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

Breeze · 10-08-2012, 02:33 PM

SCAT Fall Invite @ GaTech - 10/6 - 10/7

So I messed up and didn't post the pre-race events and thoughts. So I'm going to post my thoughts heading into each event and the actual results below...

Day 1

Bear

200 Free - Bear heads into this event having finished the week of practice strong after being sick at the end of the previous week. I was hopeful that he would be able to challenge his personal best time of 2:42.61. Bear did swim a strong race. He was unfortunately seeded with a NT and therefore had a pretty weak heat. With no one pushing him he managed to post a 2:40.98. That was good enought to finish 13th overall in the 9/10 age group.

50 Back - Bear's backstroke has gotten much more consistent under Gold coaching. They have forced him to focus on rotating his body without moving the head. He's starting to get it, as his head is much more still, but he tends to sway the hips rather than pivoting them. Still all-in-all a better stroke. His personal best coming in was 40.48...leaving the race it was 39.90. Now when he starts being able to swim this stroke without thinking about technique I think his time will drop a good bit.

100 Breast - Bear's breast is still a work in progress. He was showing signs of improvement in the stroke, but Gold is making a slight change to his kick in an effort to get his hips up a bit, and it has reduced his power. Thus he is swimming slowly. He didn't have a short course time in the event...but he did qualify for the state with his long course performance last season. He ended up swimming a 1:46.29. This isn't really a very good time considering his conversion time from long course puts him around a 1:37.7...He's got work to do in this stroke again...and unfortunately, it's also going to hold back his IM until he figures it out.

100 Fly - This is Bear's first time swimming the 100 fly and he is working to retool this stroke as well. He is much further along with this one than Breast, but he still has moments, and his rythem can get off, but he's still pretty solid here. I did have concerns with him swimming a 100 fly as the 4th event of the day, I was afraid fatigue would be a big problem, but he handled it like a champ and posted a good 1.31.34, which beats the state cut by 6 seconds...

200 IM - Another first time attempt at a race, and again I was concerned about a 200 IM at the end of a long day. But again Bear handled it like a champ. He posted a time of 3:06.64, and got another state cut. His splits ended up being 41.01 - Fly, 48.63 - Back, 55.57 - Breast, 41.43 - Free. He really took it a bit too easy on the back...and of course the Breast as I mentioned above is still a problem, but a good swim.

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Brett

200 Free - Brett's 200 Free marked the first time he swam the event in short course. In long course over the Summer he managed a personal best of 3:13.87...converted to short course stated he should swim a 2:47.87...he actually posted a 2:47.61...

100 Breast - based on Brett's improvement during time trials in the 50 breast, I expected a moderate improvement here, maybe a second or so...he swam a great race and posted a personal best time of 1:29.77 an improvement of 2.41 seconds...this is an event that he is hoping to earn a state cut in, but unless he really hits a growth spurt it isn't going to happen as he's still 7 seconds slow. Coach is going to work with him now on increasing his stroke rate but not at the expense of the glide phase of the stroke. He told Brett in his post race talk that due to his short stature there is no possible way to be efficient enough at this stage of his life to beat kids that are over a foot taller, and he's going to have to do more strokes per lap to keep up. This explains why the 200 Breast is the one stroke he has his cut in, because the efficienty allows him to maintain his strength over the longer race...

100 IM - With his improved strokes I was really hoping for a personal best here, but while his strokes looked stronger...his turns were poor and it was obvious that he was thinking about the technique more than racing. He posted a pedestrian 1:31.68.

50 Fly - Brett's fly has gotten much better, and he goes through spurts where he can be fast, but he lacks the stamina in this event and with it being at the end of the day, I felt he might struggle through. I was hopeful that he might break his best time of 42.22, but he cam up short with a 43.92.

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Day 2

Bear

50 Fly - wasn't sure what to expect here. I'm afraid given the work he is putting in on this stroke, I won't know for sure what to expect until later in the season, my thoughts were this could go anywhere...it could be a couple seconds faster to several seconds slower than his time a time trials a few weeks back. As it turns out...it was about the same. He came in with a 39.66 and finished this race with a 39.93.

100 Free - Bear looks strong swimming his freestyles, as he really powers through the water. He isn't the most efficient, but he works hard. He same in with a best time of 1.16.40...and I felt that was within reach, especially given his personal best in the 200 the day before. And, I was right, he posted a very good 1:15.96...

100 Back - this was an event that Bear hadn't done in a while in fact, ironically, the best time he posted was the first time he ever swam it, and with him swimming very deliberately so he can make sure the stroke is right, I didn't expect the time to fall and it didn't 1:27.71

100 IM - Bear like Brett is real technical with his stroke right now, and until he become second nature his times are going to suffer. That, plus his breast is way off where it was at the end of the year last year, I felt he wouldn't do well here...and he didn't 1:31.18, well off his personal best.

500 Free - Bear was a little intimidated by this event. And I have to say I was a bit concerned for him, especially with it coming as the last event after 2 heavy race days. But before the race he got excited as he was telling me I needed to get on deck to handle the lap counters well before his 100 IM event started lining up. He swam the event, and did a nice job. He really needs to work on the glide phase in this stroke as he worked hard for all 20 laps. He posted a time of 7:10.17 and qualified for state by a 11 seconds...not sure he wanted to qualify for state

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Brett

50 Breast - Brett's second day started with the 50 Breast, and I was hopeful he'd continue his level of improvement, but he basically matched his time from the time trials posting a 40.06, only .2 slower. The good news is he still was the second gold swimmer to finish in the race and the first will age up before state...actually...this is where the stroke rate conversation mentioned above occurred.

100 Free - Came in with a 1:18.35 and with his improved kick and form I felt this was a good shot for a personal best. He looked good, turns were a bit sloppy and dive was too deep, but he still posted a nice 1:17.50

50 Back - his back looks so much better it is amazing, but it hasn't been translating to speed yet, and he still isn't comfortable on his back going into the walls, which can hurt in time, and in this case did. In fact, if he had just going straight into the wall without peaking for it he would have had a personal best as it turned out he posted a 42.77 off of his best by about .4.

200 IM - As I expected coming in, Brett was very uptight for this one. I didn't expect a great swim, but I did think he'd come in around 3:12 or so, based on Bear's time. He actually outperformed that posting a 3:10.14, but was DQed for underwater recovery on the fly (not sure if they got the right reason as I didn't see this error, but it doesn't really matter as I have a baseline for this event moving forward).

note: quick key update in case you were wondering...RED=has/earned state cut: GREEN = Personal Best (Red overshadows Green), Bold just provides a quick look at results...

10-08-2012, 02:33 PM	#167
Breeze Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL	SCAT Fall Invite @ GaTech - 10/6 - 10/7 So I messed up and didn't post the pre-race events and thoughts. So I'm going to post my thoughts heading into each event and the actual results below... *Day 1* Bear 200 Free - Bear heads into this event having finished the week of practice strong after being sick at the end of the previous week. I was hopeful that he would be able to challenge his personal best time of 2:42.61. Bear did swim a strong race. He was unfortunately seeded with a NT and therefore had a pretty weak heat. With no one pushing him he managed to post a 2:40.98. That was good enought to finish 13th overall in the 9/10 age group. 50 Back - Bear's backstroke has gotten much more consistent under Gold coaching. They have forced him to focus on rotating his body without moving the head. He's starting to get it, as his head is much more still, but he tends to sway the hips rather than pivoting them. Still all-in-all a better stroke. His personal best coming in was 40.48...leaving the race it was 39.90. Now when he starts being able to swim this stroke without thinking about technique I think his time will drop a good bit. 100 Breast - Bear's breast is still a work in progress. He was showing signs of improvement in the stroke, but Gold is making a slight change to his kick in an effort to get his hips up a bit, and it has reduced his power. Thus he is swimming slowly. He didn't have a short course time in the event...but he did qualify for the state with his long course performance last season. He ended up swimming a 1:46.29. This isn't really a very good time considering his conversion time from long course puts him around a 1:37.7...He's got work to do in this stroke again...and unfortunately, it's also going to hold back his IM until he figures it out. 100 Fly - This is Bear's first time swimming the 100 fly and he is working to retool this stroke as well. He is much further along with this one than Breast, but he still has moments, and his rythem can get off, but he's still pretty solid here. I did have concerns with him swimming a 100 fly as the 4th event of the day, I was afraid fatigue would be a big problem, but he handled it like a champ and posted a good 1.31.34, which beats the state cut by 6 seconds... 200 IM - Another first time attempt at a race, and again I was concerned about a 200 IM at the end of a long day. But again Bear handled it like a champ. He posted a time of 3:06.64, and got another state cut. His splits ended up being 41.01 - Fly, 48.63 - Back, 55.57 - Breast, 41.43 - Free. He really took it a bit too easy on the back...and of course the Breast as I mentioned above is still a problem, but a good swim. ------------------------------------------------------ Brett 200 Free - Brett's 200 Free marked the first time he swam the event in short course. In long course over the Summer he managed a personal best of 3:13.87...converted to short course stated he should swim a 2:47.87...he actually posted a 2:47.61... 100 Breast - based on Brett's improvement during time trials in the 50 breast, I expected a moderate improvement here, maybe a second or so...he swam a great race and posted a personal best time of 1:29.77 an improvement of 2.41 seconds...this is an event that he is hoping to earn a state cut in, but unless he really hits a growth spurt it isn't going to happen as he's still 7 seconds slow. Coach is going to work with him now on increasing his stroke rate but not at the expense of the glide phase of the stroke. He told Brett in his post race talk that due to his short stature there is no possible way to be efficient enough at this stage of his life to beat kids that are over a foot taller, and he's going to have to do more strokes per lap to keep up. This explains why the 200 Breast is the one stroke he has his cut in, because the efficienty allows him to maintain his strength over the longer race... 100 IM - With his improved strokes I was really hoping for a personal best here, but while his strokes looked stronger...his turns were poor and it was obvious that he was thinking about the technique more than racing. He posted a pedestrian 1:31.68. 50 Fly - Brett's fly has gotten much better, and he goes through spurts where he can be fast, but he lacks the stamina in this event and with it being at the end of the day, I felt he might struggle through. I was hopeful that he might break his best time of 42.22, but he cam up short with a 43.92. -------------------------------------------------------------- *Day 2* Bear 50 Fly - wasn't sure what to expect here. I'm afraid given the work he is putting in on this stroke, I won't know for sure what to expect until later in the season, my thoughts were this could go anywhere...it could be a couple seconds faster to several seconds slower than his time a time trials a few weeks back. As it turns out...it was about the same. He came in with a 39.66 and finished this race with a 39.93. 100 Free - Bear looks strong swimming his freestyles, as he really powers through the water. He isn't the most efficient, but he works hard. He same in with a best time of 1.16.40...and I felt that was within reach, especially given his personal best in the 200 the day before. And, I was right, he posted a very good 1:15.96... 100 Back - this was an event that Bear hadn't done in a while in fact, ironically, the best time he posted was the first time he ever swam it, and with him swimming very deliberately so he can make sure the stroke is right, I didn't expect the time to fall and it didn't 1:27.71 100 IM - Bear like Brett is real technical with his stroke right now, and until he become second nature his times are going to suffer. That, plus his breast is way off where it was at the end of the year last year, I felt he wouldn't do well here...and he didn't 1:31.18, well off his personal best. 500 Free - Bear was a little intimidated by this event. And I have to say I was a bit concerned for him, especially with it coming as the last event after 2 heavy race days. But before the race he got excited as he was telling me I needed to get on deck to handle the lap counters well before his 100 IM event started lining up. He swam the event, and did a nice job. He really needs to work on the glide phase in this stroke as he worked hard for all 20 laps. He posted a time of 7:10.17 and qualified for state by a 11 seconds...not sure he wanted to qualify for state ------------------------------------------------------- Brett 50 Breast - Brett's second day started with the 50 Breast, and I was hopeful he'd continue his level of improvement, but he basically matched his time from the time trials posting a 40.06, only .2 slower. The good news is he still was the second gold swimmer to finish in the race and the first will age up before state...actually...this is where the stroke rate conversation mentioned above occurred. 100 Free - Came in with a 1:18.35 and with his improved kick and form I felt this was a good shot for a personal best. He looked good, turns were a bit sloppy and dive was too deep, but he still posted a nice 1:17.50 50 Back - his back looks so much better it is amazing, but it hasn't been translating to speed yet, and he still isn't comfortable on his back going into the walls, which can hurt in time, and in this case did. In fact, if he had just going straight into the wall without peaking for it he would have had a personal best as it turned out he posted a 42.77 off of his best by about .4. 200 IM - As I expected coming in, Brett was very uptight for this one. I didn't expect a great swim, but I did think he'd come in around 3:12 or so, based on Bear's time. He actually outperformed that posting a 3:10.14, but was DQed for underwater recovery on the fly (not sure if they got the right reason as I didn't see this error, but it doesn't really matter as I have a baseline for this event moving forward). note: quick key update in case you were wondering...RED=has/earned state cut: GREEN = Personal Best (Red overshadows Green), Bold just provides a quick look at results... Last edited by Breeze : 10-08-2012 at 02:34 PM.