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07-14-2014, 11:54 AM
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#451 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Georgia 14U Long Course Championships - @GaTech – 7/16 – 7/19
Brett Gold B Team 200 Medley Relay – Seeded 12/16 – Day 3 - Brett in breast…could get 11 with good swims Gold B Team 400 Medley Relay – Seeded 11/14 – Day 4 – Brett in breast…may have a hard time hanging on to 11. Last edited by Breeze : 07-22-2014 at 10:50 AM. |
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07-15-2014, 10:28 AM
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#452 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Quick Update
Just wanted to take a second to follow up on my previous update before the State Meet starts tomorrow. Recently, I commented that Bear was having some knee pain. Well a few days of Advil before practice and before bed and he was fine. So no lingering issues... |
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07-16-2014, 10:28 AM
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#453 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Quick Update
Interesting development. Last night Bailey was extremely talkative...and it appeared that it was due to nervous energy. This isn't complete unusual for Bailey, as she tends to get nervous energy before big meets. However, this time is wasmuch more severe, in fact, it was so bad that it made her nauseous, so much so she had a difficult time eating. I'm not sure why the nervousness was so pronounced this time around. I do know she seems to be worried because she'll be racing her friend Mary Ann in the 800 Free today. Based on her comments, I think she's afraid Mary Ann is going to beat her bad (Mary Ann is a good distance swimmer, whereas Bailey is just starting to get involved in the longer events. Bailey also commented on several other good swimmers she'll be going against, as well as teammates that are close to her in seeding. It could be she's afraid that she'll not perform well and will embarass herself. Do to very postive comments from Coach Andy and Coach Pat (the owner of the entire Chattahoochee Gold team), Bailey apparently feels some pressure to perform, and this could be the underlying influence. Cathy talked with her about no putting pressure on herself. Told her no one will be mad at her if she swims poorly. That by worrying she's going to adversely impact her performance. The basic point of the conversation was to go out and have fun...don't worry about results. Hopefully, getting in the pool for the 800 today, getting it overwith, and not being concerned about anything other than swimming well (as she has no real chance to earn points here) will get her into the flow of the meet, and it will allow her to relax moving forward. |
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07-21-2014, 11:10 AM
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#454 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Georgia 14U Long Course Championships – RESULTS – Day 1
Bailey 800 Free : 10.46.84 – Seeded 17/31 – Day 1 – As expected Bailey’s familiarity with this event enabled her to understand the impact of this race, and enabled her to dig a bit deeper and improve her time. She ended up dropping almost 10 seconds to total a personal best 10:36.92. Despite the huge drop in time, she still finished 17… Her splits were… 1:14.93 1:18.27 1:19.21 1:20.96 1:21.50 1:23.01 1:18.29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear 1500 Free : 19.26.00 – Seeded 3/14 – Day 1 – Above I explained that the seed time here was a coach entered time designed to place Bear in a faster heat for better competition. The time was determined by taking Bear’s lap speed in the 800 and calculating those times out for the full 1500 meters. The coach mentioned that this was a pretty ambitious goal, but he felt Bear was swimming well in practice and potentially capable of maintaining splits between 1:17.5 and 1:18.5. The race started out, and as usual Bear began with a conservative opening 100…Then he settled into a pace for the next 200 that was off of the coach’s suggested pace, but he didn’t signal me to have him speed up…until he reached the 350 meter turn. His pace picked up significantly from that point…and then at the 750 turn, he told me (literally told me, as he was only about 10 feet from me at the time) to speed him up…he swimming on pace, but the coach told me, “He’s got a lot more in him…I’m going to push”…so Bear picked it up again. At about the 1250 turn, the coach told me to shake it (the signal to speed up) the rest of the way…so I did. Bear ended up swimming the following splits… 1:13.55 1:19.46 1:19.17 1:18.43 1:18.52 1:17.84 1:18.20 1:16.77 1:17.47 1:17.22 1:17.61 1:18.70 1:18.55 1:18.54 1:15.95 When it was all said and done, Bear finished with a time of 19:25.98…yes only .02 seconds off of the projected time from the 800. An unbelievable swim for Bear…good enough for the 13 year old cut…as well as a Short Course sectional cut. Unfortunately, Bear ended up finishing fourth. A boy from the heat after Bear’s swim a 19:23.01…so beat him by about 3 seconds…I wish they had been in the same heat to see if Bear’s instinct to race would have propelled him to beat this kid in a head to head scenario… Last edited by Breeze : 07-22-2014 at 10:50 AM. |
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07-22-2014, 10:43 AM
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#455 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Georgia 14U Long Course Championships - RESULTS - Day 2
Bailey 50 Fly : 32.65 – Seeded 7/30 – Day 2 – Bailey was very uptight heading into this race, and it negatively impacted her swim. She was stiff through the race which stole some of her explosiveness. She ended up adding about 1 second (33.54) to her seed time and finishing 22nd. Yes 22nd…this race was extremely tight and 1 second made a world of difference. To get in finals she would have needed to cut another .2 seconds…which given that her personal best was just 2 weeks ago, was asking a lot. 50 Back : 36.77 – Seeded 24/37 – Day 2 – Bailey ended up being seeded right next to her old SwimAtlanta friend Haley. During the race Haley was slightly ahead of Bailey the entire way down the pool, but Bailey’s strong throwback finish allowed her to out-touch Haley by .08. All in all, Bailey dropped .32 seconds to finish with a time of 36.45 and in eighteenth place. 400 IM : 5:54.60 - Seeded 17/26 – Day 2 – In the 400 IM, Bailey started with a fly leg of 1:16.06…not bad considering her best 100 Fly is in the 1:15 range. He back split was a bit off at 1:31.56, but still pretty good. In her breast leg, she continued to show improvement, holding off quite a few swimmers and posting a split of 1:44.31. She finished with a 1:18.20 Free and a personal best time of 5:50.13. Good enough to move up to sixteenth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear 200 Free : 2:29.73 – Seeded 26/30 – Day 2 – Early in the morning Bear said his shoulders were sore from the 1500 (not really a surprise)…but he was pretty pumped up about his chances in this following the strong swim the night before. He went out with a very strong 1:10.50, .02 faster than his personal best in the 100 Free…Then he closed with a 1:14.58. He dropped 4.65 seconds in total, posting a time of 2:25.08 and he moved up to 18th place. 400 IM : 5:51.08 - Seeded 10/22 – Day 2 – Bear’s fly was a bit stiff, which put him behind and he ended up adding almost .5 seconds. 5:51.52…he finished 13th. His splits, in case you want to compare them to Bailey’s were…1:20.33 Fly, 1:30.59 Back, 1:46.83 Breast, 1:13.77 Free… Last edited by Breeze : 07-22-2014 at 10:50 AM. |
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07-22-2014, 10:48 AM
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#456 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Georgia 14U Long Course Championships - Out of Pool Information - Day 2
At the end of Day 2, we went to a local Burger Boutique, Flip Burger for lunch. Food was great, service was terrible and we were there forever. When we final started to leave, we found that one of the people in our group had their car broken into. A high price camera was apparently the intial target, but while in the vehicle they also stole 2 swim bags. 1 of which was Bailey's. Inside the swim bag was 2 competition swim suits, 3 pairs of goggles, swim caps, and of course the bag itself was embroidered. This is about $500 worth of gear, and the sad part is...I'm sure the criminals ruffled through the bag, found nothing of interest and trashed it in a nearby dumpster... Last edited by Breeze : 07-22-2014 at 10:50 AM. |
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07-22-2014, 11:13 AM
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#457 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Georgia 14U Long Course Championships - RESULTS – Day 3
Bailey 100 Fly : 1:15.89 – Seeded 13/29 – Day 3 – After her poor showing in the 50, she really wanted to redeem herself here. However, after watching the 50 fly, my feelings on her being able to make finals were changed. Not because of Bailey’s swimming, but because the other girls in the meet were swimming so well…As it turned out, Bailey did a good job dropping .3 seconds to finish with a 1:15.59…but she wasn’t happy with the swim. She wanted to be in the 1:14s. I felt that was a bit ambitious…she did finish 12th 200 Back : 2:50.06 – Seeded 29/42 – Day 3 – Bailey was in a heat with a bunch of her friends, including Haley, Mary Ann, and Ainsley. She started out good, but she trailed Haley in the opening 150. However, in the last 50 Bailey passed her and ended up second overall in her heat. She did in fact drop 3.47 seconds, so it was a great swim for her (2.46.59)…and she finished 27th Gold B Team 200 Medley Relay – Seeded 8/14 - Day 3 – The relay team held their seed, finishing eighth, and Bailey’s 50 fly was the best looking fly of the meet so far… 400 Free : 5:13.89 – Seeded 21/39 – Day 3 – Bailey didn’t do well in this one. Don’t know if fatigue was involved, but she posted a time of 5:16.38…going 1:16.64, 1:20.95, 1:20.49, 1:18.30… -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear 100 Fly : 1:11.71Y – Seeded 33/33 – Day 3 – Bear improved significantly over his real long course time, posting a 1:21.19, but it wasn’t a good swim. To tell that, all you have to do is look at his fly split in the 400 IM from the day before (1:20.33)…Honestly, he should have gone under 1:20.00…but it wasn’t a big deal. He needs to figure out how to sprint this new fly he’s developed… 200 Back : 2:31.95Y – Seeded 29/30 – Day 3 – Another mediocre swim for Bear…he ended up with a 2:54.36, which is only fractionally better than his real 200 back long course time… 400 Free : 5:13.61 – Seeded 15/26 – Day 3 – This is the event Bear was really excited about. He didn’t talk to me about it before hand, but knowing the coach real well and knowing Bear, I expected he set a goal to go under 5 minutes…He opened with a 1:12.61, followed it up with a 1:15.16, then went 1:16.27, and closed with a 1:14.51…for a total time of 4:58.55 a drop of 15.06 seconds and he finished 11th… -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brett Gold B Team 200 Medley Relay – Seeded 12/16 – Day 3 - Brett had a terrible dive on his race…probably too pumped up…he ended up losing significant ground to 2 swimmers – not that it really mattered…and he did get to swim at state…ultimately his team finished 13th. Last edited by Breeze : 07-22-2014 at 11:14 AM. |
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07-22-2014, 12:44 PM
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#458 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Georgia 14U Long Course Championships - RESULTS – Day 4
Bailey 200 Fly : 2:50.15 – Seeded 8/30 – Day 4 – For the first time ever, Andy instructed Bailey to take the 200 Fly out fast. Typically, he tells her to build the race, but this time he wanted her attacking. This made her nervous, probably because she knew the race would be painful. But she took it out in a 35.33…her 100 fly split was a 1:15.81…very close to her actual 100 fly time. The split at the 150 was 2:07 and she came home in 35.33…to finish with a time of 2:43.08. A huge improvement, but not good enough to move up the standings…as she finished eighth. 100 Back : 1:09.22Y – Seeded 38/40 – Day 4 – An horrendous start. The rest of the field was underwater before Bailey ever moved off the blocks (she failed to hear the start…not sure how that happens, especially when she was only 2 lanes from the starter…but it did). The funny thing was, despite the bad start, by the time she surfaced from the underwater work, she was in second in her heat. She ended up swimming a 1:19.50…probably would have been in the 1:18s with a good start… 200 IM : 2:45.66 – Seeded 20/25 – Day 4 – Bailey informed me that the coach told her to save her legs in the back for the last half of the race. I find this funny, because the back half is her weaker half…so I don’t know if he really told her that, or if she made it up…but whatever the reason, she didn’t go hard in back, and she added a couple seconds 2:47.42… Gold B Team 400 Medley Relay – Seeded 7/15 – Day 4 – Interesting developments for Gold in this one…A few changes were made to relays heading into the this race, and the surprising thing is that at the end of the back leg, the B relay was only fractionally behind the A…then after the breast the A had again failed to open a lead over the B. This was undoubtedly going to change, as the A flyer is several seconds faster than Bailey…but the A flyer left early. Obviously, I don’t know this for a fact, but I truly believe that she was anxious to get a lead on the B team and lost her focus. For Bailey’s part, she swam an unbelievable split of 1:13.81 (so maybe her goal of going 1:14s wasn’t so ambitious after all). The team finished seventh. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear 200 Fly : 2:46.48 – Seeded 5/17 – Day 4 – Bear forgot to take his inhaler before this race…and this isn’t a race you want to forget something like that. He was breathing way too often, and it never allowed him to get to top gear. He ultimately added over 3.5 seconds to finish with a 2:50.16. Given his huge improvement a couple weeks ago in this event, I didn’t expect much…and without his inhaler I think he did about as well as he could have. He was very disappointed, but he wasn’t going to medal in this one, as the top 3 ran away from the field, and despite his off swim, he still managed to finish eighth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brett Gold B Team 400 Medley Relay – Seeded 11/14 – Day 4 – Brett’s dive this time was much better, and while he lost ground to two swimmers that were closest to him, he managed to stay close enough that the fly and free legs pulled out a 10 place finish…his split was right on his personal best of a 1:30 low… |
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07-23-2014, 09:47 AM
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#459 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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GRPA State Championships – 7/26 @ Cumming Aquatic Center
The Summer League State Meet is this Saturday at our home pool (thank goodness we don’t have to stay in a hotel again this weekend). Last year when I did the write up for this event, I was deceived by some data (or lack thereof) in the psych sheet…so when I write this up, keep in mind that the meet info might still be incomplete and the seedings or relay seed times might change significantly (especially in the case of the relay times, as they seem to be hit or miss with regards to accuracy). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bailey #39 Girls 12&U 200 Medley Relay Prelims (3) 2:08.06 – Bailey gets the fly leg in the B Relay…currently the relay team is seeded 5 th but they are a good 5 seconds from 4 th, meaning it is unlikely that they get on the podium. On the positive side they are over 4.5 seconds faster than the 9 th place seed, thus they are almost assured of getting into the finals and earning a medal. Assuming the seed times are accurate…which may be a big assumption. #57 Girls 11-12 100 IM Prelims 1:10.75 – Bailey’s time currently has her seeded 7 th. And she’s about 2 seconds faster than 9 th. Given that she’s been swimming around a 1:10.7x all Summer in this event, I suspect she’ll be around that again on Saturday and it will be good enough to make finals and earn a medal. #69 Girls 11-12 50 Fly Prelims 30.24 – Bailey is seeded fourth in this one…9 th is just over a second slower, but as we saw at the Long Course state meet, a bad swim can drop a swimmer a long way in these sprints. I do think she’ll make finals, and I do believe she might be able to go sub 30 to get on the podium, but in my opinion it will take a sub 30 swim to get there. #75 Girls 12&U 200 Free Relay Prelims (1) 1:57.51 – This is the interesting one…Bailey was extremely disappointed to be on the C Free Relay, but currently they are seeded 6 th. I’m not comfortable with this seed, as I expected they would be around 9 th or 10 th, and I suspect if I put too much weight into this seed that I’m going to be in for a rude awakening when the races actually run. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear #40 Boys 12&U 200 Medley Relay Prelims (1) 2:14.98 – Bear’s C Medley is currently seeded 8 th…way behind 7 th (which incidentally is the Forsyth B team), and way in front of 9 th. Again, the same gut feeling that has me concerned about Bailey’s Free applies here. I believe Brett’s relay’s last year were seeded second or third, and they were lucky to get sixth…so just not comfortable making predictions, especially with the C relays. #64 Boys 11-12 50 Back Prelims 34.58 – Bear comes in as the third backstroker from the county, he’s also seeded 9 th overall…He’s only .1 out of a top 8 time, and he had problems with the finish at county due to the change from the Long Course to Short Course pools. He might be able to slip into the finals here and earn a medal. After all the years of slipping in the back at county and missing out on this event in this meet, it would be rewarding to see him make it into the finals. #76 Boys 12&U 200 Free Relay Prelims (3) 1:54.29 – The B Free that Bear is on, is seeded 6 th…a full 4 seconds from 5 th, and a good 8 seconds from ninth. Knowing Bear’s luck, both of his relays will get DQed, I believe it has happened to him three times at this meet already. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brett #42 Boys 14&U 200 Medley Relay Prelims (2) 2:06.41 - Brett like Bear is in the C Relay…and I expected them to come in seeded 12 or 13…they in fact are seeded 8, with a bunch of teams right on their heels. If the seeds are accurate, they’ll need 4 good swims to get into the finals…but as I’ve stated above, I don’t expect the seeds are right and I think they’ll finish around 12 th. #54 Boys 13-14 50 Breast Prelims 36.60 – Brett was the third breaststroker from county, and surprisingly, he’s seeded 12 th. I expected he’d be much lower…however, to move up, he’d need to drop about a second or get help from others in front of him not swimming well. I don’t expect either to occur, but Brett is working on a new breaststroke so who knows (I’ll detail this in another thread shortly)… #78 Boys 14&U 200 Free Relay Prelims (5) 1:48.98 – You notice the (5) at the end of the event. That signifies that Brett is the first alternate for all of the free relays. I don’t expect he’ll get to swim… |
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07-23-2014, 04:34 PM
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#460 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Brett Update
If you’ve been reading along, you may have deduced that Brett had a real tough Long Course season. He was making huge improvements with his strokes in short course and he was looking forward to long course, where he typically performs better. However, for a number of reasons that didn’t occur…probably the biggest impact was his injured knee. However, I believe he also suffered from a loss of focus – or maybe a focus on the wrong things… One major impact was the fact that Bailey worked her way up in practice to the point she was in Brett’s lane. Which is not a good thing, as history has shown us (I’m pretty sure this was discussed way back when the kids were at SwimAtlanta together). This caused Brett to focus on staying ahead of her, regardless of how he achieved it…so he would cheat in fly, grab the lane line occasionally in back, etc. This created a mindset that didn’t lend itself to improvement. Following Stu Hixon, Brett and I had a long conversation. We talked about his goals, and if he thought any were still achievable. He admitted that he felt like any chance he had of swimming in college was already gone. I figured he felt that way, so before the conversation I did some research, and I found a division 1 swimmer (breaststroker), at a school that has a decent swim team that had times very similar to Brett’s when they were the same age. I explained to him that he may never get as good as the person I found, but it does show that he could improve significantly over the next few years. I convinced him that he may improve enough to swim in college, maybe Division 1, maybe Division 2, but it isn’t going to happen if he’s cheating at practice. He agreed, and we talked about what he should be doing…which is moving to the back of the line, and really focusing on the parts of his strokes he knows he needs to improve on. After the conversation, Brett’s practices were totally different. He’s been working hard on cleaning up his kick in freestyle so his feet don’t hit each other. He’s been working on keeping his legs extended and kicking from the hip in both the free and back. In addition, he’s stopped doing 1 arm fly, and stopped pulling on the lane lines. His form looks better, his kick looks better, now he has to ingrain these new changes and learn to generate more propulsion from them. Unfortunately, all these changes haven’t addressed the lack of improvement in his breaststroke. He’s really flat-lined in this stroke for a while now, and given that he has grown substantially, he should be generating a more powerful pull and kick. The coach has stated that his timing is off a bit (again potentially from growing), so I did some research to find an article on the timing of the breaststroke kick…(I’ve provided a link if you are interesting in reading the article - it is very short by the way…http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewNewsA...=4246&mid=8712) To give you an overview, the article is written by a coach, and he does a great job of explaining how his film study lead to a completely new understanding of how the stroke works. What struck me when I read the article was the inclusion of terminology I’ve heard Brett use, specifically the phrase “kicking the hands forward”. The coach commented on how this action made sense to him for years, until he looked closer. Now the best way to do the stroke – The arms pull while their legs are streamlined, and the legs kick while their upper body is streamlined (there are some images in the article to help illustrate this change). Brett has embraced this new timing, and has been working on it the last few days. Honestly, this isn’t the best time to try and make a change of this significance, but as he said when we discussed it, “I’m not supposed to win anything at GRPA anyway…if I swim poorly due to the change, nothing is lost.” The flipside of this is that the reduced drag associated with the new stroke might actually cause him to improve his times. I’ve watched him do the new stroke, and I’m amazed at how quickly he’s picked it up. I figured the millions of strokes he’s taken with his old form would be harder to erase, but so far so good. My suspicions are that when he actually starts racing this new stroke he will revert back to his old stroke. I hope not…I hope he sticks with the new stroke, and shows some improvement. I really think it could build momentum heading into short course in the fall. Last edited by Breeze : 07-23-2014 at 04:36 PM. |
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07-24-2014, 12:10 PM
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#461 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Bailey Update
Just a quick note. Bailey got her braces today. Obviously, her mouth hurts and her eating will be impacted. Not sure how it will affect her swimming...but she wanted to go ahead and get them on now; she didn't want to wait until after school started. Last edited by Breeze : 07-24-2014 at 12:34 PM. |
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07-28-2014, 01:05 PM
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#462 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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GRPA State Championships - PRELIM RESULTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bailey #39 Girls 12&U 200 Medley Relay Prelims (3) 2:08.06 – The first event of our Saturday was this relay, and after the circle seeding Bailey’s B relay lined up right next to the A team. Bailey’s group did a nice job of staying in contact with the A team and they finished second in the heat…with a strong time of 2:04.83. After all the heats were finished, Bailey’s group was second overall heading into finals that afternoon. Bailey’s fly split was recorded as a 29.97. #57 Girls 11-12 100 IM Prelims 1:10.75 – Bailey looked good in this one…dive was a bit deep, but she seemed to do a better job underwater so it didn’t hurt her like it typical does. She also did well in the back, and ended up with at time of 1:10.15…a best time and good enough for sixth seed in the finals. #69 Girls 11-12 50 Fly Prelims 30.24 – Again dive was a little deep, but again, she powered through better than normal. This wasn’t a great swim with a final time of 30.50…in fact, for a few minutes I was concerned she might not make finals. As it was, the swim was good enough for seventh… #75 Girls 12&U 200 Free Relay Prelims (1) 1:57.51 – Given the fact Bailey was in the C relay, I felt they really needed to get a good swim in so they could make finals. As it turned out, Bailey’s group won the their heat! I was shocked, then I watched their time of 1:54.71 hold up…as they finished with the fourth fasted seed time in the prelims. Bailey led off the relay, and she swam a 28.4…which is a legit time due to the cold start, and it is also a personal best. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear #40 Boys 12&U 200 Medley Relay Prelims (1) 2:14.98 – Like Bailey’s C Free relay, this team needed a good swim to make finals. It started off with Bear’s back leg, and he definitely didn’t disappoint. He ended up swimming a 33.74 split, and given the cold start this is a legitimate time and a personal best. The team went on to finish in a time of 2:15.91…good enough for sixth. #64 Boys 11-12 50 Back Prelims 34.58 – Bear’s good split in the back earlier in the day, gave me hope he might slip into the finals with a similar swim here. He started off real good, but then crowded the wall too much on the turn, which scrubbed his speed. He ended up finishing with a time of 34.57…which seeded him tenth, so second alternate for finals. #76 Boys 12&U 200 Free Relay Prelims (3) 1:54.29 – Bear’s B free relay was a strong race finishing with a time of 1:52.10, seeding them fifth going into finals. Bear swam the third leg, and really looked strong, opening up a lead on the swimmers around him. His split was a 27.63, a big improvement for him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brett #42 Boys 14&U 200 Medley Relay Prelims (2) 2:06.41 - Brett’s relay, also a C needed a good swim. The backstroker did a nice job, then Brett dove in. He looked real good using his new stroke. He didn’t close on the leaders, but no one closed on him either. I don’t have his exact split (I’ll explain later), but in timing his swim on the video I have him just under 35 seconds. The reason I don’t have his exact time is because the butterflyer in the relay left early – And when I say early – I MEAN REALLY EARLY. In fact, it was so early, that the official standing in that lane (who is a friend of ours), said to me, “I was legitimately concerned that the kid was going to dive on Brett.” He missed Brett’s feet by inches…It was really Sad, because they would have made finals. Even if I penalize his relay over a second for the early start by the flyer, they would have qualified sixth. #54 Boys 13-14 50 Breast Prelims 36.60 – This was the moment of truth for Brett. He started off with his new stroke well. The as he approached the turn, he was neck and neck with 3 other swimmers, and he reverted back to his old style for 3 or 4 strokes. Coming off the wall, he went back to the new form and finished with a 35.71. This is a personal best, and a very encouraging result given his new stroke changed just a few days before this race. Unfortunately, while this swim was very good, he ended up ninth, so first alternate…he was disappointed in this…but still encouraged moving forward. #78 Boys 14&U 200 Free Relay Prelims (5) 1:48.98 – As expected Brett didn’t swim this event. Last edited by Breeze : 07-28-2014 at 01:57 PM. |
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07-28-2014, 01:58 PM
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#463 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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GRPA State Championships - FINALS RESULTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bailey #39 Girls 12&U 200 Medley Relay Prelims (3) 2:04.83 – Bailey’s group came into finals seeded second, but you would not have known it early in the race. The backstroker swam a 30.76, which is good, but in this race she was sixth at the wall…The breaststroker didn’t swim a great split either, going 36.54, which was the fourth fastest leg and Bailey’s team sat fourth overall when she dove in…with third place just over a tenth ahead, second almost a second and a quarter ahead (first place was the A relay, which Bailey’s group wasn’t going to beat). Bailey’s split was an extremely impressive 29.1. She dove deep again…only this time it not only didn’t hurt her. It actually helped her. Her underwater work was extremely impressive as she closed grown, broke the surface in high speed, and started closing. When Bailey handed off to the freestyler, the team was not only in second place, they had a lead of almost 2 full seconds on third, and 2.3 seconds on fourth. The freestyler held the lead, the relay finished in the silver medal spot with a time of 2:04.09… #57 Girls 11-12 100 IM Prelims 1:10.15 – Bailey’s dive here was deep too, but again, her underwaters were awesome…she opened with a strong fly, leg, followed by a strong back. She was third, in a tight race, at the turn going into breast leg. Her friend and teammate Emilie, who she raced every Thursday was right on her heals at the turn, and just like every Thursday she passed her down the stretch, forcing Bailey to settle for fourth. A huge improvement over her sixth seed coming in, and she dropped a bunch of time finishing with a personal best 1:08.43. #69 Girls 11-12 50 Fly Prelims 30.50 – Like all the races in the finals, Bailey’s underwaters were extremely strong here. In fact, it pushed her by several racers in what was a very tight finals. Bailey ended up breaking the 30 second barrier with a time of 29.54, out-touching CRC teammate Caroline who was right next to her and swam a 29.57. The other Forsyth County rep, Bridget, swam a 29.74. They finished 4, 5, and 6…Bailey missed third by .11 seconds. #75 Girls 12&U 200 Free Relay Prelims (1) 1:54.71 – This was interesting coming into the finals as the Forsyth County A team had the top seed, the B the second seed, and Bailey’s C team was fourth. The race started and Bailey posted a strong 28.45 time…faster than the B relay’s opening girls time of 28.61. The second leg went off and again the C relay’s representative beat the B 28.59 to 28.91, the third leg saw more of the same with the C swimming a 28.12, and the B managing a 28.18…Bailey’s team was in third at this point…but the anchor leg was no match…as the C team’s anchor managed a poor time of 29.28, the B team’s anchor (Caroline, mentioned above), swam an outstanding 26.53. Thus Bailey’s relay had to settle for fourth overall, posting a time of 1:54.44. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear #40 Boys 12&U 200 Medley Relay Prelims (1) 2:15.91 – Bear again rose to the occasion, swimming much better in the relay that he did in his individual event. He didn’t manage the 33 high split from the morning, but he just missed it going 34.01. The rest of the relay, like Bear, swam about the same as they did in the morning, the team finished with a time of 2:15.45, and they held their sixth place seed… #76 Boys 12&U 200 Free Relay Prelims (3) 1:52.10 – The interesting thing in this race came, like the girls free relay, came down to the Forsyth County B vs C. The opening swimmer for the B barely out-touched the C relay swimmer by .02 seconds, but the B swimmer was slower off the blocks, so B found itself behind. Then the second leg swimmer also slightly out-touched the B coming into Bear’s third leg. Bear managed to go sub 28 again, swimming a 27.85 to the C relay swimmers 28.9…opening a big lead that the anchor expanded on. The team improved their time to a 1:51.7, and they settled for fifth overall… -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last edited by Breeze : 09-29-2014 at 02:27 PM. |
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07-28-2014, 03:07 PM
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#464 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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GRPA State Championships – Quick Note
I have a quick note to post here, it doesn’t involve my kids, but it is worth reading. On Friday, at the 10U portion of the meet, a friend of ours daughter swam in the 25 free in a time of 13.03. She ended up heading into the finals tied for the second fastest time, with a girl who swam in a different heat. In the finals, the two girls that tied for second, tied again, in a time of 12.65, which not only won state, it broke the GRPA record for that event. I found this astounding, that the same two girls can swim exactly the same time, twice in the same day… Last edited by Breeze : 07-28-2014 at 03:07 PM. |
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07-28-2014, 04:01 PM
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#465 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Season Wrap Up
With the GRPA event in the books, our season(s) come to a close. The next 3 weeks will be our time-off. All of the kids were very pumped up after their swims this weekend, and all are looking forward to some time off, but all appear to be eager to build on their recent performance. Brett and Bear even went as far as to ask about starting their workout routine to try and get them stronger, (which I told them we’d start after the vacation). Looking back on the kids goals, here is how I believe they feel… ------------------------------------------------------ Bailey Overall – Bailey did really well this season, probably better than expected. She even earned another AAA time, which will qualify her for the State All-Star banquet again. She’s shown significant improvement, and a real dedication in practice. Gold Short Course – Had a strong season, topped off by 4 top 10 finishes at state and several more races that were in the top 15. She dropped considerable time across the board, earning numerous state cuts for 2015 and sectional cuts. She is poised for a huge 2015… Gold Long Course – Honestly, I believe Bailey was disappointed in her flys at LC state. I think she was pretty pleased with the rest of the meet, but I believe she had high hopes in the fly, and didn’t perform up to her own expectations. She did do well enough to earn a fly leg on the B relay, which is a big deal especially given that she turn 12 right before the season started. Summer League – With 3, fourth place medals and a silver at the GRPA State Meet, combined with a Gold and Bronze at the county meet, it is hard to believe she could be unhappy with the results. Sure, she wanted to make the A relays, sure she’d have loved to have beaten Emilie in the IMs at some point…but all-in-all it was a great season. Moreover, it looks like she may have figured out how to use the underwater portion of her races to go even faster. This could have a significant impact on the Short Course Age Group State Championship in February (assuming she doesn’t forget how to do it following the vacation). 2015 Outlook – Though we really haven’t discussed it at this point, I can tell you that Bailey is very focused on the short course for 2015. She is expecting to be the main performer for Gold in the age group. She’s going to have some pretty tough time goals for her fly, and she really wants to improve her free and breast as she feels they are holding her back (the GRPA meet showed some indication she may be getting her free figured out). As for long course…she’ll age up to 13, so she isn’t sure what to expect, but I do know she’s planning on getting a large number of the cuts in short course before she ages up. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Bear Overall – Bear had a great season, improving a bunch across the board. In addition, he earned a coupld of AAA times, which makes him a State All-Star swimmer. He is very pumped up right now, and it appears he’s prepared to put in extra time this coming season so he’ll continue to improve and have a big season. Gold Short Course – Bear’s state meet was unbelievable, as he earned 3 bronze and 1 silver medal. He also cemented his reputation as an effort swimmer, the tougher the race the better he does. He now loves the challenges of the distance free as well as the effort required for the 400 IM and the 200 Fly. I was so pleased with his state meet, because of how much he struggled the year before with his ill-timed growth spurt. He is extremely excited about his chances for another big state meet, and he’s planning to do some additional endurance work on his own, in hopes of improving his swims in the distance frees. Gold Long Course – Another great state meet for Bear. He was disappointed he didn’t medal, as that was one of his goals. But he swam well, especially, in the distance swims. In fact, his 19:26 time in the 1500 Free is currently the 74th best time in the nation for 12 year olds, and he just aged up a few months before the swim. Summer League – Bear had a good Summer League. Breaking the 12U Medley relay county record was a big deal, and he got to do that with his friends. I’m sure he was disappointed that he didn’t qualify for GRPA State in the IM, and just barely made it in back…but he swam well at the State Meet, and he’s showing signs of improving his sprints. 2015 Outlook – Again, we haven’t had any serious discussions yet about next season, but Bear is very excited right now. He’s planning to do additional work (Stationary Bike, Rowing Machine, and dry land exercises) to make sure he’s in prime shape for the new season. He’s also planning to really focus on his sprinting, as he feels he’ll have to get better at that, or it will hold back his ability to swim distance. His times at GRPA may indicate he’s ready to start dropping time there as well. ------------------------------------------------------- Brett Overall – Brett showed some significant signs of improvement during short course, unfortunately, he didn’t build on that in long course (I covered that a few posts back…so I won’t go into it again here). Following some serious discussions he appears to be refocused, and his swim at GRPA definitely lifted his spirits. He’s currently scheduled to move up to the Senior Team practice when he starts back up. This will allow him to get away from Bailey and Bear and hopefully, focus on what he needs to do to get better. He’s also planning to do extra work to get stronger (this isn’t the first time he’s said he wanted to do this, so we’ll have to see if he follows through). Gold Short Course – significant improvements in Back and Free (especially distance Free), really encouraged his coaches. Unfortunately, he didn’t get any of the cuts in breast, which are always his goals. Gold Long Course – Injured, lost focus, and didn’t perform well for these reasons and probably several others as well. He did really start to grow leading into and during this season, so hopefully, he’ll start to fill in and get stronger. He didn’t get his Breast cuts, again his goal, and in fact, he saw some younger swimmers our perform him, which was painful for him to see. It may provide the initiative he needs to put in extra work to get stronger…and if he does that, who knows how much he’ll improve. Summer League – this was Brett’s saving grace in 2014…he made the State Team, he would have earned a medal if not for an over anxious butterflyer, and he started working on a new breaststroke, raced it after only 3 days of practices and almost dropped a second in time. 2015 Outlook – I don’t really know what to expect here. He’s going to be practicing much more if he moves up, but he’ll also have a new coach, and I don’t know how that relationship is going to work. I believe Brett is eager to get better, so it may work well, as the new coach has a good track record. With extra work, and the new breaststroke, he might be able to get another cut. His other strokes have also improved a bit these last few weeks, as his focus has gotten better in practice. I am extremely hopeful, he has a big (for him) 2015 season… |
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07-28-2014, 04:07 PM
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#466 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Swimming News
One more piece of information, before I head on vacation and this thread goes idle for several weeks... This is general news in the sport, but it is fascinating, and could have some serious ramifications moving forward... Enjoy Swimming's Current Controversy Last edited by Breeze : 07-28-2014 at 04:07 PM. |
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08-13-2014, 11:30 AM
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#467 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Swimming News
Thought I'd throw this in, to provide perspective on where Georgia is as a swim state... With both Junior and Senior U.S. Nationals now behind us, and Pan Pacs still a week away, now seems like the perfect time to take a look back at the two weeks that were from a slightly different lens. Let’s start with Junior Nationals: one of the unique aspects of Juniors is that it brings together elite swimmers and clubs from across the country, combining states that are often separated by LSC divisions during the year. But which states tend to be best represented at Juniors? We compiled data from all point-scorers (top 16 finishers) at Junior Nationals to come up with the interactive maps and graphs below. It’s not terribly surprising that California ran away with state scoring. After all, the state hosted Juniors, meaning very few California clubs decided to forgo the meet because of travel expenses. It’s also one of the biggest and most populous states in the U.S. But even taking those factors into consideration, Californians were impressive at Juniors. In total combined scoring, California didn’t just lead, it dominated, putting up more than double the points of the next-best state. Some of that was overall team champ Palo Alto Stanford, but not nearly all of it. PASA put up just over 300 combined points, about a quarter of Cali’s total. California saw 22 boys teams and 18 girls teams put up points over the weeklong meet. Indiana finished second, and its total was much more a one-team show. The girls of Carmel Swim Club led all female scoring with 290, and that accounted for over half of the state’s 523 total points. Interestingly enough, Indiana did quite well at this meet despite the state hosting YMCA Nationals the same week and NCSA Junior Nationals the following week. Those meets could have provided lower-cost options for Indiana’s junior swimmers, but the elite talent of the state still seemed to flock to Irvine for Juniors. Other high-placing overall states: Florida, Texas and North Carolina rounded out the top five spots, showing some real geographic diversity among the meet’s top scorers. 36 of the 50 U.S. states scored points at the meet. A disclaimer: in breaking down point totals by state, we counted every swimmer as a member of the state where his or her club is based. There are certainly some occasions where a swimmer will cross state lines to join a club, but for the sake of simplicity, we’re considering things at a club level. Of course, there are some multi-site mega-clubs that span multiple states. Nation’s Capital Swim Club would be a well-known example. In those cases, we considered the club a member of the state where it’s main headquarters are located – in NCAP’s case, that is Virginia. See below for point totals. Code:
Last edited by Breeze : 08-13-2014 at 11:41 AM. |
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08-18-2014, 01:36 PM
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#468 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
Practice starts today... Brett was moved up to the Senior Team, so he'll get some freedom from his siblings. He was also invited to a bonfire on Saturday with his new teammates. Bailey is sick and will miss the first day. I'll post more details on practice schedules later. Last edited by Breeze : 09-17-2014 at 12:55 PM. |
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08-19-2014, 12:07 PM
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#469 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
New coach new philosophy... Coach Neil used to build the swimmers up the first few weeks, really concentrating on form and slowly getting into distance. Not the new coach...after 4 weeks off, Brett swam 6500 yards in the first day of practice... Last edited by Breeze : 09-05-2014 at 01:39 PM. |
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08-27-2014, 12:51 PM
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#470 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Short Course Season Preview
The short course practices are now underway, and the kids are starting to get their goals together for the season. There have been quite a few changes this year, Brett and the twins are on different teams, new head coach, new practice times, and more. All the kids will now start having morning practice in addition to afternoon practice. The twins are currently scheduled to do it on Wednesday at 5:30 to 7 A.M., Brett is supposed to do morning practices Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (though there is no afternoon practice on Friday). In total, Brett is expected to have 80% attendance and he is scheduled to practice 16 hours a week. The twins are supposed to have 75% attendance and their schedule calls for 13.5 hours in the pool. Here are few thoughts/items for this season… ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear Bear has started a rapid growth spurt similar to the one Brett went through about 6 months ago. He is complaining about his legs hurting, specifically his knees and ankles, so most likely growing pains. While they aren’t terribly concerning, they are significant enough that the coach has requested we start giving him Advil before practice until it goes away. It is also preventing him from doing his extra work before and after practice, which had been his plan coming into the season. In fact, for a couple weeks leading up to the start of practice, Bear was spending about a half an hour on one of our exercise machines, and he was doing pushups, sit ups, and chin ups every day. Bear is very serious about doing well at the short course meet again. He wants to medal like he did as an 11 year old. He’s also very focused on improving his sprints. He wants to be on the team relays at state, and he knows he’ll have to get faster in the sprints to get there. These are the main reasons that he’s willing to put in extra work after and before practice. I don’t believe he has focused on the Sectional Meet, but if he continues to improve on the distance swims, he could have a strong showing there as well. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bailey Bailey is doing well health wise, only dealing with some acne issues, which, when your daughter is high drama and 12 years old, is a MAJOR issue. Actually, she’s been a trouper about it, and she’s starting to get it under control. Given that she was concerned about it, my wife convinced me to let her start wearing make-up. So she now wears a very discreet amount. As far as swimming, she is doing well. In fact, she’s quite excited as she’s already announced that she thinks she’s figured out her freestyle issues. Her initial goal was to get all the state cuts possible, which I expect she will do. I know she desperately wants to win a medal, but I’m afraid the field in her age group just has way too many exceptional swimmers to get better than fifth in any event. She’s also setting her sights on swimming a large number of events at Sectionals (though she hasn’t told me how many or which ones). If she works hard, she could get top 12 at the sectional meet in some events. I’m also sure she’s looking to get another AAA time so she’ll be invited back to the All-Star banquet. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Brett With Brett’s new schedule our biggest concern is school work. Given that he’ll be getting up extremely early 3 days a week, mornings aren’t a possibility for homework. Also, he gets home from school with just enough time to throw on his bathing suit, grab his swim bags and a snack and head to the pool. So the only time left for homework is after practice, and that is problematic because of Brett’s ADHD issues. By the time he sits down to work, he’s off the walls, and completely unfocused (and this is before we start morning practices). I’m not sure how any of this will work itself out, but I think I’m headed for a level of fatigue and sleepiness I haven’t felt since the twins were babies… As for swimming, Brett is hoping to build on the strong end to the Summer League season. The only problem is the new coach, while he has a strong resume, is very hands off. He works his swimmers really hard which leads to good times, but we’ve yet to see a lot of instruction, and that is what Brett needs more than anything. This is where losing Coach Neil hurts, as he would have gotten Brett straightened out. We are going to try and schedule a sit down with Coach Todd to go over Brett’s issues and needs to hopefully keep things moving forward. Brett’s goals are very similar to every other year…get the Breast cuts, close in on the other strokes, and start cleaning up the little things that can help moving forward. Brett has also set a goal to really start focusing on small things within the strokes that he needs to fix while practicing. So in Free, point the toes hard and kick harder, Back, keep the legs extended don’t bend the knee, Fly, swim it (Don’t cheat), Breast, streamline to streamline. All that stated, Brett does have a new goal. Now that he is in High School, Brett is planning to swim for the South Forsyth War Eagles. He won’t be a star on the team, as there are some very good swimmers at South, but it’s a great way to make friends and get into the whole high school scene. His goal for High School is to earn a varsity letter. To get the letter, he’ll have to meet one of the following times… Code:
I think he can possibly do it in a couple of areas. Unfortunately for him, the 200 Breast isn’t swum in High School Meets. Last edited by Breeze : 08-28-2014 at 10:50 AM. |
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08-30-2014, 09:29 PM
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#471 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN
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I'm exhausted just reading the schedule. Good luck to you and the kiddos.
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09-05-2014, 01:59 PM
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#472 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
So practice is in full swing and kids are working hard. I do have a few things to report... - Bear was diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatter Disease...while this sounds terrible it is the same thing that Brett experienced when he had knee pain earlier this Summer. In essence it is a combination of overuse and growing pains. He'll be fine, but he'll be limited - No Breaststroke, No high impact dry land, no running. We'll be treating it with ice, rest, and advil. - Brett is doing a good job in a tough situation. Right now the new coach hasn't split practices into different intervals...so everyone on the Senior/National team are currently swimming National intervals. This means Brett doesn't get rest between sets, because his personal bests are often times not as good as the intervals the nationals swim. However, given that he is doing well focusing in on the items he needs to improve on...in the afternoon. While he's been a champ about getting up and going to morning practices, they aren't as productive. Because they are so early, I can't give him his meds to help him focus (or they'd run out on him before the end of school)...so he makes the typical mistakes he's trying to clean up. We are hoping we can find a solution that will allow him to be more productive in the mornings...will keep you updated. |
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09-08-2014, 04:53 PM
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#473 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
Gold has made an interesting change to the swim schedule for this season...the information about the change is below... -------------------------------- We are rolling out a new meet concept this year that we are very excited about and wanted to give everyone a few more details. Our apologies on not getting these to you sooner, but we have tried to quickly define what we wanted to accomplish in creating a fun, exciting, value filled meet lineup. A little background: We think that there are some inherent problems with the way that USA Swimming meets usually run. They are long, they can be expensive ($60+ for a weekend of swimming), and there just aren’t enough on the calendar to give our kids the racing experience that we need. Contrast that with a summer league meet for instance- They are fun, low pressure, inexpensive, and happen every week during their season. You can clearly see the problem there! This coupled with the fact that during the fall, some swimmers will only get one or two race opportunities before the focus meets in December. That just definitely isn’t working right. With that in mind, enter the Gold Grand Prix Series (11 and older) and Saturday Sprint Series (10 and under)! These one day, one session meets will take place mostly at the Cherokee Aquatic center on the meet dates listed under meets at goldswim.com. They should be a fun and exciting opportunity to give kids the experience of racing in a way that reduces the time, expense, and anxiety of a traditional meet. These meets will not be USA sanctioned, so the times won’t be official but the focus will the be the fun and awards! Events here however, WILL count towards the highly coveted ironman award that we give out at the end of the season (for the swimmer who competes in every event offered in their age group). Here are some of the additional details of each: Gold Grand Prix Series: These meets will be for 11 and older swimmers and will take place on Saturday mornings instead of normal practice. The series will be comprised of 4 meets with each meet being the same format: 50, 100, and 200 of each stroke in IM order. Each swimmer gets to select a total of 4 events during each meet. Over the course of the 4 meets, each swimmer will be required to have swum at least each event once. As you can see, a swimmer that has to miss one of the meets will still be able to complete all the races, and a swimmer that goes to all meets will have the opportunity to re-swim some races for a higher finish. Events will be scored over the course of the 4 meets in the age groups of 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18 both male and female. The finishing place in a race will equal the number of points that the swimmer scores, so lowest number of points wins. At the end of the Grand Prix series, points will be added up and the top 3 lowest point scorers in each age group will receive prizes! We have some pretty exciting prizes lined up- think high end wearable merchandise for top finishers, so we think the competition will be exciting. These meets will usually last just a couple hours and the cost will be $75 for ALL 4 meets. --------------------------------------------- Currently, my kids are saying, as long as their friends swim the Grand Prix series, they will too... Last edited by Breeze : 09-08-2014 at 04:53 PM. |
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09-17-2014, 01:17 PM
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#474 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Personal Bests
With the season about to start, I figured I'd post the kid's current personal bests. Bailey Code:
Bear Code:
Brett Code:
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09-24-2014, 05:13 PM
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#475 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Short Course Cut Times
So I wanted to take a second and update the kids personal bests vs. the cut times they will be shooting for. I believe the information below is self explanitory, please let me know if you have questions though... Bailey Code:
*Note - Cut times are subject to change Last edited by Breeze : 09-24-2014 at 05:30 PM. |
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09-24-2014, 05:26 PM
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#476 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Short Course Cut Times
Bear Code:
*Note - Cut times are subject to change Last edited by Breeze : 09-24-2014 at 05:30 PM. |
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09-24-2014, 05:32 PM
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#477 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Short Course Cut Times
Brett Code:
*Note - Cut times are subject to change **Note - If Brett gets close to other cuts, I will note that in write ups |
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09-25-2014, 12:28 PM
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#478 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Clash of the Golds - Cherokee Aquatic Center - 9/27-28
I don't get to watch the kids practice with their new schedules, so I don't have the same insight regarding how they are doing or what to expect. I can only guess based on reports I've received from them, their friends, and the coaches. --------------------------------------------------------- Bailey #3 (d1/s1): G 11-12 50 Fly (30.72Y ) - Bailey has been talking about going sub 30 in this one...I think that is very likely. #9 (d1/s1): G 11-12 50 Back (33.48Y) - No idea here...but I expect she'll drop a decent amount of time. #15 (d1/s1): G 11-12 100 Breast (1:32.28Y) - Hit or miss with this stroke. She definately improved during the Summer in breast, but is she still swimming the same way in this stroke. I have no idea. #21 (d1/s1): G 11-12 100 Free (1:06.62Y) - Her reports on swimming 100 Free intervals tells me she'll improve in this, and maybe considerably. #27 (d2/s2): G 11-12 100 Fly (1:08.43Y) - She wants to get down to 1 minute in this stroke. A strong goal, but not one she'll achieve this meet if she can get there at all... #33 (d2/s2): G 11-12 100 Back (1:09.22Y) - See 50 Back... #39 (d2/s2): G 11-12 50 Breast (44.34Y) - See 100 Breast #45 (d2/s2): G 11-12 50 Free (30.19Y) - She hasn't said it, but I'm betting she wants to be in the 28 second range... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Bear - Bear talks a lot less than the other kids, so I have less insight on him...he has been complaining a good bit about being sore (which I believe is more growing pains) #4 (d1/s1): B 11-12 50 Fly (33.91Y) - No idea...he wants to improve his sprints, and this one in particular...but I've not heard a peep about his fly specifically. I'm hoping for around a 31... #10 (d1/s1): B 11-12 50 Back (37.18Y) - Very little talk about his back as well...I think a mid 35 would be good. #16 (d1/s1): B 11-12 100 Breast (1:28.46Y) - Said his Breast the other day felt off...so if he is right and it is off this may not improve much. #22 (d1/s1): B 11-12 100 Free (1:03.95Y) - This is the one area I expect he will improve. His coached have mentioned on several occasions that he has had very good practices...and in the free sets especially. He wants to go sub 60. Not sure he'll get there yet...but it is a good goal. #28 (d2/s2): B 11-12 100 Fly (1:11.71Y) - I think he'll improve here. As you've probably figured from past readings, the further he goes, the better he does. #34 (d2/s2): B 11-12 100 Back (1:16.10Y) - Same feeling as the 100 Fly... #40 (d2/s2): B 11-12 50 Breast (41.08Y) - No idea #46 (d2/s2): B 11-12 50 Free (30.11Y) - He's going to want to post something around a 28 as well... ------------------------------------------------------------- Brett #2 (d1/s1): B 13 & Over 100 Fly (1:22.18Y) - As I mentioned above I don't get to watch practice much, when I have watched I still see Brett one arming a lot of Fly practice. But I've also gotten reports that his fly is looking much better. I think he improves here just because he is much stronger from a lot more time in the pool. #8 (d1/s1): B 13 & Over 100 Back (1:12.87Y) - Again iprovement from extra practice. Still has problems with bicycle kicking every other left leg kick, which holds him back. #14 (d1/s1): B 13 & Over 200 Breast (2:42.45Y) - Fingers crossed the new stroke leads to a big improvement here. Would be huge for his self confidence. #20 (d1/s1): B 13 & Over 200 Free (2:13.29Y) - Free kick is getting better in spurts. Could improve here by a several seconds. #32 (d2/s2): B 13 & Over 200 Back (2:33.40Y) - Again improvement through lots of time in the pool. #38 (d2/s2): B 13 & Over 100 Breast (1:16.93Y) - See 200 Breast. #44 (d2/s2): B 13 & Over 100 Free (1:04.72Y) - Wants to go sub 60, don't think he will. but 1:01 is reachable I think. Last edited by Breeze : 09-25-2014 at 12:30 PM. |
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09-29-2014, 01:05 PM
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#479 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Clash of the Golds - RESULTS
--------------------------------------------------------- Bailey #3 (d1/s1): G 11-12 50 Fly (30.72Y) – Just missed getting sub 30, and she wasn’t happy about it…almost did though…30.03 #9 (d1/s1): G 11-12 50 Back (33.48Y) - Did get a drop of over a second finishing with a 32.37…just a blink of an eye from the state cut. #15 (d1/s1): G 11-12 100 Breast (1:32.28Y) – Dropped a bunch of time…a good bit of it was due to her pullouts. She really used her strong dolphin kick to get good underwater distances off the walls. Needs to improve her pulls a bit, if she does she’ll drop another chuck of time. Finished with a 1:27.54 – almost a 5 second drop. #21 (d1/s1): G 11-12 100 Free (1:06.62Y) - A good swim here, but not as good as she wanted. Finished 1:02.91… #27 (d2/s2): G 11-12 100 Fly (1:08.43Y) – Improved by almost 2 seconds to finish 1:06.57. Several parent commented how pretty she looked in this race. She felt she breathed too much in the final 25, and she’s planning to clean it up. Thinks if she does she’ll go sub 1:05. #33 (d2/s2): G 11-12 100 Back (1:09.22Y) - Good start, good walls, slight drop to a 1:08.58 – only .1 from a state cut. #39 (d2/s2): G 11-12 50 Breast (44.34Y) – Drop of almost 3 seconds. Coach said it was a pretty stroke – For a 200 Breast…he told her she’s got to work harder in the sprint breast…and he fells she’ll drop another couple of seconds when she does - 41.48 #45 (d2/s2): G 11-12 50 Free (30.19Y) – A good, but not great swim here for Bailey. Her free is improving…but she posted a 29.31. She at the very least needs to get sub 29…She’s managed sub 29 in relays, so I expect she’ll get there before the end of the season. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Bear #4 (d1/s1): B 11-12 50 Fly (33.91Y) – Almost a 2 second drop…32.20 – and it showed a better approach to a sprint fly race. We’ll see if he can drop another 2 seconds and get a cut here. It’ll be an interesting one to watch moving forward. #10 (d1/s1): B 11-12 50 Back (37.18Y) – Over a 3 second drop – 34.00. Coach wants his arms rotating faster on the sprints. He needs to carry his speed into the walls better as well… #16 (d1/s1): B 11-12 100 Breast (1:28.46Y) – Swam this one, though he wasn’t supposed to. With his knee issues he should have just skipped it. But young boy, in a competitive situation, and you know he definitely didn’t want to sit it out. Though he hasn’t swum Breast is weeks he managed to post a time of 1:28.54…almost identical to his seed time. #22 (d1/s1): B 11-12 100 Free (1:03.95Y) - Coach was right, Bear’s free looks better than it ever has. Strong underwaters on the dive and first 2 turns. The last turn left a little to be desired and it cost him is goal of something in the 60.XX timeframe. Finished with a 1:01.11…Says he’s definitely going sub 60 before the end of the season. #28 (d2/s2): B 11-12 100 Fly (1:11.71Y) – Much bigger improvement than I expected. Again, he attacked the shorter race and he posted a 1:09.25…which is a state cut… #34 (d2/s2): B 11-12 100 Back (1:16.10Y) – Coach said arms were a bit choppy, but he improved by over 4.5 seconds. Finished with 1:11.42… #40 (d2/s2): B 11-12 50 Breast (41.08Y) - Skipped this one…under strict orders not to swim it. Plus he wanted to save his knees for the sprint free… #46 (d2/s2): B 11-12 50 Free (30.11Y) – Hit is mark…finishing in 28.58. He’s currently third for Gold swimmers that will still be under 12 during the state meet. So his improved sprints are currently helping him achieve his goals to be on the A relay. One more interesting note…this was a funny race, in that, when the gun sounded, a couple of the 10U girls on the other end of the pool preparing for their 25 frees dove in, and some of the kids racing Bear swam around (twice). They were given the option to reswim, and a couple did…it was one of those Wow moments that come along occasionally in kid sports. ------------------------------------------------------------- Brett Before I get into the discussion on Brett’s weekend, I think I need to take a second to define the increased effort that he is exerting due to practice. Last season he was swimming approximately 5000 yards a day. Currently, he swims 7500+ on the light days and over 13,000 yards on two a days. This is causing a significant amount of fatigue, which is Brett is slow to recover from, and which showed up during the meet. #2 (d1/s1): B 13 & Over 100 Fly (1:22.18Y) – Form looked great, time was terrible – 1:24.27. At the time I just felt that he needed to push harder, but it became obvious as the day went on, that this was actually a pretty good effort on his part. #8 (d1/s1): B 13 & Over 100 Back (1:12.87Y) – Like the fly, he added about 2 seconds to his personal best swimming a 1:14.59 #14 (d1/s1): B 13 & Over 200 Breast (2:42.45Y) – Here is where it became obvious that this wasn’t an effort issue, but rather a fatigue one. He added almost 7 whole seconds finishing with a 2:49.26 #20 (d1/s1): B 13 & Over 200 Free (2:13.29Y) – Another slow time of 2:17.09…and Brett was very disappointed his he day. Note, that afternoon and the next morning, numerous parents and coaches told him and us, that he just needs to keep working hard. That he looks good in practice and that ultimately it will pay off in spades, but right now he’s just to worn out to have a peek performance. He was told that his body will adjust to the practices and start recovering quicker, and when that happens, he’ll see his rewards. I also told him, that given that he basically swam only about 2500-3000 yards on Saturday, and that his Friday practice was in the morning, that he might be more rested for the Sunday swim, and he might do better. To focus on his technique and see if he could drop time… No 200 Fly to start the day, helped with fatigue too… #32 (d2/s2): B 13 & Over 200 Back (2:33.40Y) – fractional improvement. Dropped .08…but still a personal best. 2:33.32. #38 (d2/s2): B 13 & Over 100 Breast (1:16.93Y) - Really need a good swim here, and we got it. He looked strong, really pushing to keep up with the older kids to his inside lane. Still desperately needs to improve the dolphin kick on his pullout (which will happen when he improves his fly, which he’s been told for a VERY LONG TIME)…but managed to drop over a second and finish with a 1:15.87. This is also an important swim, in that the time is below the standard set by the high school to earn his varsity letter. If he can keep or improve on this swim moving forward, and he gets an opportunity to swim Breast for South Forsyth, he can reach his goal of lettering as a Freshman. #44 (d2/s2): B 13 & Over 100 Free (1:04.72Y) – Looked strong here, but underwaters were lacking, and ultimately, that cost him a chance to go 60 or sub 60. Finished with a 1:02.92…another personal best and a huge lift to Brett’s psyche. |
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10-02-2014, 11:04 AM
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#480 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Gold Grand Prix Meet 1 - Cherokee Aquatic Center - 10/4
The first of the 4 Grand Prix meets start Saturday, and I have a few things that have changed since the post above. First, the meets will now be sanctioned by USA Swimming, so the times will be official. However, in an effort to save money, the electronic timing systems won't be used. Instead there will be 3 hand held watches in each lane that will be averaged to determine time (assuming they can get enough volenteers to be timers). Because the timing system won't be used, I'll have no race time feedback duriing the meet, and potentially will have to wait several days to get their actual results, which will be very frustrating. Additionally, the swimmers will be classified by their age on October 4th. This really hurts the twins, as there are a number of very strong 12 year olds that will be aging up before the end of the season, but will get to swim as 12 year olds for the entire Grand Prix series. Even with the ruling on age, I expect Bailey and Bear will both finish in the top 5 for their age group. Brett is also going to swim the Grand Prix series. The schedule was adjusted so it wouldn't interfere with high school meets, so he decided to do it. These events are about a combination of time and place finish, as prizes will be awarded for top finishers in each age group, but ultimately you won't know your place until all 4 events have been completed. Here are the events they will swim... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bailey Breeze #5 (d1/s1): G 11-12 50 Fly (30.03Y) #49 (d1/s1): G 11-12 100 Back (1:08.58Y) #81 (d1/s1): G 11-12 100 Breast (1:27.54Y) #101 (d1/s1): G 11-12 50 Free (29.31Y) ---------------------------------------------------------- Barrett Breeze #6 (d1/s1): B 11-12 50 Fly (32.20Y) #50 (d1/s1): B 11-12 100 Back (1:11.42Y) #70 (d1/s1): B 11-12 50 Breast (41.08Y) #126 (d1/s1): B 11-12 200 Free (2:12.58Y) ---------------------------------------------------------- Brett Breeze #20 (d1/s1): B 13-14 100 Fly (1:22.18Y) #52 (d1/s1): B 13-14 100 Back (1:12.87Y) #84 (d1/s1): B 13-14 100 Breast (1:15.87Y) #116 (d1/s1): B 13-14 100 Free (1:02.92Y) Last edited by Breeze : 10-02-2014 at 11:19 AM. |
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10-07-2014, 11:20 AM
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#481 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Gold Grand Prix Meet 1 - RESULTS
------------------------------------------------------------- Bailey Breeze #5 (d1/s1): G 11-12 50 Fly (30.03Y) – Bailey dropped another .3 seconds, posted a 29.71 and won the event. #49 (d1/s1): G 11-12 100 Back (1:08.58Y) – Actually added about .7 seconds (1:09.28), but still finished second overall. #81 (d1/s1): G 11-12 100 Breast (1:27.54Y) – 1:27.32 – Personal Best and finished third overall #101 (d1/s1): G 11-12 50 Free (29.31Y) – Bailey really wanted an improvement in this one. She wasn’t happy with her swim the weekend prior. She dropped almost .7 seconds and finished with a 28.63. Good enough for fourth. Total – 10 points : By my count she finished with the 3rd lowest point total for her age group ---------------------------------------------------------- Barrett Breeze #6 (d1/s1): B 11-12 50 Fly (32.20Y) – I thought he looked a little stiff, but he dropped .73 and finished second overall with a 31.47 #50 (d1/s1): B 11-12 100 Back (1:11.42Y) – Dropped .36 seconds here and finished third overall – 1:11.06 #70 (d1/s1): B 11-12 50 Breast (41.08Y) – Added time in this one. Still waiting too long on the pullout before swimming. 41.62 and a fourth place finish. #126 (d1/s1): B 11-12 200 Free (2:12.58Y) – I expected a nice improvement here, and he delivered. Dropped almost 3 full seconds (2:09.26) and won the event for the 12Us. Total – 10 points : By my count he finished with the 3rd lowest point total for his age group ---------------------------------------------------------- Brett Breeze I have to tell you, I feel really bad for Brett right now. He is working extremely hard (as I outlined in my last post meet report when I talked about how much distance he is swimming), getting up early without complaint, trying very hard in practice during his laps, but his inability to focus on what he needs to improve is really holding him back. He continues to make the same mistakes he’s been making for years and it is really heartbreaking. If he could iron out just a few items, he’d drop several seconds in many of his races and become much more respectable with his results. Would it make him a great swimmer – No, but it would provide some self-esteem and he’d start to see some results from his efforts. #20 (d1/s1): B 13-14 100 Fly (1:22.18Y) – Actually dropped time in this one, .83 seconds as a matter of fact 1:21.35. Unfortunately, he breathed almost every stroke, and his underwater work was weak at best. If he’d limit breathing to every other stroke, he’d drop 4 seconds, and good underwaters, would probably drop 2 or 3 more. (Sigh) #52 (d1/s1): B 13-14 100 Back (1:12.87Y) – Added time – 1:14.28. #84 (d1/s1): B 13-14 100 Breast (1:15.87Y) – Added time 1:17.28 – lack of a big dolphin kick on pullouts continues to be a killer for his time. #116 (d1/s1): B 13-14 100 Free (1:02.92Y) – Added almost a second – 1:03.81. Last edited by Breeze : 10-07-2014 at 11:20 AM. |
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10-10-2014, 09:58 AM
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#482 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
Bear has been sick for the last 3 days. Returned for early morning practice today, and it was obvious he had been out of the pool for a while. |
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10-13-2014, 02:26 PM
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#483 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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High School Swim Team Time Trials
Brett's high school swim team will have their time trials tomorrow morning. I'm not sure if Brett will be going. The coach may accept his year round times which means we won't have to go (but there is a possibility he will want to go as he is very excited about swimming on the high school team). We are waiting on feedback from the coach. Edit to Update: Brett didn't have to swim, and he was very thankful for the extra 70 minutes to sleep... Last edited by Breeze : 10-14-2014 at 09:23 AM. Reason: Updating the thread |
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10-15-2014, 09:58 AM
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#484 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
A little humor for you… I get my son up at 4:30 A.M. to get ready for swim practice and to eat breakfast. I take him to the pool, he goes into the facility and I stay in the car. About 15 minutes later he knocks on my window and informs me… “I don’t have a bathing suit.” How the hell do you do that? Anyway, the twins, who start morning practice a half hour later, brought him one. So he did get a good workout in. In fact, the coach found me after practice and as he was coming towards me with a smirk on his face, I figured he was going to laugh about Brett forgetting his suit, but instead he said, “Brett disappeared this morning.” I explained what happened and he laughed then he said, “I thought he might be sleeping in the locker room; happens all the time, but when I went to look he wasn’t there. Now I know.” He also informed me that he got Brett to kick much more effectively today. Hopefully, Brett can replicate that tonight and tomorrow and we’ll see some improvement in the meet this weekend. |
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10-15-2014, 03:28 PM
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#485 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Gold Invite @ Mt View Aquatic Center - 10/17 - 10/19
This meet was set up to break the sessions at 12 to 13 year olds. To make it easier on us, the coach entered Bailey and Bear in Open competition. This means they will swim with older kids, but they should still be racing people with similar times in their heats. Bailey Breeze #1 (d1/s1): G Open 200 Medley (2:32.49Y) - Needs to cut 4 seconds for a state cut - I think she does it... #5 (d1/s1): G Open 400 Medley (5:13.12Y) - 2 seconds from a Sectional cut - I think she gets this one too. #43 (d2/s3): G Open 200 Free (2:25.43Y) - Her free is better, so I expect a drop. #49 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Back (1:08.58Y) - only needs to drop .1 for a State Cut - Again I think she gets it. #55 (d2/s3): G Open 200 Breast (3:20.06Y) - I expect she drops time, but she's a long way from a cut, and she still doesn't believe in herself when it comes to Breaststroke. #61 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Fly (1:06.57Y) - Ironically, with all the cuts I've predicted, I expect she'll add time in this one. Fatigue and the fact she swam this fast time just a few weeks back, leads me to believe we are looking at a 1:07 high. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear Breeze #2 (d1/s1): B Open 200 Medley (2:38.98Y) - If his knees hold up on Breast, he could cut 5 seconds one. #4 (d1/s1): B Open 50 Free (28.58Y) - Just set the PB a couple weeks ago, plus coming off a cold...I don't expect this time to be bettered. #8 (d1/s1): B Open 500 Free (5:39.41Y) - could drop a bunch of time, or add if he's not 100% following the cold. #44 (d2/s3): B Open 200 Free (2:09.62Y) - See the 50 Free... #50 (d2/s3): B Open 100 Back (1:11.06Y) - needs to drop just over a second to get a sectional cut...I think he might do it here. #56 (d2/s3): B Open 200 Breast (3:03.93Y) - practiced breast for the first time in weeks due to the Osgood-Schletter - Said his legs were very stiff and sore even before the set was over. I don't expect much because of that. #62 (d2/s3): B Open 100 Fly (1:09.25Y) - Only needs to cut a quarter of a second to get a secontional cut. -------------------------------------------------------- Brett Breeze Not sure what to expect. They aren't tapering at all for this meet, so I expect he'll still be fatigued going into the races. #4 (d1/s1): B Open 50 Free (30.33Y) - Has already beaten this time at Summer League swims, should go 28 high if he's feeling well. #6 (d1/s1): B Open 400 Medley (5:12.60Y) - How is his fly? If he limits breathing, even tired he might challenge his PB. #42 (d2/s3): B 13-14 200 Free (2:13.29Y) - see opening comments #48 (d2/s3): B 13-14 100 Back (1:12.87Y) - Coach is trying to get him to sink his uppper body more and get his legs higher. He's been struggling with that new form, too quick to return to what is comfortable. Not sure he'll be able to do the new form in this one. #54 (d2/s3): B 13-14 200 Breast (2:42.45Y) - I want him to improve here, and I know he can, but I'm not sure if he'll be able to do it at the end of the second day of racing. |
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10-21-2014, 12:02 PM
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#486 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Gold Invite - RESULTS
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Bailey Breeze #1 (d1/s1): G Open 200 Medley (2:32.49Y) – Bailey started out this race extremely strong, swimming her fly leg in 30.76. At this point she was in first in her heat, which may not sound that impressive, until you remember she was swimming in an open event, meaning some of the girls were 3 or 4 years older than her. Her back and free were both good, but the Breast was as bad as it had ever been. In fact, it took her 48 seconds to do the 50…that is 4 seconds slower than her breast from last year in this same event, and a full 8 seconds off her personal best in a 50 breast (which I don’t expect to swim as the third leg of a 200 IM, but it is a point of reference). Eventually she did finish with a personal best of 2:31.23. #5 (d1/s1): G Open 400 Medley (5:13.12Y) – This was extremely similar to the 200 IM…an early lead because of a strong Fly leg, good back, terrible Breast and a strong free. This time though she didn’t get a PB, settling for a 5:13.79. #43 (d2/s3): G Open 200 Free (2:25.43Y) – In the pre-swim write up I said “Her free is better, so I expect a drop” I had no idea…dropped 14.16 seconds, finishing with a 2:11.17 and another state cut. #49 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Back (1:08.58Y) – While my expectation of a drop in the 200 free was understated, I missed the drops on both IMs and I missed this one as well. Bailey looked fine in the back, but failed to drop time…adding just over half a second…1:09.18 #55 (d2/s3): G Open 200 Breast (3:20.06Y) – The coach told her after the first day that her Breast was terrible…(in a funny way)…but he reinforced some technique items with her during warm ups the second day, and again before racing and it paid off. She dropped around 14.5 seconds finishing with a 3:05.42…this bodes well for her IMs moving forward (assuming she can maintain the form). #61 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Fly (1:06.57Y) – Again my predictions were way off. I thought she’d add time here. She didn’t, she dropped just over a second, and managed to beat the 17 year old daughter (who was right next to her in the heat) of a families we are friends with. 1:05.52 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear Breeze #2 (d1/s1): B Open 200 Medley (2:38.98Y) – Knees held up fine, though his breast leg, like Bailey’s is going to need some work. But my prediction of a 5 second drop was a bit low…considering he dropped 13.07 seconds to finish with a 2:25.91, giving him not only a state cut, but a sectional one as well. #4 (d1/s1): B Open 50 Free (28.58Y) – Dropped another half second 28.07 #8 (d1/s1): B Open 500 Free (5:39.41Y) – talked to the coach before the race about pacing, and coach said he wanted him under 35s…as Bear was walking away, he told me that…then stopped…calculated the time of 35seconds /50 and determined that was WAY too slow. He told me that he wanted to be under 33s – which would put him at a time of 5:30. His splits went like this… 30.18 33.42 33.70 (I signaled that he needed to pick it up a little) 33.51 (again I signaled to pick it up a bit) 33.16 33.58 (at this point the coach signaled me to signal him to go hard – I figured he felt Bear had a lot left) 32.32 (continued to signal him from here on out to go hard, as he was in the final 150) 32.90 33.40 31.59 5:27.76 This is less than .2 seconds from a 13 year old cut. #44 (d2/s3): B Open 200 Free (2:09.62Y) - The improvement Bear is showing is remarkable. After he swam the 500 with most 200 splits being sub 2:10, my thoughts on a drop here were changed to extremely likely. Even with that I didn’t expect a drop of almost 4.5 seconds... 2:05.16, a state and sectional cut again. #50 (d2/s3): B Open 100 Back (1:11.06Y) – Did drop, but only half a second. 1:10.56 #56 (d2/s3): B Open 200 Breast (3:03.93Y) - Bear ended up receiving a very similar response to his Breast in the IM that Bailey did, and he ended up getting very similar instructions before warm up and before his race. He also improved 3:01.57 – this could mean good things in the IMs moving forward as well. #62 (d2/s3): B Open 100 Fly (1:09.25Y) –Only needed a quarter of a second drop, he dropped over 2 seconds - 1:07.17 – he got his sectional cut, but more importantly, he looked much smoother and stronger in this one than he has recently with his fly…. -------------------------------------------------------- Brett Breeze #4 (d1/s1): B Open 50 Free (30.33Y) – He didn’t disappoint here dropping a good bit of time and even out performing my 28 high prediction…28.34 #6 (d1/s1): B Open 400 Medley (5:12.60Y) – He not only limited his breathing, he was getting his hips up and out of the water on the first 35 yards of the 100 yard Fly leg…his opening 50 was a 35.90. It has been a while since Brett was young enough to swim a 50 fly, but his best on record is a 38.41…and I don’t think I recall a fly swim where he ever had a 50 split (IM or 100 / 200 Fly) where he was faster. The back half his hips didn’t clear the surface and he definitely tired, but he still managed to go a 1:18.93…almost 3 full seconds faster than his personal best in the 100 fly, and he still had 300 yards to swim. The fly leg propelled him to an almost 6 second improvement - 5:06.83 #42 (d2/s3): B 13-14 200 Free (2:13.29Y) – Kick looks SOOOOO MUCH better…plus his underwaters, while not great were much better than they have been. Definitely, put some effort into them. He dropped almost 6 seconds here as well…2:08.68 #48 (d2/s3): B 13-14 100 Back (1:12.87Y) – Still not quite getting the new back form. Did try hard to do better underwaters on the back, but his streamline in back isn’t real good. He tends to look at this feet, which creates a lot of drag. If he figures that out he’ll drop a couple seconds here with that change alone…as it turns out it was a PB, but just barely - 1:12.79 #54 (d2/s3): B 13-14 200 Breast (2:42.45Y) – Ended up swimming next to his buddy (and coach’s son Tommy)…Brett took the early lead with a quick dive and great pullout. Brett’s effort was phenomenal in this one, and his pullouts were so much better than normal. Unfortunately though, his pullouts got a little shorter each turn, and Tommy’s remained extremely log (of course Tommy is a very good flyer so that helps). Here are the splits for Brett and Tommy… Code:
Brett was passed in the last 25 coming off the wall and couldn’t quite swim Tommy down. He did however improve his 50 breast personal best by almost a full second (from GRPA State in July), and his 100 breast time by 1.3 seconds from just back on 9/28… ----------------------------------------------- This meet had quite a few WOW moment. Literally, moments where when the race was over I actually stated, "Wow". I'm sure you can probably guess what they are from the times but I'll list them anyway... Bailey's - 200 Free and 100 Fly Bear's - 200 IM, 500 Free, 200 Free, 100 Fly Brett's - 400 IM, 200 Free, 200 Breast It has been a while since I walked away from a meet so pleased. Every one of the kids did extremely well. Sure Bailey was disappointed with her IMs (and believe me I heard about it a great deal), but the foundation for good swims are there as soon as the breaststroke starts working well again. Bear needs to clean up his breast as well, but his Free is looking extremely strong right now. Finally, Brett - this was a huge meet for him and his self esteem. I don't think I can put into words how much impact his performance seems to have had. Combine that with High School swimming and he seems much more energized and focused than I've ever seen him. Hopefully, this continues because fatigue swims will crop up again in the future. ------------------------------------------ Couple of interesting tidbits from races... - Bailey beat the 17 year old mentioned above. She also almost beat another girl who's family we eat with in a group occasionally. This time it was in the back and the 15 year old had to bust it to beat Bailey. After the race they were talking and the girl (Rachel) said, that was a nice swim, you're what 15? To which Bailey replied, "No I'm 12." Leading Rachel to respond, "That's just not fair..." - Bear beat a 17 year old with a full beard twice... Last edited by Breeze : 10-21-2014 at 12:09 PM. |
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10-22-2014, 09:22 AM
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#487 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Brett Update
At the very beginning of the season Brett was handed a questionnaire packet to help him establish his goals, and at the end of the week it was time to go over those. Brett, the wife, and I all sat with Coach Todd to go over what he had written. At the time he was filling out his goals, I felt he was taking the process way to lightly, and the coach basically let him know, in a nice way, that he needs to be more serious about what he hopes to accomplish, and he’ll expect a much different packet next year when we do this again. In addition to setting goals here are some things that came out of the meeting… - Attendance is good so far - Because he is young and small he needs to be patient with results - Need to eat well and get plenty of sleep - Work on ankle flexibility - Need to really focus on flutter kicks in practice Brett was also asked to look through collegeswimming.com to find 15 schools he might be interested in swimming for when he graduates high school. There were several reasons for this: first, the coach wants Brett to get familiar with the process, understand how to find schools for when he gets older and closer to graduation. Second, he wants Brett to look for schools that offer his field of study (right now he wants to be an engineer) or something he can use to get into his field of study. Third, and this is probably the biggest reason, he wants Brett to look at the times of swimmers on the team, so he’ll know what times he’ll need to reach in order to swim for those schools. Coach Todd said he’d work with Brett next year to create his swim profile for recruiting and he told me to get him an account with the NCAA Clearinghouse next year as well. This of course got me thinking. Up until now, I figured Brett, like most people, would end up finishing their competitive careers when they graduate high school. I thought Brett would be a good high school swimmer, earn a couple varsity letters, and then graduate, I didn’t expect he would be anywhere close to the caliber necessary to be a college swimmer. However, after researching different schools on Collegeswimming.com, there are a few schools that have Breaststrokers that are only a couple seconds faster than Brett right now. Given that Brett is still just barely over 100 lbs. and has a decent amount of growing still to do, I expect, if he keeps working hard, he might actually get into the time range where some teams might be interested. Clearly the odds are long on him developing into a swimmer that Auburn, Cal, Stanford, Michigan, or Texas would look at, but if he could swim at college at all (assuming he’ll still want to) that would be great. In fact, honestly right now, I feel that Brett would do much better in a small school environment for college. The only problem is that many of the schools Brett would be interested in, and/or capable of swimming for are terribly expensive and swimming is almost never a full ride scholarship, and many small schools are Div III which don’t offer any scholarships at all. But we’ll cross that bridge when/if the time comes. As far as schools go, I have very little to offer Brett in terms of schools to look into. When I was looking into schools, way, way back some of the schools I was accepted to that I thought might be good for Brett included: Furman – no swim team Tulane – no men’s team Coastal Carolina – no swim team Atlantic Christian – no swim team Maryville College – no swim team Also, I’m not well traveled, so I don’t know much about schools outside of the Southeast…If he continues to improve, we may have to make some road trips (if we can find time in his ridiculously busy schedule). If you have any suggestions of a school you’re familiar with that you think we should check out let me know. Last edited by Breeze : 10-22-2014 at 09:24 AM. |
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10-23-2014, 09:45 AM
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#488 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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High School Swimming
The South High School swim team started practice on Monday, and because Gold canceled practice following the weekend meet, Brett was able to get 1 of his 5 mandatory attendance practices in. The funny thing was that he started swimming with the team at the pool, and the coach came over to him and asked if he had turned in his forms, to which he replied yes. They asked him his name and looked through their records and didn’t find his sign up sheet, so they asked him again, and he said he had turned it into Coach Spurlock. They told him that Coach Spurlock was the South coach and that he was currently swimming with the North team. So my son practiced with the wrong team initially. Fortunately for him, he was the fourth person that morning to make that mistake. Brett attended the dry-land practice Tuesday morning as well, so he only needs to go 3 more times to meet the team requirement, and following this weekend’s Gold Meet, his chances of getting the 2 team cuts to earn his varsity letter are looking better and better. First high school meet will be 11/8. |
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10-23-2014, 10:38 AM
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#489 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Gold Grand Prix Meet 2 - Cherokee Aquatic Center - 10/25
Round 2 for the Gran Prix Series is this weekend. Unfortunately, it really isn’t well thought out in its design. There are a number of holes in the logic that will skew results a bit. Not that it really matters, the best swimmers in each of my kids age groups will still end up winning, but the changes will probably drop my kids down a spot or two. Oh well, on to what we are swimming this weekend. Bailey #213A (d1/s1): G 11-12 200 Fly (2:30.64Y ) #227A (d1/s1): G 11-12 200 Back (2:32.72Y ) #233A (d1/s1): G 11-12 50 Breast (41.48Y ) #253A (d1/s1): G 11-12 100 Free (1:02.91Y ) ------------------------------------------------------- Bear #212A (d1/s1): B 11-12 100 Fly (1:09.25Y ) #228A (d1/s1): B 11-12 200 Back (2:31.95Y ) #240A (d1/s1): B 11-12 100 Breast (1:28.46Y ) #248A (d1/s1): B 11-12 50 Free (28.58Y ) ------------------------------------------------------- Brett #228B (d1/s1): B 13-14 200 Back (2:33.32Y ) #234B (d1/s1): B 13-14 50 Breast (36.88Y ) #248B (d1/s1): B 13-14 50 Free (30.33Y ) #254B (d1/s1): B 13-14 100 Free (1:02.92Y ) Last edited by Breeze : 10-23-2014 at 10:39 AM. |
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10-28-2014, 12:19 PM
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#490 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Bear Update
So Bear has been complaining on and off for weeks about his sides hurting. He has some asthma issues and carries an inhaler, so we've taken him to get looked at before, but his lungs keep checking out clean. This morning he was very uncomfortable, saying his sides hurt real bad, so we took him to the doctor again. This time the doctor was able to determine that his asthma isn't under control while he's exercising, which puts extra pressure on his muscles. So we have to take him to a pulmonologist now... |
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10-28-2014, 03:27 PM
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#491 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Gold Grand Prix Meet 2 - RESULTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Bailey #213A (d1/s1): G 11-12 200 Fly (2:30.64Y) – This was the first time this season Bailey swam this event, and she actually swam the fastest time for any swimmer in any age group. She posted a personal best time of 2:23.72, which is only about a second off of the 13/14 year old sectional cut. All that said, she wasn’t real happy with it. Feels she left several seconds in the pool and is very excited about swimming it in the South Carolina travel meet next month. #227A (d1/s1): G 11-12 200 Back (2:32.72Y ) – Also first time for this swim this season. She dropped some time to a 2:31.63. When she got out after this race she was pale and not feeling well. I believe in this thread I’ve mentioned Bailey’s periodic problems eating breakfast, well that is just part of her issues…though it hasn’t happened in quite a while, she can go very pale and semi-pass out. The doctor said it was related to her body using up its fuel reserves and that she needs to drink juice and eat some crackers or cookies when it occurs. She was on the verge of this…which couldn’t have helped her swim. She is expecting to do much better in this next time. #233A (d1/s1): G 11-12 50 Breast (41.48Y ) – Because she wasn’t feeling well, she skipped this event. #253A (d1/s1): G 11-12 100 Free (1:02.91Y ) – Did feel well enough by the time this one rolled around to swim again. She was solid, especially under the circumstances finishing in 1:02.28 ------------------------------------------------------- Bear #212A (d1/s1): B 11-12 100 Fly (1:09.25Y ) – Bear’s fly just keeps getting better. Much smoother, longer reach, and it seems generally more fluid, which should leave to better efficiency. In this race he managed to drop another 2 seconds and finish in 1:07.17. #228A (d1/s1): B 11-12 200 Back (2:31.95Y ) – Bear continued his strong swimming. In this one he was racing right next to Brett…and he was very good throughout posting a 2:25.59, which also gives him another state cut. #240A (d1/s1): B 11-12 100 Breast (1:28.46Y ) – Dropped almost 3 seconds to a 1:25.61. #248A (d1/s1): B 11-12 50 Free (28.58Y ) – I didn’t expect much here after his swim just a week before, but he was in the same heat with Brett again, and that may have been all it took to motivate him to drop another half second – 28.10. ------------------------------------------------------- Brett #228B (d1/s1): B 13-14 200 Back (2:33.32Y ) – Swam this time just a week earlier, and he bettered it by 4.73 seconds. 2:28.59. #234B (d1/s1): B 13-14 50 Breast (36.88Y ) – Not that this one matters, accept for Summer League, Brett dropped 2.31 seconds and finished with a 34.57. Honestly, I had him at a 34 flat, and the person I was with had him at a 34.12. Because there are no touch pads in this race, I think he may have been a bit faster than the official time. #248B (d1/s1): B 13-14 50 Free (30.33Y ) – This seed time was wrong, should have been a 28.44. Brett added time this time around going up to a 29.22, but it was almost all on the dive. He tried to do his underwaters, but they weren’t very productive and they put him behind, but at least he tried…this was the meet to do that. I was proud of that, it proves he was focused on what he should be. #254B (d1/s1): B 13-14 100 Free (1:02.92Y ) – This was a good swim and a good bounce back. He managed to drop another second off of his time from the previous week, finishing in a 1:02.00. |
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10-30-2014, 09:25 AM
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#492 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
Bailey - She's fine, nothing to report... Bear - He has not returned to practice since his visit tot he doctor. We have an appointment for him with the pulmonologist, but it isn't until late next week. He's been instructed not to return to practice until his sides stop hurting. I think that he might go to practice and just kick tonight so he isn't completely out of the water for any additional time. The coach is very disappointed this has come up because Bear is swimming so well right now. Brett - His first high school meet will be on 11/8. The coach requested that all the kids put down a couple of events that they like/want/normally swim. Brett chose the 100 Breast and the 500 Free. Both his best shots to get the cut times required to earn his varsity letter. The only problem is that the team has 56 swimmers, but only slots for 37 in the meet. Brett being a freshman hurts his chances of being one of the 37, the fact that he is a year round swimmer helps (though their are quite a few year round swimmers older than he is, and I'm sure the coach will work to make sure everyone gets a change to swim for the team). Working in Brett's favor is the fact he chose the 500 Free. She even mentioned that she's always looking for volunteers in that event. Will update you when I know if he will be swimming... |
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11-04-2014, 01:20 PM
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#493 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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High School Swimming
So Brett is scheduled to swim in the meet this weekend. However, he won't be swimming both of the events he requested. Instead, he'll be swimming the 500 Free and the 200 Free. No idea if he'll end up on a relay yet, and no idea the level of talent he'll be swimming against. I'll add more information when it becomes available. Last edited by Breeze : 11-04-2014 at 01:21 PM. |
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11-05-2014, 04:26 PM
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#494 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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High School Swimming
So Brett will be swimming in 2 relays in addition to his 2 solo events. Brett will swim the Breast leg in the 200 Medley B Relay Brett will also swim the opening leg of the 200 Free B Relay Last edited by Breeze : 11-05-2014 at 04:26 PM. |
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11-11-2014, 10:16 AM
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#495 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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High School Swimming
The local newspaper did a write up of the county's high school swim teams. Before I write up the results from this weekend, I figured I'd post the article... Note: Kids names in bold are the ones I know are Gold Swimmers ------------------------------------------------ Central Coach: Asheley Bell, first season. Key returners: Logan Belt, jr., Breaststroke/IM; Micah Gilliam, jr., Dive; Sebastian Millican, sr., Relays;; Shelby Black, sr., Butterfly/Freestyle. Key newcomers: Amber Shell, fr., Dive; Nathan Oller, sr., Relays; Samantha Weninger, fr., Breaststroke Outlook: First-year coach Asheley Bell takes over the Bulldogs’ program after five years as the head coach at West Forsyth, and she said she recognizes that this could be a rebuilding year for the program. Bell said she’s restructured the program with more practices and longer practices times and made a concerted effort to recruit more swimmers from the hallways. “It’s a facelift for Central,” Bell said. It’s all the in the hopes of increasing Central’s number of state qualifiers, particularly the boys relay team led by Millican and Oller. Bell said she’s excited to see what divers Gilliam and Shell can do. “They’re coming out, working hard, training, they’re dedicated, not complaining,” Bell said. “I’m really excited to see how well they all do this [season].” Lambert Coach: Kerry Langley, third season. Last season: First at county meet for girls and boys; First at state for girls, xxth for boys. Key returners: Jared Chulavatr, jr., Breaststroke/Butterfly; Nicole Raicik, sr. Butterfly; Ashley Mallon, sr., Christian Michell, jr., Breaststroke; Katherine Aikins, jr., Freestyle; Jane Johnson, so.; Olivia Johnson, jr.; Tiger Pilkington, so.; Alexander Ray, so. Key newcomers: Caroline Aikins, fr.; Wyatt Dalton, fr., Backstroke/Freestyle; Lilia Smith, fr Outlook: Again, one of the biggest storylines entering the season will be whether Lambert’s girls team can repeat as Class AAAAAA champions. The Lady Longhorns return five key swimmers from the group that edged Johns Creek last season for their second straight state title. Freestyle sprinter Katherine Aikins is nationally ranked and an Olympic hopeful. Raicik has committed to Alabama. Mallon will sign with a college, too. There’s also the sister duo of Jane and Olivia Johnson. Third-year head coach Kerry Langley is hoping the boys team can make the leap into the top three at the state meet behind Chulavatr who held several school records. North Forsyth Coach: Kris Hunt, seventh season. Key returners: Gabe Bresuda, jr., Breaststroke/Freestyle; Emily Carrol, sr., Breaststroke/IM; Jack Dalmolin, so.; Eric Decler, sr., Dive; Alejandro Garcia, sr., Butterfly; Meg Hurley, so., Backstroke/Relays; McKay Middleton, sr., Dive; Kelsey Robins, jr., Freestyle; Tony Scheyer, sr., Breaststroke; Katie Schumacher, so., IM; Rachel Sullivan, so., Breaststroke; Owen Wickman, so., Butterfly. Key newcomers: Marcus Alvarez; Matt McClellan; Josia Selvig, jr., Dive. Outlook: Hunt, in her seventh season coaching at North and 14th in the county, said she has “a pretty good team.” There’s Nicole Sullivan to lead the girls, a senior who specializes in the backstroke and is expected to sign a scholarship to swim in college. Her younger sister, sophomore Rachel Sullivan, is a returning state qualifier in freestyle. There’s Jack Dalmolin to lead the boys, a sophomore and returning state qualifier who is a versatile swimmer in several events. Alejandro Garcia, Tony Scheyer and Owen Wickman give the Raiders depth in the butterfly and versatility all-around. But Hunt’s movement these days is to recruit new divers, particularly girls. “It’s a great way for guys and girls to get a scholarship for college,” Hunt said. Pinecrest Academy Coach: Tim Sundy, third season. Key returners: Patrick Carroll, sr., Butterfly/Freestyle; Michael Denkman, so., Breaststroke/Freestyle; Theresa Reed, sr.; Freestyle/Relays; Kate Del Bazo, so. Key newcomers: Michael Birozes, fr. Outlook: The Paladins boast some impressive individual talent. For the boys, senior Patrick Carroll is a two-time state qualifier, and Michael Denkman qualified as a freshman and broke the school’s 100 breaststroke record. For the girls, sophomore Kate Del Balzo is a returning state qualifier in four events. Together they help the Pinecrest overcome some of its disadvantages in lack of depth. “We have a core group of talented and dedicated swimmers that allow us to compete on a high level,” third-year coach Tim Sundy said. But Sundy said he’d like to see more girls hit state-qualifying times and both programs stay competitive against county competition. Finishing in the top 25 at the state meet would be nice, too. South Forsyth Coach: Corinna Spurlock, first season. Last season: Second at county meet for girls and boys; 14th in state meet for girls, 20th for boys. Key returners: Blake Atmore, sr., Backstroke/Butterfly; Riley Geoghan, IM/Freestyle; Jack Landrum, Backstroke; Bayley Frierson, Freestyle; Bryn Baring, Freestyle; Gig Bario, Freestyle. Key newcomers: Aditya Bhave, Courtney Carden, John Ryan, Brittany Shafer. Outlook: Here’s another program in something of a transition phase with first-year coach Corinna Spurlock taking over. She’s brought some noticeable changes to the War Eagles. For starters, Spurlock said they started a booster club, opened up the team to swimmers who don’t participate on club teams and added more practices. Spurlock hopes it eventually catapults South to the next level of competitiveness. “We have great swimmers, and we are ready to start standing out,” Spurlock said. Indeed, there’s some nice talent led by University of Georgia commit Blake Atmore. The senior qualified for state in four events last season. West Forsyth Coach: Clayton Tillery, first season. Key returners: Daniel Jenkins, so., IM/Free/Relays; Noah Luskus, so., 500 Free; Lauren O’Donoghue, sr., Free/Fly/Relays; Jamie Riley, so., Fly/Free; Simon Roberts, jr., Free/Backstroke; Cameron Can De Velda, sr., Free/IM/Fly. Key newcomers: Nathan Kemnitz, fr., Free; Jenna Mackey, fr., Free/IM; Sheridan Schreiber, fr., IM/Free/Relays; Koyie Waples, fr., Free. Outlook: Cross country and track and field coach Clayton Tillery adds swimming to his head coaching duties this season, but he’s familiar with the program as he’s been an assistant with the team the past two seasons. He gets four returning state qualifiers to lead this season’s team, led by senior Cameron Van DeVelde for the boys and Lauren O’Donoghue for the girls. Tillery said he expects freshman Sheridan Schreiber to make an immediate impact in the freestyle, butterfly and relay events. Both the boys and girls teams are on the younger side with enough veterans to provide leadership. Tillery said he’s looking to help swimmers improve their technique in hopes of finishing higher at the county and state meet and push more swimmers into the finals of state meet events. Last edited by Breeze : 11-11-2014 at 10:16 AM. |
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11-11-2014, 12:28 PM
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#496 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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High School Meet - 7th Annual High School Invitational @ Cumming Aquatic Center
So the meet this weekend was a 9 team affair with the following schools competing... Buford Flowery Branch King's Ridge Mt Vernon North Forsyth South Forstyh West Forsyth West Hall Winder-Barrow South Forsyth won the meet with a score of 1300.50. The boys and the girls both won on the way to the overall victory. The final scores were: Code:
200 B Medley Relay - Brett swam a 34.7 split in his Breast leg and the team finished 9th overall 200 Free - Brett swam a 2:12.72, which is about 4 seconds off his personal best and a disappointing swim for him, but still good enough for 9th 500 Free - This time Brett had a good swim, despite the fact the scoreboard was malfunctioning, so his counter didn't have splits and thus no way to let him know if he was swimming a good race or not. He finished with a 5:45.75, good enough for 5th overall, and it earns him one of the two time cuts he needs to get his varsity letter. 200 B Free Relay - This came on the heals of the 500, and Brett got no time to rest before this event. His dive leading off was terrible. Extremely deep, that combined with the fatigue caused his swim to be around a 29.5...The relay did finish 8th overall. When it was all said and done, Brett earned 32 points for the team. That's good enough for a 6th place tie on the boys side, not bad for a true freshman. He was very excited after the meet. In fact, there are some pictures on the team website that he's in...you can see them here... http://www.sofoswimming.com/NewsShow...team=reczzsfhs In the picture at the top of the page, Brett is the face furthest to the right of your screen. In the picture on the bottom Brett is the boy to the right of the one with the headband on. Last edited by Breeze : 11-11-2014 at 12:42 PM. |
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11-13-2014, 09:54 AM
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#497 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
Now that Brett is in High School we are being exposed to swimmers signing their college scholarships, and there were 2 yesterday that signed. The first was a member of Brett's high school team, Blake Atmore. He signed to swim with UGA. In case you are wondering, below are his personal bests: The second, which Brett attended, was for Nicole Sullivan. Nicole swims on the Gold Senior team with Brett, and the coach was very eager to have the Gold team show up in support, and a large number of the Cumming Pool swimmers did attend. Nicole was also please, in fact, she gave him a hug, thanked him for coming and told my wife, "Thanks for bring Brett Brett. He hates that nick name, but it's too bad, because we all love it." She signed to swim with Birmingham Southern College. Here are her personal best times: Code:
Last edited by Breeze : 11-13-2014 at 09:57 AM. |
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11-13-2014, 12:36 PM
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#498 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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YSSC Thanksgiving Invite - @ Y‐Spartaquatics Swim Club & the Middle Tyger YMCA - 11/15 - 11/16
This is our travel meet for the season, heading back to Spartanburg, SC. Brett will be riding the bus with the older kids, while the twins will ride with us. Actually, only 13 and overs were supposed to swim this meet, but we got an exception for the twins because we told the team that it was too expensive for us to go to the 12 and under and the 13 and over away meets. The only problem is that the twins have to swim every event open so they will be in the afternoon session with the older kids. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haven't been able to watch them at pratice in a while, so my comments below are either observations based on the heat they are likely to be in, or based on comments they have made to me about practice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bailey Bailey is swimming open in this event, so again she'll swim against kids much older than her. #21 (d2/s2): W Open 100 Breast (1:27.32Y) - This is the event that Bailey hates swimming with older kids, because she'll be one of the slowest. Says her breaststroke looks better and feels faster in practice. #25 (d2/s2): W Open 200 Fly (2:23.72Y) - In this one Bailey is already faster than several of the older Gold girls. Interestingly, she's also only 4 seconds behind (and 5 seeded slots) one of the top Gold swimmers, who is already receiving interest from a number of D1 universities. Her strength is Free, but for Bailey to be in sight of this girl is very exciting. #29 (d2/s2): W Open 200 Back (2:31.63Y) - Her time here is within 4 seconds of 7 girls on the Senior team with Brett. I think she'll be motivated to beat as many as she can, so I expect a good time here (assuming she isn't exhausted from racing the 200 Fly only 4 event before). #33 (d2/s2): W Open 100 Free (1:02.28Y) - Still comments way to often for my taste, that she just isn't very good at Free. There is no reason for her not to be...she could go sub 60 if she can figure out the small things she does wrong on her pull. All in all, I expect 61+ seconds. #75 (d3/s4): W Open 200 Free (2:25.43Y) - Not her PB, her seed time should be a 2:11.27. Which means she'll be seeded with kids that come in about 15 seconds slower than her PB, so I expect she won't have anyone pushing her, and she'll finish somewhere just over the 2:11 time. #79 (d3/s4): W Open 100 Back (1:08.58Y) - Last time she swam this event, I commented about the older girl who barely beat her and ask Bailey if she was 15...we'll they'll be racing again it looks like. I think Bailey will get her this time. #91 (d3/s4): W Open 100 Fly (1:06.57Y) - Personal Best is actually 1:05.52, which would put her just ahead of a Senior swimmer from one of the big swim families at the Cumming Pool. It also puts her ahead of Nicole Sulivan who just got signed to swim with Birmingham Southern. She could be in the heat with both of those girls, but I expect they will beat her because this is the older kids 1 taper event before Senior State in December, whereas Bailey isn't tapering at all because she basically has more cuts that she can swim anyway. #93 (d3/s4): W Open 1000 Free (11:58.00Y) - This seed time is made up. The only time she swam this she posted a 13:16 in December of last year. I think she can swim the 11:58. In fact, I think she can do better than that...but only if she's willing to work hard. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear Like Bailey, he is swimming Open, so competing against older kids. #26 (d2/s2): M Open 200 Fly (2:34.44Y) - Bear is the last seed (by 4 seconds) in this event, and it is unfortunate. Hopefully, he doesn't get self concious about it, because he's been swimming this event well so far this season. #30 (d2/s2): M Open 200 Back (2:25.59Y) - I expect a very similar time to his seed here. He posted the PB just a few weeks back. #34 (d2/s2): M Open 100 Free (1:01.11Y) - Like Brett, wants to go sub 60 - I think he'll go sub 61 but just over 60... #38 (d2/s2): M Open 400 Medley (5:16.19Y) - Hasn't done this one since State in Feburary. I expect a pretty big drop here. #76 (d3/s4): M Open 200 Free (2:09.62Y) - not his PB, PB is a 2:05.16...I expect a similar swim here. #80 (d3/s4): M Open 100 Back (1:11.06Y) - not his PB, PB is a 1:10.56 - again a slight improvement is about all I expect. #88 (d3/s4): M Open 50 Free (28.10Y) - 28:07 is actually his PB. Given he's dropped time all season so far, I don't think he'll drop this time around. #123A (d3/s4): B 11-14 1000 Free (11:30.72Y) - After Bear's improvements across the board in his Free races, I'm sure he's looking to duplicate those in this race as well. He swam around 1:05 splits for the 500 recently when he posted his 5:27.xx time. So I'm guessing he's going to want to swim under 1:08s. Which means we might be looking at around an 11:20. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brett Interestingly, his coach told him to shave for this event. As you probably noticed if you looked at the picture from the high school website, he doesn't save his face yet...but he'll shave his whole body prior to this event. #20 (d2/s2): M 13-14 100 Breast (1:15.87Y) - Brett and Tommy will be racing in this one again. They will probably be on opposite ends of the pool, but it could be a motivting factor for Brett. Brett swam a 1:14 to open the 200 breast recently, so I'm hoping he might go 1:13.+ #28 (d2/s2): M 13-14 200 Back (2:28.59Y) - I think Brett will go faster here, but not a bunch faster. #32 (d2/s2): M 13-14 100 Free (1:02.00Y) - He despirately wants to go sub 60...but I don't think he can yet. I do think he might get something under 61. #38 (d2/s2): M Open 400 Medley (5:12.60Y) - The seed time here isn't his PB. That would be a 5:06.83 from mid October. I'm conflicted on the prediction on this one. Last time he swam it he did extremely well as you can see by dropping 6 seconds, so with that in mind, I'm not sure he'll be able to improve on it again. However, last time he swam it, his fly was fantastic for 35 of the 100 yards in that leg. If he can increase his correct fly stroke for 50 to 70 of the 100 yards, he'll probably drop another couple of seconds with just that improvement alone. Ultimately, I'm guessing for a similar time to the 5:06. #74 (d3/s4): M 13-14 200 Free (2:13.29Y) - Again, this isn't a personal best seed time. His PB is 2:08.68. If he improves in his 100, I'd expect a similar improvement in the 200 (not double but similar...) #78 (d3/s4): M 13-14 100 Back (1:12.87Y) - Another time not a PB, but this time it is only fractionally off. His PB is 1:12.79. I'd love to see him go sub 1:10...but I don't think he has the sprint mindset for backstroke down yet. He's more of the long flowing stroke, and he needs to keep that form but increase the rotation. He could also improve my cleaning up his kick (which he's been doing some) so we'll see. #82 (d3/s4): M 13-14 200 Breast (2:42.45Y) - Not his personal best - 2:37.34 is. Not happy he wasn't given him PB here, as it impacted his seeding by 4 slots, and my have pushed him to the second heat, where he will be the fastest time coming in. Brett does better when he's pushed. All that said, I'm not sure he'll improve on this, he dropped so much time, last time around. #94 (d3/s4): M Open 1000 Free (12:05.69Y) - Brett says he holds 1:10 splits in practice during interval training, and he thinks he can do that for the 1000. I'm not convinced, but I hope he's right. That would translate to an 11:40. I think if he can pull that off he would have done fantastic. Relay (Entered by Admin): #70 (d1/s1): M 13-14 200 Medley Relay (Team A) - This was an interesting suprise. We knew they were having relays, but apparently from the psych sheet Gold is only fielding one 13-14 boys team, so we didn't expect Brett to be on it. However, it is possible that Brett will be swimming with Tommy, Riley, and Seth in this relay, which would be VERY COOL for Brett. Last edited by Breeze : 11-13-2014 at 12:37 PM. |
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11-14-2014, 11:07 AM
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#499 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
So Brett completed his first body shave without cutting himself. I'm actually a bit impressed by that. When he finished he said his skin felt slimy (slick probably would have been a better description, but his words, not mine). |
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11-19-2014, 03:31 PM
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#500 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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YSSC Thanksgiving Invite - RESULTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bailey So Bailey is currently sick. She ended up waking up on Monday not feeling well, but she went to school. However, she didn’t make it through the whole day, as she called to get picked up around lunch time, and she didn’t go to school again on Tuesday. I’m reporting this, because I believe it probably impacted some of her swims. #21 (d2/s2): W Open 100 Breast (1:27.32Y) – Breaststroke was better and faster. Still needs some work, but managed to drop time – 1:25.03 #25 (d2/s2): W Open 200 Fly (2:23.72Y) - So Bailey had a lead on the girl outlined in the pre-race write up for the first 125…then Bailey faded. In fact, she faded quite a bit. There were several issues, 1 was obviously fatigue (probably going out to hard trying to be the good older swimmers from Gold), and sunlight in her eyes. I know this sounds crazy – but it will be a reoccurring theme. The pool was all windows on the East side, so the early morning sun poured in and really blinded the kids, causing them to mistime their strokes and resulting in poor turns. She ended up with a 2:28.05 – and she was very disappointed. #29 (d2/s2): W Open 200 Back (2:31.63Y) – She recovered from the poor 200 fly to swim a great 200 back. Dropped over 5 seconds – 2:26.53 #33 (d2/s2): W Open 100 Free (1:02.28Y) – Just missed getting into the 61+ second range and posted a 1:02.05. #75 (d3/s4): W Open 200 Free (2:25.43Y) – This one played out exactly how I envisioned. Bailey won her heat going away, but didn’t have any competition and settled for a time of 2:12.40. #79 (d3/s4): W Open 100 Back (1:08.58Y) – Bailey didn’t beat the girl I described, but she would have if she had some her seed time. Added just under a second…1:09.41 #91 (d3/s4): W Open 100 Fly (1:06.57Y) – Beat her seed time but not her PB, sun was again a problem for her here - 1:06.20… #93 (d3/s4): W Open 1000 Free (11:58.00Y) - Didn’t want me doing her lap counting, so she didn’t get good signals, but she did manage to beat the 11:58 fake seed time posting a 11:55.91… ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear #26 (d2/s2): M Open 200 Fly (2:34.44Y) – I shouldn’t have worried how Bear would handle this race. He stepped up to the blocks, and killed it posting an improvement of over 10 seconds, finishing with a 2:23.84…which means Bear’s 200 fly is now basically the same as Bailey’s. #30 (d2/s2): M Open 200 Back (2:25.59Y) – Dropped 2.62 seconds, despite the fact his turns were very slow and deliberate on the sun side of the pool. 2:22.97 #34 (d2/s2): M Open 100 Free (1:01.11Y) – GOT IT…58.56!!! #38 (d2/s2): M Open 400 Medley (5:16.19Y) - Nailed this prediction as well. Bear ripped off a 5:00.98…Bear and Brett actually raced in this one. I’ll outline it in Brett’s write up… #76 (d3/s4): M Open 200 Free (2:09.62Y) - Beat the seed, but not the PB - 2:05.98… #80 (d3/s4): M Open 100 Back (1:11.06Y) – Same deliberate turns on the sun end of the pool, but managed a PB 1:09.18… #88 (d3/s4): M Open 50 Free (28.10Y) – I was wrong…he dropped…actually dropped about a quarter of a second – 27.83 – good enough for a state cut. #123A (d3/s4): B 11-14 1000 Free (11:30.72Y) – Coach wanted Bear to swim around 1:07s not 1:08s. Bear started off slow, and I continued to signal him that he needed to pick it up a little, but he only managed to do it in fits and spurts. Finally, after several turns, and inconsistent times, I gave him the signal he really needed to work harder and he did…here are his splits… 1:04.92 1:08.73 1:07.84 1:08.02 1:07.46 1:08.27 1:07.02 1:05.41 1:05.89 1:04.23 Final time – 11:07.79, which is currently the fastest any 12 year old has swum in Georgia this season. Just so you know, I don’t think that he’ll hold that distinction long…there are a bunch of meets between now and state, and many top distance kids probably haven’t even done this event yet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brett So my expectation for Brett were probably a bit high. Given that he was staying in a hotel room with 3 other swimmers and he was pretty much left to his own devices when it came to eating, sleeping, etc. I should have expected he wasn’t going to do well, because he wouldn’t be terribly focused for the races, rather he’d be basking in the fact he was on a team trip, away from mom and dad, and completely independent… #20 (d2/s2): M 13-14 100 Breast (1:15.87Y) – Was very concerned about beating Tommy. So much so, he peaked during his pullout and ended up going sideways a bit off the wall. He managed a 1:15.70…but nowhere near where he should be. #28 (d2/s2): M 13-14 200 Back (2:28.59Y) – Added a fraction of a second 2:28.86 #32 (d2/s2): M 13-14 100 Free (1:02.00Y) - Got a good drop here finishing with a 1:01.16…he was disappointed, but it is a step in the right direction. #38 (d2/s2): M Open 400 Medley (5:12.60Y) – The fly was better for longer and he did improve. He was racing Bear (they weren’t next to each other, thank goodness…but they were both aware they were in the same heat). Here is how the race broke down: Code:
#74 (d3/s4): M 13-14 200 Free (2:13.29Y) - Bad swim for Brett here. Didn’t seem awake for this one. Time is very similar to the time he swam in the 200 for high school a week or so ago. 2:14.03…I hope whatever he’s doing that has slowed him in this race he gets figured out soon…I hate seeing him consistently swim 6 seconds over his PB. #78 (d3/s4): M 13-14 100 Back (1:12.87Y) – Did get a PB - 1:12.19… #82 (d3/s4): M 13-14 200 Breast (2:42.45Y) – Didn’t improve, but was only slightly slower than his real personal best time…finished in a 2:37.67. However, this time Brett did manage to beat Tommy, who was in the same heat. #94 (d3/s4): M Open 1000 Free (12:05.69Y) – Brett didn’t have much of a plan in this one, which is death in a 1000. He swam it respectably in a 12:00.71…but he didn’t over work himself. Relay (Entered by Admin): #70 (d1/s1): M 13-14 200 Medley Relay (Team A) – Brett did get to swim the relay with his 3 friends…which he was pumped about. His spit was a 34.33…overall the team finished fourth. |
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