Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - Swim Like A Champion (a real life journal)

Breeze · 02-25-2014, 08:53 AM

2014 Georgia 14&Under Short Course Championships - RESULTS

DAY 1

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

Bailey

200 IM* : 42/20 - 2:38.58 (2:33.37/10) : (2:38.91) – Bailey is swimming well, and if her breaststroke holds up, and she gets a better dive than usual, I could see a significant improvement, but I don’t think she comes close to earning points (top 10) in this one. Similar to golf, it isn’t how much you are behind, but how many are between you and the lead. Even if she were to drop 5 seconds, someone between 11 and 19 will probably drop 4 and stay in front of Bailey.

Bailey actually dropped 6.09 seconds, to post a 2:32.49, and while her Breast leg wasn’t great at a 47.10, it was much better than it normally is. This drop was exciting in a number of ways…first is showed that she was swimming well and we would probably have a good weekend, also, her opening fly leg was a 31.81, which was a personal best in the 50 fly, and indicated her fly was particularly strong. Overall, as I anticipated, there were just too many people between Bailey and the top 10, as she finished 13 overall…

200 Back : 44/19 – 2:37.83 (2:35.27/10) : (2:38.57) – This one is intriguing. There are quite a few kids between Bailey and the top 10, but this time rather than being 5 seconds off the pace, like she is in the 200 IM, she’s only 2.5 off. Also I recognize several swimmers fractionally ahead of Bailey, and I know that Bailey has historically beat them. With a good clean start and good turns, I expect Bailey will challenge for top 10, but my guess would be 12-14.

Unfortunately, Bailey didn’t get a good start. This time she didn’t go too deep, she slipped, and was well behind at the beginning of the race. But, her form was good and she kept working hard, slowly reeling in the swimmers in her area. She posted a very impressive improvement of 5.11 seconds (2:32.72) and ended up 13. A good start wouldn’t have likely been enough to get her into the top 10, as she would have needed to drop an additional 2.65 seconds, and from looking at the splits the start probably only cost her 1.5…

100 Fly : 34/10 – 1:11.24 (1:10.70/9) (1:06.99/3) : (1:11.76) – Bailey is pretty excited about this one. She really wants to make finals, even if she finishes tenth. She has set a goal to go 1:09.XX, and I think she can do it, as the coach has worked on her not overreaching with her arms, which allows a quicker transition through the stroke and puts her arms in a more powerful position at the beginning of the pull. I don’t think she can get anywhere close to medals, as I expect it will take a 1:05 high to be in the running. I hope she cleans up her dive a bunch this week in practice, or she might find herself just outside of the top 10.

Bailey, got a better start than normal, and her fly looked strong, though she didn’t match the opening 50 from the 200 IM…posting a 32.77. She ended up dropping .86 seconds (1:10.38), which was a good improvement, but I didn’t expect it to be enough to make finals…but I was wrong as she qualified 10. I felt she breathed way to often and was hoping she could clean it up before the finals.

100 FLY FINALS - In the finals, Bailey really stepped up. She breathed much less, got another good dive, and with the exception of coming a bit high on her turns, she really swam a perfect race. She dropped almost 2 more seconds to 1:08.43. In total she dropped 2.81 seconds from her initial seed time. She ended up beating 2 girls from the morning and finished 8 in state.

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

Bear

200 Back : 32/6 – 2:37.58 (2:37.48/5) (2:36.50/3) : (2:36.84) – This was surprising to me. Bear is already seeded in a point position, and he is within striking distance of a medal. I don’t expect that he’ll get a medal, but he should earn points. I hope the coach works with him on exploding out of the hole. He is strong underwater, but typically there is a transition delay from underwater to above water that he’ll need to eliminate to get down into medal territory.

Bear’s race was very similar to Bailey’s in this event. He set a good pace, and just kept it up throughout. He was behind early, mostly because the other kids in his heat sprinted the start and faded a bit, whereas Bear kept up a much stronger pace, He dropped 5.63 seconds and finished with a 2:31.95, but he was unable to move up from sixth place.

100 Fly : 36/7 – 1:11.71 (1:10.73/6) (1:09.41/3) : (1:12.20) – Again surprised to see Bear in a point position, and again he has an outside shot at a medal. Two seconds in a 100 Fly is easily doable, but if I had to guess, I figure he’ll finish around his seed location and earn more points for the team.

Right from the start it was pretty obvious Bear’s fly wasn’t right. Way to much head movement, breathing too much, and while he had a strong hip lift and kick, it was deliberate. He added time in this one, and that was concerning to me at the time, especially, given that he was in medal contention for the 200 Fly, and it would adversely impact his IMs if he couldn’t swim the fly leg effectively. All in all he added 2.19 seconds to finish with a 1:13.90 and in thirteenth place. The wife and I weren’t completely surprised, because his fly has been up and down and his 1:11 personal best wasn’t that long ago and it was a huge drop when he did it.

1000 Free : 49*/3 -12:28.33 (11:57.85/2) (11:54.45/1)** : (12:37.67)*** - Bear comes into this one in third and he hasn’t swum it in two months. Brett and Bear have been very close in their 1000s this season, and Brett just dropped time down to around 12:05 from 12:30. So maybe Bear can get down to around a 12:00.00. If he can at least hold on to his seed he’ll earn a medal. The biggest problem with this event is not racing the people that you are competing with…because this is swum 14U, Bear will have no idea which kids in the race are 11 and therefore won’t know who to actually “race” in the event. He’ll simply have to set a pace, and hope it is fast enough.

The pace Bear set was a fast one. He opened with a 1:10.10, the followed that with a 1:12.59…which would be his slowest 100 of the entire race. Here are his entire splits
1:10.10
1:12.59
1:11.40
1:12.47
1:12.13
1:12.13 (no this isn’t a typo…he swam the same spit two times in a row)
1:11.53
1:09.07
1:11.81
1:09.40
He finished with an 11:52.63 and a 35.7 second drop in time. This was good enough to hold onto his third place position and earn a medal…

02-25-2014, 08:53 AM	#383
Breeze Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL	2014 Georgia 14&Under Short Course Championships - RESULTS DAY 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Bailey* *200 IM : 42/20 - 2:38.58 (2:33.37/10) : (2:38.91) – Bailey is swimming well, and if her breaststroke holds up, and she gets a better dive than usual, I could see a significant improvement, but I don’t think she comes close to earning points (top 10) in this one. Similar to golf, it isn’t how much you are behind, but how many are between you and the lead. Even if she were to drop 5 seconds, someone between 11 and 19 will probably drop 4 and stay in front of Bailey. Bailey actually dropped 6.09 seconds, to post a 2:32.49, and while her Breast leg wasn’t great at a 47.10, it was much better than it normally is. This drop was exciting in a number of ways…first is showed that she was swimming well and we would probably have a good weekend, also, her opening fly leg was a 31.81, which was a personal best in the 50 fly, and indicated her fly was particularly strong. Overall, as I anticipated, there were just too many people between Bailey and the top 10, as she finished 13 overall… 200 Back : 44/19 – 2:37.83 (2:35.27/10) : (2:38.57) – This one is intriguing. There are quite a few kids between Bailey and the top 10, but this time rather than being 5 seconds off the pace, like she is in the 200 IM, she’s only 2.5 off. Also I recognize several swimmers fractionally ahead of Bailey, and I know that Bailey has historically beat them. With a good clean start and good turns, I expect Bailey will challenge for top 10, but my guess would be 12-14. Unfortunately, Bailey didn’t get a good start. This time she didn’t go too deep, she slipped, and was well behind at the beginning of the race. But, her form was good and she kept working hard, slowly reeling in the swimmers in her area. She posted a very impressive improvement of 5.11 seconds (2:32.72) and ended up 13. A good start wouldn’t have likely been enough to get her into the top 10, as she would have needed to drop an additional 2.65 seconds, and from looking at the splits the start probably only cost her 1.5… 100 Fly : 34/10 – 1:11.24 (1:10.70/9) (1:06.99/3) : (1:11.76) – Bailey is pretty excited about this one. She really wants to make finals, even if she finishes tenth. She has set a goal to go 1:09.XX, and I think she can do it, as the coach has worked on her not overreaching with her arms, which allows a quicker transition through the stroke and puts her arms in a more powerful position at the beginning of the pull. I don’t think she can get anywhere close to medals, as I expect it will take a 1:05 high to be in the running. I hope she cleans up her dive a bunch this week in practice, or she might find herself just outside of the top 10. Bailey, got a better start than normal, and her fly looked strong, though she didn’t match the opening 50 from the 200 IM…posting a 32.77. She ended up dropping .86 seconds (1:10.38), which was a good improvement, but I didn’t expect it to be enough to make finals…but I was wrong as she qualified 10. I felt she breathed way to often and was hoping she could clean it up before the finals. 100 FLY FINALS - In the finals, Bailey really stepped up. She breathed much less, got another good dive, and with the exception of coming a bit high on her turns, she really swam a perfect race. She dropped almost 2 more seconds to 1:08.43. In total she dropped 2.81 seconds from her initial seed time. She ended up beating 2 girls from the morning and finished 8 in state. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Bear 200 Back : 32/6 – 2:37.58 (2:37.48/5) (2:36.50/3) : (2:36.84) – This was surprising to me. Bear is already seeded in a point position, and he is within striking distance of a medal. I don’t expect that he’ll get a medal, but he should earn points. I hope the coach works with him on exploding out of the hole. He is strong underwater, but typically there is a transition delay from underwater to above water that he’ll need to eliminate to get down into medal territory. Bear’s race was very similar to Bailey’s in this event. He set a good pace, and just kept it up throughout. He was behind early, mostly because the other kids in his heat sprinted the start and faded a bit, whereas Bear kept up a much stronger pace, He dropped 5.63 seconds and finished with a 2:31.95, but he was unable to move up from sixth place. 100 Fly : 36/7 – 1:11.71 (1:10.73/6) (1:09.41/3) : (1:12.20) – Again surprised to see Bear in a point position, and again he has an outside shot at a medal. Two seconds in a 100 Fly is easily doable, but if I had to guess, I figure he’ll finish around his seed location and earn more points for the team. Right from the start it was pretty obvious Bear’s fly wasn’t right. Way to much head movement, breathing too much, and while he had a strong hip lift and kick, it was deliberate. He added time in this one, and that was concerning to me at the time, especially, given that he was in medal contention for the 200 Fly, and it would adversely impact his IMs if he couldn’t swim the fly leg effectively. All in all he added 2.19 seconds to finish with a 1:13.90** and in thirteenth place. The wife and I weren’t completely surprised, because his fly has been up and down and his 1:11 personal best wasn’t that long ago and it was a huge drop when he did it. 1000 Free : 49/3 -12:28.33 (11:57.85/2) (11:54.45/1)* : (12:37.67)* - Bear comes into this one in third and he hasn’t swum it in two months. Brett and Bear have been very close in their 1000s this season, and Brett just dropped time down to around 12:05 from 12:30. So maybe Bear can get down to around a 12:00.00. If he can at least hold on to his seed he’ll earn a medal. The biggest problem with this event is not racing the people that you are competing with…because this is swum 14U, Bear will have no idea which kids in the race are 11 and therefore won’t know who to actually “race” in the event. He’ll simply have to set a pace, and hope it is fast enough. The pace Bear set was a fast one. He opened with a 1:10.10, the followed that with a 1:12.59…which would be his slowest 100 of the entire race. Here are his entire splits 1:10.10 1:12.59 1:11.40 1:12.47 1:12.13 1:12.13 (no this isn’t a typo…he swam the same spit two times in a row) 1:11.53 1:09.07 1:11.81 1:09.40 He finished with an 11:52.63** and a 35.7 second drop in time. This was good enough to hold onto his third place position and earn a medal… Last edited by Breeze : 02-25-2014 at 08:56 AM.