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

Breeze · 01-21-2013, 10:36 AM

SCAT Meet @ GA Tech 1/19 - 1/20
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Brett

Day 1

Brett and I got up at 6 on Saturday morning to get down to Tech for the meet, but when we arrived and walked into the natatorium there was a horrible smell. Apparently, Tech was changing out backup generators and failed to configure it correctly so exhaust poured into the building overnight. I’m sure you can imagine the burned oil smell. The meet start was delayed while they tried to ventilate the facility. After about an hour and half wait, they cancelled the morning session and moved it to the evening.

I took Brett home and stayed for a couple of hours before bringing the twins back for their afternoon session. This change in routine really through Brett for a loop (as he doesn’t do change well), and when it came time for Brett to leave for the evening session he was over it and not interested in going. He did go and here is how he did…

100 Breast - Personal Best - 1:26.58 : State Cut - 1:22.99
Brett’s start and initial pullout were good, but he didn’t seem completely into the race. He did ok, given his mindset and the fact the by the time the evening session rolled around he was pretty much through is medication for the day, so focus was an issue. He posted a 1:27.45…After this race, first thing he said to me was…”well, that sucked”…

50 Free - Personal Best - 34.38
Brett, his coach, and I were all hopeful for a decent size improvement here, but it didn’t happen. He did improve, but on marginally…34.21

500 Free - NT
This is the event I was the most eager to see…however, it was already after 10 PM when the 50 Freestyle races completed, and given that Brett had to get up at 6 on Sunday, his coach told him to scratch this event and go home to get some sleep….

Day 2

Sunday morning, and Brett got up and was ready to go. He was once again excited about racing…

50 Backstroke - Personal Best - 41.48
I have to admit that I missed this race. I can tell you that we discussed the fact that his coach had been urging him for some time now to increase his stroke rate. I told him that his form was good now, but that he really need to give the faster arms a try, and I made him understand that if it resulted in a poor time there was no harm, that he needed to start experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t so that he can lean to “race” the stroke better.

He apparently did based on his coach’s comments to him, but he still had a very poor finish, as he continues to not trust his stroke count coming into the wall. He did improve dramatically on his time, posting a personal best 39.52. He was extremely excited with this time because he has now gotten all of his strokes below 40 seconds (unfortunately, this excitement didn’t last very long – I’ll explain later)

200 Breaststroke - Personal Best - 3:17.53
Before this event, Brett and I discussed really focusing on the pullouts, as they continue to be a killer in his attempts to improve his time. He was going to try a bigger dolphin kick, and he was going to try to get an earlier grab on the water to increase his trust. He did a little better at it, and his stroke was still strong in the middle of the pool. As expected he got a personal best, but he also did much better than the DQ time from last month, getting a 3:01.41

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Bear

Day 1

200 Free - Personal Best - 2:35.48 : Sectional Cut - 2:25.59
Bear started out looking very strong, in this event, he was next to the same kid he swam his great 500 Free against last month, and again he was working hard to stay with this kid (who will be 11 in a couple of weeks). He did extremely well, once again cutting a significant amount of time and getting a personal best 2:32.57

100 IM - Personal Best 1:23.80 : Sectional Cut - 1:18.09
Again, Bear fails to make significant improvement in this event. He does improve with a 1:23.16, but not the drop he wanted. Watching the race he looked good in all of his stroke, so I wasn’t sure where the problem was until…

50 Fly - Personal Best 39.66 : Sectional Cut - 34.89
This race started, and it became pretty clear that Bear’s transitional phase of his fly, and the adjustments to try and get his timing better were causing him to really struggle. He appeared to be thinking about the stroke too much and it was slowing him down considerably. The rest of his heat was leaving him well behind and he posted a pedestrian 41.27. He was extremely disappointed with this swim, but the coaches reassured him that his form was much better, and the speed would come. This slow fly also is undoubted the indicator of why his IM time didn’t improve any more than it did.

100 Back - Personal Best 1:22.00 : Sectional Cut - 1:18.09
Bear looked tired, or deflated in this race. He really was deliberate and almost disinterested. Not sure if this is a holdover from his sickness a few weeks back or a hangover from the bad fly swim. Regardless he again post a poor (for him) time of 1:25.67

Day 2

200 IM - Personal Best 2:52.71 : Sectional Cut - 2:47.69
As I mentioned in the pre-event write up, Bear views this event as 1 of his real shots to get a sectional cut. Unfortunately, given his slow fly, I expected he would not come close to his personal best time, and he didn’t. He posted a 2:59.97 way off of his personal best. In the race, Bear’s fly was slow and caused him to lose touch with the swimmers on either side of him, which removed, so some extent his ability to race the event. In comparing his splits from his personal best and this race, it appears that the fly is the biggest problem, but the sickness also has to be having some impact, as he failed to match his split on any of the strokes…

Code:

Personal Best		SCAT Meet
Bfly – 39.57		Bfly – 41.26
Back – 42.87		Back – 44.69
Brst – 52.54		Brst – 52.93
Free – 37.73		Free – 40.46

50 Back - Personal Best 38.64 : Sectional Cut - 36.69
Given the poor performance at the end of Saturday and in the 200 IM to start Sunday, this became a big event for Bear. He needed something positive or he might just shut it down…He improved…marginally, but he improved. He even found me in the stands and gave me a thumbs up from the water after the finish. Time – 38.27

100 Breast - Personal Best 1:38.34 : Sectional Cut - 1:28.99
Bear’s breast continues to look stronger, and he did post a personal best 1:37.02

100 Free - Personal Best 1:11.90 : Sectional Cut - 1:07.69
Bear again didn’t look strong here…which surprised me a bit, given his improvement in the 200 Free on Saturday. But it was the end of the meet for him, and I do believe he is still dealing with the almost 2 weeks of being out of the pool while he was sick. Time – 1:13.63

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Bailey

Day 1

200 Free - Personal Best - 2:44.23 : Sectional Cut - 2:29.09
Bailey did improve in this event. She swam a strong race and dropped 6 seconds to a 2:38.66, and there is more time out there for her to drop. She is still learning how much she can push herself on the distance events, but again, I don’t think she’ll get anywhere close to the 2:29.09 number she’d need for sectionals.

100 IM - Personal Best - 1:22.96 : Sectional Cut - 1:19.29
Bailey’s improved fly, back and free really helped here as she posted another personal best time of 1:20.77. Her breaststroke has become a problem. She’s gotten sloppy with is, coming up high in the water with her head up, and her kick has gotten extremely wide and slow. We’ll be getting her some lessons to work on cleaning this up before State…

100 Back - Personal Best - 1:26.02 : Sectional Cut 1:18.29
The backstroke for Bailey has improved significantly. She’s gotten the hang of the correct arm motion and is now able to do it without thinking much about it, and her times are starting to reflect that. She still needs to get stronger with the pull phase, but her body position is allowing her strong kick to translate to speed and her pull is much improved. She posted a personal best time of 1:22.13

500 Free - NT
I almost screwed this race up for Bailey. I was interested in watching Bear’s back (which was right before Bailey’s 500 free), and typically, there is about a 10 minute break heading into the 500s, but this time there wasn’t – so I had to rush down to the pool deck to get the lap counting signs. Given this was her first time the 7:02.67 is a good effort…and a state cut...

Day 2

200 IM - Personal Best - 2:54.77 : Sectional Cut 2:48.19
Given how well Bailey had looked I expected that she would improve here, and maybe significantly. She looked strong early, but her fly was clearly a problem again. In fact, she didn’t even beat her personal best posting a 2:55.91 to illustrate the problems with her breaststroke…below are the splits from her PB 200 IM and the one this weekend…

Code:

Personal Best			SCAT Meet
Bfly – 38.40			Bfly – 36.74
Back – 45.71			Back – 44.42
Brst – 51.57			Brst – 54.82
Free – 39.09			Free – 39.93

100 Fly - NT : Sectional Cut 1:21.59
So my guess of a 1:24.xx completely underestimated the time her swallowing water and stopping in the previous meet impacted her time. She went out in a strong 37.95, as her new form looked not only fast but fluid. She was able to maintain her speed on the back half and she didn’t suffer from over fatigue because her new form is so much more efficient…the back half time was 41.36 for a total time of 1:19.31

And we have our first Sectional Cut…and we'll be heading to Greensboro NC in March…now will Bear join her and will she get any other qualifying times???…

100 Breast - Personal Best 1:34.77 : Sectional Cut 1:28.89
The Breaststroke problems became obvious in this event when Bailey posted a 1:38.68, and to be honest this swim was better than her Breaststrokes in both IMs, as I was able to get her attention prior to the race and remind her to look down through the stroke (the coach told her the same thing about 2 minutes later)…got to get this worked out so she can maximize her IMs as well as improve this stroke…With an improved Breast she’ll probably get a sectional cut in IM…

100 Free – Personal Best 1:11.71 – Sectional Cut 1:09.09
I missed the write up on this one pre-event…not sure how I over looked it. Anyway, Bailey’s strong kick and improved stroke showed through here as well. She swam a very strong 1:09.97…which puts her less than 1 second from another sectional time…

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While Bailey’s breakthrough on the fly is marvelous and we are all extremely proud of the sectional cut – it does create some mixed emotions among the boys. Unfortunately, there is a good bit of sibling rivalry that goes on and Bailey’s huge step up seems to overshadow the achievements of the boys…

For instance, Brett, rather than bask in the fact that he is sub-40 in all strokes, is back to the feelings of being inadequate and questioning whether he’ll ever be able to beat her.

And

Bear, for all of his achievements earlier in the year is now struggling with his strokes. He has only a couple of chance left to get his Sectional cut, which he wants 1 bad. This desire is only gotten worse given Bailey’s achievement and it is coming at a bad time for him given his performance this weekend.
Now the wife and I have to delicately balance the egos of the kids and try to get them to focus on their own results and not compare outcomes…

All 3 of the kids will be getting some private lessons the next several weeks. Bailey’s will focus on Breast, Bear will work on fly and cleaning up small stuff, and Brett will be working on increasing stroke rates on non-Breast events, and improving his pullouts and “finishing his kick” in breast…

01-21-2013, 10:36 AM	#196
Breeze Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL	SCAT Meet @ GA Tech 1/19 - 1/20 -------------------------------------------------------------- Brett *Day 1* Brett and I got up at 6 on Saturday morning to get down to Tech for the meet, but when we arrived and walked into the natatorium there was a horrible smell. Apparently, Tech was changing out backup generators and failed to configure it correctly so exhaust poured into the building overnight. I’m sure you can imagine the burned oil smell. The meet start was delayed while they tried to ventilate the facility. After about an hour and half wait, they cancelled the morning session and moved it to the evening. I took Brett home and stayed for a couple of hours before bringing the twins back for their afternoon session. This change in routine really through Brett for a loop (as he doesn’t do change well), and when it came time for Brett to leave for the evening session he was over it and not interested in going. He did go and here is how he did… 100 Breast - Personal Best - 1:26.58 : State Cut - 1:22.99 Brett’s start and initial pullout were good, but he didn’t seem completely into the race. He did ok, given his mindset and the fact the by the time the evening session rolled around he was pretty much through is medication for the day, so focus was an issue. He posted a 1:27.45…After this race, first thing he said to me was…”well, that sucked”… 50 Free - Personal Best - 34.38 Brett, his coach, and I were all hopeful for a decent size improvement here, but it didn’t happen. He did improve, but on marginally…34.21 500 Free - NT This is the event I was the most eager to see…however, it was already after 10 PM when the 50 Freestyle races completed, and given that Brett had to get up at 6 on Sunday, his coach told him to scratch this event and go home to get some sleep…. *Day 2* Sunday morning, and Brett got up and was ready to go. He was once again excited about racing… 50 Backstroke - Personal Best - 41.48 I have to admit that I missed this race. I can tell you that we discussed the fact that his coach had been urging him for some time now to increase his stroke rate. I told him that his form was good now, but that he really need to give the faster arms a try, and I made him understand that if it resulted in a poor time there was no harm, that he needed to start experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t so that he can lean to “race” the stroke better. He apparently did based on his coach’s comments to him, but he still had a very poor finish, as he continues to not trust his stroke count coming into the wall. He did improve dramatically on his time, posting a personal best 39.52. He was extremely excited with this time because he has now gotten all of his strokes below 40 seconds (unfortunately, this excitement didn’t last very long – I’ll explain later) 200 Breaststroke - Personal Best - 3:17.53 Before this event, Brett and I discussed really focusing on the pullouts, as they continue to be a killer in his attempts to improve his time. He was going to try a bigger dolphin kick, and he was going to try to get an earlier grab on the water to increase his trust. He did a little better at it, and his stroke was still strong in the middle of the pool. As expected he got a personal best, but he also did much better than the DQ time from last month, getting a 3:01.41 -------------------------------------------------------------- Bear *Day 1* 200 Free - Personal Best - 2:35.48 : Sectional Cut - 2:25.59 Bear started out looking very strong, in this event, he was next to the same kid he swam his great 500 Free against last month, and again he was working hard to stay with this kid (who will be 11 in a couple of weeks). He did extremely well, once again cutting a significant amount of time and getting a personal best 2:32.57 100 IM - Personal Best 1:23.80 : Sectional Cut - 1:18.09 Again, Bear fails to make significant improvement in this event. He does improve with a 1:23.16, but not the drop he wanted. Watching the race he looked good in all of his stroke, so I wasn’t sure where the problem was until… 50 Fly - Personal Best 39.66 : Sectional Cut - 34.89 This race started, and it became pretty clear that Bear’s transitional phase of his fly, and the adjustments to try and get his timing better were causing him to really struggle. He appeared to be thinking about the stroke too much and it was slowing him down considerably. The rest of his heat was leaving him well behind and he posted a pedestrian 41.27. He was extremely disappointed with this swim, but the coaches reassured him that his form was much better, and the speed would come. This slow fly also is undoubted the indicator of why his IM time didn’t improve any more than it did. 100 Back - Personal Best 1:22.00 : Sectional Cut - 1:18.09 Bear looked tired, or deflated in this race. He really was deliberate and almost disinterested. Not sure if this is a holdover from his sickness a few weeks back or a hangover from the bad fly swim. Regardless he again post a poor (for him) time of 1:25.67 *Day 2* 200 IM - Personal Best 2:52.71 : Sectional Cut - 2:47.69 As I mentioned in the pre-event write up, Bear views this event as 1 of his real shots to get a sectional cut. Unfortunately, given his slow fly, I expected he would not come close to his personal best time, and he didn’t. He posted a 2:59.97 way off of his personal best. In the race, Bear’s fly was slow and caused him to lose touch with the swimmers on either side of him, which removed, so some extent his ability to race the event. In comparing his splits from his personal best and this race, it appears that the fly is the biggest problem, but the sickness also has to be having some impact, as he failed to match his split on any of the strokes… Code: Personal Best SCAT Meet Bfly – 39.57 Bfly – 41.26 Back – 42.87 Back – 44.69 Brst – 52.54 Brst – 52.93 Free – 37.73 Free – 40.46 50 Back - Personal Best 38.64 : Sectional Cut - 36.69 Given the poor performance at the end of Saturday and in the 200 IM to start Sunday, this became a big event for Bear. He needed something positive or he might just shut it down…He improved…marginally, but he improved. He even found me in the stands and gave me a thumbs up from the water after the finish. Time – 38.27 100 Breast - Personal Best 1:38.34 : Sectional Cut - 1:28.99 Bear’s breast continues to look stronger, and he did post a personal best 1:37.02 100 Free - Personal Best 1:11.90 : Sectional Cut - 1:07.69 Bear again didn’t look strong here…which surprised me a bit, given his improvement in the 200 Free on Saturday. But it was the end of the meet for him, and I do believe he is still dealing with the almost 2 weeks of being out of the pool while he was sick. Time – 1:13.63 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bailey *Day 1* 200 Free - Personal Best - 2:44.23 : Sectional Cut - 2:29.09 Bailey did improve in this event. She swam a strong race and dropped 6 seconds to a 2:38.66, and there is more time out there for her to drop. She is still learning how much she can push herself on the distance events, but again, I don’t think she’ll get anywhere close to the 2:29.09 number she’d need for sectionals. 100 IM - Personal Best - 1:22.96 : Sectional Cut - 1:19.29 Bailey’s improved fly, back and free really helped here as she posted another personal best time of 1:20.77. Her breaststroke has become a problem. She’s gotten sloppy with is, coming up high in the water with her head up, and her kick has gotten extremely wide and slow. We’ll be getting her some lessons to work on cleaning this up before State… 100 Back - Personal Best - 1:26.02 : Sectional Cut 1:18.29 The backstroke for Bailey has improved significantly. She’s gotten the hang of the correct arm motion and is now able to do it without thinking much about it, and her times are starting to reflect that. She still needs to get stronger with the pull phase, but her body position is allowing her strong kick to translate to speed and her pull is much improved. She posted a personal best time of 1:22.13 500 Free - NT I almost screwed this race up for Bailey. I was interested in watching Bear’s back (which was right before Bailey’s 500 free), and typically, there is about a 10 minute break heading into the 500s, but this time there wasn’t – so I had to rush down to the pool deck to get the lap counting signs. Given this was her first time the 7:02.67 is a good effort…and a state cut... *Day 2* 200 IM - Personal Best - 2:54.77 : Sectional Cut 2:48.19 Given how well Bailey had looked I expected that she would improve here, and maybe significantly. She looked strong early, but her fly was clearly a problem again. In fact, she didn’t even beat her personal best posting a 2:55.91 to illustrate the problems with her breaststroke…below are the splits from her PB 200 IM and the one this weekend… Code: Personal Best SCAT Meet Bfly – 38.40 Bfly – 36.74 Back – 45.71 Back – 44.42 Brst – 51.57 Brst – 54.82 Free – 39.09 Free – 39.93 100 Fly - NT : Sectional Cut 1:21.59 So my guess of a 1:24.xx completely underestimated the time her swallowing water and stopping in the previous meet impacted her time. She went out in a strong 37.95, as her new form looked not only fast but fluid. She was able to maintain her speed on the back half and she didn’t suffer from over fatigue because her new form is so much more efficient…the back half time was 41.36 for a total time of 1:19.31 And we have our first Sectional Cut…and we'll be heading to Greensboro NC in March…now will Bear join her and will she get any other qualifying times???… 100 Breast - Personal Best 1:34.77 : Sectional Cut 1:28.89 The Breaststroke problems became obvious in this event when Bailey posted a 1:38.68, and to be honest this swim was better than her Breaststrokes in both IMs, as I was able to get her attention prior to the race and remind her to look down through the stroke (the coach told her the same thing about 2 minutes later)…got to get this worked out so she can maximize her IMs as well as improve this stroke…With an improved Breast she’ll probably get a sectional cut in IM… 100 Free – Personal Best 1:11.71 – Sectional Cut 1:09.09 I missed the write up on this one pre-event…not sure how I over looked it. Anyway, Bailey’s strong kick and improved stroke showed through here as well. She swam a very strong 1:09.97…which puts her less than 1 second from another sectional time… ----------------------------------------------------------------- While Bailey’s breakthrough on the fly is marvelous and we are all extremely proud of the sectional cut – it does create some mixed emotions among the boys. Unfortunately, there is a good bit of sibling rivalry that goes on and Bailey’s huge step up seems to overshadow the achievements of the boys… For instance, Brett, rather than bask in the fact that he is sub-40 in all strokes, is back to the feelings of being inadequate and questioning whether he’ll ever be able to beat her. And Bear, for all of his achievements earlier in the year is now struggling with his strokes. He has only a couple of chance left to get his Sectional cut, which he wants 1 bad. This desire is only gotten worse given Bailey’s achievement and it is coming at a bad time for him given his performance this weekend. Now the wife and I have to delicately balance the egos of the kids and try to get them to focus on their own results and not compare outcomes… All 3 of the kids will be getting some private lessons the next several weeks. Bailey’s will focus on Breast, Bear will work on fly and cleaning up small stuff, and Brett will be working on increasing stroke rates on non-Breast events, and improving his pullouts and “finishing his kick” in breast… Last edited by Breeze : 01-22-2013 at 07:06 AM.