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Breeze · 05-23-2012, 07:22 AM

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)
- 15 year old who is a State Record Holder in the 50 Breast and 100 IM (13-14)
- 13 year old County Record Holder and State Champion 50 Fly (11-12)
- 13 year old County Record Holder and State Champion 50 Breast (11-12)
- 14 year old placed 2nd in County in IM and Fly
- 14 year old girl County Champion 50 Breast (13-14)
- 4 other year round swimmers and point getters for the team

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)...

05-23-2012, 07:22 AM	#80
Breeze Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL	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) - 15 year old who is a State Record Holder in the 50 Breast and 100 IM (13-14) - 13 year old County Record Holder and State Champion 50 Fly (11-12) - 13 year old County Record Holder and State Champion 50 Breast (11-12) - 14 year old placed 2nd in County in IM and Fly - 14 year old girl County Champion 50 Breast (13-14) - 4 other year round swimmers and point getters for the team 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)... Last edited by Breeze : 05-23-2012 at 07:23 AM.