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Old 12-22-2011, 02:44 PM   #23
Breeze
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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...

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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...

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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)

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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...


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