.34, which beats the state cut by 6 seconds...

200 IM - Another first time attempt at a race, and again I was concerned about a 200 IM at the end of a long day. But again Bear handled it like a champ. He posted a time of 3:06.64, and got another state cut. His splits ended up being 41.01 - Fly, 48.63 - Back, 55.57 - Breast, 41.43 - Free. He really took it a bit too easy on the back...and of course the Breast as I mentioned above is still a problem, but a good swim.

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Brett

200 Free - Brett's 200 Free marked the first time he swam the event in short course. In long course over the Summer he managed a personal best of 3:13.87...converted to short course stated he should swim a 2:47.87...he actually posted a 2:47.61...

100 Breast - based on Brett's improvement during time trials in the 50 breast, I expected a moderate improvement here, maybe a second or so...he swam a great race and posted a personal best time of 1:29.77 an improvement of 2.41 seconds...this is an event that he is hoping to earn a state cut in, but unless he really hits a growth spurt it isn't going to happen as he's still 7 seconds slow. Coach is going to work with him now on increasing his stroke rate but not at the expense of the glide phase of the stroke. He told Brett in his post race talk that due to his short stature there is no possible way to be efficient enough at this stage of his life to beat kids that are over a foot taller, and he's going to have to do more strokes per lap to keep up. This explains why the 200 Breast is the one stroke he has his cut in, because the efficienty allows him to maintain his strength over the longer race...

100 IM - With his improved strokes I was really hoping for a personal best here, but while his strokes looked stronger...his turns were poor and it was obvious that he was thinking about the technique more than racing. He posted a pedestrian 1:31.68.

50 Fly - Brett's fly has gotten much better, and he goes through spurts where he can be fast, but he lacks the stamina in this event and with it being at the end of the day, I felt he might struggle through. I was hopeful that he might break his best time of 42.22, but he cam up short with a 43.92.

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Day 2

Bear

50 Fly - wasn't sure what to expect here. I'm afraid given the work he is putting in on this stroke, I won't know for sure what to expect until later in the season, my thoughts were this could go anywhere...it could be a couple seconds faster to several seconds slower than his time a time trials a few weeks back. As it turns out...it was about the same. He came in with a 39.66 and finished this race with a 39.93.

100 Free - Bear looks strong swimming his freestyles, as he really powers through the water. He isn't the most efficient, but he works hard. He same in with a best time of 1.16.40...and I felt that was within reach, especially given his personal best in the 200 the day before. And, I was right, he posted a very good 1:15.96...

100 Back - this was an event that Bear hadn't done in a while in fact, ironically, the best time he posted was the first time he ever swam it, and with him swimming very deliberately so he can make sure the stroke is right, I didn't expect the time to fall and it didn't 1:27.71

100 IM - Bear like Brett is real technical with his stroke right now, and until he become second nature his times are going to suffer. That, plus his breast is way off where it was at the end of the year last year, I felt he wouldn't do well here...and he didn't 1:31.18, well off his personal best.

500 Free - Bear was a little intimidated by this event. And I have to say I was a bit concerned for him, especially with it coming as the last event after 2 heavy race days. But before the race he got excited as he was telling me I needed to get on deck to handle the lap counters well before his 100 IM event started lining up. He swam the event, and did a nice job. He really needs to work on the glide phase in this stroke as he worked hard for all 20 laps. He posted a time of 7:10.17 and qualified for state by a 11 seconds...not sure he wanted to qualify for state :)

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Brett


50 Breast - Brett's second day started with the 50 Breast, and I was hopeful he'd continue his level of improvement, but he basically matched his time from the time trials posting a 40.06, only .2 slower. The good news is he still was the second gold swimmer to finish in the race and the first will age up before state...actually...this is where the stroke rate conversation mentioned above occurred.

100 Free - Came in with a 1:18.35 and with his improved kick and form I felt this was a good shot for a personal best. He looked good, turns were a bit sloppy and dive was too deep, but he still posted a nice 1:17.50

50 Back - his back looks so much better it is amazing, but it hasn't been translating to speed yet, and he still isn't comfortable on his back going into the walls, which can hurt in time, and in this case did. In fact, if he had just going straight into the wall without peaking for it he would have had a personal best as it turned out he posted a 42.77 off of his best by about .4.

200 IM - As I expected coming in, Brett was very uptight for this one. I didn't expect a great swim, but I did think he'd come in around 3:12 or so, based on Bear's time. He actually outperformed that posting a 3:10.14, but was DQed for underwater recovery on the fly (not sure if they got the right reason as I didn't see this error, but it doesn't really matter as I have a baseline for this event moving forward).


note: quick key update in case you were wondering...RED=has/earned state cut: GREEN = Personal Best (Red overshadows Green), Bold just provides a quick look at results...

[Breeze]

General Info - Bailey Update

Bailey has gone to a couple of private lessons recently and her form is coming along. No idea about speed because the coach isn't allowing her to go fast yet, to prevent her from reverting back to bad habits. She also had her first "team" practice last night. Basically she went through warm ups and did the first 3 drills with the team, then she was pulled out. The coach wants to get her back in the pool, but she wants to bring her back very slowly. She'll continue to practice with the team a couple times a week, and will still have a private lession 1x a week to really focus on cleaning up mistakes.

She is entered in the meet next weekend, but she'll only do a couple of events per day, and she'll be under strict orders to maintain form...(details on that when I talk about the meet)...

[Breeze]

Gold Invite @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 10/19-21

Brett

The coaches have told us several times that they have been extremely impressed with Brett's efforts recently. They are seeing huge improvements in his form and they expect that his times will start dropping significantly soon. Unfortunately, I don't think it will be this weekend...

100 Free - Seed Time 1:17.50 - his kick here has definately improved, but I don't think he's capable of doing the flutter kick at a hard pace for a full 100. He just doesn't have the stamina yet with those muscles. I could however invision a personal best here.

50 Back - Seed Time 41.94 - again a huge improvement in form. Still needs to work on not overreaching with the arms to the point his hands reach above his head, thus lengthening the stroke and slowing it down. If he picks up the rotation of the arms, and attacks the walls he could drop a good bit of time. Even if he just swims the same way he's been doing it recently he could get a personal best. Ideally, if he could break 40.00 he'd be thrilled...

100 Breast - Seed Time 1:29.77 - not sure what to expect here. He dropped time at his last meet, just a few weeks ago, so not sure he'll better it this time around. If he isn't faster, he'll be upset, but honestly he has a long way to go in this one to get the state cut, so in the long run, it won't matter as long as he doesn't get upset if he posts a slower time.

100 IM - Seed Time 1:31.68 - Actually, Brett has swum this event faster than the seed time. In fact, his personal best coming in for year round meets is 1:28.53, and his best if you count Summer League is 1:26.35. This is where the coaches are expecting to see improvement first. Because his "other" strokes have gotten so much better, they expect to see this one drop due to improvements in the Back and Fly legs in particular. We'll see, I think Brett holds back a bit in this race to conserve energy, and until he starts racing from the gun, he'll continue to post similar times, even if he is doing it more efficiently. I do expect he should be the seed time, and there is a decent probability if he isn't too fatigued from the earlier races that he could also beat his year-round personal best, I don't however expect him to beat his Summer League time.

100 Fly - Seed Time NT - Brett like Bear in the last meet will be facing this race for the first time, and I can tell you he'll be stressed about it. He really isn't comfortable trying new races, especially in his weaker strokes. He swims 100 flys in practice regularly now and he does pretty well with it, but I expect he'll get DQed. There are 2 reasons for this...in practice when he swims fly, if things get crowded he'll switch to breast arms so he doesn't collide with anyone else...but this quick transition and the easy in which he makes it, leads me to believe he'll do it when he gets tired in the race at least once. Also like the last meet when he was DQed in the IM on the fly leg...we learned that the error occurred right at the wall when he did a short stroke and didn't get his arms above the water going into the wall. Also a bad habit that he could easily repeat. I'm not really concerned about these issues. When he gets bigger and stronger he'll be able to work through the first, and the more he swims fly the better he'll get at the second.

100 Back - Seed Time NT - another first time swim for Brett, and another one he'll be stress about. However, he swims a good bit of back in practice and other than being sloppy on the walls he's doing it pretty well, even if it isn't terribly fast. I don't expect a great time, as he'll probably go conservative in the race, but he should do fine. I am concerned he'll get sloppy on the walls and get DQed because he is too cavalier with them at practice, but if he does he does and hopefully he'll learn to tighten up his focus at practice as a result.

50 Breast - Seed Time 39.82 - interesting and important one here for Brett. He didn't beat his personal best at the last meet, and he will be racing the best of the Gold team. He need to be the top finishers for kids that will be 12 as of the end of February (when the State Meet falls) to help improve his chances of being on the relay team. It will be tight. Hopefully, we get a good dive and strong pull outs...

200 Free - Seed Time 2:47.61 - This is an event that Brett could improve on. He'll have to figure out how to best use his legs to get through a 200 and still provide some momentum, because he clearly won't be able to kick hard for all 8 laps. But his improved kick, strong upper body and better form still lead me to believe a personal best is well within reach.


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Bear

I tried to talk Bear into swimming the 500 free again at this meet. This time it would have been on Friday and it would have been the only thing he would have competed in for the day. I expect he would have done much better since he would not have been as fatigued going into the race, but he wasn't interested...

100 Free - Seeded 3rd (1:15.96) - Bear is seeded 3rd going into this race, behing 2 kids he practices with everyday. He'll want badly to beat them and he typically does well in his first few events (often to the detrement of the ones that come later in the day), so I could see a personal best here, though my guess is he still finishes no better than 3rd.

50 Back - Seeded 3rd (39.90) - Bear's back is coming along. He's still a little bit deliberate with the stroke, but the body position is better, and he's starting to pivot rather than sway, which is helping. Not sure what to expect here, because if he puts it together and really races it he could improve by a couple of seconds if he's still thinking to much, I'd expect only a slight improvement (assuming he has a good turn and stays out of the ropes).

50 Fly - Seeded 3rd (39.66) - very much like back it will all depend on if Bear trusts the new stroke and races it, or if he thinks about it too much...he's within half a second of 2nd place in this one. He could improve by a bunch or come in with a very similar time. My bet is a slight improvement.

100 IM - Seeded 4th (1:13.18) - like Brett, this really isn't his personal best. In year round swimming I have his best time as a 1:26.94 and for Summer League it is a 1:23.53. I don't think we'll touch that 1:23 time, though if he did he'd probably finish 2nd in this race. I do think something around his year round personal best is certainly possible. However, the key is his Breaststroke, which has slowed down considerably since long course/summer season, due to some technical changes in the way he swims it. He's still working through those...for him to get a PB he'll need to to swim the back half much better than the 48.29 from a few weeks ago (with most of that time being the Breaststroke leg).

50 Free - Seeded 3rd (34.31) - This is a key race for Bear as it has relay implications moving forward. He needs a strong swim here to create some cushion for the State Relay team. There are a bunch of kids crowded around Bear's time so this will be close. Hopefully, he gets his good start, because I know he'll work like the devil until he gets to the wall. I'm really hoping to start to see a drop in this time, just not sure if we'll see it yet or not. If practice is any indication he should, because Bear gives it all he's got everyday he's there...

100 Back - Seeded 3rd (1:27.71) - See the 50 back...same issues apply here. Really eager to see how this goes. Hoping he'll increase his stroke rate without sacrificing form or stroke length. If he does could be a big improvement, I don't think we are quite ready for this yet, so I'll guess a small increase.

50 Breast - Seeded 8th (49.46) - the seed time isn't actually a personal best...his best was in December of last year when he posted a 46.70. This slower time is from the Gold team...and it indicates the slower speed due to the change in technique. This is about 3 seconds off his best time from almost a year earlier. Increased size and strength should have created speed so the slower time is disappointing. Hopefully, he'll start to turn the corner and we'll see a drop...but I'm not convinced he's ready for that yet...

200 Free - Seeded 1st (2:40.98) - Bear is seeded 1st in this, which is exicting, but this is his last event of the weekend, and typically he's usual spent by this point in time, so I'd be surprised if he actually posts a personal best in this and wins the event.

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Bailey

Bailey's event this time around could be quite funny...which is not something you typically think about when it comes to a swim meet. Here is the situation, in many of Bailey's events, the coach entered her with a seed time about 10 seconds slower than her personal best. This was done to hopefully prevent her from trying to race too hard and destroying her new form that she's been working on. Bailey is super competitive so I'm not sure how well this philosophy is going to work...but add to that the order, from the coach, that she is not to win any of her heats or else she'll have to sit out of practice for a week, and this could get down right comical. Even with Bailey's slow deliberate stroke to concentrate on form, she's passing many of the other slower swimmers at practice. I don't believe with this new stroke that she is 10 seconds slower than her best time, but she'll be racing people that are that slow. Not sure how she's going to lose these races...maybe she'll just hang on the walls during turns for an extended period of time. I can't wait to see how this plays out. :D

50 Back - Seed Time 40.38 - This time isn't far off her best...but because it is backstroke, as long as the form is good it shouldn't hurt her shoulder...this will be a key race. If her form is bad here, her weekend might be over. The coach isn't going to take any chances, and a bad form on the first race would be a red flag...

100 Breast - Seed Time 1:47.52 - This is 10 seconds slower...breast doesn't seem to bother the shoulder as bad, so she might have a hard time not racing this one. I'm also not sure that the coach would care on this stroke, as her form here is pretty good (Brett has a lot to do with that...)

50 Free - Seed Time 44.19 - This is also about 10 seconds slower than her best time. This is the other key race as it is the one stroke that she is really working to rebuild the fundamental on it. She has to focus on form, or I'm sure the coach will make her No Show for the rest of the meet...

100 Back - Seed Time 1:36.59 - 10+ seconds off her best time. I can see this one working out for her as she lazily strokes and glides through the race...

50 Breast - Seed Time 55.44 - 10 seconds...we'll see what happens here. As I said in the 100 Breast...coach might not be so strick with this stroke...

[Breeze]

Gold Invite Results

Bailey

Bailey had a very good meet and she did exactly what she needed to do, which was maintain form even in the face of competition. This was a huge step forward and hopefully, she'll get to start racing more moving forward.

50 Back - Her first race was quite entertaining. As I mentioned in the preview, she was under strict orders not to win her races, even if she was entered in a heat with swimmer that are typically 10 seconds slower than her time. In this case the difference was more like 5 seconds...but in a 50 yard race, 5 seconds is a lot of time. The race started and Bailey was well out in front off the blocks and through the underwater part of the race. She was very deliberate with her strokes, but she still finished first at the 25 yard turn. She was slopply with the turn, mostly because she was catching a peek at the other swimmers, but coming off the wall, she was still in first. From there she really shut it down, with long, lazy strokes. To give you a visual perspective, if you go to the Y and watch an older person swim back for exercise, then you've got a pretty good representation of Bailey coming home in the back half of her race. She ended up posting a 45.02.

100 Breast - Bailey asked and was given permission to race this event, due to the fact her Breast is pretty good technically and it doesn't hurt her shoulder. Her seed time was a 1:47.52, her actual personal best was a 1:37.52. She was strong through the stroke, she stayed low and pushed forward for the full 100. She finished with a personal best time of 1:35.90. I do think the excitment of getting to race helped...but this is very promising as she hasn't even been able to do full practices until just a few days prior to this race. Hopefully when she gets in better shape she'll be able to improve on he 50.38 back half split.

50 Free - This was the pivitol event for Bailey. She had to maintain her form...and she did. She looked very good, kicking hard and using long arms and keeping her wrists and shoulders in the correct position. She swam a 38.43. The interesting thing is that this is only 4 seconds off her personal best, with her approaching the race with the mindset to not go fast. I'm hopefully, this means the improved form will allow her to increase her speed once she is freed to race the stroke.

100 Back - Because Bailey's 50 back the first day was so good, she was given the permission to race the stroke as long as her form held. Which it did...she did pretty well. She was racing, but deliberately...She didn't come close to her personal best of 1:25.66, but her time of 1:29.9 was very good under the circumstances.

50 Breast - Bailey was also given the ability to race this event. Though she didn't remember that initially. After pullout, she took 3 very slow, very easy strokes...before she apparently remembered that she could race. She ended up posting a 46.51, which is ok, but not her best time of 45.44 and actually it is also slower than her opening 50 from the 100 Breast the day before which was a 45.52. I expect once she is in better shape, this time will drop a good bit...

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Brett

100 Free - Brett's improved form and kick is really starting to pay off, as he posted a personal bes time of 1:15.93...a second straight time drop in this event and this time he cut another 1.57 seconds. As good as this sounds, it easily could have been a lot better. Brett's turns were awful (that is a theme that will be repeated a good bit)...the worst was the turn at the 50 mark. He fliped so early, that he almost couldn't touch the wall to push off. He completely lost all of his momentum. That turn alone cost him at least 2 seconds, probably more. It is a terrible mistake for a kid that has been swimming year round as long as he has, but it is also one that he can quickly correct...so looking forward to see how much faster he might be moving forward.

50 Back - another personal best with a time improvement of .46 seconds and an overall time of 41.48. Again could have been better with better wall work. Flipped to his belly way to early and had to coast into the wall for the turn, and slowed down on the finish, but at least he didn't try to peek at the wall.

100 Breast - this was one of the few disappointments from the weekend. The 2 seconds Brett dropped in this even from the previous meet, he put back on this time. He finished with a 1:31.88...and the inability to generate enough force on the pullouts is killing him. We are planning to have him work with a coach this weekend on turns and pullouts...

100 IM - Brett improved on his time from the last meet by about 2 seconds posting a 1:29.71, but it wasn't a personal best. His fly, back and free look so much better I'm a bit surprised by the fact wasn't a best time, but I believe it was due to slow turns...

100 Fly - First time the kid has swum this event, so obviously it is a personal best. But the big news wasn't his time, but that he didn't panic about it. He simply got up, got in line and dove in when the race started. He posted a pedestrian 1:43.86...but he did it, and his form early was pretty good (before he fatigued). Also one of the best moments of the meet for me happened in this event. Another boy on Brett's team, Hunter, a big kid and a strong swimmer, was in the lane next to him. Obviously, he finished well before Brett, but as Brett was coming down on the last 25, every time he lifted his head to breathe, Hunter was cheering and urging him on. It was nice to see him get support from the better swimmers. (Oh, and he didn't get DQed as I predicted he would)

100 Back - the other first time event...and he again did it without any anxiety. He was a strong (for him) 1:29.77, and again it could have been much better...terrible walls. Same problems with flipping to the belly too soon for the flip, flipping to far from the wall, and then not finishing on the wall. In fact, his last stroke went over the wall and he ended up hitting the touchpad timer with his head. He easily could have been a couple seconds faster...

50 Breast - this was again disappointing. He came in .84 seconds slower than his personal best with a 40.66...

200 Free - I was really interested to see this race, because with his improved form, I really felt that he might drop several seconds. As it turns out he added 3...the problem was....you guessed it Turns. Also fatigue as this was his last race on the second day...2:50.81

---------------------------------------------

Bear

Bear did a nice job overall. He swam well with many personal bests, but...and this is going to sound bad I'm sure, but he lost several races to some kids he practices with Grant1 and Grant 2, and I really want him to beat these two. I don't tell him this, and I don't put pressure on him, but Bear works so much harder than they do at practice and I just want to see Bear get in that top relay team, and with both of these kids in front of him, he'll be hard pressed to make it...

100 Free - Bear finishes the event 5th overall with a personal best time of 1:14.04 and improvement of almost 2 seconds. Unfortunately, he lost to both of the Grants here. He was really racing Grant 2 the whole time as they were back and forth but he ended up being out touched by .12 seconds

50 Back - 6th overall...and a personal best of 39.23. He raced this better than he has recently, but he was still a bit deliberate. Also, he had an incident in practice where he cracked his head swimming back and messing up his wall count. Ever since, he's been very timid on the walls which is costing him time. (Lost to both Grants again).

50 Fly - 5th overall...this time it wasn't a personal best...40.38. Early his stroke looked good...late he seemed to get stuck with the arms and his head was too high...beat Grant 1, Grant 2 didn't swim it...

100 IM - 2nd overall...1:27.40, off his personal best by .5 seconds. Needs to charge the wall in the back, and get stronger in the Breast (though it didn't look bad in this race)...to get below his best time moving forward. Beat both the Grants bad in this one...

50 Free - 6th overall - personal best time of 33.57...finished 3rd for Gold swimmers, which is good but...still lost to Grant 2...

100 Back - Bear started feeling bad right before this race. He had an upset stomach and quite queezy. He still managed a personal best 1:25.23 and finished 4th overall.

50 Breast - Bear was still not feeling well in this one, and he swam a very slow 50.67. It is the first time he hasn't broken 50 in this stroke in a while. The coach told us not to worry about it. That he has just started getting the wide elbows that she's looking for, and she'll now work with him on the second part of the pull phase which should greatly improve his time. But we are still looking at a learning curve.

200 Free - Bear overcame his nausea to swim a personal best in a 200 yard race. I was very proud of the determination and effort. He posted a 2:40.47 and improved by .51 seconds. He finished 4th overall, but the only bad part is he lost to both Grants...

[Breeze]

Martha Bass Swim Meet @ Baylor Swim Club in Chattanooga TN

We have our only out of town meet this season in Tennessee this weekend. Bear has been swimming well in practice, Brett works real hard when he goes, but he hasn't wanted to go as frequently and I'm not fighting him at this point, and Bailey is still getting ramped up so we'll see how it goes. I'm not going to get into to much detail, but I did figure I'd at least give a high level overview...

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Bailey

50 Breast - Seeded 7th - 45.44 - she can move up here with a good swim. I haven't seen her really get this stroke going in a while and if she does she could drop some time here.

100 Back - Seeded 10th - 1:26.59 - only starting to learn correct arm strokes. Could mean a personal best if she puts it together.

50 Free - Seeded 11th - 34.19 - my bet is she's still too deliberate to go fast. Gotta maintain the correct stroke or she'll be yanked from the meet.

50 Back - Seeded 12th - 39.38 - see 100 back...

100 Breast - Seeded 4th - 1:35.90 - no shot to win, but could get 3rd or second with a good swim.

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Brett

50 Breast - Seeded 12th - 39.82 - didn't do well in this one last race. Would like to see a much stronger pullout this time. If he does, I can almost guarantee a personal best.

100 Back - 1:29.77 - starting to creep up on his siblings with his time.

50 Free - 34.38 - slowly getting the kick better and it is paying off a little bit at a time.

100 IM - 1:29.71 - with his improved strokes I hope he doesn't go out conservatively in order to save energy. He could really drop a bunch of time by racing this one hard.

200 IM - NT - he actually has a time here, just not sure what it is. I just hope he swims it without having a panic attack.

50 Back - 41.48 - got to increase the effort to go faster here...

100 Breast - 1:29.77 - pull out, pull out, pull out, pull out...those 4 items will make or brake the race for him. I'm not sure he can get much faster in the middle of pool (unless he gets a lot bigger before this weekend).

50 Fly - 43.92 - if he gets his butt up higher in the pull phase of the stroke he'll kick stronger. He's done it in short spirts...not really expecting it this weekend.

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Bear

100 Free - Seeded 7th - 1:14.03 - needs to work on gliding a bit more to maintain speed...

50 Breast - Seeded 11th - 49.46 - not really his best time, and this is still a work in progress so I doubt he get a PB here...

100 Back - Seeded 11th - 1:25.23 - man I hope he races this and isn't so tied up with his form...

200 Free - Seeded 9th - 2:40.47 - see 100 free and multiply it by 2...

200 IM - Seeded 6th - 3:06.64 - will bust his butt in this one, but I believe he'll be pretty fatigued from the 200 free and I don't expect a good time.

50 Back - Seeded 12th - 39.23 - see 100 Back...

100 Breast - Seeded 11th - 1:46.29 - see 50 Breast

50 Fly - seeded 12th - 39.66 - form is getting better, but I bet fatigue gets him here

[Breeze]

Martha Bass Swim Meet @ Baylor Swim Club in Chattanooga TN

It was a real good meet for the family. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to outline all 3 kids results right now, so I'm going to do them one at a time...
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Bailey

50 Breast - Seeded 7th - 45.44 - Bailey looked strong in this race, as she got a great pullout and was moving good through the water, keeping the momentum forward rather than up and down. She was seeded 7th, she finished 6th and was just .3 from 5th...She swam a personal best time of 44.95

100 Back - Seeded 10th - 1:26.59 - looked good in this race early...late she seemed to run out of gas and I still think this is due to not having been with the team from the beginning of the season, and some of it is she isn't working hard enough at practice. She finished 12th, but she also posted a personal best time of 1:26.02.

50 Free - Seeded 11th - 34.19 - Bailey's personal best is actually a 33.96, which was swum in October of last year before she really started ingraining the bad left arm in her freestyle. The 34.19 seed time was right before the state championships in February of this year...this race she swam a 34.65. This was accomplished even with her really focusing on keeping the stroke clean. I expect we could see a real drop in this time soon if she can make the new stroke more muscle memory and allow herself to focus on racing not form.

50 Back - Seeded 12th - 39.38 - looks good like the 100 Back, but unlike the 100, she didn't run out of gas and she posted a personal best 38.25, which is over a full second improvement. Not bad considering she is relearning the arm portions of this stroke.

100 Breast - Seeded 4th - 1:35.90 - The seed time is her personal best and it was swum in her first meet with Chattahoochee Gold in mid October...she improved on it here, and she improved by 1.13 seconds, posting a personal best 1:34.77

50 Fly - Deck Entered - The coach has been very pleased with Bailey's efforts and she rewarded her by allowing her to swim in the 50 fly. She was under orders to maintain form over racing but she got to do both. The girl next to her in the race had a good stroke and Bailey raced her as best she could without risking breaking from. She posted a very respectible 38.16, her personal best was at SA time trials earlier this fall, but a great time that could lead to much better ones down the road.

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[Breeze]

Brett

50 Breast - Seeded 12th - 39.82 - Brett looked good in this race, he really pushed (pulled) through and he managed to tie his personal best time 39.82. This was good because the last time he raced his time was slower by a good bit. This helped get his confidence up for the meet.

100 Back - 1:29.77 - still progressing nicely. Swam another personal best time of 1:28.57, and after watching his video last night he said, man I need to move my arms faster (exactly what I've been saying for weeks), hopefully because he saw it himself it will sink in and he'll actually do it. If so, I could see 3 seconds falling off of this time the next time he swims it.

50 Free - 34.38 - This event was a turning point for Brett. He swam poorly in this one, coming in 1.3 seconds slower (35.68)than his seed time. He was expecting a big improvement and when he didn't swim well he was ready to quit for the day. He was very upset and he didn't want to do his 100 IM, which was almost immediately after his 50 free...

100 IM - 1:29.71 - He complained, begged, whined and argued about swimming this one, all because he was so disappointed in his time and he's comparing his times to the other 12 years olds and he feels he pales in comparison...but we convencied him to tell his coach he didn't want to swim this and his coach told him, he didn't care, he was going to swim it - so he got in line. He didn't do well, again coming in just under 1 second slower (1:30.66), but at least he swam it.

200 IM - NT - my statement in the initial write up that he had a 200 IM time may not have been accurate. I know he swam it long course, but maybe he didn't swim it short course because my quick search on USA swimming didn't turn anything up. Regardless, his improved strokes looked real good in this one and he was pretty strong throughout the race. He opened with a 43.15 fly, not an awesome time, but at this point it was the 2nd fastest 50 fly he had ever swum, and he still had 150 more yards to race...His back was a respectible 46.31...he was very disappointed in his breast leg which was a 50.02 (I think because he used the stroke to catch his breath for the finish), and he finished the free in a 41.23. All in all he swam a 3:00.71 time and a personal best. It probably doesn't sound that great, but at the time it was good enough to be Bear's 200 IM time from a month ago by 6 full seconds. That is a huge accomplishment for Brett and it illustrates how much better his "other" strokes are getting.

50 Back - 41.48 - slightly slower time of 41.53 - I believe because he wasn't fully recovered from the 200 IM

100 Breast - 1:29.77 - really tried to sprint this for the full 100 and he improved his best time by 1.17 seconds posting a 1:28.60. Did better on pullouts, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

50 Fly - 43.92 - Brett's goal on his back and fly is to be sub 40 right now, and based on his time in the 200 IM, I felt he might challenge it. When this race started he was scooting along doing pretty well. He tried not to breath to much so he could stay high in the water. At the turn it looked like he might be able to do it. However, in the last 3rd of the pool he had to breath several times and it slowed him down. He touched the wall and the final time was...40.01. A personal best and a huge improvement. Plus a real motivator for next time.

[Breeze]

Bear

100 Free - Seeded 7th - 1:14.03 - Bear was very strong in this race, got out with a 34.87 came home with a 37.03...finished with a personal best 1:11.90 and an improvement of 2.13 seconds. He also finished 4th overall and beat the top Gold 100 yard swimmer in his age group.

50 Breast - Seeded 11th - 49.46 - The new stroke is starting to come around. He posted an improved time of 47.21 and finished 7th overall. 46.70 is actually his personal best, but this was his 2nd fastest time every, and an improvement of a couple of seconds over what he had been swimming with Chattahoochee Gold.

100 Back - Seeded 11th - 1:25.23 - I talked to him a little before this race and told him he had to be more aggressive going into the walls. I told him by slowing down inside the flags it was taking him too many strokes to get back to full speed and it was killing his times. As expected Bear sucked it up, and went hard in and out of the walls...and it paid off. Personal best time of 1:24.42, finished 7th overall

200 Free - Seeded 9th - 2:40.47 - Again Bear swam well in the longer freestyle event. He got out with a 36.04 opening 50, then coasted to a 40.68 2nd, and a 40:48 3rd, closing with a good 38.95. Ending with a personal best 2:36.11 and improving by 4.36 seconds. He finished 5th overall and again just edged out the top freestyler on the team. As good as this swim was, his coach wants more effort in the middle 100. She want all splits to be below 40 seconds (and will push to sub 39 by the state meet in February). Bear did earn a Southeastern state cut here, but it appears to be only Tennessee related so he won't be able to take advantage of it...

200 IM - Seeded 6th - 3:06.64 - This was probably the most exciting race of the weekend for me. Bear was right next to the top dog (same one he beat in both the freestyles listed above) and the two of them flat raced each other the entire way...best way to illustrate this is to show you the splits...

50 Fly
Bear - 39.57
Jack - 39.80

50 Back
Bear - 1:22.44 (42.87) - note Bear has a poor back to breast turn which hurt his time
Jack - 1:22.49 (42.69)

50 Breast
Bear - 2:14.98 (52.54)
Jack - 2:15.93 (53.44)

50 Free
Bear - 2:52.71 (37.73)
Jack - 2:52.40 (36.47)

Bear finished 5th overall...and his time was a personal best and an improvement of 14+ seconds...:jawdrop: Bear earned a Southeasten Cut time here too...

50 Back - Seeded 12th - 39.23 - The more aggressive walls helped out here again. Posted a personal best time of 38.64, finished 11th overall.

100 Breast - Seeded 11th - 1:46.29 - The improved breaststroke really showed up here...he swam th e opening 50 in 48.35 and closed with a 49.99, overall it was a personal best time of 1:38.34, and he was able to finish 7th.

50 Fly - seeded 12th - 39.66 - finally all the effort of the weekend catches up to Bear and he isn't able to post a personal best. He gets a time of 40.83...not significantly off his typical time. He still has a hitch at the bottom of his stroke that needs to get worked out. The coach is planning to work with him in an extra practice on Tuesday (11/20)...

Note: For his efforts, Bear was named the Chattahoochee Gold, Gold Level Team's Swimmer of the Meet Award Winner...

[Breeze]

Lanier Aquatics Winter Invite - Gainesville, Ga, 11/30 - 12/2

There is a meet this weekend, but only Brett is invited this time. It is a big meet because it runs as a prelim / finals, which is the same format as the state meet, and is rare for most events. Brett will be swimming the following...

50 Free
100 Fly
50 Breast
100 Free
100 Breast
100 IM


Not much to report on these races, and since I'm going to be in Jacksonville setting up a remote office this week, I won't have much time to get into details. I'll update the results next week...

[Breeze]

Lanier Aquatics Winter Invite - Gainesville, Ga, 11/30 - 12/2

Quick update: This meet will also feature relays, and we were hopeful that Brett would be in one. Unfortunately, there are only 3 11/12 boys going to the meet. I have raised the possibility of Bear swimming just the relays to give them a 4th, but I don't think it is going to fly. This is very disappointing to me, as swimming in a relay for Gold would have been a big boost to Brett's self confidence and motivation...

[Breeze]

Lanier Aquatics Winter Invite - Gainesville, Ga, 11/30 - 12/2

Below are the results of Brett's meet. I have to admit, I can't comment in detail on his immediate reactions after his races, because he didn't sit with me during the meet. I could only see the expressions on his face and body language...

This event was a split into preliminaries that were held each morning and then A finals for the top 8 times and B finals for 9-16...were swum about 5 hours later...

Day 1

50 Free - Started off the meet, and for the second straight time he hasn't improved on this race. He posted a time in the same general area of his personal best 34.38 with a 35.04, but he didn't seem happy. He is working hard in improving his free kick and I know he feels he should be faster at this point.

100 Fly - Brett's fly has been improving dramatically at practice. His coaches have been telling him for weeks that he's getting so much stronger at this stroke and that they could see him being a really strong butterflyer by the time he's fully grown. I believe this reinforcement was instrumental in the fact that he didn't get too uptight prior to this race. He entered with a personal best time of 1:43.86...he finished with a time of 1:35.82...a huge improvement a personal best and it earned him a spot in the B finals later that evening.

50 Breast - Brett's breast looked strong as he really worked hard through the stroke. He was a little quick to come out of his pullouts, but he posted a 39.50, bettering his personal best by .32, and earning a spot in the A final...

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Day 1 - FINALS

100 Fly - Didn't expect much here. As the two session schedule really takes a lot out of kids and especially smaller kids like Brett...However, he attacked the 100 fly again, and he not only posted another good time, he posted another personal best, and he didn't just improve on the personal best from the morning, he destroyed that time finishing with a 1:31.56

50 Breast - Brett's breast suffered from the morning session as he posted a time of 40.47. He was disappointed, but the coach told him not to worry about it. That he was tired and needed to go home and get some rest, and that he had gotten off to a great start.

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Day 2

100 Breast - Came in with a personal best of 1:28.60, finished with a time of 1:26.92 and was 6th overall, earning a spot in the A final

100 Free - looks good early, really fades late. Finishes with a 1:16.33, about .4 slower than he personal best...

100 IM - With his improved fly and back, I keep expecting a big drop here...and his fly and back looked strong in this race. His year round personal best in this event was a 1:29.71...(though he's been much faster in Summer League)...and he posted a 1:25.99 in this race for another personal best. Unfortunately, he was only an alternate for the B final....

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Day 2 - FINALS

100 Breast - The efforts of the last two days really came down on Brett hard. He swam well, and in fact, was pretty much in the same relationship during the race with the kids that finished around him in preliminaries, but he was slower (as were all the other kids in his heat) and he posted a time of 1:29.43, well off of his morning time.

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All the coaches were extremely complementary of Brett...and they keep encouraging him to work hard and assuring him that once he grows he'll be beating most of the kids that are currently faster than he is because they are bigger and stronger...

[Breeze]

General Update

We have another swim meet this weekend and it is a Gold Team hosted one...which makes it big. This meet could go a long way for determining who are swimming in the relays at State. Unfortunately, Bear is home from school today with a stomach bug, and Brett missed practice yesterday for the same reason (though he appears to be better today). Hopefully, this doesn't sap them of energy and we can have a good showing.

Also more sad news on Bailey's SA friend Lexi. I'm not sure where things were when I last updated her health. I believe she was about to have a second surgery on her knee (the one that was operated on first). That operation went fine and she was starting to practice again, when she managed to step off a curb awkwardly and broke her ankle. Then a few weeks later, she got her finger stuck in the chain of a swing when someone was on it, and it broke. Now we've learned that her 2nd knee will also require a 2nd surgery. The doctors are already talking about needing to do knee replacements when she is in her 20s...

I'll update the event list for this weekend soon...

[Breeze]

General Update

Brett received the practice award for the swimmer putting forth the most effort over the last week...

Bear got the hardest worker award for dry land practice...

[Breeze]

South Pole Meet @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 12/15-12/16

Bailey

200 Freestyle - 2:52.54 - seeded 8th. Hasn't swum this in a very long time. The time posted goes back to around February of last year. I expect she'll improve on this...

100 IM - 1:25.20 - seeded 7th. I could see an improvement in this race, as she's been working harder in practice and her stamina should be better, but I don't expect much of an improvement.

50 Butterfly - 38.16 - Seeded 8th. Bailey's best time is in the low 37s, so I expect her to beat her seed time. Especially given that she has been cleared to race everything now.

100 Breaststroke - 1:34.77 - Seeded 5th. Bailey can be the fastest Gold Girl with a good swim.

100 Freestyle - 1:16.49 - Seeded 10th. Another old time as she wasn't allowed to swim the event because of her injury. I expect she'll beat this by a good bit...

50 Breast - 44.95 - Seeded 10th...Big race here for Bailey, as she's the first seed for Gold 10U girls, but the second seed is only .7 seconds back...if she can beat the other girl it will put her in line to be the Breaststroker on the A relay at state.

100 Butterfly - NT - is there any better indication that she's been cleared to race everything than seeing she'll swim the 100 fly for the first time? She could beat Bear's time if she doesn't run out of gas...

200 IM - NT - first time swim for Bailey...she'll do well, but I'm betting fatigue grabs here before it is over and she won't beat Bear's time (not really surprising), but she might not beat Brett's either...we'll see...


Bear

200 Freestyle - 2:36.11 - Seeeded 5th. Had a big improvement here in his last meet, not sure he can do it again. Especially given the stomach bug this week.

100 IM - 1:27.40 - Seeded 4th. I expect an improvement here, as long as he is healthy and not worn out from the 200 Free. He should be a good bit faster than Bailey at this point, so I could see him posting a time in the 1:23.xx range...

50 Backstroke - 38.64 - Seeded 4th. With strong turns could post a personal best. He got out of the conservative, let's don't bang our head into the wall type turns in the last meet...if he carries it over it will help.

50 Freestyle - 33.57 - Seeded 5th. A big race for Bear...he's seeded 4th for Gold Swim Club and he needs to stay in the top 4 to be on the A free relay at state.

100 Backstroke - 1:24.42 - Seeded 6th. Good turns and this time drops...a good bit.

100 Fly - 1:31.34 - Seeded 5th. Depends on strength and if he can maintain form. Last time he swam this, he had to catch is breath on the 75 yard turn. If he can keep from doing that, he should drop time.

200 IM - 2:52.71 - Seeded 2nd...the kid seeded ahead of him is the same kid he raced stroke for stroke with at the Martha Bass meet last month. Bear only trails him by .3 seconds. He could win this outright with a good swim.

500 Freestyle - 7:10.17 - Seeded 6th. - Not sure his time improves after he'll swim a tough 200 IM...but I won't count him out either...


Brett

200 Freestyle - 2:47.61 - Seeded 9th. Hard to get a measure on this one. Brett's kicking has gotten better, and in general his freestyle is better, but in the last few freestyle races he hasn't posted a personal best. My bet is here, he won't either...just not sure where the disconnect in speed is...

200 Backstroke - NT - First time swimming this event. No idea what sort of time he'll post...

200 Breaststroke - NT - This isn't the first time Brett has swum the event. His personal best is 3:17.XX from last year around this time. And that time would be good enough for 2nd Seed. I expect he'll do much better than his best time, given that he's been improving on the shorter breast swims and he seems to do better in the longer ones...

100 Butterfly - 1:31.56 - Seeded 8th...I can't believe he's seeded 8th in the fly. I'm so proud of how hard he's worked on this. He probably won't post a personal best given that he just got that time 2 weeks ago...and it was such a HUGE improvement at the time...

100 Freestyle - 1:15.93 - Seeded 22nd. Brett will really want to go fast here to keep his time better than Bailey's, we'll see if he can start improving on the freestyle again...

100 Backstroke - 1:28.57 - Seeded 15th. If he can increase his arm rotation, he'll improve his time. Form is solid, so just need to go harder...

[Breeze]

South Pole Meet @ Cumming Aquatic Center 12/15 - 12/16

Quick Update...

The schedule of events was released and we found out that Bear is scheduled to be in the last 200 IM and the first 500 Free with only 25 Frees in between. That means he'll finish the 200 IM and then swim the 500 Free about 15 minutes later...

The coach admitted she messed up. He was only supposed to be in 1 of the 2 races, but she's going to let it ride if she can, because she's interested to see how he handles it.

At least he should be extremely tired Sunday evening so I shouldn't have any problems with him wanting to go to bed...

[Breeze]

oh the emotions of swimming...wow...I'm worn out, and it's only the first day of the meet...

[Breeze]

South Pole Meet Results


Bailey

Day 1

200 Free - This was the first time Bailey swam the 200 Free since being released from restrictions due to the shoulder injury. Her best time coming in wasn't her seed time of 2:52.54, but it was 2:50.82 swum in January of 2012, so I expected an improvement, and I got one. She posted a personal best time of 2:44.23. She looked good but I think she conserved her energy a bit too much...here are her splits:

38.20
41.37 (1:19.57)
43.47 (2:03.04)
41.19 (2:44.23)

I think she'll be able to improve on this one next time she swims it (more on that later)...

100 IM - it was way back in Februrary the last time Bailey swam a 100 IM in a year round event, so she was able to improve again, posting a personal best time of 1:22.96. Her fly looked very strong but a poor dive...way too deep, ended up costing her some time. The splits...

Fly/Back - 38.67 (10th fastest opening 50)
Breast/Free - 44.29 (4th fastest closting 50)...a bit surprising given I felt she'd falter due to fatigue and her breast isn't in peak form right now.

50 Fly - Bailey's fly, while different from what it was with regards to technique is once again looking really strong. She improved on her personal best time by almost a second and a half posting a 36.57.

100 Breast - swimming is such a funny sport, especially for growing kids. One day they can really have a stroke going well and then a month later that stroke is so far off you're amazed...that's the case here. In November she sway a great 1:34.77, this time she managed just a 1:37.36. Something isn't quite right, so I'm sure there will be some tweaking taking place in practice for the next couple of weeks. I will say after watching the video, her breat in the IM was much stronger than her 100 breast (may have been trying to hard, which cost her in form)

Day 2

100 Free - This time Bailey's freestyle from the very beginning looked strong. The dominating kick was back, and her pull was significantly better. She got in a good body position and moved well through the water. Fatigue did catch her here, as she opened with a 33.54 (4th at the turn), and closed with a 38.17, ended up 7th...and the back half split was 8th...final time was 1:11.71 (the strength of this swim leads me to believe there is more speed for her in this stroke if she can maintain her form.

50 Breast - after talking with the coach on day 1, Bailey tried to clean up her stroke a bit. It still wasn't sharp, but the body position was good and the effort was there. She managed a personal best 44.35.

100 Fly - Bailey was very concerned about swimming this for the first time. She started off good, but she ended up swallowing water and she stopped. However, after catching her breath the started off again and nearly won her heat, posting a time of 1:26.91, losing by only .6 of a second. To futher explain how well Bailey swam her, the girl she nearly beat in her heat finished 2nd overall, and the girl that won the event was actually 11 (she turned 11 on the second day of the meet, giving her the right to swim as a 10 year old). Had she not stopped, she would have probably finished with around a 1:24.xx time, or better (though to get started in fly from the middle of the pool with no momentum). Unfortunately, the time doesn't count as she was DQed for stopping...

200 IM - following the problem in the 100 fly, Bailey was concerned about this race as well. But the fly leg went good, and from there she was solid...here are the splits

Fly - 38.40 (5th)
Back - 45.71 (1:27.82) (6th)
Brst - 51.57 (2:15.68) (4th)
Free - 39.09 (2:54.77) (4th)

Overall she finished 5th...

So 8 swims, 6 personal bests, 1 decline, and 1 DQ...

[Breeze]

South Pole Meet Results

Bear

Day 1

200 Free - came in with a 2:36.11, finished with a personal best 2:35.48. His freestyle is looking much stronger now that he has added a bit of a glide to the stroke. Splits were:

35.95
39.45 (1:13.59)
40.18 (1:55.88)
39.90 (2:35.48)

100 IM - In this race Bear was right next to his friend on the team that just out-touched him in the 200 IM in the meet in Tennessee. This time they were practically even at the first turn...but Bear opened about a half second lead in the back. Then in the turn to the breast, Jack tried to do a bucket turn, but wasn't close enough to the wall and he fell a couple of body length's back. Bear swam a strong Breast, and finsihed strong to post a personal best 1:23.80...his fly/back split was 38.75, the breast/free split was 45.05.

50 Back - Bear got a terrible start, late off the wall, and really really deep (the kid really likes the underwater work, and he's strong with it, but in this case he over did it badly). This put him behind. Then to make matters worse, he botched his turn...he ended up off on his count and was on the wrong arm when he flipped...ultimately he posted a 39.77...

50 Free - Bear closed with a strong 50 free, dropping his time over a full second to 32.46...

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 2

100 Back - again another bad, start. Slow and deep, costs him. The first couple of turns were good, the 3rd was horrible...and it costs him in time as well, but even with all that his improved form and strength shine through with a personal best 1:22.00

100 Fly - Bear and Jack were right next to each other again, and again they really pushed each other. Bear had the lead at the 50 by just over .2 seconds swimming a 40.92, but in the back half Jack closed hard in the last 25 and beat Bear by .6...Bear posted a personal best 1:26.59

200 IM - This event was a little irriating to me. The coach really wanted Bear to focus on the 500 free (and as I mentioned in the pre-race write up it was only going to be about 15 minutes after the 200), and so she told him to just swim the event easy. My thought was, either have him not swim or swim hard. By swimming easy all he'll do is race a 200 at a moderate rate, still fatigue his muscles and adversely impact his 500...he still managed to swim a 3:06.52...

500 Free - Bear started out fine, then went conservative, then really picked it up. Here are his splits...

37.14
41.42 (1:18.56)
41.82 (2:00.38)
40.98 (2:41.36)
41.63 (3:22.99)
41.56 (4:04.55)
40.02 (4:44.57)
39.51 (5:24.08)
39.74 (6:03.82)
37.83 (6:41.65)

The most amazing thing to me is that he did this 15 minutes after swimming a 200 IM and his last 200 of this 500, he swam in 2:37.10...his opening 200 was 2:41.36, and his 200 Free time from day 1 was 2:35.48...he swam the last 200 only about 1.5 seconds slower than his 1st event on the 1st day...

Edit to note: Also this is an improvement of almost 30 seconds...


So 8 swims, 6 Personal Bests, 1 drop, and 1 coaches decision to coast

[Breeze]

South Pole Meet Results

Brett

Day 1

200 Free - I know I've said this before, that the coaches have told Brett his hard work was about to start paying off. And they were right. Brett came into this event with a 2:47.61...and left with a 2:34.09...that is faster than both Bailey and Bear. This was a HUGE improvement (@13.5 seconds) and he left the pool completely pumped up. He ran over to his coach with a beaming smile on his face. He actually managed to finish 8th out of 47 swimmer...in a freestyle event. His splits...

36.07
39.46 (1:15.99)
40.01 (1:55.54)
38.16 (2:34.59)

The real cool thing was, for the first time in a long time, I saw Brett race the stroke. Brett wanted to beat the kid next to him, and he did it...he trailed early, but held on and out worked him in the last 50. That was good to see...

Also it was good to see that the opening 100 for this race 1:15.99 was almost exactly the same as Brett's best 100 free time coming into this meet 1:15.93, which led me to believe he'd have a very good 100 Free later...

200 Back - a first time every swim for Brett, and he looked good. Actually, he looked better in the long back than the sprint backs because his long deliberate stroke looks more at home...he did the following splits...

42.79
45.80 (1:28.94)
44.97 (2:13.56)
44.57 (2:58.13)

I was pleased he broke 3 minutes. He managed to finish 11th out of 25, which isn't terrible either, especially for a kid that hated backstroke not that long ago. In fact, as recently as October he set a personal best in the 50 back with a 42.77...and when you look at his splits for a whole 200 it becomes pretty obvious how much better he's gotten and how quickly.

200 Breast - Brett was seeded high in this event, and was pumped up for it. When the race started he was quickly into 2nd place, behind a kid that was about 2x his size. Brett trailed early, but by the 75 turn he was beginning to close, only to fall behind again coming off the walls. This process continued until the 150 turn, where Brett was able to stay closer, he then took the lead at the 175 turn and pulled away down the stretch. He posted a solid 3:03.xx. This ended up begin good enough to win the event initially. Which was Brett's first ever outright win in a year round event. He was pumped. However, he was once again DQed for 1 hand touch on the last turn. In the video it looks like he may have anticipated the touch, and done a pitter patter rather than 2 hands simultaneously. This is aggrevating to me, and heart breaking to Brett.

However, interestingly Brett's victory would have only lasted 24 hours. The next day during a 200 Race, they allowed a swimmer to do the 200 Breast, and he beat Brett's time. Not sure what that was about (other than allowing the kid to get a cut time for State), but because it didn't impact Brett I didn't pursue it.

100 Fly - Brett scratched. He was too upset over the DQ to race. His energy was sapped and he was crushed. He wasn't with me, and it wasn't my decision to allow it. He was sitting with the coaches. He had to do a punishment swim for the scrach on Monday, but in all honesty that was probably for the best...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

100 Free - Brett's strong 200 translated to a strong 100 and he opened with a 34.43 (personal best in a 50 free is 34.38) and he closed with a 37.4 to finish with a personal best 1:11.85 and a 4 second improvement. Again the pumped up feeling from yesterday returned...

100 Back - The strong efforts from Saturday returned and Brett improved by 4.5 seconds posting a 1:24.03, and he left some time in the pool by gliding to far on each of the turns...

100 Breast - DECK ENTERED - after the DQ in the 200 Breast, the coach had us put him in the 100 to get his confidence back. He almost missed the race because he was confused by the lane timer as to whether he was supposed to be there or not. He ended up jumping up on the blocks and diving in almost immediately. He finished 6th overall with a personal best time of 1:26.58.

50 Fly - After the strong 100 fly performances just a few weeks ago, I hoped this would show major improvement, and it did...about 1.6 seconds of improvement and in a 50 that can be a bunch. He finished with a personal best time of 38.41.

So he ended up with 6 PB, 1 DQ, and 1 Scratch

[Breeze]

I'll try to get some video to a dropbox account in case anyone would like to see some of the races...

I'll also try to take some time to update personal bests and where they stand for cut times...

[Breeze]

General Update

Bear has bronchitis, and is having to do breathing treatments twice a day and an inhaler twice a day. He missed a couple of practices and will probably miss a couple more.

[Breeze]

Official Short Course Personal Bests - 2012


Brett

50 Free - 34.38
100 Free - 1:11.85
200 Free - 2:34.09
500 Free - NT
50 Back - 41.48
100 Back - 1:24.03
200 Back - 2:58.13
50 Brst - 39.50
100 Brst - 1:26.58
200 Brst - 3:17.53
50 BFly - 38.41
100 BFly - 1:31.56
200 BFly - NT
100 IM - 1:25.99
200 IM - 3:00.71
400 IM - NT

------------------------------------------------------------

Bailey

50 Free - 33.96
100 Free - 1:11.71
200 Free - 2:44.53
500 Free - NT
50 Back - 38.25
100 Back - 1:25.66
200 Back - NT
50 Brst - 44.34
100 Brst - 1:34.77
200 Brst - NT
50 BFly - 36.57
100 BFly - NT
200 BFly - NT
100 IM - 1:22.96
200 IM - 2:54.77
400 IM - NT

-------------------------------------------------------

Bear

50 Free - 32.46
100 Free - 1:11.90
200 Free - 2:35.48
500 Free - 6:41.65
50 Back - 38.64
100 Back - 1:22.00
200 Back - NT
50 Brst - 46.70
100 Brst - 1:38.34
200 Brst - NT
50 BFly - 39.66
100 BFly - 1:26.59
200 BFly - NT
100 IM - 1:23.80
200 IM - 2:52.71
400 IM - NT

[Breeze]

2012 Gold Team - Short Course Update

The team updated the season's top 10 times on 12/10, I have added in my kids times from the 15th and here are where they stand...

Bailey

50 Free - 7th
100 Free - 4th
200 Free - 6th
50 Back - 4th
100 Back - 6th
50 Brst - 3rd
100 Brst - 2nd
50 Bfly - 3rd
100 IM - 3rd
200 IM - 3rd

-----------------------------------------------------

Bear

50 Free - 2nd
100 Free - 3rd
200 Free - 3rd
500 Free - 2nd
50 Back - 6th
100 Back - 4th
50 Brst - 4th
100 Brst - 3rd
50 Bfly - 2nd
100 IM - 1st
200 IM - 2nd

--------------------------------------------------------------

Brett

50 Brst - 6th
100 Brst - 6th
200 Brst - 3rd

[Breeze]

2013 Eastern Sectional Time Standards

With Bailey and Bear having qualified for State in virtually all the events, the drama associated with the state cuts is gone. So I'm now posting the Sectional Cuts. We still have a ways to go to get there, with only 3 events left to post times, but it is worth watching...

Girls

50 Free - 31.09
100 Free - 1:09.09
200 Free - 2:29.09
500 Free - 6:31.39

50 Back - 36.39
100 Back - 1:18.29

50 Breast - 40.09
100 Breast - 1:28.29

50 Fly - 35.29
100 Fly - 1:21.59

100 IM - 1:19.29
200 IM - 2:48.19

----------------------------------------------

Boys


50 Free - 30.69
100 Free - 1:07.69
200 Free - 2:25.59
500 Free - 6:36.19

50 Back - 36.69
100 Back - 1:18.09

50 Breast - 40.59
100 Breast - 1:28.99

50 Fly - 34.89
100 Fly - 1:20.79

100 IM - 1:18.09
200 IM - 2:47.69

[Breeze]

2012 Georgia Short Course State Cut Times

Brett has shown significant improvement this year but he still has a long way to go in order to get state cuts in everything but the Breaststroke. Here are the current cut times for Breast in the 12 year old age group:

50 Breast - 38.29
100 Breast - 1:22.99
200 Breats - 2:58.29*


*Note: Brett has this state cut already, by virtue of his swim in the Long Course State Championships last year.

[Izulde]

That's awesome to see all those PBs :)

[Breeze]

That's awesome to see all those PBs :)


Yeah, I've needed to do a level set with updated information all in one place. It can get a bit confusing to remember everything...even with my write ups, and having it all in once place helps.

[Breeze]

SCAT Meet @ GA Tech 1/19 - 1/20

This is a prelim/finals meet for all the sub 100 yard events. So it is possible that the kids will swim dual sessions on both Saturday and Sunday.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Brett

100 Breast - Personal Best - 1:26.58 : State Cut - 1:22.99
It is pretty obvious Brett isn't going to get the state cut in this event. Too much time to drop in too short a period of time. However, He comes into this event seeded 11th, and the top 10 will make the A finals, and the boy in 10th has a .24 second faster seed time. and the boys in 9th and 8th are both around .75 faster coming in, so making the A final is a resonable goal. In Brett's last 4 races (only counting the prelims not the finals at the Gaineville meet) he's gone from a 1:31.88 to 1:28.60 to 1:26.92 to 1:26.58...so he's improved a bunch in the this event this season.

50 Free - Personal Best - 34.38
Continuing to improve with is freestyle as his kick slowly improves. He's not going to get anywhere near the top 20 to even make the B final, but he could improve on his time again.

500 Free - NT
This will be a first for Brett, as he swims a true distance event. I will be surprised if he doesn't do reasonably well here. My bet is he goes very conservative with is effort (his history says he will) to make sure he'll have the energy needed to finish, but because he's never been good at kicking in freestyle his arms and shoulders are strong and typically in practice during long sets he tends to stay with the better swimmers. He won't place in the top 10 or anything, but it will be interesting to see where his time stacks up with Bears.

50 Backstroke - Personal Best - 41.48
Brett is seeded 15th in this event, and if you had told me he'd be anywhere close to that coming into this season I'd have told you that you were crazy. He legitimately should make the B final,he has no shot at A and it would take a terrible swim or some really great times by those behind him for him to get shut out of the B final.

200 Breaststroke - Personal Best - 3:17.53
The personal best listed above is a very old time. Brett swim a 3:03.xx but was DQed in his most recent meet. I'd expect he should get the 3:03 time again, which could get him to 11th overall...
--------------------------------------------------------------

Bailey

200 Free - Personal Best - 2:44.23 : Sectional Cut - 2:29.09
Just getting back into swimming Freestyle, Bailey has done a nice job of getting going again. She is seeded 9th here, and could easily get into the top 7 with a good swim. Top 5 is probably out of the question as she'd need about a 10 second drop to get there. Sectional cut is also out of the question, and honestly, this one isn't really reasonable to expect she'd be able to get there before then end of February.

100 IM - Personal Best - 1:22.96 : Sectional Cut - 1:19.29
Bailey is seeded 9th here, and based on how they seed the events she should get a good lane for prelims with a couple of girls that are swimming in the 1:19 range, and she should also qualify for the A finals which will be a fast heat. If Bailey races this hard (which she usually does), she could get pulled to that Sectional Cut time. My bet though is she'll end up around a 1:20.5 time.

100 Back - Personal Best - 1:26.02 : Sectional Cut 1:18.29
Bailey's back is improving, but she still needs to get a better feel for the underwater stroke. Body position has improved greatly. I expect an improvement here, but I don't think she can swim the 1:22.xx that it will take to make the A final, so she'll probably be in the B final.

500 Free - NT
Like Brett this is a first time effort. Bailey doesn't do as well as the boys in the longer distance swims. She is more of a kicker than the boys and he tires out before the end of the race. I do think she could make the top 5 in this event, and she should get the state cut time of 7:20.99

200 IM - Personal Best - 2:54.77 : Sectional Cut 2:48.19
Bailey is seeded 4th overall here, and she's only raced this event 1 time. I'm hoping she has a better feel for what this race requires and she'll be able to just a bit harder. She could get a top 3 finish, and honestly I believe this Sectional Cut is within reach. 6 seconds seems like a bunch of time, and I don't expect her to get it, but it is doable.

100 Fly - NT : Sectional Cut 1:21.59
Bailey swam a 1:26.9x in the meet last month, but was DQed for stopping. I'm not sure how fast she'll actually be able to go if she doesn't stop, but I expect it will be in the top 10 and make the A final, as the 10th place person right now has a seed time of 1:32.59. My guess is she's looking at a 1:24.xx.

100 Breast - Personal Best 1:34.77 : Sectional Cut 1:28.89
Seeded 7th coming in, but she's still working on narrowing her kick to reduce drag. Given all the events she has in front of this one, I expect the form flaw and fatigue will cause her to not improve here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Bear

200 Free - Personal Best - 2:35.48 : Sectional Cut - 2:25.59
Bear continues to improve in his freestyle events, especially the longer ones as he pushes himself through the pain to go harder and faster. I don't thik he can get to the Sectional Cut, but he's seeded 6th and I could see him getting a top 5 (2 of the kids in front of him turn 11 and age up after this meet).

100 IM - Personal Best 1:23.80 : Sectional Cut - 1:18.09
This is one event that Bear has not been as pleased with the results. While he's dropped time from a 1:27.xx earlier in the season, he sees where he's done better than that in the Summer and he wants to post better times in year round races. He worked in a private lesson on 1/13 on all of his strokes and also on his back to breast turn. The turn work could help a bunch. He comes in seeded 10th, and will have a hard time holding onto that spot in the top 10 unless he posts a strong swim, because the 11th and 12th swimmers are only .1 behind.

50 Fly - Personal Best 39.66 : Sectional Cut - 34.89
During the private lesson on Sunday the coach noted that Bear is "pulling himself to the surface" coming off of walls and at the start, which is causing his timing to be off as the water slows down the arm recovery. This ends up making his timing wrong for the entire race. This is worse in fly, and the coach feels if she can get this ironed out it could make a huged difference in his times. We'll see...

100 Back - Personal Best 1:22.00 : Sectional Cut - 1:18.09
Bear's personal best here comes from the meet last month, and in that race he had 1 terrible turn and 2 others that were mediocre at best. If he cleans those up, he'll improve by a couple of seconds. He seeded 9th, and a time of 1:20 might get him in the top 5, which is a good goal here.

200 IM - Personal Best 2:52.71 : Sectional Cut - 2:47.69
As good as Bear did here when he swam it in Chattanooga, I think he can do even better. He's getting stronger with all of his strokes and he pushes hard on the longer swims. He's seeded 4th, and might be able to get into the top 3...of course he could finish outside of the top 5 as well. Unfortunately, I don't think he can get to a 2:47.6 to get the sectional cut, but he wants one
bad, maybe he really drives through on this one because he feels it is in striking distance.

50 Back - Personal Best 38.64 : Sectional Cut - 36.69
Bear really should in my opinion be doing better here. He's had some bad starts recently, and poor turns turn that are killing him. I really think if he puts it all together he could challenge the Sectional Cut.

100 Breast - Personal Best 1:38.34 : Sectional Cut - 1:28.99
Seeded 10th in this one, and he's been really working hard on dropping the hands deeper in the water during the pull phase to get a better grab and more momentum with his upper body. Unfortunately, that also has thrown his timing off a bit. We'll see if he can get it all put together this weekend. He's seeded 10th. If he can make the A final, he will be doing really well.

100 Free - Personal Best 1:11.90 : Sectional Cut - 1:07.69
Seeded 9th, and could get all the way up to challenge for 5th with a good swim, but with fatigue from the weekend might also end up out of the top 10 and the A final

[Breeze]

General Updates

Recently, Emily and Lexi from Bailey's old Swim Atlanta group have moved over to join us at the Chattahoochee Gold pool. They appear to be really enjoying the change in philosophy, the extra coaching and the nicer facilities.

While Lexi has returned to the pool she is, like Bailey when she first started back after her injury, on a restricted workout regimine.

Bear took a private lesson over the weekend as I mentioned in the pre-event write up above. He took is follow up lesson last night, and the coach urged him to shallow out his dives and turns some as this appears to be the biggest drag on him getting to the surface with his timing in tact. He apparently did real well once he made the adjustment...hopefully it will translate to faster times this weekend.

[Breeze]

SCAT Meet @ GA Tech 1/19 - 1/20
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Brett

Day 1

Brett and I got up at 6 on Saturday morning to get down to Tech for the meet, but when we arrived and walked into the natatorium there was a horrible smell. Apparently, Tech was changing out backup generators and failed to configure it correctly so exhaust poured into the building overnight. I’m sure you can imagine the burned oil smell. The meet start was delayed while they tried to ventilate the facility. After about an hour and half wait, they cancelled the morning session and moved it to the evening.

I took Brett home and stayed for a couple of hours before bringing the twins back for their afternoon session. This change in routine really through Brett for a loop (as he doesn’t do change well), and when it came time for Brett to leave for the evening session he was over it and not interested in going. He did go and here is how he did…

100 Breast - Personal Best - 1:26.58 : State Cut - 1:22.99
Brett’s start and initial pullout were good, but he didn’t seem completely into the race. He did ok, given his mindset and the fact the by the time the evening session rolled around he was pretty much through is medication for the day, so focus was an issue. He posted a 1:27.45…After this race, first thing he said to me was…”well, that sucked”…

50 Free - Personal Best - 34.38
Brett, his coach, and I were all hopeful for a decent size improvement here, but it didn’t happen. He did improve, but on marginally…34.21

500 Free - NT
This is the event I was the most eager to see…however, it was already after 10 PM when the 50 Freestyle races completed, and given that Brett had to get up at 6 on Sunday, his coach told him to scratch this event and go home to get some sleep….

Day 2

Sunday morning, and Brett got up and was ready to go. He was once again excited about racing…

50 Backstroke - Personal Best - 41.48
I have to admit that I missed this race. I can tell you that we discussed the fact that his coach had been urging him for some time now to increase his stroke rate. I told him that his form was good now, but that he really need to give the faster arms a try, and I made him understand that if it resulted in a poor time there was no harm, that he needed to start experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t so that he can lean to “race” the stroke better.

He apparently did based on his coach’s comments to him, but he still had a very poor finish, as he continues to not trust his stroke count coming into the wall. He did improve dramatically on his time, posting a personal best 39.52. He was extremely excited with this time because he has now gotten all of his strokes below 40 seconds (unfortunately, this excitement didn’t last very long – I’ll explain later)

200 Breaststroke - Personal Best - 3:17.53
Before this event, Brett and I discussed really focusing on the pullouts, as they continue to be a killer in his attempts to improve his time. He was going to try a bigger dolphin kick, and he was going to try to get an earlier grab on the water to increase his trust. He did a little better at it, and his stroke was still strong in the middle of the pool. As expected he got a personal best, but he also did much better than the DQ time from last month, getting a 3:01.41

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Bear

Day 1

200 Free - Personal Best - 2:35.48 : Sectional Cut - 2:25.59
Bear started out looking very strong, in this event, he was next to the same kid he swam his great 500 Free against last month, and again he was working hard to stay with this kid (who will be 11 in a couple of weeks). He did extremely well, once again cutting a significant amount of time and getting a personal best 2:32.57

100 IM - Personal Best 1:23.80 : Sectional Cut - 1:18.09
Again, Bear fails to make significant improvement in this event. He does improve with a 1:23.16, but not the drop he wanted. Watching the race he looked good in all of his stroke, so I wasn’t sure where the problem was until…

50 Fly - Personal Best 39.66 : Sectional Cut - 34.89
This race started, and it became pretty clear that Bear’s transitional phase of his fly, and the adjustments to try and get his timing better were causing him to really struggle. He appeared to be thinking about the stroke too much and it was slowing him down considerably. The rest of his heat was leaving him well behind and he posted a pedestrian 41.27. He was extremely disappointed with this swim, but the coaches reassured him that his form was much better, and the speed would come. This slow fly also is undoubted the indicator of why his IM time didn’t improve any more than it did.

100 Back - Personal Best 1:22.00 : Sectional Cut - 1:18.09
Bear looked tired, or deflated in this race. He really was deliberate and almost disinterested. Not sure if this is a holdover from his sickness a few weeks back or a hangover from the bad fly swim. Regardless he again post a poor (for him) time of 1:25.67

Day 2

200 IM - Personal Best 2:52.71 : Sectional Cut - 2:47.69
As I mentioned in the pre-event write up, Bear views this event as 1 of his real shots to get a sectional cut. Unfortunately, given his slow fly, I expected he would not come close to his personal best time, and he didn’t. He posted a 2:59.97 way off of his personal best. In the race, Bear’s fly was slow and caused him to lose touch with the swimmers on either side of him, which removed, so some extent his ability to race the event. In comparing his splits from his personal best and this race, it appears that the fly is the biggest problem, but the sickness also has to be having some impact, as he failed to match his split on any of the strokes…

Personal Best SCAT Meet
Bfly – 39.57 Bfly – 41.26
Back – 42.87 Back – 44.69
Brst – 52.54 Brst – 52.93
Free – 37.73 Free – 40.46


50 Back - Personal Best 38.64 : Sectional Cut - 36.69
Given the poor performance at the end of Saturday and in the 200 IM to start Sunday, this became a big event for Bear. He needed something positive or he might just shut it down…He improved…marginally, but he improved. He even found me in the stands and gave me a thumbs up from the water after the finish. Time – 38.27

100 Breast - Personal Best 1:38.34 : Sectional Cut - 1:28.99
Bear’s breast continues to look stronger, and he did post a personal best 1:37.02

100 Free - Personal Best 1:11.90 : Sectional Cut - 1:07.69
Bear again didn’t look strong here…which surprised me a bit, given his improvement in the 200 Free on Saturday. But it was the end of the meet for him, and I do believe he is still dealing with the almost 2 weeks of being out of the pool while he was sick. Time – 1:13.63

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Bailey

Day 1

200 Free - Personal Best - 2:44.23 : Sectional Cut - 2:29.09
Bailey did improve in this event. She swam a strong race and dropped 6 seconds to a 2:38.66, and there is more time out there for her to drop. She is still learning how much she can push herself on the distance events, but again, I don’t think she’ll get anywhere close to the 2:29.09 number she’d need for sectionals.

100 IM - Personal Best - 1:22.96 : Sectional Cut - 1:19.29
Bailey’s improved fly, back and free really helped here as she posted another personal best time of 1:20.77. Her breaststroke has become a problem. She’s gotten sloppy with is, coming up high in the water with her head up, and her kick has gotten extremely wide and slow. We’ll be getting her some lessons to work on cleaning this up before State…

100 Back - Personal Best - 1:26.02 : Sectional Cut 1:18.29
The backstroke for Bailey has improved significantly. She’s gotten the hang of the correct arm motion and is now able to do it without thinking much about it, and her times are starting to reflect that. She still needs to get stronger with the pull phase, but her body position is allowing her strong kick to translate to speed and her pull is much improved. She posted a personal best time of 1:22.13

500 Free - NT
I almost screwed this race up for Bailey. I was interested in watching Bear’s back (which was right before Bailey’s 500 free), and typically, there is about a 10 minute break heading into the 500s, but this time there wasn’t – so I had to rush down to the pool deck to get the lap counting signs. Given this was her first time the 7:02.67 is a good effort…and a state cut...

Day 2

200 IM - Personal Best - 2:54.77 : Sectional Cut 2:48.19
Given how well Bailey had looked I expected that she would improve here, and maybe significantly. She looked strong early, but her fly was clearly a problem again. In fact, she didn’t even beat her personal best posting a 2:55.91 to illustrate the problems with her breaststroke…below are the splits from her PB 200 IM and the one this weekend…

Personal Best SCAT Meet
Bfly – 38.40 Bfly – 36.74
Back – 45.71 Back – 44.42
Brst – 51.57 Brst – 54.82
Free – 39.09 Free – 39.93


100 Fly - NT : Sectional Cut 1:21.59
So my guess of a 1:24.xx completely underestimated the time her swallowing water and stopping in the previous meet impacted her time. She went out in a strong 37.95, as her new form looked not only fast but fluid. She was able to maintain her speed on the back half and she didn’t suffer from over fatigue because her new form is so much more efficient…the back half time was 41.36 for a total time of 1:19.31

And we have our first Sectional Cut…and we'll be heading to Greensboro NC in March…now will Bear join her and will she get any other qualifying times???…

100 Breast - Personal Best 1:34.77 : Sectional Cut 1:28.89
The Breaststroke problems became obvious in this event when Bailey posted a 1:38.68, and to be honest this swim was better than her Breaststrokes in both IMs, as I was able to get her attention prior to the race and remind her to look down through the stroke (the coach told her the same thing about 2 minutes later)…got to get this worked out so she can maximize her IMs as well as improve this stroke…With an improved Breast she’ll probably get a sectional cut in IM…

100 Free – Personal Best 1:11.71 – Sectional Cut 1:09.09
I missed the write up on this one pre-event…not sure how I over looked it. Anyway, Bailey’s strong kick and improved stroke showed through here as well. She swam a very strong 1:09.97…which puts her less than 1 second from another sectional time…

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While Bailey’s breakthrough on the fly is marvelous and we are all extremely proud of the sectional cut – it does create some mixed emotions among the boys. Unfortunately, there is a good bit of sibling rivalry that goes on and Bailey’s huge step up seems to overshadow the achievements of the boys…

For instance, Brett, rather than bask in the fact that he is sub-40 in all strokes, is back to the feelings of being inadequate and questioning whether he’ll ever be able to beat her.

And

Bear, for all of his achievements earlier in the year is now struggling with his strokes. He has only a couple of chance left to get his Sectional cut, which he wants 1 bad. This desire is only gotten worse given Bailey’s achievement and it is coming at a bad time for him given his performance this weekend.
Now the wife and I have to delicately balance the egos of the kids and try to get them to focus on their own results and not compare outcomes…

All 3 of the kids will be getting some private lessons the next several weeks. Bailey’s will focus on Breast, Bear will work on fly and cleaning up small stuff, and Brett will be working on increasing stroke rates on non-Breast events, and improving his pullouts and “finishing his kick” in breast…

[Breeze]

General Update

Well we may have another reason why Bear's performance was below standard. He got sick again last night, so maybe we aren't completely through the illness of a couple weeks ago. This couldn't come at a worse time, as this will put him out of the pool for at least a couple of days, which will only make the odds of him dropping time and getting a Sectional Cut longer...:(

[Breeze]

General Update

Bear finally got back in the water on Saturday. He did a pretty good job getting through most of practice (had to sit out a couple of time to catch his breath). He also had a private lession on Sunday, as we are getting him some extra help on cleaning up the stroke and trying to get back into race shape as quickly as we can...

[Breeze]

General Update

Bear is still struggling to get back in shape, and with his last meet before state coming up on the 8th - 10th...and his best shot at a Sectional Cut being the 500 Free, I'm afraid his chances are slowly slipping away.

[Breeze]

General Update

Bear threw up again this morning. My heart is breaking for him...at this point he might be hard pressed to say on the A Free Relay and the B Medley Relay at State...much less get the sectional cut...

[JAG]

Poor kiddo, hope he gets better soon.

[Breeze]

Poor kiddo, hope he gets better soon.

Ended up being a bad sinus infection that was causing a migraine type of headache. The pain was so bad it made him nauseous, which caused him to throw up. He’ll be out of the pool a couple of days, which isn’t good, but isn’t as bad as I had initially feared.

[Breeze]

Lanier Invite at Lanier Aquatics 2/8 - 2/10

The Lanier Invite is our "Last Chance" meet for this season. There is actually another meet next week but we elected not to participate in that one, because we didn't want the kids competing 3 weeks in a row (the State Championship would be the 3rd meet in the succession).

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Bear

500 Free - Seed Time 6:41.62, Sectional Cut 6:36.19 - 6 to 8 weeks ago, I really felt that Bear might have a good shot at getting this cut, but given his poor health over that time period, I'm less enthusiastic about his chances. Combine that with the fact, he'll be in a slower pool and in an outside lane, and I think he'll be hard pressed to drop more than a second or two. His freestyle looks good right now, and we'll be working out signals that I can give him with the lap counters so he'll know where he stands compared to the cut, so maybe he'll be able to dig deep and pull it out.

100 Back - Seed Time 1:22.00, Sectional Cut 1:18.09 - Bear is seeded 5th here, and he could end up right next to his buddy Jack, which would be a good thing. Some of Bear's best swims have come when racing Jack. If Bear cleans up his start, turns, and finish, he could drop a decent amount of time here.

50 Fly - Seed Time 39.66 - If you'll recall, Bear has been working on changing his fly stroke for a while, combine that with the time out of the pool due to illness and his fly is currently a mess. He's very upset by that, as fly is his favorite stroke, but he is really off right now. We got him a private lesson over the weekend and some of the issues were addressed. The coach will be watching him closely at practice to see how he does with his form, but if he is unable to completely adopt the new stroke, it is possible she has him scratch here.

50 Freestyle - Seed Time 32.46, Sectional Cut 30.69 - Bear's freestyle looks real good right now, I am eager to see how he does. This is a real big race for Bear because a good swim here should cement him in the A relay at State in a few weeks.

100 IM - Seed Time 1:23.16 - Bear's greatly improved breast combined with the strong back and free should create an improved time here, but the Fly is the wild card...

100 Fly - Seed Time 1:26.59 - My guess is he doesn't swim this race...

100 Free - Seed Time 1:11.90 - could see an improvement in this one, especially if his stamina holds through to this point in the weekend. He's currently seeded 5th here, but a good swim and he could easily be top 3...

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Bailey

50 Fly - Seed Time 36.57, Sectional Time - 35.29 - Bailey comes into this seeded 3rd, only .5 seconds from first. However, this seed time is from December, and Bailey is much faster right now. In fact, over the weekend during Bear's lesson, Bailey was getting some work as well on her Breast, and at 1 point during the practice, the coach had Bailey race Bear in Fly with Bear wearing fins...Bear won, but only by about a half a body length. Bailey's fly is really fast right now and I believe she'll win this event outright and she should get a sectional cut...

100 Breast - Seed time 1:34.77 - coach is trying to narrow Bailey's kick. In an effort to go faster, Bailey did the natural, but worst thing your can do - she started getting a wide kick. Now she's trying to clean that up. She did better with the more narror kick on Sunday during the private lesson, but the speed didn't accompany the improvement yet. We'll see how she does in practice, but I don't expect much here.

50 Free - Seed time 34.19, Sectional time 31.09 - It might seem strange that I included the Sectional time here when she's so far from it and we're only talking about a 50 yard swim. However, Bailey's seed time goes all the way back to November, and she had just started racing freestyle and was under strict orders to maintain form rather than go for speed. Her freestyle is much faster now, and I expect a huge drop in time. I don't however expect a sectional cut...but I posted the time just in case...

100 IM - Seed Time 1:20.77, Sectional Cut 1:19.29 - Bailey is seeded 2nd about 1.5 seconds behind the leader...and in my opinion, this will all come down to the Breast. If she can swim a strong Breast, she'll get the sectional cut and might win the event outright.

50 Breast - Seed time 44:34 - not sure what to expect here. My guess is a very similar time to her personal best...

50 Back - Seed time 38.25 - Bailey's back is getting much better as she's beginning to grasp the correct arm motion. Her strong kick is back and combined I could see a nice improvement here...

100 Free - Seed time 1:09.97, Sectional Cut 1:09.09 - Bailey is seeded 3rd here and is only .3 from second. Hopefully, she'll be able to keep up with the #1 seed who swims a 1:18.10 and that will pace her to another sectional cut.

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Brett

200 IM - Seed time 3:00.71 - Brett had an amazing practice on Saturday. His kicking with fins has gotten dramatically better. He still needs to figure out how to translate that into speed without fins, but it is a start. His improved kick and strokes should lead to a personal best here.

100 Back - Seed time 1:24.03 - Again the form is much better. Given that he's doing a nice job of keeping up with his buddies Hunter and Jack (both good backstrokers) in practice, if he'll maintain his flutter kick and not resort to the bicycle kick he'll probably post another personal best.

100 Free - Seed Time 1:11.85 - If any of the speed on his free kick with fins from Saturday will translate to this race, he'll absolutely post a personal best. Not sure it will though...

1000 Free - NT - Brett has never even swum the 500, but he's doing the 1000 this weekend. He's not excited about it, but the coach told him to just finish and not worry about his time. He'll probably go out very conservatively...so I don't expect anything special here. However, his free stroke is very much a distance free swimmers pace and form. He actually could do good here, if he puts some effort into it...

100 Fly - Seed time 1:31.56 - During Brett's private lesson on Sunday, the coach told him he was doing very good with this fly stroke, but to really work on getting this hips up when he was in the dive portion of the stroke, to create more leverage for the kick. I don't expect an improvement here, as his lack of strength tends to catch up to him before this race finishes. But I do expect better early splits...

200 Free - Seed time 2:34.09 - If Brett will push himself and kick a bit more than normal he could improve here. Of course the 100 fly right before might just sap his energy...

50 Free - Seed time 34.21 - Brett is really ready to drop a couple of seconds here, but he has to work harder and rotate his arms faster. I hope he does it, because he'll be pumped if he can get down to a sub 33 here...

50 Breast - 39.50, State Cut 39.29 - Not likely Brett cuts 1.3 second, but his coach has told him better pullouts and quicker turns could save him a couple of seconds. I hope he's right...I'd love to see Brett earn another cut...plus a strong swim here will go a long way to getting him on the State Relay team...

[Breeze]

Lanier Invite - Addendum

The 500 Free that Bear will be swimming is scheduled for Friday night, which means the family won't be able to attend the team practice that evening. So Coach Neil has requested that we sign Brett up for the 500 Free as well, because he doesn't want him to be completely out of the water Friday...so

Brett

500 Free - NT - Like the 1000 that Brett is schedule to do on Saturday, the 500 might actually be a strong event for Brett. He has a very long and deliberate stroke. Also because he has never been much of a kicker he typically swims a lot of laps in practice relying mostly on his upper body. I'm very intrigued by this one, more so than the 1000. I think the 1000 will be more intimidating to Brett and he won't swim it well because he'll want to make sure he doesn't overwork and have to quit before the end of the race. But in the 500 I think he fells he can swim that distance with out much concern. I still think he'll be conservative because it is his first tiime doing it, but I honestly think he could swim each fifty around 42 seconds for the entire race...I hope he pushes in this one, rather than sit back and be satisfied to just finish...

[Breeze]

Lanier Invite

So the meet starts today. Brett and Bear have their 500 Frees' tonight. I was so eager to see how Brett would do, and anxious for Bear's chances at the sectional cut that I didn't sleep well.

I have worked out some signals with Bear that I'll be giving him with the lap counter so he'll have an idea of where he is compared to the cut. Hopefully, this will be enough to keep him on pace...

Fingers Crossed...

[Breeze]

All,

Sorry for no update, but the meet directors have failed to post the official results yet...I'll post the results as soon as I have that information.

[Breeze]

Lanier Invite at Lanier Aquatics 2/8 - 2/10

Bailey

50 Fly - Seed Time 36.57, Sectional Time - 35.29 – As I predicted Bailey won this event…and in a sectional cut time swimming a 34.25. This also puts her just .1 second behind the fastest fly time of the year for 9-10 Chattahoochee Gold Girls and will probably insure she will be on the A Medley relay as well…

100 Breast - Seed time 1:34.77 - Wow…this one was painful…she swam a 1:45.29…a full 11 seconds over her best time. – This was so bad, her coach told her 1. You won’t be swimming Breast at state, and 2. You’ve completely lost your Breaststroke and we’re going to need to start over on it. Sad to here – especially right now, but it’s an honest assessment and Bailey recognizes the truth in it as well…

50 Free - Seed time 34.19, Sectional time 31.09 – This was a very fast race, and tight. Bailey swam good, until the last 10 yards or so, when she breathed too often and she lifted her head at the finish a bit, which cost her some speed and time at the finish. She did manage to post a personal best 31.51. The bad news is she just missed a sectional cut, the good news is this swim gives her the fastest 9-10 Girls 50 Free for the Chattahoochee Gold and insures she’ll be on the A relay at state
(Note: This was Lexi’s first meet back and she managed to post a 32.56 in the race, currently good enough for 3rd – and unless 2 girls beat her in time this weekend at another meet, she will also be on the A relay)

100 IM - Seed Time 1:20.77, Sectional Cut 1:19.29 – She swam a 1:21.07 – so not as fast as she previously swam it. Here are the breakdowns of this race compared to her PB race…

Feb Jan
Fly/Back 36.22 37.16
Breast/Free 44.85 43.61

So you can see how much the Breast leg is hurting her...

50 Breast - Seed time 44:34 – It wasn’t pretty – 47.94

50 Back - Seed time 38.25 – Interestingly, I didn’t post the sectional cut for this race, as I assumed Bailey would improve but not to the point where she might reach a 36.39, which is the cut time. However, Bailey got a great start and was doing really well, on her turn she got a little off and ended up in the ropes for a second, but still managed to post a 36.49. So even getting in the ropes she only missed the sectional cut by .1 second…This swim was also good enough to finish 2nd overall...

100 Free - Seed time 1:09.97, Sectional Cut 1:09.09 - This race was the last one of the meet and Bailey was clearly worn out when she swam it. She posted a 1:11.20. She was very disappointed with this time…as she really felt a sectional cut was within her grasp.

Bailey is now less than a second from a sectional cut in 50 free, 100 Free, & 50 Back, with 100 IM being just over a second away…
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[Breeze]

Lanier Invite at Lanier Aquatics 2/8 - 2/10

Brett

200 IM - Seed time 3:00.71 – As expected the improved strokes and stamina results in a dramatic improvement. Brett swam a 2:56.92 for a 4 second drop. He was still off in his Breaststroke leg, probably because he is tired and is needed to rest a bit at that point. Once he gets that part under control, I’ll expect a couple of second drop on that leg alone.

100 Back - Seed time 1:24.03 – After the 500 Free the night before, Brett had a good bit of confidence. He really worked harder in this event and ended up improving by almost a full second 1:23.17.

100 Free - Seed Time 1:11.85 – Ok, interesting story around this one. Brett wasn’t aware that he was schedule to swim this event. After he finished the 100 Back, he thought he was only going to have to do the 1000. When he found out about this race, he wasn’t happy. I think it’s because he was nervous about the 1000…regardless, when he dove in, he might as well have been swimming a 1000. He posted a very poor time of 1:16.40…the coach said to him, “looked like you didn’t want to swim that race.” His response, “I didn’t” – so coach told him not to worry about it and to get ready for the 1000.

1000 Free - NT – I was very proud of Brett’s 1000 free. He ended up swimming it in a senior’s event rather than an open event. Meaning Brett had to swim against 17 and 18 year olds. In fact, the bell for the final lap rang and Brett was only on lap 27 out of 40…but he finished up strong with a time of 14:03.24 (splits below)

100 Fly - Seed time 1:31.56 – This was another race Brett really attacked. His fly is better mostly because he is working harder and especially kicking harder, but he still need to work on foot position and relaxing the legs to create a better snap on the kick. However, the effort in practice and the confidence resulted in a 1.5 second drop to 1:29.94

200 Free - Seed time 2:34.09 -Another case where after swimming the 500 Free on Thursday, the thought of 200 seemed like no big deal. He really went out much harder...he told me prior to the race he wanted to swim a 2:30.00 he ended up swimming a 2:29.65...

50 Free - Seed time 34.21 – Brett did better, not as well as I had hoped but an improvement of about .3 with a time of 33.92

50 Breast - 39.50, State Cut 39.29 – Fatigue really seemed to catch up to Brett in this one (Brett and everybody else as all the times were slower than the seed times). Brett finished just a quarter of second off his personal best with a 39.74. The coach did notice something he’s told Brett to work on in practice…it has something to do with hand position in the recovery phase before the streamline part of the stroke.

500 Free - NT – Brett did a nice job. As expected he was very conservative in his approach. He finished with a time of 6:52.84. He was pretty pumped up after the race and stated that it wasn’t that bad and he wasn’t all that tired. I expect a pretty significant drop the next time he does this event.

Thought it might be interesting to look at Brett’s splits in the 500 and both halves of the 1000 next to each other. It gives you a good indication of why I said his stroke is pretty good for distances…


500 FREE 1000 Opening 1000 Closing
38.88 38.91 41.81
42.25 42.98 42.59
42.47 44.07 43.34
42.89 44.30 42.26
41.73 43.60 42.21
41.85 43.13 44.79
41.84 42.68 40.85
41.49 42.33 41.06
40.37 43.33 40.82
39.07 42.50 39.12
6:52.84 7:07.39 6:55.85



Clearly Brett conserved a bunch in the opening 500 for the 1000 free, as he managed a significant negative split. In fact, I find it fascinating that the back half times are very similar to the 500 he swam the night before. If not for the 1 slow 50 where he posted a 44.79, they might be almost identical. Obviously this means he can go harder in the 500, but it also means he can go harder in the opening 500 of the 1000 as well. I’m going to be interested to watch how he handles distance frees moving forward…

[JAG]

You've probably explained it before earlier in the thread, but can you explain what seed time, sectional cut, and state cut mean? What happens if they get a time below state cut or sectional cut?

[Breeze]

You've probably explained it before earlier in the thread, but can you explain what seed time, sectional cut, and state cut mean? What happens if they get a time below state cut or sectional cut?

Hey JAG,

Glad to explain…In swimming, like track, the fastest in the event gets the middle lane and as you move outward each swimmer is slightly slower. So if you were to look at a Heat Sheet (the sheet that instructs every swimmer what event number, heat, and lane they are in), you’d see something like this…


Event 1 – Girls 10 and Under 50 Butterfly
Heat 1
1. Breeze, Bailey S 10 Gold-GA 34.25
2. Weimer, Abby R 10 ABSC-GA 33.78
3. Munson, Katy 10 CAD-GA 32.77
4. Coffee, Tory 10 GA-GA 32.65
5. Rucker, Tori 10 GCAT-GA 29.86
6. VanBrunt, Grace 10 GCAT-GA 29.86
7. Ulett, Tristen D 10 SA-GA 29.93
8. Altera, Ashley K 10 DYNA-GA 31.65
9. Hart, Kennedy C 10 SA-GA 33.28
10. Galbraith, Hailey 9 Gold-GA 34.12


The first column above is the lane, the second the name, 3rd is age, 4th team and last is the seed time.

So the seed time is the time the coaches put down for the swimmer to enter the event with, and typically the time is the swimmers personal best (this is actually automated to use the personal best time by extracting it from the USA Swimming DB, but there are times the coaches change the seed time). So in essence when you see my references in the write ups about Seed Time, what I’m noting is the time that the kids were entered into the event with, and showing you a quick guide as to what is probably their personal best. There have been times in write ups where I note that the seed time isn’t a personal best, but that is rare.

Now the State Cut and Sectional Cut times are performance based standards that swimmers must meet in order to compete in those events.

So this weekend (2/22) is the Georgia State Championship Meet, and in order to compete in an event at that meet, the swimmer must have reached the “State Cut” time. Somewhere in this thread I believe I’ve posted all the state cuts for the 10 and under age group (I didn’t do it for the 12Us yet, because Brett wasn’t going to get any outside of Breaststroke so there was no need), but regardless when you see a State Cut reference in an event, that is the time my kids are shooting for to qualify for the State Meet.

The Sectional Meet is a huge step up from the State Meet level. Swimming divides the country into 4 Zones…Western, Central, Southern, and Eastern. Then those Zones are sub-divided into different Sections…in the Southern Zone there are 3 Sections and Georgia is in the Eastern one (So the meet Bailey qualified for in Greensboro in mid March is the Eastern Sectional Southern Zone Age Group Championships). Qualifying for this event works the same way as State, only the time standards are much tougher. For instance…for a 10 year old boy to make State in the 50 Free he has to swim a 33.39 to make Sectionals the time drops to 30.69. A better example might be the 500 Free where the state time is a 7:21.99 but the Sectional Time is a 6:35.19…

Just for reference…the Cumming Chattahoochee Gold team had 21 kids qualify for State. 15 of them were on the “Gold” team and 8 were on the Region and Senior teams (much harder to qualify for State as swimmers get older). Out of the 15 Gold team swimmers only 4 have Sectional Cuts…

[Breeze]

Lanier Invite at Lanier Aquatics 2/8 - 2/10

Bear

100 Back - Seed Time 1:22.00, Sectional Cut 1:18.09 - Terrible start, but closed quickly in the opening 25. Unfortunately his first turn was horrible and to make matters worse coming off the wall he ended up in the ropes. He went from half a body lead on the swimmer to his outside going into the wall to a full body behind coming off the wall…He never recovered – 1:26.25

50 Fly - Seed Time 39.66 - Form is coming around, but still can’t race it well yet. Opening 25 was promising – 42.08

50 Freestyle - Seed Time 32.46, Sectional Cut 30.69 - Did ok, here, but didn't post a personal best. 33.13. Unfortunately, his best time was passed by a couple of swimmers, we'll see if he maintains the A relay spot or not...

100 IM - Seed Time 1:23.16 – His improved Breast couldn’t overcome the downturn in fly – 1:24.80

100 Fly - Seed Time 1:26.59 – He swam it, and not well. The start wasn’t bad, but he didn’t have the strength or rhythm to maintain the stroke – 1:38.85

100 Free - Seed Time 1:11.90 - Last race of the meet…Bear posted a personal best…1:11.79

500 Free - Seed Time 6:41.62, Sectional Cut 6:36.19 - So I calculated what Bear was going to need to do in order to get the sectional cut, and we worked out some signals with the lap counter so I could let him know where he stood. Basically, the note card I held said the following…


37.14 -
1:18.56 1:17.50
2:00.38 - 1.5
2:41.36 2:39.25
3:22.99 - 2.5
4:04.55 4:00.99
4:44.57 -4
5:24.08 5:19.75
6:03.82 - 5.25
6:41.65 6:36:19


The first column is his seed time splits, the second column is how much time he needs to be under on the 50s (50, 150, 250, etc.), the final column is where he needed to be on the 100s…

Unfortunately, Bear was racing in the 12U 500 Free, so he really would have no one to truly race, as the kids around him were much older and shooting for their own state cut times…

Here is how it went…

Opening 50 – Bear’s best coming in was a 37.14 and as the “-“ in the second column indicates I was wanting him to be under that number, at least slightly. Mission Accomplished – 35.70

Opening 100 – Here I wanted Bear to be under 1:17.50, and he posted a 1:15.79, well ahead of pace, but early…I have concerns at this point he can maintain this pace.
150 Split – was looking for him to be around 1.5 seconds under his 2:00.38 so somewhere around a 1:58.75, he posted a 1:55.91

200 Split – looking for something under 2:39.25 and he get the time to a 2:36.55

250 Split – hoping for somewhere around a 3:20.49, and he got a 3:17.93. He’s doing so well at this point I haven’t really had to give him any signals yet. Just kept the signs steady to let him know he’s doing fine.

300 Split – 4:00.99 is what we need to be good and we are a 3:59.54. Starting to see him slip back at this point…as his 2+ second lead is now under 2 seconds…I start wringing my hands at this point and the entire team that is present on Friday is standing next to me in Bears lane, cheering him on…

350 Split – wanting to be sub 4:40.5. he gets a 4:39.33, so now we are just over 1 second ahead of pace…

400 Split – Bear posted a 5:19.07 and I needed him below 5:19.75…so still under with only a 100 to go, he’d only pass me 1 more time and I have my fingers crossed that he has enough in the tank for a strong finishing kick like he usually does…

450 Split – looking for a 5:58.6 and Bear posts a 5:58.56…The volume in the arena was really high as people were yelling at him to kick and screaming for him to pick it up…and I was pumping the lap counter up and down, giving the signal to go all out…

500 Split – Bear needed to swim the final 50 in a 37.63…a tough task…but when he swam the 6:41.62 his final 50 was 37.83…


Bear finished with a closing 50 of 38.16 and a final time of 6:36.72…missing the sectional cut by about .5 seconds. Bear was exhausted after this race…The meet was doing dive overs (where the racers that finish stay in the water until the next race starts and the swimmers “dive over”), but Bear got out of the water, even though he knows he’s not suppose to. When they fussed at him, he said he thought he might pass out. He was so out of it, we had to tell him things several times before it actually registered with him. He now has 1 more chance to get the cut at the State Meet…


EDIT: I was so focused on explaining Bear's 500 Free race, that I forgot to mention his time did win the event for 10 and unders...

[Breeze]

Chattahoochee Gold Short Course Banquet

Tonight is the short course banquet where the swimmers will be recognized for their efforts and the preliminary relay teams for State Meet will be announced. Bailey and Bear will undoubtedly be on relays, but Brett found out last night that he was edged out in the last meet so he won't be.

[Breeze]

Georgia Short Course State Championships @ Georgia Tech 2/22-2/24

So following the banquet here is the relay situation…

Bear will swim on the “A” 200 Yard Free Relay, but he didn’t make a Medley relay getting just edged out in the last meet of the season.

Bailey will anchor the “A” 200 Yard Free Relay (with her friend Lexi), and she will also swim the Free leg on the 200 Yard “A” Medley Relay

And the door isn’t shut yet on Brett making a relay. He won’t make the 400 Medley, but he has a slightly faster time than the boy currently earmarked to swim the Breast leg in the 200 Medley. I asked the coach about it and he said it was probably just an oversight and he would look into it – Fingers Crossed…

[Breeze]

Georgia Short Course State Championships @ Georgia Tech 2/22-2/24

The meet for us starts tomorrow 2/22, with the twins swimming in the 500 Free…here is the breakdown:

Girls 10 & Under 500 Yard Freestyle

Bailey – Seeded 31st, Seed Time 7:02.67 – Bailey isn’t really thrilled about this race. She doesn’t like it very much, and if you ask me, I’d guess she’s a bit concerned that it will tax her to the point that it impacts her swims later in the weekend. If I had to guess, I’d say she’ll still go conservative here, but still post about an 8 second improvement. Most of the time drop will come from just understanding how the race works and how much effort it takes to swim it.

Boys 10 & Under 500 Yard Freestyle

Bear – Seeded 8th, Seed Time 6:36.72 – Bear has the fastest non-sectional time of anyone in this event, and he has a strong shot at remaining a top 10 finisher in the state. I’d love to say, with him only needing a half a second improvement, having been healthy for past 2 weeks (unlike the previous meet where he was still recovering from an illness), and tapering for this event, swimming in a faster pool, and having adrenalin going for the State Meet, that Bear will absolutely get the Sectional Cut, but I just can’t make that leap. Having seen how hard he pushed himself a couple weeks ago, knowing that he thought he might pass out from his effort, I’m concerned he’ll be willing to work that hard again. Don’t misunderstand – I expect him to try and get that cut, as it is the most important goal that he has in swimming right now, I’m just not sure when things start to hurt if he’ll be able to grab that little extra that he needs…

[Breeze]

Wow...this tapering is going to kill me...or I'm going to strangle the kids. They have SOOOOOOO much energy they are bouncing off the walls...

It started earlier this week, but now with the nervous energy of races around the corner, they are going full steam...(hopefully, it translates into faster times)

[Breeze]

Georgia Short Course State Championships @ Georgia Tech 2/22-2/24

At this point I'm not going to do a bunch of write ups...as this is the payoff meet for the kids hard work. This is the meet they've been building towards, so I'll just let them swim the races and I'll provide you with the results after the fact. There are so many great swimmers in our area that the kids aren't going to challenge for medals, and there aren't really many Sectional Cuts within reach, so there is very little to do other than race...I'll only put a few notes in where appropriate.

Here are the events we’ll be swimming over the weekend…

SATURDAY

Bailey

200 IM – Seeded 35th, Seed Time 2:54.77
100 Free – Seeded 32nd, Seed Time 1:09.97
100 Fly – Seeded 12th, Seed Time 1:19.31 (could slip into top 10 in the state with a good swim)
50 Back – Seeded 32nd, Seed Time 36.49 (this is her best shot at another sectional cut)
200 Free Relay

Bear

200 IM – Seeded 21st, Seed Time 2:52.71
100 Free – Seeded 43rd, Seed Time 1:11.79
50 Back – seeded 45th, Seed Time 38.27
200 Free Relay

Brett

200 Breast – Seeded 42nd, Seed Time 3:01.41

SUNDAY

Bailey

200 Free – Seeded 38th, Seed Time 2:38
50 Fly – Seeded 12th, Seed Time 34.25 (Could get top 10 with a good swim)
50 Free – Seeded 32nd, Seed Time 31.51
100 Back – Seeded 37th, Seed Time 1:23.12
200 Medley Relay

Bear

200 Free – Seeded 17th, Seed Time 2:32.57
100 IM – Seeded 48th, Seed Time 1:23.16
50 Free – Seeded 47th, Seed Time 32.46
100 Back – Seeded 28th, Seed Time 1:22.00

[Breeze]

Georgia Short Course State Championships - RESULTS


Bear

200 IM – Seeded 21st, Seed Time 2:52.71
Result: 200 IM - 41st : 2:54.95 - Bear's tough times didn't get better here. His first 25 yards of the fly were, good, but he bogged down badly on the 2nd 25 and he finished the opening split in a 41.14. When Bear posted his personal best in this event, his fly leg was a 39.57. So 1.57 seconds slower, and more fatigued by the new stroke. Bear's back was a 44:11 and his back in November in this event was a 42.87. The breast was a 51.94 and the free was a 37.76...

100 Free – Seeded 43rd, Seed Time 1:11.79
Result: 100 Free - 49th : 1:11.32 - Slight improvement here. He worked very hard on this race, he really felt going in he might be able to drop a couple of seconds. His kick was strong and for a while I thought he might post something in the mid 1:10s...

50 Back – seeded 45th, Seed Time 38.27
Result: 50 Back - 68th : 39.36 - I have contended for a long time that Bear's only problem on the back is his turns, and his turn wasn't great on this one, but his problem was also magnified by the fact that he was very diliberate. He confirmed that he was trying to "not make a mistake", which was causing this approach and undoubtedly cost him some time. I tried to make sure he knew that this was the meet to race, to allow all your trainging to take over and not to overthink...but when you're struggling, I guess it is kind of like a slump in baseball...hard to not allow the performance to weigh on you.

200 Free Relay - Seeded 7th, Seed Time 2:06.33
Results: 200 Free Relay - 5th : 2:04.12 - Bear closed Saturday swimming in the 200 Free Relay. The team came in seeded 7th...The leadoff swimmer got a 31.44, followed by the second swimmers 31.43, Bear swam a 31.55, and the anchor closed with a 29.7. They combined for a 2:04.12 and finished 5th, beating two teams with faster seeds. Bear did have the slowest split, but he was faster than all 4 boys on the B Relay.

200 Free – Seeded 17th, Seed Time 2:32.57
Result: 200 Free - 28th : 2:30.79 - Bear really put a ton of effort into this race. I don't know if he really felt he could get to a sectional cut or not with this stroke, but he really went all out. In fact, he actually overworked the stroke a bit, trying to hard to go fast, he eliminated some of his glide and killed some of his speed. He did manage the around 2 second improvement, and I was happy for him, but I didn't feel good about his prospects moving forward as he was just trying to hard...

100 IM – Seeded 48th, Seed Time 1:23.16
Result: 100 IM - 44th : 1:22.29 - Bear's opening fly wasn't bad here. Again the opening 25 he's pretty strong, it isn't until the back half that the fly starts to stall out. In fact, the opening 50 (Fly, Back) was a 38.37 which is the best opening 50 of the season for him. His back half was a good 43.92, not quite a good as the last chance meet but good. So another personal best.

50 Free – Seeded 47th, Seed Time 32.46
Result: 50 Free - 57th : 32.86 - Bear really wanted to rip this swim, and with two personal bests, I was hoping he was going to, but he didn't. He swam well, only slightly off the personal best...but it still deflated the momentum he had going.

100 Back – Seeded 28th, Seed Time 1:22.00
Result: 100 Back - 44th : 1:24.88 - This was a horrible swim. Late, late start, really pushed hard in the opening 25 and closed some ground, but lost the ground he made up with a poor turn. Each turn got worse as the race went along and Bear faded back bad. He was tired and sore after this one.


Result: 500 Free

This was Bear's first race...the best way to describe it I believe is to give you the numbers. This time my card had all of Bear's cuts from the previous 500 a couple of weeks ago. My feeling being that if he is below the splits, he's on track as he only needed .5 seconds to get the time he needed.



Prev State Meet

35.79 35.87 - This is good, we are right about where we need to be early
1:15.79 1:17.07 - Not good...I start letting him know we are behind
1:55.91 1:57.44 - Picked it up a bit, about a second faster this split, but still behind
2:36.55 2:38.84 - Now I'm starting to worry...really pumping the lap counter, urging him to go faster
3:17.93 3:19.30 - Stopped the bleading but a long way to go to catch the previous pace and have a shot
3:59.54 3:58.90 - And just like that we are ahead of our previous time and on pace for the cut (split of 39.60)
4:39.33 4:39.88 - Slip back just behind the cut...hoping he has a strong kick to finish...
5:19.07 5:18.33 - Only 100 yards left and he's under the cut...
5:58.56 5:57.86 - Literally right on the number...
6:36.72 6:36.38 - Improved - but missed the cut by .19 seconds - closed with a 38.52 split

I wouldn't have believed he could swim a personal best and not get the sectional cut. It is so difficult to fathom .19 seconds when you are talking about a 6 and half minute race. To give you an idea of how fast that is...put your phone on it's stopwatch mode and turn it on and off as fast as you can...I bet you are right around a .19.

Bear actually made a mistake right at the finish that cost him. He peaked. As he was touching the wall, he looked up at the board to see his time, and it shortened his reach. This minor mistake was one of the things that cost him his cut...

Note: I thought about using the Spoiler tag like last time but I wasn't sure if you guys liked not being able to peak ahead or not...so let me know for future reference...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brett

200 Breast – Seeded 42nd, Seed Time 3:01.41
Result : 200 Breast - 31st : 2:59.00 -Brett had his best dive pullout of his life in this race. He was patient with the streamline off the block, and arms down streamline after the actual pullout. By not rushing to the surface, he was able to get much further underwater and didn't trail the swimmer to his inside lane at the beginning of the race (Brett was in an outside lane so he had only 1 person next to him). His pullouts were better throughout this race and it paid off with a personal best time. It was very interesting to look at his splits. His opening 50 was swum in a 39.68 and his personal best in the 50 Breast sprint is a 39.50, more amazingly his split at the 100 was a 1:26.03...his personal best for the 100 Breast was a 1:26.58 - so he actually posted a personl best in the 100 Breast and he still had another 100 Breast to go.

The coach was very pleased with Brett's efforts and told him that given how strong his opening 100 was, he expects to see Brett at a 1:23 in the 100 his next race and below 1:20 by start of next season.

[Breeze]

Georgia State Short Course Championships - RESULTS

500 Free - Seeded 31st, Seed time 7:02.67
Results: 26th, 6:47.13 - I expected a big drop here, just because it was the second time she ever swam the event. It was interested though, because her friend Lexi swam right before her and posted a 6:47.71...so I was urging her to try and beat Lexi's time. I wish I had the ability to create an app that would allow me to enter the swimmer's splits into the system, and then it would play it back as if the people with the splits entered were racing in the same heat. I say that because Lexi and Bailey approached this race completely differently. Lexi went out fast, and really tried to hold on late. Whereas, Bailey took it out much too slow, but kicked down the stretch. Here are both of their splits...



Lexi Bailey Diff

35.37 35.8 -.43
1:15.52 1:16.81 -1.29
1:57.03 1:58.32 -1.29 (yes, they swam the same split)
2:38.02 2:40.85 -2.83
3:20.19 3:22.98 -2.79
4:02.52 4:05.33 -2.81
4:45.12 4:47.06 -2.27
5:26.47 5:29.02 -2.55
6:08.51 6:08.95 -.44
6:47.71 6:47.13 .58






200 IM – Seeded 35th, Seed Time 2:54.77
Results: 32nd, 2:49.98 - Great improvement...but she needs to learn how to swim longer races. Still this huge drop made me pretty confident she'd do well this weekend...


100 Free – Seeded 32nd, Seed Time 1:09.97
Results: 19th, 1:07.57 - Bailey earned her first sectional cut of the meet with this swim :) . She was strong throughout and really did a nice job. The only thing she didn't do well was start, as she was a .82 off the blocks and the average swimmer is mid .7s


100 Fly – Seeded 12th, Seed Time 1:19.31 (could slip into top 10 in the state with a good swim)
Results: 8th, 1:17.57 - Dominating swim for Bailey. She came in 12th, which made her the second fastest seed time in her heat...and she blew her heat away...dominating the rest of the field. She also posted a time that 2 of the swimmers in the fast heat couldn't match...


50 Back – Seeded 32nd, Seed Time 36.49 (this is her best shot at another sectional cut)
Results: 18th, 35.57 - Impressive swim here, as she really opened a big lead on the other swimmers around her. This is another sectional cut time...:)


200 Free Relay - Seeded 7th, Seed Time 2:08.82
Results: 5th, 2:02.19 - This is the relay with Bailey and Lexi...and it was exciting. The opening swimming posted a strong 29.95 and the team was in 4th place. The second swimmer posted a 31.77, which was slow compared to the competition and caused the team to fall to 5th, with 3 other teams only a fraction of a second behind. Lexi swam 3rd and posted a 31.31...but the team fell to 6th with 7th place right on their heals. Bailey dove in and was like a torpedo swimming a 29.16 the 3rd fastest anchor leg out of the 27 teams. She also passed 2 teams put them back in 5th and nearly swam down the girl in 4th place only losing to her by .4 seconds, and beating the team in 6th by .01...


200 Free – Seeded 38th, Seed Time 2:38
Results: 25th, 2:31.13 - A very nice improvement, and probably slightly better than I expected, if I'm being honest. I thought a 2:32 or 2:33 would have been about right. She's capable of going even faster, but as I mentioned in the 200 IM...she still has to learn how to swim the longer events.


50 Fly – Seeded 12th, Seed Time 34.25 (Could get top 10 with a good swim)
Resutls: 14th, 33.74 - I was disappointed she didn't get a top 10, but the time was amazing and she continues to blow away the meet...


50 Free – Seeded 32nd, Seed Time 31.51
Results: 13th, 30.19 - Bailey blitzed this race. She blew away the rest of the head, winning by over a body length. The re-worked stroke continued to work well. Jumping from 31st seed to 13th place...This was also a sectional cut...:)


100 Back – Seeded 37th, Seed Time 1:23.12
Results: 17th, 1:17.19 - The strong backstroke from Saturday, carried over on Sunday, as Bailey improved significantly and once again earned a sectional cut...:D


200 Medley Relay - Seeded 8th, 2:25.12
Results: 4th, 2:18.08 - Love the relays...this one was also exciting. The opening Backstroker swam a strong 36.18...for her it was a personal best and a sectional cut but it still had the team in 6th place. The breaststroker for the relay was a tiny girl, who worked hard. She posted a 40.23
one of the teams in that was ahead of Gold, had a poor breaststroker and fell out of the running. Howerver, 2 teams that were behind actually passed and we were now in 8th place. Then things changed. The Fly leg was swum by the girl that opened the Free Relay with a sub 30 time, and she swam the fly in an unbelievable 31.84. This put the team in 4th, and Bailey swam a sub 30 finishing free leg holding off the two other teams nipping at her heals, and closing on the team in 3rd (but never threatening)...the Gold team beat the 5th place team by .06

[thealmighty]

I know the oftentimes loneliness of the dynasty writer so just wanted to jump in and let you know how much I enjoy this thread.

[Breeze]

I know the oftentimes loneliness of the dynasty writer so just wanted to jump in and let you know how much I enjoy this thread.


Thanks for checking in...appreciate knowing you're reading.

[RPI-Fan]

Can you give a reset as far as where things stand on sectionals and what will be coming up in the summer and fall and what the goals will be for those seasons?

[Breeze]

Can you give a reset as far as where things stand on sectionals and what will be coming up in the summer and fall and what the goals will be for those seasons?

Hey RPI, thanks for reading, and absolutely, I'll gladly update where things stand and what's coming up. There is a bunch of information in here and a lot of it is redundant so it can be hard to follow, even for me, and I live it every day...

Here is what I'll do...

1. Update our current situation heading into sectionals next weekend (3/7-3/10)
2. Explain how the kids did during short course compared to their goals
3. Update where we are with personal bests in all swims
4. Explain the remainder of our short course schedule
5. Explain the upcoming long course schedule (late spring and summer)
6. Outline the goals for long course (kids are just now forming them by the way, so this may take a few days)
7. Explain where things are for our summer rec. league (still deciding about this one)

Let me know if there is anything in addition to these items that you'd like to see...

[Breeze]

Sectional Meet Update

The sectional meet in Greensboro, NC will take place 3/7 - 3/10. We will be attending as Bailey has qualified in the following events...

- 50 Fly
- 100 Fly
- 50 Back
- 100 Back
- 50 Free
- 100 Free

She will be going along with teammate Hailey (not the same Haley from SA). The backstroker from the Bailey's State Medley Relay team, Emma, qualified with that swim, but she practices at a different pool so we aren't sure if she'll be going or not. The team failed to have a 4th girl qualify, so there won't be any relays at the meet.

Bear will also be going. He failed to qualify in the 500 Free by .19 seconds, but I've told him if he wants to swim at the meet (and he does), that we will enter him and if he fails to get the time during the meet I'll pay the $50 fine. It was really touching, when I asked him if he wanted to swim in the meet, his response was "Yeah, but I wanted to earn it..." I told him that as long as he gets the time at the meet, he earned it...I'm just giving him 1 more shot at it. Unfortunately for Bear, the boys ended up having 4 qualify for the meet, which means those 4 will make up both the Free and Medley relays.

The Psych Sheet isn't out yet for Sectionals, when it comes out, I'll let you know where the kids are seeded...

[Breeze]

State Meet Recap

The state meet was an emotional one for the wife and me. As you can tell from the results Bailey absolutely destroyed the meet. Personal Bests in everything, a top 10 finish, 4 additional sectional cuts, and 2 great relay swims.

Whereas, Bear continued to struggle. His just missing the Sectional Cut in the 500 free was heartbreaking for me. He was so close...and he only missed it because he tried to be too conservative up front. He remembered how tired he was after the Last Chance Meet, but he didn't recall the fact he had been sick so often prior to that meet, which made him more tired that he would normally have been. Making matters worse, one of the boys he typically beats, got the state cut by .14 seconds. Bear was very disappointed most of the weekend. He saw his sister tearing things up, and watched many of his friends that he dominated through the season pass him by. We are starting to see some good signs and I expect Bear will be turning things around soon, but it's still hard to see him so disappointed (especially, if you'll recall from the beginning of the dynasty when I talked about the kid's personalities...Bear is the softhearted, sweat kid)...

Brett was very pumped up following his race, and actually it has shown up in practice already. He had indicated he wanted to go over his long course goals with me, almost immediately following the state meet. We haven't done that yet, but it shows that he has a pretty good idea of what he wants to push for. I'm eager to see what he came up with...

[Breeze]

There is still 1 short course meet left. It is the Atlanta Division Meet...and with Chattahoochee Gold we'll be in the Northern Division (SA was in the Metro Divisional Meet). It will come up around March 22nd thru the 24...and it is a big meet for the team. There will be relays and Gold really shoots to win this event...

However, because most of the kids goals revolved around Sectionals, I'll post them below and make notations if something changes with regards to goals in the Sectional or Divisional Meet...

[Breeze]

Short Course Season Goals - Bear

Bear has been the most vocal about his goals for the season, and he is getting very pumped up about his prospects. His goals are:


Get state cuts in all events
Get at least 1 sectional cut
Swim for Chattahoochee Gold's relay team at the state championships


Bear has some other time specific goals, but they aren't as important as they'll change based on results, and in all honestly he might smash the numbers he currently has set with a good season, so I'm not going to list them here.

As for the ones listed...Bear has a great chance to achieve his goals. He basically has almost all of his state cuts already (though the state cut numbers will be changing this season, we are still waiting for the Georgia Swim Association to publish the updated figures). Based on last seasons times Bear is only missing the 50 Breast and the 100 Free. He'll undoubtedly swim some races he's never done before with Gold like the 200 IM, 100 Fly, and maybe the 400 Free...so he'll need to get cuts in those as well, but things look good on this one.

Getting a sectional cut will be a bit harder, but if the cut figures stay the same, he's about 3 seconds off on a couple of them. That level of improvement is very attainable. This would be a huge achievement to make the sectionals.

Swimming on the Gold Relay will also be within reach. In fact, one of the parent volunteer coaches last night told me (without prompting), that the Gold Relay team for the 9-10 boys will probably all come from our facility. With Bear being one of them in both the medley and free teams. This coach has been with Gold for several years and knows the boys from the other facilities so this was very encouraging.

Here is how Bear ended up...

Get State Cuts in All Events - YES

Get At Least 1 Sectional Cut - No - So far...missed by .19 seconds, but still can earn it at the Sectional Meet

Swim for Chattahoochee Golds Relay Team - Yes & No as he swam in the A free relay but completely missed the Medley...

[Breeze]

Short Course Season Goals - Brett

Brett has been a little more reserved in his goals. He's excited about swimming again, and looks forward to practice, but he understands his position and that he has some work to do, so he's not getting carried away with setting goals right now.

Basically, all he wants to accomplish is to get the state cut in all 3 breaststroke events and in 1 outside event.

As for his prospects. I believe by long course season he will have all 3 state cuts (actually he only needs 2 as he already has the 200 Breast). I'm not sure he'll be able to get the 50 and 100 Breast in short course. He's a couple seconds off in the 50, but several seconds in the 100...

I don't believe he has any shot at getting a cut in another stroke (though his off strokes are improving signifcantly...). If he can start swimming similar times to Bailey and Bear in his off strokes it will be a huge improvement and indicate that he might be able to become an all around swimmer...

There is 1 other goal for Brett...he has a chance to swim Breast on the Chattahoochee Gold Medley Relay team at state...

With Brett, as I mentioned at the time, his goals were quite high...and I really didn't expect him to reach them. Here is how he did with comments...

Get a State Cut in All 3 Breaststroke Events - No - but as I said, I didn't think it was possible. I did feel after his strong swim in the 50 during time trials he might squeak out that cut, but unfortunately, he never improved significantly over that initial time...

Get a Cut in 1 "other" stroke - No - Really didn't expect this one as he had a LONG way to go...however if we look at it like this...

Swim outside strokes with similar times to siblings (which is what I felt was a more realistic goal) - Sort of - he improved dramatically, and actually got faster than Bailey and Bear in a couple of strokes, before Bailey's huge improvements recently...

Swim on a Chattahoochee Gold Relay Team - No - Just missed it by .3...

[Breeze]

Short Course Season Goals - Bailey

Right now Bailey's goals would be almost exactly the same as Bear's. However, Bailey's chances of achieving those goals are much slimmer...

First, the shoulder issue she is currently dealing with will limit her ability to practice and thus reduce her improvement. If this can get cleaned up before November, then the impact will be significantly reduced and Bailey should have time to catch up before the state meet in February. Getting the state cuts in all strokes shouldn't be a huge deal as she already has almost all of them. She's only missing....the 50, 100, and 200 Free. Obviously, if she can't practice the chances of getting the Sectional Cut will become much more difficult. However, like Bear she's only about 3 seconds from that time in several events.

Second, making a relay at Swim Atlanta is much tougher...The sheer number of Swim Atlanta swimmers will make it difficult...Swim Atlanta has over three times as many kids in the program compared to Chattahoochee Gold...so much more competition for the 8 relay spots. Also Swim Atlanta has some very high end swimmers. For instance, there are 2 sisters that are both 10 and under and both are ranked in the top 3 nationally for the age group in multiple strokes. They will undoubtedly get 2 of the 8 relay spots.

Based on what we find out in physical therapy her goals may be downgraded a bit...

So Bailey's write up above requires some recapping.

First, Bailey was on the shelf for quite a while, in fact her first meet was in November, but as I mentioned, if she could get back in the pool by November then I felt she might have time to get her times down (boy was that an understatement).

Second, Due to the shoulder problems, we pulled Bailey from SA and moved her to Chattahoochee Gold, which made the odds of getting on a relay team much higher...

That stated here is how she did...

Get All State Cuts - YES

Get At Least 1 Sectional Cut - YES - she got 6 and if her Breaststroke hadn't fallen apart recently, she probably would have had both IMs as well

Swim on a Chattahoochee Gold Relay Team - YES - anchored the "A" Free Relay and Swam the Free Leg on the "A" Medley Relay
(note: I find it a bit ironic that Bailey ended up the best Freestyler in her age group on Chattahoochee Gold, when it was her poor form in the Free at SA that caused her to swim the stroke slowly and caused her all the shoulder problems in the first place...)

[Breeze]

General Update

Bear strained a hip flexor last night and was limited in what he could do in practice.

Bailey woke up this morning with a fever

So the twins will not be at practice tonight. Bear was scheduled to have a private lesson on Saturday, so I hope he's markedly better tomorrow. I think Bailey just has a cold.

[Breeze]

Bailey's Short Course Personal Bests



Stroke Age Time Standard Meet Date
50 FR 10 30.19 "AA" 2/22/2013


100 FR 10 01:07.57 "AA" 2/22/2013


200 FR 10 02:31.13 "A" 2/22/2013


500 FR 10 06:47.13 "A" 2/22/2013


50 BK 10 35.57 "AA" 2/22/2013


100 BK 10 01:17.19 "AA" 2/22/2013


50 BR 10 44.34 "BB" 12/14/2012


100 BR 10 01:34.77 "BB" 11/10/2012


50 FL 10 33.74 "AA" 2/22/2013


100 FL 10 01:17.57 "AA" 2/22/2013


100 IM 10 01:20.77 "A" 1/19/2013


200 IM 10 02:49.98 "A" 2/22/2013

[Breeze]

Bear's Short Course Personal Bests



Stroke Age Time Standard Meet Date
50 FR 10 32.46 "BB" 12/14/2012

100 FR 10 01:11.32 "BB" 2/22/2013


200 FR 10 02:30.79 "A" 2/22/2013


500 FR 10 06:36.38 "A" 2/22/2013


50 BK 10 38.27 "BB" 1/19/2013


100 BK 10 01:22.00 "BB" 12/14/2012


50 BR 10 47.21 "BB" 11/10/2012


100 BR 10 01:37.02 "BB" 1/19/2013


50 FL 10 39.66 "BB" 9/15/2012


100 FL 10 01:26.59 "BB" 12/14/2012


100 IM 10 01:22.29 "BB" 2/22/2013


200 IM 10 02:52.71 "A" 11/10/2012

[Breeze]

Brett's Short Course Personal Bests



Stroke Age Time Standard Meet Date

50 FR 12 33.92 2/8/2013


100 FR 12 01:11.85 "B" 12/14/2012


200 FR 12 02:29.65 "B" 2/8/2013


500 FR 12 06:52.84 "B" 2/8/2013


1000 FR 12 14:03.24 "B" 2/8/2013


50 BK 12 39.52 1/19/2013


100 BK 12 01:23.17 "B" 2/8/2013


200 BK 12 2:58.13 12/14/2012


50 BR 12 39.50 "BB" 11/30/2012


100 BR 12 01:26.58 "BB" 12/14/2012


200 BR 12 02:59.00 "BB" 2/22/2013


50 FL 12 38.41 12/14/2012


100 FL 12 01:29.94 2/8/2013


100 IM 12 01:25.99 11/30/2012


200 IM 12 02:56.92 "B" 2/8/2013

[thealmighty]

At what age would you expect Bear's times to start surpassing Bailey?

Just curious.

[Izulde]

Just curious, how is Brett handling being the only one of the three not competing at Sectionals? I seem to remember early in the dynasty you said he's the most passionate about swimming of the siblings.

[Breeze]

At what age would you expect Bear's times to start surpassing Bailey?

Just curious.


thealmighty - to answer your question, I figured I'd go back to the State Meet time standards and determine when the boys times start to become harder than the girls on a consistent basis. It looks like at 13 the boys times start to become harder. The times are approximately 2 seconds faster across the board. At 14 time times are 3 to 4 seconds in 100s and 4+ seconds in longer events. The disparity gets larger in the Senior (15+) age group. So I'd say at 13 or 14 we should start to see the shift.


Just curious, how is Brett handling being the only one of the three not competing at Sectionals? I seem to remember early in the dynasty you said he's the most passionate about swimming of the siblings.


Izulde - you remember correctly, Brett is the one that really loves the sport. He's extremely proud of his siblings, in fact, he's planning to go and watch rather than stay home with my parents. That being said there is an underlying disappointment that he's been unable to get to this level. He realized going in he wouldn't achieve a Sectional Cut time, and that Bailey and Bear were likely to get one...so knowing that ahead of time undoubtedly mitigated some of the frustration. Unfortunately for Brett, he'll age up right before the start of the next short course season, which will make his time standards significantly harder (I'll cover this more down the road)...I really feel for Brett when it come to this...

-----------------------------------------

Both great questions...let me know if you have any more...

[Breeze]

ESSZ Championships @ Greensboro, N.C. - 3/7 - 3/10

Note: ESSZ is the way the event abbreviates Eastern Section Southern Zone...

So the Psych Sheet is out, and here is how the kids stack up...

Bailey

50 Fly - Seeded 45th / 80
100 Fly - Seeded 33rd / 61
50 Free - Seeded 47th / 82
100 Free - Seeded 52nd / 72
50 Back - Seeded 49th / 76
100 Back - Seeded 58th / 71



Bear

500 Free - Seeded 41st / 41


The times, as expected, are very tight in this meet...to illustrate - in the short sprints an improvement of 1 second on the seed time could result in an improvement of 20 spots in the overall finish...

Also the races should be extremely tight as the difference from the fastest person in a heat and the slowest will probably be around .5 seconds...

[Breeze]

Hey RPI, thanks for reading, and absolutely, I'll gladly update where things stand and what's coming up. There is a bunch of information in here and a lot of it is redundant so it can be hard to follow, even for me, and I live it every day...

Here is what I'll do...

1. Update our current situation heading into sectionals next weekend (3/7-3/10)
2. Explain how the kids did during short course compared to their goals
3. Update where we are with personal bests in all swims
4. Explain the remainder of our short course schedule
5. Explain the upcoming long course schedule (late spring and summer)
6. Outline the goals for long course (kids are just now forming them by the way, so this may take a few days)
7. Explain where things are for our summer rec. league (still deciding about this one)

Let me know if there is anything in addition to these items that you'd like to see...

So, I believe I still owe you the upcoming long course schedule, the long course goals and the summer rec. league information. However, given that we still have the 2 short course races left (Sectionals and the Northern Divisional Meet), I'll provide that information once we've finished with those races...that way everything will be organized in the thread...

[Breeze]

General Update

Bear's hip flexor problem seems to be fine now...probably more growing pains.

Bailey's fever was gone on Friday afternoon, but she does have a double outer ear infection (Read: Swimmer's Ear). The last few days in practice she's only been able to use a kickboard, so she can keep her ears out of the water...

[Breeze]

ESSZ Championships

If you want to watch the meet it is available on in...

ESSZ Championship Meet (http://coachesaid.com/channel.aspx?channel=23)

It'll only cost $5 a day.

Actually didn't expect you guys to watch, just thought it was kind of cool that it will be covered and felt it was worth mentioning...

[Breeze]

ESSZ Age Group Championships - RESULTS


Bailey

Friday

50 Fly - Seeded 45th, Time 33.74 : RESULTS - 50th, Time 33.44


Saturday

100 Fly - Seeded 33rd, Time 1:17.57 : RESULTS - 36th, Time 1:16.13
100 Free - Seeded 52nd, Time 1:07.57 : RESULTS - 71st, Time 1:09.29
50 Back - Seeded 49th, Time 35.57 : RESULTS - 65th, Time 36.12


Sunday

50 Free - Seeded 47th, Time 30.19 : RESULTS - 72nd, Time 31.26
100 Back - Seeded 58th, Time 1:17.19 : RESULTS - 65th , Time 1:18.28

Bailey didn't do as well as she had hoped she would, but because of the double swimmers ear, she was unable to practice like she needed to. She kicked, so she was in shape for the races, but her dives and turns were extremely poor, and certainly contributed to a majority of her time gains. All and all I was pleased, she handled herself well and she enjoyed the experience, which was the whole point...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Bear

500 Free - Seeded 41st, Time 6:36.38, RESULTS - 40th, Time 6:47.85

Poor Bear, He was so concerned he wouldn't do well, the kid actually made himself sick before this race. It started at Breakfast and before I knew it he had taken 4 trips to the bathroom. Before the race at the facility we got him calmed down a bit, but right before the race, he found me and told me he almost threw up in the bathroom. I knew he wasn't going to swim well so the time didn't surprise me. I really tried to take the pressure off of him by letting him know we didn't care about his time, we felt he had earned the right to be here, we felt he'd do well during the race, but it didn't help. He was so uptight, on two occassions he did his flip turn and almost didn't touch the wall, and because he could just barely brush the wall with his feet, he barely got any push...

One of the main reasons that we brought the kids was so they could experience the event. Hopefully, next time he won't get so uptight...

[Breeze]

Northern Divisional Meet @ Mt View Aquatic Center 3/22 - 3/24

All,

Sorry for the delay in posting the pre-write up for this event. I just recently got the update with the events the kids will be swimming, but the host of the meet has failed to post a Psych Sheet, so I don't know anything about the seeding. I'll keep an eye on it and let you know...

[Breeze]

Northern Divisions Meet @ Mt. View Aquatic Center

The Psych Sheet was finally posted…I'm going to post these in stages in case I can't get them all done today at work...


Brett

Day 1

100 Free – 23RD : 1:11.85 – Brett’s Freestyle continues to improve, and I could see a decent drop here, except for the fact we’ll be getting up real early to get to the pool, and this will be the first race. Not sure if he’ll be fully awake.

100 Breast – 9TH : 1:26.58 – His coach is expecting a big improvement from him in this one base on his 1:26.00 opening 100 in the 200 Breast at State. Coach says he should be able to get down into the upper 1:23s. I’m not sure we are getting there. An interesting side note in this one, Brett should be in the same heat with the other 12 year old (Kyle) that just edged him out for the State 200 Yard B relay team, he’s a couple seconds slower in the 100 (only a fraction of a second off in the 50), but, even though he hasn’t said anything…I believe he has a personal goal to beat Kyle.

100 Back – 17TH: 1:23.17 – If he cleans up his turns and charges into the walls he should drop here. In practice, he’s starting to close on most of the other kids in his lane when he swims backstroke. However, he will sometimes get anxious when swimming the back because he feels he isn’t going fast enough, and when that happens he tends to mix in a bicycle type kick, which is a more natural motion for him over the flutter kick. If he does that his times will suffer…

Day 2

50 Breast – 9TH : 39.50 – Hoping Brett does the bigger dolphin kick during the pullout phase on both ends of the pool. If he does, this time will drop. He is again racing Kyle and he wants to beat him here…(if he does beat him, he may end up in the B relay for Gold)

100 Fly – 15TH : 1:29.94 – It’s amazing to think as I write this that Brett is seeded 15 in a long fly event. It really illustrates how far he’s come. Unfortunately, while he’s making strides and improving, he’s also working on things, and he’s currently developed some bad habits with his kick. My guess is he gets DQed...

50 Free – 24TH : 33.92 – who knows? I’ve said for a while this should drop, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to move much. The boy needs to learn to race this stroke and give more short burst effort.

Gold will field at least 3 relay teams for both Free and Medley races in this event, so Brett could end up on 1 or 2 of them…the team isn't announcing who’s swimming them until right before the race, so I’ll have to fill in that information in the post race comments.

[Breeze]

Northern Divisional Meet

Bear

Day 1

100 IM – 5TH : 1:22.29 – Bear’s fly is starting to come together, and in fact, I think he can swim it pretty well for 25 yards, so his recent struggles with that stroke shouldn’t adversely impact him to much this weekend. His backstroke has improved, but turns are still going to be a problem. Good clean turns and a solid fly and he could drop a couple of seconds…maybe even slip into the top 3 and earn a medal…

50 Free – 7TH : 32.46 – I’d really like to see Bear get some traction here. He’s been passed by several kids on the Gold team in this event, and I’d really like to see him make an improvement like they have recently and drop time. Yes, I’m probably jealous a bit, but Bear works SOOOO much harder in practice than the kids that have passed him, that it really does irritate me a bit that he isn’t still beating them. Plus a good swim here, could put him on the A Free Relay, a poor swim and he’ll be on the B team at best.

100 Breast– 6TH: 1:37.02 – I have no idea what will happen here. It has been a long time since Bear raced this. His form looks much better, but he still isn’t real fast with it. I do believe the speed is coming, but it will take a while.

50 Back – 9TH : 38.27 – Another stroke that Bear has been struggling with, but most of his struggles here are around the turns. He isn’t carrying his speed into the turns and his flips are very slow. The actual stroke isn’t bad. Unfortunately, I don’t think he’s cleaned this up enough to have an improvement.

Day 2

50 Breast – 11TH : 47:21 – See the 100 Breast – just don’t know, because he hasn’t raced it in a long time.

100 Back – 8TH : 1:22.00 – Just like the 50, this will probably all come down to turns. In fact, my guess is – if he swims a good 50 and improves, he’ll improve here. If he doesn’t swim a good 50, he won’t swim well here either, due to a combination of technique and confidence.

50 Fly – 9TH : 39.66 – The extra work he’s put in on this stroke is making a difference. His form is much prettier than it has ever been (at least in the first 25 to 35 yards). However, he tends to fatigue which causes the form to fall apart badly at the end. Also, because he is focusing on form, he isn’t racing the stroke as well, so some of the speed is missing. However, he could post a personal best here…and MAN I HOPE HE DOES, cause it would be huge for his confidence. Unfortunately, it will late on the second day, so I don’t know how much steam he’ll have left in the tank…

100 Free – 8TH : 1:11.32 – If he has anything left, he’ll give this all he’s got, but even if he can improve, my bet is it will only be fractionally better…

Like Brett, there will be at least 3 relays in both the Free and Medley…

[Breeze]

Northern Divisional Meet

Bailey

Now for Bailey this meet could be huge. The top three in each event will get a medal, and you’ll see based on where she is seeded in each event, how many medals she has a shot at…

Day 1

100 IM – 4TH : 1:20.77 – Bailey didn’t swim this at the State Meet so my bet is this will definitely be a personal best, and could be a personal best by a lot. I’m just not sure if the Breast has improved enough to get her in the top 3. The girl seeded 3, has a 1:16.52. My guess is Bailey can get to a 1:18 low, but most likely she’ll need a poor swim by the 2 or 3 seed to get a medal here.

50 Free – 3RD : 30.19 – These races are so tight the slightest thing can make a huge difference. A good vs poor start can make a .3 difference in time, and with the top seed sitting at only a 29.83, Bailey could win. On the other side, a poor start or turn by Bailey and she could end up 5 or 6

50 Back– 2ND: 35.57 – If she swims close to her personal best a top 3 is almost assured. If she swims like she did at Sectionals, she might get edged out for the podium.

100 Fly – 1ST : 1:16.13 – Unless one of the other swimmers in this race has a real old time and is much faster than their seed, or unless Bailey swallows a bunch of water and has to stop, she should win this race. The girl seeded second is almost 10 full seconds slower…

Day 2

50 Breast – 7TH : 44:34 – It has been too long for me to know. I do know she said her knee hurt a bit after swimming breast at practice Thursday night, so I’m not holding my breath here. Maybe I’ll get some insight based on how her Breast looks in the IM on day 1.

100 Back – 4TH : 1:17.19 – Seeded about a second and a half off a podium spot. She could sneak in and get a medal here, but she’ll need to swim better than she did at Sectionals.

50 Fly – 1ST : 33.44 – Unlike the 100, this one could be tight. Only a .34 advantage in seed time over second. Should easily medal here though…

100 Free – 2ND : 1:07.57 – Not probably going to win the event with a top time of 1:04.46…but could hold off the challengers for second.

Bailey will certainly be on both A relays.

Quick note…this will be Bailey’s good friend Lexi’s (the one that has had the double knee surgeries on both knees in the last 2 years) last meet with us. She is moving to Arizona. Her swimming has gotten much stronger since she joined Gold and I am hopeful, she’ll be able to sneak in and get a medal somewhere. I’m also hopeful, she will be on both of Bailey’s A relay teams…
-

[Breeze]

Based on my final note in Bailey's write up, I figured I'd take a second and post Lexi's seed times and places...

50 Free - 6th : 32.36
50 Back - 6th : 37.99
200 Free - 3rd : 2:30.72
100 Back - 9th : 1:22.65
100 Free - 5th : 1:10.87

[Breeze]

The swim meet this weekend went well and I’ll update you on the information once the official results come out. However, that’s not what this update is for…

Lexi’s family is on an airplane this morning heading to Arizona to start their new life there. I’ve known about the impending move for months, and I was aware Paul (father) was looking for a new job for closer to 9 months, so I’m a bit surprised their leaving has hit me so hard. We were pretty close, as I saw them almost every day at practice, and typically we’d sit together for an hour or so while the kids swam. We’ve also gone out to eat together numerous times (typically after a practice or after a meet), and we’ve even hosted them and they’ve returned the favor. While all this is nice, it certainly isn’t earth shattering, or some tight level of bonding that would result in the mild depression I’m currently coping with.

So I examined other areas that are contributing to my current malaise. I believe part of it is that I’m losing a kindred spirit. Swimming is a tough sport, long hours, tough start times, not many breaks in the schedule, which makes it hard to interact with people that aren’t other swim parents. Swim meets are also long, as you wait for hours to watch your kid swim for 1 minute, so it’s nice to have someone to talk to during that time that you enjoy being around. It’s also nice to have someone who knows what you are going through, and that takes a genuine interest in the results of your child, actively rooting for them to do well.

In addition to missing the parents, I am going to miss the kids, as I have a good relationship with Lexi and her brother Ryan. They have both spent the night at the house (Lexi more times than I can count), and they are great kids, sweet and polite with great attitudes. Lexi, with her injury history, is a kid that you can’t help feeling and rooting for as she’s already over come so much that it is amazing. Now they will be gone and we won’t be watching them as the progress. Lexi has been with us so often over the last two years that she’s a bit like a family member. In fact, I help out with the team’s dry land on Wednesday, and we play dodge ball at the end of practice so the kids can have some fun. During dodge ball, I went out of my way to get everyone out except Lexi. After the practice, Bailey knew what I had done and she ran over gave me a hug and said, “Thanks Dad”…followed about 10 seconds later by Lexi, who gave me a hug and not prompted, not hearing what Bailey had said, completely unscripted said, “Thanks second Dad…”

However, with all that…and the above reasons are significant, the thing that kills me the most is the way it is impacting Bailey. Last night, after the swim meet, Bailey went out to dinner with Lexi and then to her house, while I stayed at the pool for Brett. When Paul brought Bailey home, those few minutes where they dropped her off were hard. Paul was clearly emotional, having seen the girls interact most of the evening knowing they wouldn’t be seeing each other again anytime soon (if ever). Seeing how it was impacting Paul, put a knot in my stomach. Then watching Bailey hugging Lexi goodbye, while tearing up. Trying to be big and put on a good face, trying to laugh off the pain, but starting to cry anyway. Lexi trying not to cry by teasing Bailey about the tears, but failing miserably. Then they walked out the door, and Bailey stood there, in the doorway, and watched them pull away. Then she turned to me, and completely broke down. I will be haunted by that look for a VERY VERY LONG TIME…and I have to admit I started to tear up…and I remained choked up all night (just writing this I feel my throat constricting and my eyes starting to water just picturing her face). In fact, I didn’t sleep well despite the fact I had spent almost 30 hours of the weekend at a pool and had gotten out of bed at 5:15 on Saturday and Sunday to make it down to warm ups.

Background…

This whole experience, is part of growing up, but it is really hard, especially for Bailey. Lexi moved to Atlanta about 2 years ago, and on her first day in town she joined SwimAtlanta, and from that day Bailey and Lexi were tight. They really gravitated towards each other. In fact, there were times that I had to remind Bailey that she needed to spend time with others and not concentrate so much on Lexi. I think each of them saw a bit of themselves in the other. They both have darker complexions, dark brown hair, brown eyes. They are short, and athletically built, and they both are competitive but sweet. The two always got along great they never had any fights, arguments, or problems. When they spent the night together at our house or theirs, the kids went to bed without fighting and they slept; they didn’t stay up until all hours of the morning just being silly. They made a great team.

Also you may remember from the earlier writings that one of the main reasons Bailey liked swimming was because she had so many friends. When we put her with Chattahoochee Gold she left most of those friends behind. We still see them on occasion, but nowhere near like the way she saw them prior to the change. At Gold the coaching has been much better, but in all honestly, there really aren’t any girls for Bailey to be friends with. Hailey (from the state relay) and Hayden (Hailey’s twin) are about the only ones, and they don’t come to practice everyday as they compete in other sports, and right now they are at soccer almost every night. So now with Lexi gone Bailey will be only girl swimming with 9 boys in the 2 fast lanes for practice, so there is no one currently around to fill the void, and with the hours we swim, she doesn’t get the chance to interact with many other girls in order to make friends.

Also as you may remember Bailey’s tennis coach had a stroke at the end of last Summer. Because their medical bills got so high, they had to move back down to live with family in Augusta. They left about 3 weeks ago, and when they moved Bailey lost her best friend from tennis as well.

[Breeze]

Northern Divisions Meet @ Mt. View Aquatic Center

Brett

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 1 Prelims

100 Free – 23RD : 1:11.85 – Pretty good swim for Brett…no underwater work off the wall or any of the turns or it would have been a personal best. 1:12.02

100 Breast – 9TH : 1:26.58 – Huge swim for Brett here. Really did a much bigger dolphin kick on the pullout and worked hard, finishing the prelims in 7TH with a personal best of 1:25.06.

100 Back – 17TH: 1:23.17 – Another swim that was almost identical to his personal best. Turns were very solid, but still no underwater work and the start could use some help. 1:24.19

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Day 1 Finals

100 Breast – 7TH : 1:25.06 – This wasn’t a particularly good swim. Brett didn’t do a good job of warming down. In fact, I watched him do a bunch of fly during warm down as he is really trying to improve his stroke. I warned him that this was going to wear him out, but he wasn’t listening. By the time finals rolled around he was stiff and sore. He posted a mediocre 1:27.46 in the finals to finish 10TH.

100 Back - 18TH : 1:24.19 – After a pretty long warm down following the breast Brett loosened up a bit and really went out hard trying to get a personal best, but he ended up just off his qualifying time – 1:24.38, and he finished 18TH.


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Day 2 - Prelims

50 Breast – 9TH : 39.50 – The improved dolphin kick helped in this one as well…he saw a personal best 38.81 in the prelims and finished 8TH, qualifying for the A final.

100 Fly – 15TH : 1:29.94 – Swam a time very close to a personal best and he breathed on every stroke. Once he has the confidence to breathe every other stroke the time will drop a bunch. Overall he finished 17TH and qualified for the B final with a time of 1:30.61.

50 Free – 24TH : 33.92 – Finally got a pretty significant improvement in this stroke. Posted a time of 32.88 (still could do more underwater on the turns, but I’m not complaining)

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Day 2 Finals

50 Breast – 8TH : 38.81 – Another strong swim for Brett, as he get another personal best and improves by another half a second posting a time of 38:38, unfortunately, he had to settle for 9th as 1 other kid beat him out. Unfortunately, the state cut for the 50 Breast is a 38.29…so Brett just missed this cut heading into the long course season.

100 Fly – 17TH : 1:30.61 – This was an ugly swim…still breathed ever stroke and with fatigue he really struggled 1:34.96.

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Relays

Brett did get to swim on the C Free Relay on Saturday. Actually swam a decent split of 32.71…over a second faster that the slowest split on the relay. The team was poor though, finishing 9 out of 10.

Brett’s strong swim in the 50 Breast also allowed him to be on the B Medley Relay on Sunday. His split was a 38.28, and the team finished 5/9.


Followup: Brett was very excited after this meet. His two strong Breast swims have a lot to do with that. His improved pullout also has him excited as he feels he’s positioned to do well in long course. He is also still very interested in getting his fly stroke worked out and is already scheduled to have 2 private lessons over the next week to get some extra work.

[Breeze]

Northern Divisional Meet

Bear

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Day 1

100 IM – 5TH : 1:22.29 – The fly in this one looked good, but the back to breast turn was slow, and he overworked the breast, leading to a time similar to what he’s been posting recently and nowhere near a personal best – Finished 9TH with a time of

[B]50 Free – 7TH : 32.46 – Another swim, similar to where he’s been recently, but still just off of a personal best. Finished 8TH with a time of 32.93

100 Breast– 6TH: 1:37.02 – This one was a little disappointing, as Bear’s breast has been better recently, but in this one, he seemed to be caught between not overworking and not getting a good catch. Added several seconds to his personal best, 1:41.58, which is not what I was expecting. As I mentioned in the pre-event write up, it has been a while and I didn’t know what to expect…that may have been too general. If I were more specific, and honest with myself I probably should have said that I don’t know if he’s ready to improve a good bit. Adding a significant amount of time was a surprise.

50 Back – 9TH : 38.27 – The struggles for Bear continue, he adds 2.25 seconds to his seed time to finish 14 with a time of 40.56

This was another terrible day for Bear, as he continues to struggle to get any traction and get a positive result. His fly did look better in the IM, but that is a small take away at this point in his struggles.

FREE RELAY – Bear did get to swim on the A Free Relay. He swam the 3RD leg and had the second fastest split (though only fractionally faster than the leadoff leg, who had the cold start). He swam a 33.07, no where close to his time at State. The team finished 2ND, a good 11 seconds behind first, and a good 6 seconds ahead of 3RD


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Day 2

50 Breast – 11TH : 47:21 – After the poor 100, I didn’t have any expectation on this one…and Bear went out and surprised me. He swam a strong race, really doing a better job of driving forward and reaching rather than over working and getting to up and down. He finally got a personal best with a significant improvement of 1.4 seconds. He finished 8TH and his time was 45.82

100 Back – 8TH : 1:22.00 – Couldn’t clean up the backstroke enough to get a personal best as he only manages a 1:25.47 and an 11TH place finish. I know I’ve said this before, but he really needs to clean up the turns and the maintaining of speed heading into the walls. You might be wondering why the coach isn’t pushing this, and it is because she’s more concerned with his fly and breast form right now.

50 Fly – 9TH : 39.66 – And finally some reward for all the hard work. Bear looked very strong. His form is much better and it resulted in a 5 th place finish and an improvement of over a second, 38.44. Bear was able to put together the entire 50 without breaking for and/or fatiguing too much. He did get a little high 3 times when he was breathing on the back half, but he’ll iron that out pretty quickly, which should mean another second or so of time. This one was big as his entire confidence seemed to go up with this 1 swim. (note: one driving factor in this one was the Medley relay at the end of the day. Bear had been told he was on the B medley, and he knew if he swam the fly good enough they might switch the order and he could get on the A. Gold does that from time to time at State and Sectionals, taking the hottest swimmer at the moment and putting them in the relay. However, they don’t deviate in this meet, so Bear was stuck with the B team)

100 Free – 8TH : 1:11.32 – I guess Bear did have something left, as he swam good here, posting his 3rd personal best of the day, 1:10.83, . He had a strong kick for the full 100, and he definitely gave maximum effort. He also climbed up to 5th overall

MEDLEY RELAY Bear’s medley relay was fun…to begin with it was a 2 Bear relay, as a second child with the same name was on the relay…in fact they swam the 3RD and 4TH legs. The race started and Bears team was in 4Th after the back with 3 other teams right on their heals. The breaststroker was able to real in one of the teams that was in front (actually 2ND after the back, but 3RD after the breast), so when my Bear dove in, he was still in 4 TH, but only 1.2 seconds behind. Bear’s fly again, looked good…as he blew by the 3RD place swimmer, posting a 37.00 split and handed the freestyler a 1.8 second advantage, that he held onto for the 3RD place finish. I really liked the 37.00 split…even with a rolling start that is a good time, so I am hopeful, we are about to see Bear start dropping time in this stroke again.

[Breeze]

Northern Divisional Meet

Bailey

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Day 1

100 IM – 4TH : 1:20.77 – I guessed Bailey could get to a 1:18 low with a good swim…if I was right then she must have had a great swim, posting a personal best time of 1:17.43, over a half a second faster than I thought she could go. The splits were good 36.68 and a 40.75 on the back half. In fact, her Breast leg was good for about 18 of the 25 yards…had she maintained that form for the full 25, she would have been about a full second faster still. As it was she maintained her seed finishing 4TH …

50 Free – 3RD : 30.19 – Bailey did not have a great swim here. She was a little slow on the opening 25, allowing the leaders to get too far in front. She closed hard on the back half and managed to pull out a 4TH place finish, but she swam a (for her) slow time of 31.20.

50 Back– 2ND: 35.57 – Bailey’s backstroke looked good. Not explosive on the start, but quick off the wall. She did swim a personal best 35.20, and she finished 2ND, a full second from first but .7 ahead of third.

100 Fly – 1ST : 1:16.13 – In this race Bailey got a terrible start. In her defense, the starting buzzer wasn’t working well, and it didn’t have the normal sharp tone that she associates with the start of the race. In fact, it sounded a little muffled. I thought the starter had said “Go” which seemed strange, she said she thought he had said “Stand”, when in fact, the race had started (after this race, the backup starting mechanism was put in place, so the officials knew there was a problem too). After the bad start, Bailey started swimming down the field. At the first turn she was in with the middle of the pack. By the turn at the 50 yard mark she was already almost 3 seconds ahead. In the back half of the race, she just continued to build her lead with every stroke and she ended up winning the event by 6+ seconds with a personal best time of 1:15.16, another full second improvement, even with a bad start…


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Day 2

50 Breast – 7TH : 44:34 – After the Breast in the IM, I felt Bailey had a good chance to swim this close to her seed time. She was pretty good with her form and she didn’t overwork or rush the stroke in the first part of the IM race. I wasn’t sure she could hold form for the whole race, but she did well…it wasn’t a personal best as she finished in 45.41, but it was much better than it has been, and it was good enough to hold onto her seed as she finished seventh.

100 Back – 4TH : 1:17.19 – Bailey looked good in this one. She was a bit sluggish early, but really picked it up in the back half. She challenged for second, but was beaten to the wall by .3 seconds. Bailey took third with a personal best time of 1:16.98

50 Fly – 1ST : 33.44 – I warned Bailey before the start of this one that she would need to get off the blocks. Her seed time, compared to the others in the race indicated this one would be close. Bailey got a good start and was first to the wall at the 25, but just barely. On the back half, she couldn’t shake the girl next to her as they raced the whole way. As they came into the wall Bailey breathed entirely too much, including on the stroke that was to touch for the finish (which is a big no no), but she still managed to out touch the girl next to her and win the event…she just missed a personal best – 33.56 (1 less breath and this is a personal best)…

100 Free – 2ND : 1:07.57 – Bailey came in seeded second, but it was obvious early she wasn’t going to get second. Two girls jumped out to huge leads (obviously one of them hadn’t done a 100 free in a while), as they both were a full 2 seconds ahead of Bailey at the half way point. Bailey swam strong and in fact, raced Lexi hard for the third place spot, out touching her friend by .3 to take the bronze. Her time was not a personal best as she finished in 1:09.81

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Free Relay
In the Free Relay on Saturday, Bailey was the anchor and Lexi led off. After the opening 50, the Gold team was in second, trailing by 1.3 seconds. At the end of the second 50, gold was still in second trailing now by 2.3 seconds. The third swimmer dove in an immediately ate up distance to the leaders and by the time she got to the wall, Bailey was handed a 3 second lead. Bailey finished with an even 30 second split and the Gold team won by almost 5 seconds.

Medley Relay – (and likely Bailey and Lexi’s last swim together)
The race started with the backstroker swimming a personal best split of 35.53, good enough for first place by about .4 of a second. The second place team’s breaststroker was terrible so they fell way back, and were a non-factor moving forward. However, The third place teams’ breaststroker was strong cutting into Gold’s lead to the point the team only had a .18 lead when Bailey dove in for the fly. The fly swimmer for the challenging team did a nice job keeping up with Bailey in the opening 25, as Bailey was only able to get about a half a body length lead. However, coming out of the turn that half a body length became a whole body length before Bailey ever took a stroke. She then continued to press her advantage, and the challenger wasn’t able to keep pace. In fact, she hit a wall with 10 or so yards to go and completely lost form and collapsed. Bailey handed Lexi a 6 second lead, that Lexi extended to 10 seconds for the easy victory…

[Breeze]

Long Course Season Schedule

Long Course Time Trials - 4/27-28 - Cumming Aquatic Center

Gold Mount St. Helens Memorial Meet - 5-12-19

Panama City Meet - 5/31-6/2

Swim with Dad - 6/15-16 - (no, I don't swim. It's just on Father's Day weekend)

Stu Hixon Invite - 6/28-6/30

Tara Classic - 7/6-7 - Steve Lundquist Aquatic Center

Age Group State Championships - 7/18-21 - Savannah Aquatic Center