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Swim Like A Champion (a real life journal)
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... |
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... |
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. |
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. |
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... |
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.
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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... |
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. |
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 |
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... |
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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... |
I'll start posting meet results from short course tomorrow...
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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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. |
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 |
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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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... ----------------------------------------------------- |
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 |
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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------- |
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 |
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. |
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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------- |
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 |
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... |
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... ----------------------------------------------------- |
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 |
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... |
ok, I'm going to try and get some video up...
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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...
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Bailey's 100 Yard IM @ Woodie B. Malone Meet
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. |
Bear's 100 Yard Free @ Gold Invite
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... |
Good read buddy.
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Hey JAG,
Long time...thanks for checking in... Breeze |
Brett's 200 Yard Breaststroke @ Gold Invite
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 |
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. |
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... |
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. |
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... |
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. |
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... |
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 |
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... |
Come on wit it!!
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Sorry thealmighty
I was waiting for the official results... Posting soon... |
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). -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------- 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. |
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. |
Yay for Lexi!
And here's to hoping everyone finishes strong at the Last Chance Meet. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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… |
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 |
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- 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). |
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... |
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) |
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... |
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. |
Sorry to hear about the sick kiddos, hope they get well soon. Good luck this weekend.
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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... |
:D
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Sounds promising.
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Can't wait to hear the results.
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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 |
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... |
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 |
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... |
Ouch! :(
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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. |
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.
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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... |
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...
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Bailey was able to swim this morning...I'll post updates on the meet later...
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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... Code:
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... Code:
37.84 37.25I 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. |
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) |
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.
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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)... |
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)... |
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... |
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 |
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 |
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)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)... |
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)... |
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... |
Sounds like a fantastic meet all around. Glad to see things are improving for everyone.
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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) |
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). |
C'mon, tell the kids to man up and swim the 500. :)
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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: |
I still find it annoying we capped out at the 500 in high school. I wanted a 1000 yard race, dammit. :)
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I hated swimming the 500. My mind always wandered when trying to swim a race that long.
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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.
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Summer Swimming Results
CRC Stingrays - 433 Windemere - 363 |
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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..." |
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) |
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Or, "fuck, me, it's only at 9!?!?" |
I'm confused. I thought Brett was not swimming on the same team as his siblings?
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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... |
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... --------------------------------------------------------- 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... ------------------------------------------------------------ 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... -------------------------------------------------------------- |
I'd read the stuff from past County Meets if you want to write it up!
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Cool...I'll put some stuff together and post it... |
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. |
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