Swim Like A Champion (a real life journal)

[Breeze]

Follow up on the Brett school/practice issues

Because Brett had no homework over the weekend and because he was very respectful, he was able to practice both Friday and Saturday. As Saturday's practice was winding down, his coach found me in order to let me know that Brett had "Really killed it" the last two days. He said Brett was keeping up with everyone in the pool (not something I thought he was even capable of unless they were going to do a full hour of Breaststroke)...

So I'm really pleased with that - but today will be real test when he comes home with homework...

Got my fingers crossed

[Breeze]

Quick Updates:

- Brett did an awesome job with his homework yesterday...

- MK swam her first Gold Meet and did the following

- pulled a NS in the 50 Fly
- @ .7 seconds slower in the 50 back
- @ .85 faster in 50 Breast
- @ .5 faster in 50 Free

- Maddie (the girl in Bailey's group that has been dominating this season - so much so she's been tabbed "The Beast" - and yes she likes the nickname) is, according to her mother, once again talking about quitting year round swimming. This has happened several times in the past - so we'll have to see if she goes through with it (at this point I have to believe she will eventually give it up, but I doubt it will occur now).

[Breeze]

Quick Note

The last chance meet is approaching next weekend, and while we were hoping to get Bailey in a tennis tournament in January the rainy weather prevented that from happening, and now we are in a position of needing to start off Bailey's tennis season. Therefore, Bailey will miss swim practice this weekend in order to compete in a Level 4 Tennis tournament. We didn't want to do this but her state ranking is going to be impacted if she doesn't start playing. She hasn't played in a tournment since early December and is a little rusty, but she has a new practice group that is much better and it pushing her more. Hopefully, she'll do well to start the season...

I know this isn't swimming, but it impacts her swim practice and I felt I should fill everyone in...

[Breeze]

The Psych Sheet is out for the Last Chance Meet, and it appears that some of the parents didn’t read the signups very carefully. This event is only supposed to serve as a last chance to get a state cut, meaning if a child already has a cut, they aren’t supposed to swim that event in this meet. But there are several kids who already have cuts who will be swimming. Here is where my kids stand…

Bailey

200 Free – 2:50.84 – cut time 2:49.09 – Bailey is the fastest of all the swimmers in the event to not have cut

50 Free – 33.96 – cut time 33.49 – There are only 6 kids with a faster time then Bailey that don’t have a cut

50 Back – 39.96 – cut time 38.49 – Only 5 kids closer to a cut in this event

100 Free - 1:14.94 – cut time 1:14.59 – Bailey is the 3rd fastest not to have a cut in this event.


Bear

200 Free – NT – cut time 2:46.69 – This will be the first time he’s ever done the event

100 IM – 1:26.94 – cut time 1:24.99 – Only 4 kids faster without a cut

50 Free – 35.69 – cut time 33.39 – Quite a few here looking for a cut, Bear is about 11 back

50 Back – 40.48 – cut time – 39.89 – Only 3 kids closer to the cut

100 Freestyle – 1:18.05 – cut time 1:16.09 – 7 in front of Bear in this event

50 Breast – 46.70 – cut time 45.79 – 5 closer to the cut here


Brett

200 Breast – 3:18.94 – cut time 3:15.99 – Brett is the closest 11 year old not to have the cut. There are four 12 year olds with faster times trying to get their state cut (which is 9 seconds faster than the 11 year old time)

[Breeze]

Tonight will be the last day of practice for the kids prior to the meet this weekend. We give the kids the Friday before the meet off to save their legs for Saturday and Sunday races...

I'll fill in my thoughts on their chances later this week...

[Breeze]

Unfortunately, our chances of getting another state cut have taken a hit for all 3 of my kids.

On Wednesday morning Bailey woke up with a nasty croupie like cough. By Wednesday afternoon congestion had set in, and there was no improvment this morning (didn't expect there would be any). This will make it difficult for her to swim a personal best...as it is hard to swim fast when you can't breathe well...

Bear actually missed practice yesterday due to nausea. We are hoping that it is related to his acid reflux issues and not a sign of a stomach bug. Regardless, missing practice hurt (especially with our plan to skip Friday), and if he gets a stomach bug, he won't have the energy to swim a state cut time.

The hit to Brett's chances aren't health related...in fact, it is due to a quirk in the way the event is organized. In this Last Chance meet, in order to give the kids every opportunity to gain the time needed, the races will be run in a Preliminary/Finals format. Meaning if a child finishes in the top 20 in the premlims they will swim again that evening in a consulation final (places 20-11) or a finals (places 10-1) - this gives kids 2 chances in the same event to get their time. Sounds great right...well the problem for Brett is that the prelim/final format is only for 100 and 50 yard races. Any 200s or greater will be run as a timed finals...so for the 200 Breast, the top 20 kids will swim in the finals in the evening session only, and Brett is seeded 7th. That means on Sunday Brett will be at the morning session for his other events, then have to come back just to swim the 200 Breast that evening. To make matters worse, evening races aren't typically good ones for Brett, as his ADHD becomes more pronounced later in the day.

[JAG]

Sorry to hear about the sick kiddos, hope they get well soon. Good luck this weekend.

[Breeze]

Last Chance Meet @ Georgia Tech - 2/18/2012

Predictions

Bailey
Bailey is in a prime position to make a move this weekend. She is only swimming 4 events because she already has 6 cuts and we aren't going to swim the 100 Fly or the 500 Free, because we have seen several cases where young kids try these events only to adversely affect their strokes, probably due to fatigue. We'll plan on tackling these two events next year when Bailey is 10.

On all 4 of her events she is less than 2 seconds from getting her cut...therefore, assuming she is feeling ok and can breathe this weekend, I think she'll get at least 1 cut. Predicting which cut it will be is difficult, but if pressed I'd say her best chance is the 200 Free. She has cleaned up her freestyle form with her left arm and she is less than 2 seconds on a 200 yard swim, add to that the fact that this will be the second time she swims it and I think she'll understand what it takes from an effort standpoint to get the time needed.

I'd love to say she's going to get the 50 back, and I've basically predicted she is going to get it since the beginning of the season. However, I now believe that she is trying too hard on this stroke, rather than relaxing and racing, she is tightening up and this mental block will probably keep her at about the same time she's been posting. The 50 Free is easily attainable, but so much of that will be dependent on the dive - good dive, good shot. 100 Free I don't think she gets because it will be last race on her schedule and she'll either be exhausted (mentally as much as phsically) from the effort of the previous races, or if she's failed to get a cut coming into this race, she'll put too much pressure on herself and she won't get it.

Now for Bailey, while getting these cuts is nice and certainly a huge boost to self-esteem, it isn't terribly necessary. In fact, to be honest, even if she qualifies in all 4 events, she won't swim all of them next weekend at the state meet.

Bear
Unlike Bailey, Bear's chances of getting a cut is much more precarious. While he has more events to swim, he also isn't nearly as close. In fact, he only has 2 events that are around 1 second, and 1 of those is Breast, and he hasn't been swimming it as good lately as he did in the middle of the season (just isn't a natural stroke for him and he'll fight to get the form right on this event for years still).

Bear's best bet at a cut is the 50 Back. He has been pretty strong in this event recently. One of the biggest keys to his chance here is the start. He's been diving too deep and taking to long to get to the surface. A better start could be the 1 second he is missing. He'll also need to have a good turn. If his count is off going into the wall, or if he ends up on the wrong side with the count (meaning he as reached the stroke he needs to flip to his belly for the flip turn and the wrong arm is up), he may struggle to do it cleanly.

I'd say his next best chance is the 100 IM. Unfortunately, he'll swim the 200 free earlier in the day, and I don't know if he'll be recovered enough to get the 2 second time drop to meet the cut time. I do not believe Bear has a 2 second improvement in him for the 100 or 50 Free, and as I've mentioned above he isn't swimming Breast well right now so I don't expect a cut there either. He also won't get the 200 Free...he might be able to get a cut for the girls time, but he isn't going to swim a 2:46...

All and all I think Bear comes up empty tomorrow. He has had an awesome short course season, even the coaches have mentioned (without prompting from us) how impressive he's been, and they are really excited about his future, but I think these last few seconds are going to be too much for him to overcome. My only fear here is that Bailey kills it and Bear doesn't get a cut, and he starts to mope about it, adopting the "I'm the worst swimmer in the family" mantra he had earlier in the year, ignoring all the good he's done this season...

Brett
I'm not going to go into Brett's extra strokes, that he clearly doesn't have a chance to get a state cut in. In fact, I'm really not sure how he'll even do in those events. His form has improved significantly but his focus recently has been on breast, understanding his lone shot at a state cut was the 200. I hope he improves in his off strokes so we can maintain the momentum...but I'm not terribly concerned about them this weekend.

As for his 200 Breast...I was ready to predict that he would get the cut, until I found out the race wasn't going to occur until the evening session. This is a huge blow to his chances and I don't think words can express my level of disappointment with this arrangement. I'm not upset or angry with anyone, this is just a scheduling quirk that negatively impacts us and it is unfortunate.

This isn't to say Brett won't get the cut, but my prediction is he won't (and maybe that's my way of preparing myself for disappointment). For him to get the cut I figure he'll need to be sub 47 seconds on the opening 50, and around a 1:36 in the opening 100. Then if he can maintain his back half time he'll be right on the number. My bet is he'll finish in the 2:16s...

[Breeze]

[JAG]

Sounds promising.

[Izulde]

Can't wait to hear the results.

[Breeze]

Georgia Open "Last Chance Meet" - @ GaTech - 2/18/12 - 2/19/12

I don't think words can express the levels of emotion I experienced this weekend...from extreme highs to unbelieveable lows. Surprising in that, other than Brett's 200 Breast, there really wasn't much riding on this event. Sure additional cuts would be great, but they weren't pressing. Brett's was big because he would be able to compete at state with his siblings and he wouldn't be the only one of our group not to get a cut (not a completely accurate statement, Maddie's older sister Carmen doesn't have a cut either, but she is older and doesn't hang out as much with our kids unless all the families are together for dinner and she has no-one her own age to spend the time with).

To give you an overview of the entire weekend and what was involved...on Saturday we got up at 7 to get the kids ready, pack the car and feed the kids...we headed down to GaTech around 8:15 and walked into the facility around 9:15 A. M. We left that night at 8 P.M. On Sunday, we had to be there earlier so we awoke at 6, headed down around 7:15, arrived about 8:15 and left at 7:30...(long weekend, and also why I didn't supply details earlier)...

-----------------------------

Day 1

10+U 200 Yard Free

The day started with the 200 Free. Coming into this event I had high hopes for Bailey's chances. Only needing to improve 2 seconds over 200 yards, I felt she had a great chance of getting this one. Bear on the other hand, I didn't think he would be able to make his cut. I thought he could get the girls cut, but he'd need to be 3 full seconds faster than that to get the boys cut. As it turns out, because Bear entered the event with a NT for seeding he raced in the boys pool before Bailey who was in the fastest heat raced in the girls pool.

To give myself an idea of how the kids were doing in this race, I printed up the splits from Bailey's 200 at Auburn when she nearly got her cut. Those times were...

38.30
1:21.51 (43.21)
2:07.98 (46.47)
2:50.82 (42.84)

Bear starts off the 200 with an opening 50 of 37.25. My first thought is, "Off to a great start". but it is followed quickly by "He hasn't ever done this event before and he's going to run out of gas - he can't keep up this pace." The second fifty was 1:21.50. That means the second 50 was swum in 44.25, and his 100 time is only .01 faster than Bailey's time from Auburn. Now I'm thinking, "Ok, this is more of what I expected. I felt fatigue was starting to set in and he clearly had fallen into Bailey's pace," which of course puts him 4 seconds off the state cut time. In the 3rd 50, Bear picked up the pace significantly, finishing it in 43.54 and putting him at 2:05.04 for the race...this put him in striking distance of a cut, but he still needed to swim the final 50 around 41.5 or better, which is asking a lot at the end of a 200 yard race. As you can see above, when Bailey did it in Auburn she swam a closing 50 in 42.84, and Bailey is a faster freestyler than Bear...Watching the race, I could see Bear pick up his effort in the final 2 laps, the question was whether the increased effort was translating to increased speed. Often with fatigue in swimming, the athlete will increase the effort to go faster, only to find the times don't drop, due to poor form. As he was coming into the wall, I could tell he was going faster and he would be real close to the number...he touched and scoreboard read 2:46.15...

Thats a final lap in an amazing 41.11...The cut is 2:46.69...so good enough. Giving Bear his 3rd state cut. (interestingly, Bear has cuts in 50 fly, 100 back, 200 free...3 different strokes, 3 different distances).

Shortly after Bear finished Bailey hit the water, and it was pretty obvious early on that she wasn't swimming her best. Her initial 50 was 38.79, almost a half second slower than in Auburn. The next fifty was worse...she came in at 1:23.12, now a second and a half off her previous time. The 3rd fifty was 2:09.44 still a second and a half slower, and she finished at 2:52.54 just over a second and a half off. I believe her cold from earlier in the week really impacted this race, as she never seemed to get going in high gear and she was breathing much more often than usual.


11/12 100 Yard Breast

Brett did extremely well in this event, improving by 1.1 seconds to a 1:32.28. This time was also good enough for 10th in the event, which also qualified him for the A finals in the event (which was held that evening...which is why we stayed).

11/12 100 Yard IM

Brett looked real good in this one as well. His fly was strong,as he kept up with the rest of the pool, and his back looked better than it ever has, keeping him in contact with the rest of swimmers. On the breast leg, Brett went from 6th to 2nd, but he was unable to hold off the rest of the swimmers in the free and he finished 4th in his heat. His time was 1:28.53...a full 2 second improvement...

10+U 100 Yard IM

Coming into this meet, I felt this was Bear's best chance at a cut...and I had high hopes coming off his strong 200 (with reservations that he might still be fatigued). His fly leg was good, but on the back, he tried way to hard from the moment of pushing off the wall, where he tried to almost duplicate backstroke race start. He ended up over working and got up against the lane rope, which prevented him from getting the speed he needed. He did good considering those issues, posting a time of 1:29.17, but it wasn't a personal best...

11/12 50 Yard Free

Brett continued his strong meet, with another personal best 35.70 (improvement of almost .4 seconds). The best thing is his kick looked much stronger...

10+U 50 Yard Free

Bear swam first (because the boys pool was way ahead of the girls pool...he looked strong, especially with his kick, but he came in at almost exactly the same time as his personal best. 35.69 (only .04 slower...and only .01 faster than Brett - though we never tell the kids how they did in comparison to each other - sometimes it is just interesting to look at)

Bailey 2nd event was also the last event and heat of the morning session. So she swam first and last with nothing but sitting around in the middle. She did better in the sprint than the distance, but she didn't improve swimming a 34.19...

coming up...info on the evening session

[Breeze]

Evening Session

So we end up staying for the evening session because Brett qualified 10th in the 100 Breast, he had 3 personal best and he was feeling good about himself and wanted to race. This is a huge self-esteem boost for him so we wanted to capitalize on it. Plus it would give us a chance to see how he would react for an evening session, since he's 200 Breast would be at approximately the same time on Sunday.

AS it turns out during the waiting around, he started to get way to anxious. His nerves got the best of him (combined with the fact his morning meds were about gone so handling his emotions are tough until the afternoon meds kick in), and said he didn't want to swim. Of course we had to urge, coddle, cajole, fuss and explain, but eventually we got him to accept the situation, understand that there was nothing bad that could come out of the swim and that he had earned the right to be there, so to go have fun with it. As it turn out he didn't get a personal best (didn't beat his time from the preliminaries) but he did get a 1:33.32 almost identical to his personal best coming into the mornings prelims of 1:33.28...

[Breeze]

Georgia Open "Last Chance Meet" - Day 2

10+U 50 Back

Bear was the first to swim on the day, and he was very pumped about getting this cut. I reminded him not to overwork the stroke (like he did during the backstroke lap of the IM the day before). Bear got a great start and was swimming real well, but his turn while fine looked strange...then as he was approaching the wall he appeared to raise his head a bit for several strokes which slowed him down. I found out after the race he had swallowed water on the turn and was trying to clear it the entire second 25, but couldn't until he lifted his head. He finished with a 40.93, about 1 second slow...

Bailey's 50 back was a personal best...unfortunately, it was not a state cut. She managed to get to the wall in 39.38 further cutting into that state cut time, without getting it. She missed it by about half a second...

11/12 50 Back

Brett's 50 back was the best he had ever swum. From a time and form perspective. His feet were much higher in the water and his arm rotation show more urgency then normal. He'll have to get more comfortable with the stroke before we see the reflection of this improved form in his times, but he did manage a 42.38 which is a full second improvement.

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10+U 50 Breast

As I mentioned before the start of the meet, Bear's breaststroke form isn't as strong as it was earlier in the year, and because of that I didn't expect him to improve his time. In this race, he did a nice job of moving forward and gliding rather than bobbing up and down, but he didn't improve his time 47.35

11/12 50 Breast

Brett again looks strong improving by about a second and finishing in 41.92. This time was also good enough to seed brett 8th in the finals for the evening swim. NOTE: corrected...read the wrong result from the official times sheet when initially posting - left my notes at home this morning...

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10+U 100 Free

Bear entered this 100 free needing a couple second cut to make the state meet. But his freestyle was awesome in the 200 and his form in the 50 (despite the fact he didn't get a personal best) was really good...so I figured he had about a 50/50 chance of gettig the cut...In the race, Bear had an unbelievable .54 second reaction on the start a full .1 better than the next closest swimmer in the event and about .3 better than the average start time. Bear's first 50 was a 36.29 (really good when you consider his 50 free personal best is in the 35.6 range). In the back half he swam a strong 40.14 and finished with a time of 1:16.40 - the cut is 1:16.09...


During the second day, Bailey was more interested in socializing with her friends then she was in prepping for her races (which is fine, like I said earlier she already had 5 cuts, and I want this to be fun for her, so I wasn't going to ride her about getting off her feet, drinking to stay hydrated and eating to give your body fuel). In this race, she worked hard, but she wasn't terribly affective...her opening 50 was 36.38 and the closing 50 was 40.11...for a final time of 1:16.49. This is around 2 seconds off her personal best. She handled this disappointment well...and I was proud of that, but I did let her know that if she wants to get state cuts, she needs to do the little things to get ready, not play around with her friends (though next season it will be irrelevant, because she'll probably have all her state cuts prior to this meet - though we might still be pushing for sectional ones)...

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night time session results (and Brett's 200 Breast swim for the state cut)are coming up

[Breeze]

Evening Session

We waited through the 500 Freestyles and the break between sessions, and Brett was a champ. He laid down for about an hour and a half, drank Gatorade and water throughout that time, and ate a good lunch, plus some fruit to stay charged. He was really focused on this race. Just like Bear and Bailey's 200 Free, in order to get an idea of how Brett was doing compared to the cut, I printed off his splits from the 1st time he swam the event, when he came up just 3 seconds short. I was hopeful that he would get his cut, but as you may remember from my comments at the time, I was fearful that there may not be 3 seconds in the pool for him to get. His times the first time in this event were...

47.02
1:38.37 (51.35)
2:28.60 (50.23)
3:18.94 (50.34)


Race starts with a .72 start, good enough for a tie for 2nd best out of the 27 kids in the event, and only .04 off of the best start. He opened with a strong 50 finishing it at 44.11...at this point he is way ahead of his previous swim and right where he needs to be for a state cut. The second 50 he completed in 50.05, which is much faster than his second 50 last time, and actually faster than all the 50 from the first race but the opening one. He was sitting on a time of 1:34.16 at the half way point - 4.21 seconds faster than the previous swim. The 3rd 50 Brett was much slower and appeared to be tiring...when he touched the wall he was at 2:26.04 (51.88)...only 2.5 seconds faster than the last time and not fast enough for the cut. In the final 50 he really increased his effort level, sprinting with everything he had. He got to the wall for the final turn and he was right on pace. He drove it home to the finish and posted a 3:14.71...a final lap in an impressive 48.67, and good enough for a state cut...he was thrilled...




Until




He found out he was disqualified for a single hand touch on the final turn of the race...He was devastated...it was painful to watch the elation go out of him when he was told. He was on the opposite side of the pool on the deck and we were in the top of the stands but we could see it happen. When he got up to where we were sitting, he basically collapsed, completely spent and an emotional wreck. He wanted to go home, but we urged him to stay for the 50 Breast.

He did swim the 50 Breast, and while he didn't match his time from the morning he did post a 42.96 a time almost idential to his personal best prior to the prelims earlier in the morning, and good enough for 9th place overall...

[Izulde]

Ouch!

[Breeze]

Quick Note from the Last Chance Meet - Lexi was able to earn 2 more state cuts...

50 Fly
100 Fly

A great recovery after missing several months with knee surgery.

[Breeze]

The State Meet is this weekend and the Psych Sheet is already out...so I'll review it and provide my thoughts soon, on not just my kids but some of the others from the group that I have mentioned in passing.

[Breeze]

Georgia State Championship

The biggest thing for us this year, was just being a part of this event. It is a huge accomplishment to be here, and we aren't particularly concerned about results. In fact, because this is the state championships...I'll post where we are seeded out of how many kids to give you an idea where we stand, and you'll see that we have no hopes of doing anything more than soaking in the
experience and potentially swimming a personal best. In fact, if you'll remember, most of our cuts were just under the number...so we will typically be in the slowest heat at the event.

Bailey

50 Yard Breaststroke - 45.48 - 73/74 - Only 74 kids made the state cut in this event, and only 20 kids that aren't 10 made it...Bailey is seeded second to last, and due to the fact, he Breaststroke has looked a bit off to me recently, she could easily end up last in this event...

100 Yard IM - 1:26.11 - 84/87 - Again we'll be in the slowest heat. This time Bailey is one of the 23 kids not 10 to earn the cut. I'm torn here on her potential...with her breaststroke and freestyle slightly off, I don't think we'll get a personal best here, but I bet we are close.

50 Yard Butterfly - 39.44 - 94/101 - This is the one stroke that Bailey appears to be swimming very well right now. She is staying low in the water when breathing and she is really drivng hard. We haven't done much fly in races this season because she got this cut so early and we were focused on getting more cuts, but I really think she will drop time here...

100 Yard Breaststroke - 1:38.21 - 54/59 - Only 14 kids 10 or under did better than Bailey here, but as you know from the 50 writeup above...the stroke is slighly off and I don't expect a drop in time

100 Yard Backstroke - 1:25.66 - 72/91 - Bailey is the 15th under 10 in this event, and her backstroke is looking good. If she doesn't overwork it, I could see a personal best here.

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Bear

200 Yard Freestyle - 2:46.16 - 55/59 - Bear is the 11th sub 10 year old in this event. Even though he swam an amazing race at the last chance meet, I really feel he might go lowerer at State. I have a couple of reasons for this feeling. First, this will be second time he's raced the event, so he'll understand better how hard he can work without hitting a wall. Second, I've seen him come up big before in big events, espcially in the first race of the day (often he'll expend all his energy in the first race) and this will be his first event.

50 Yard Butterfly - 39.76 - 77/78 - 21st under 10. Bear is still working on the more technically correct stroke. I think he'll approach this time, but I don't think he beats it.

100 Yard Backstroke - 1:26.43 - 58/87 - 15th under 10. Bear has been strong in the longer event recently, and I expect if he isn't spent from his 200, and if he doesn't screw up a flip turn, he'll improve on this time.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Brett

200 Yard Breaststroke - 3:14.71 - 62/63 - 19th 11 year old - ok, I'm sure you are scratching your head, saying...I thought he was DQed and failed to qualify, and you would be right about that. However, I have elected to enter him in this event anyway. The only problem is...if he fails to swim a state cut time, I will be fined $50. We felt it was too important to him to be in this race, and his coach agreed. Plus we all feel (wife, coaches, and me) that he'll be able to beat the 3:15.99 time. My only fear is he gets sloppy or does something stupid and gets DQed again...

[Breeze]

Some terrible news to report. It is Friday night, with our race in the morning and Bailey just woke up because she was sick. She threw up, but doesn't appear to be running a fever (yet). She went to bed with a bad headache so we are watching that...could be the pain just made her nautious...(hopefully). I'd hate for her to get the flu and miss swimming in the State Meet...

[Breeze]

Bailey was able to swim this morning...I'll post updates on the meet later...

[Breeze]

Georgia State Championships - 2/24-2/26 @ GaTech

Day 1

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Bailey

50 Breast
Bailey had 1 event on Saturday, the 50 Breast, and as I said in the preview section, her stroke is slightly off. I really didn't expect much from her here, but she did end up getting a personal best. It wasn't a huge improvement, about half a second, but still better than she's ever done before. She posted a 45.44, and finished 69th, an improvement over her seed coming in of 73rd...

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Brett

200 Breast
Brett's 200 Breast was on Saturday and he was very focused for it. To give you some reference I'll post his splits from his 2 previous swims...

Swim 1			Swim 2

47.02				44.11
1:38.37 (51.35)			1:34.16 (50.05)
2:28.60 (50.23)			2:26.04 (51.88)
3:18.94 (50.34)			3.14.71 (48.67)

He opened his race with a 44.13, the posted a strong second 50 as well, coming in at 1:34.70 (50.57). The 3rd 50, like the swim last week was off the pace of the first two quite a bit and he posted a 2:26.19 (51.49)...at this point he is almost exactly where he was in the last chance meet...but this time he didn't seem to have the energy to bring it home. He finished in a slow time of 51.34...and posted an official time of 3:17.53. This time is shy of the state qualifying time and we'll probably be fined $50 for allowing him to swim. I am disappointed he didn't get the cut, but allowing him to swim appears to have been the right call. He was very excited and motivated by being there. He also is talking about developing his "off strokes" so he'll be able to swim more events at the state meet in the future (we'll see if he sticks with that, but for now it should get us through long course season with good effort).

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Day 2

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Bailey

100 IM
Bailey's first event of the day was the 100 IM, and she did well. She opened with a good first 50 of 38.93, and he fly leg was very strong. She lost some time on the Breast, but held on through the fatigue of the Free to post a personal best time of 1:25.20...almost a full second improvement over her time coming in. She also finished 76th and was seeded 84th

50 Yard Butterfly
This is an event that Bailey hasn't raced in quite a while and I had high hopes for a significant improvement. Her form her looks really good and it also looked good in the IM early that morning. She goes out strong and doesn't disappoint swimming a time of 38.43 a full second faster than her seed time (and 1 second in a 50 is a good improvemment). She ended up 68th, she was seeded 94th coming in.

100 Yard Breaststroke
I didn't get a chance to talk with Bailey after the start of the meet through this race (her events were too close together and she wanted to watch her crew swim there events). I did get her attention from the stands and try to let her know she needed to explode the upper body into the reach/glide portion of the stroke. I felt she was just laying forward rather than really driving her upper body into the water. She apparently understood my signals because she appeared to do what I was trying to tell her and it worked. She posted almost a full second improvement in this race too...1:37.52. She finished 41st and came in seeded 54th...

100 Back
Fatigue and the inability to trust her counts going into the walls really hurt her in this race. She was a full second off her personal best time posting a 1:26.59. It wasn't a bad swim for Bailey, in fact, it was actually a bit comical as she went into the first wall in about 3rd in her heat, can came off the wall about 6th...she closed the gap on those that passed her but then lost ground again on the turn...this happened the whole race. Her turns are fine for everyday meets, but this event was all state level swimmers and ok turns don't cut it. It will be very interesting to see how she does in back in long course where the impact of a turn is minimized a bit...

--------------------

Bear

200 Yard Freestyle
Bear once again uses his adrenaline to post a big improvement in the first race of a major event. Just 1 week after swimming the 200 Free for the first time and posting a time good enough to make the state meet. Bear goes out and improves on that time by 4 seconds...He posted a 2:42.61...here are his splits and those from the last chance the week before...

37.84				37.25
1:20.15 (42.31)			1.21.50 (44.25)
2:02.53 (42.38)			2:05.04 (43.54)
2:42.61 (40.08)			2:26.15 (41.11)

I was extremely impressed with this effort, and he was very pumped up. Unfortunately...

50 Fly
As we have seen before...when he goes out and blows away a time to open a big event, he also tends to suffer from over expending his energy and he doesn't tend to improve in his other events. This was exactly the case in this race. He didn't get a personal best and infact cam in over half a second slower. Not terrible considering he is still working on the more classic approach to the stroke...official time is 40.39

100 Yard Backstroke
Bear again overworked the backstroke (like he did in the IM the previous week). The over working and the fatigue combined to pose a much slower time that his personal best. In fact, he came in 2.5 seconds off his best pace, posting a 1:29.07.

[Breeze]

General Update

I figured I'd take a moment to update you on the state results for other swimmers I have mentioned in this thread...

Lexi
50 Yard Backstroke - 39.07 - 60/66
100 Yard Backstroke - 1:25.06 - 68/92
50 Yard Butterfly - 38.00 - 64/101
100 Yard Butterfly - 1:31.52 48/60

Haley
100 IM - 1:24.40 - 67/87
100 Free - 1:13.27 - 74/93
500 Free - 7:16.60 - 44/48
50 Back - 36.31 - T23/66
100 Back - 1:20.32 - 34/92
50 Fly - 39.67 - 90/101
Big note here is Haley missed her chance to qualify sectionals in the 100 Back...she may swim it anyway...the way we had Brett swim the 200 Breast at state

Maddie "the Beast"
200 IM - 2:47.80 - 17/70
50 Free - 29.46 - 7/84
100 Free - 1:04.68 - 7/93
200 Free - 2:25.96 - 10/75
500 Free - 6:22.18 - 10/48
50 Back - 34.48 - 6/66
100 Back - 1:15.69 - 8/92
50 Breast - 40.08 - 12/75
50 Fly - DQ - non-simulaneous arms
100 Fly - 1:16.93 - 11/87
Also Maddie earned a Gold Medal in the 200 Yard Free Relay, and a Bronze Medal in the 200 Yard Medley Relay (she swam the Free Leg)

[Breeze]

The Long Course Schedule has just been released...and unlike the last couple of years where my kids were able to swim in 2 or 3 meets...this year it looks like they will have the opportunity to swim in 5, not counting the state meet.

[Breeze]

We have elected to skip the final short course meet of the season for a number of reasons...

1. It is only a 10 and Under meet, meaning Brett won't be allowed to swim it.

2. In the meet, Girls swim in the morning and Boys in the afternoon so it would be an all day event for us.

3. With Bailey and Bear only 9, while they would perform well at this meet, they certainly won't be in a position to earn medals (next year will be a different story at this meet)

4. With State already completed and so many long course meets to choose from this year, they will ultimately swim more meets (long and short course)even with missing this one than they have in the past.

5. We need to save some money...meets get expensive with every event costing money x 3 kids...(and we feel the money will be more wisely spent on long course meets at this point in the schedule)...

[Breeze]

General Update

The Sectional Meet for short course finsihed a couple weekends ago and Maddie continued her staggering improvements. She drops significant times in most of her races including the 50 back, where she finished 5th overall and broke the Swim Atlanta record for 10 and Under girls from our facility...

She also managed to get AAAA times (best time standard possible)...

Monday 3/26 was her last day practicing with Bailey on the "Gold" team. She has moved up to the AAG (Advanced Age Group) level. At this level she will practice 9 hours a week (I believe). The rest of Bailey's group (Lexi, Haley, Raley, etc.) are apparently going to move up over the summer...

Brett and Bear are not currently earmarked to move up yet (not surprising as Girls are typicaly ahead of boys at this age)...

[Breeze]

General Update

Long Course Season starts this weekend with a time trial at Georgia Tech. I'll update more on that when the Psych Sheet is released.

Unfortunately, I have bad news...Lexi, the little girl who had knee surgery during short course season, but was able to rebound and get a couple state cuts, just found out today that her other knee has the same structural deficiency that was fixed in the one operated on 6 or so months ago. She is scheduled to have another surgery next week. She will miss all of the Summer Rec League season and all of the Long Course Season...

[Breeze]

SCAT Long Course Time Trials @ GaTech

This is one of two time trials for the long course season. I entered the kids in the 50 Meter swim for all 4 strokes to get a baseline on how we are doing. The only problem was the turnout for the younger age groups was small and therefore the kids had almost no recovery time between events. In fact, the entire meet took about a hour and a half...

Bailey

50 Fly - Bailey started off the meet really strong. She posted a 41.94 in the fly, and finished 5th in the 10 and under age group. She would have been 2 other girls, but in the final 15 feet or so, she breathed every stroke, which is a killer in fly (for almost everyone not named Michael Phelps), because it causes your feet to sink and creates a more upward kick rather than a kick that drives the swimmer forward. I could see Bailey break 40 seconds in this race if she gets enought attempts...(she already has a state cut in this event due to qualifying in short course)

50 Breast - Bailey had a good swim here as well...coming in at 51.51. her coach told her to work on extending more and holding the streamline portion of the stroke a bit longer...(already has cut from short course)

50 Free - Here is where fatigue started to set in...Bailey did extremely well in the first half of this race, she was keeping up well despite the fact she was one of the outside seeded lanes, but then she seemed to hit a wall, as the other swimmers began to pull away. She posted a respectable 39.39, but she really needs to work on getting a better catch and pull in order to gain speed...(state cut is 37.89)

50 Back - Once again the 50 back...and we still don't get the cut. Fatigue was obvious here. Bailey just didn't have the energy to push through 1 more time, and she posted a 47.31...(state cut is 46.39)

-------------------------------

Bear

50 Fly - Bear's fly was terrible. In his efforts to create a more fundamentally sound stroke with a larger "wiggle" he has developed a bad habit of throwing his shoulders back and coming very high out of the water to breathe. This slowed him down significantly and caused his time to be a poor...45.18, not sure that he could have matched Bailey's time, but he should be much closer. If he gets the breathing figured out, I expect to see him around a 42 flat...(he has the state cut from short course)

50 Breast - Huge improvement for Bear here. He dropped his time 8 seconds from last year and posted a very respectable 54.24 - (state cut is 51.99)

50 Free - Bear's extremely hard efforts in practice are really paying off again, as his freestyle time dropped a good bit to 40.56, (needs a 37.89 for a state cut though)

50 Back - Bear held up better than Bailey as far as fatigue and he swam a strong 46.70 in the back, and this time could have been better if he had charged into the wall rather than glide in...(State cut is 46.39...so just missed)

------------------------------------

Brett

50 Fly - Brett has been trying to get better on his off strokes, and his form does look better here...though his time improvement from last year is minimal...46.96. While the improvement wasn't significant, he did keep up with Bear, more because of Bear's bad habit of coming up too high to breathe than anything Brett did, but he still felt this was a major improvement, and I wasn't going to burst his bubble. He needs some positive reinforcement on this stroke.

50 Breast - Brett's breast didn't look very good. He posted a time almost identical to last year, but that was because he (like Bear in the fly) was coming up too high to breath, which created a bit of a stall in his forward progress. He posted a 49.90. Once he get's the breathing technique ironed back out, he should challenge for a state cut - (state cut time is 47.19)

50 Free - Kick looked better and form was good, breathing to both sides. Just needs to increase the effort (faster arm rotation and faster kicking), but all in all a better swim...41.12

50 Back - just like free, the form was good, kick was better, but the rotation and effort in kick has got to increase to create more speed. Still a pretty good swim for Brett - 51.25

[Breeze]

It has been a long time since I updated this and there is a good bit to report...

1. We skipped the second long course time trials meet which took place just two weeks after the SCAT meet (Above), because the only events open to the kids were the same ones that they saw at SCAT. So we decided there would be very little point in that, and we elected to save our money instead.

2. The Summer Rec. Season has started (I'll fill in results shortly)

3. Bailey is getting promoted this fall from the SA Gold team to Advanced Age Group (AAG) - (Brett and Bear are not getting promoted). While we are very proud of her, this creates several issues...The practice for AAG goes from 7 until 8:30 P.M. - lmeaning we won't be getting home from swimming until 9 or so...and Bailey is still in elementary school getting up at 6 A.M. (and she is a real pain in the ass when she is tired). The AAG team also practices 6 days a week, rather than 4. Moreover, this also creates a situation where we will need to attend two separate practices each week. However, we met with the coaches and while we were not inclined to move her up, they have convienced us to give it a try.

4. Brett is really wanting to improve his off strokes, but he wants to do it where he doesn't feel like he is being compared to his siblinings. He has asked to continue swimming away from Bailey and Bear. Seeing as how we are all swimmers because of his love of the sport (and he is my one kid that truly loves to swim), we are going to move him to the Chattahoochee Gold swim team over the Summer. This will allow him to step back, and work on fundamentals without the fear of being embarassed because the other swimmers see his younger siblings out swimming him. He seems excided about this opportunity. At the end of the Summer we will reassess the situation and allow him to decide what he wants to do...(SA or Chatt. Gold)...
(SA is aware of this change as we discussed it with them. They are very open to his returning and would like him to return...but they understand his feelings on the issue and they think this might be a good move for him).

5. We will be swimming at a long coures meet on 6/3...
- Bailey will swim - 200 Free, 100 Back, 50 Free
- Bear will swim - 200 Free, 50 Breast, 50 Free
- Brett will swim - 50 Breast, 100 Back, 50 Free

[Breeze]

Summer Rec League Time Trials

Our Summer team (CRC Stingrays in case I mention the team by name in the future you'll know what I'm talking about), held their time trials on 5/18. During Summer league meets the kids have basically 6 events and 2 relays that are available to them. The 6 events are...

- All 4 strokes in the short distance (25 yards for U10, 50 yards for 11 & up)
- Long Free (50 yards for U10 and 100 yards for 11 & Up)
- 100 IM (all ages)
- Medley Relay (each swimmer swims their short distance from above in the relay)
- Free Relay (again the short distance from above)

In our time trials the kids swim all 4 strokes in the short distance, this gives the coach a baseline on the kids abilities so she will first know who can legally swim the stroke and secondly, where to place the swimmers to maximize the team points.

CRC used to have a very good team, we've finished 4th in the County 2 years running and would have been 3rd last year if not for some underhanded tactics by one of the other coaches. Unfortunately, this season will be much different. We have lost quite a few of our older swimmers, which will impact our ability to even field a relay at those age groups. But most impactful is the loss of numerous year round swimmers and some state and regional level talent too. All in all, I believe we've lost:

- County Record Holder in the 18U 50 and 100 Free (now 19 swimming for NC State)
- 15 year old who is a State Record Holder in the 50 Breast and 100 IM (13-14)
- 13 year old County Record Holder and State Champion 50 Fly (11-12)
- 13 year old County Record Holder and State Champion 50 Breast (11-12)
- 14 year old placed 2nd in County in IM and Fly
- 14 year old girl County Champion 50 Breast (13-14)
- 4 other year round swimmers and point getters for the team

so as you can tell this will significantly hamstring the team, especially since our schedule is based off of last years results and we will be facing the top teams in the county.

Now for the results from the meet. One thing to keep in mind here is that unlike year round meets where time is everything, in the Summer it is really about where you finish. The times can be very misleading because they are all done by hand...so a slow thumb on the start and a quick thumb on the finish can create a VERY misleading time...

Bailey
Bailey has 5 other year rounders in her age group so they should be strong. In fact, 1 of the other girls really stepped up during the time trials which makes it look like these girls can potentially be quite good...

25 Free
Finished 2nd to Cameron who same a strong 14.9. Bailey came in with a 15.4 (she should get sub 15 before the season is over...)

25 Back
Finsihed 2nd to Cameron who just out touched her at the wall. Bailey did a better job on the finish, but she reached for the wall 1 stroke to early and lost out because of that. She swam around a 19.3

25 Breast
Bailey finsihed 3rd here, a bit of a surprise. The winner wasn't a surprise. Reese dominated with a time in the mid 19s (that is potentially good enough to win county). Bailey was out touched for second by Jordan, they were both right a 22 seconds...Bailey needs to work on getting back to her explosive stroke in this event, as I've said earlier in this thread, she just isn't swimming this event as well as she did last year.

25 Fly
This stroke for Bailey has gotten quite good...in fact, she was able to beat Reese in this event, and Reese is exceptionally good here (in fact as a 9 year old she made the county team in this stroke)...Bailey swam a 16.5...

---------------------------

Bear

Bear's team has 1 other year round swimmer (Riley) and he is a good one. Big kid, probably ways almost 2x what Bear weight (it's pretty funny to see them walking next to each other because of the differences)...The remainder of the team is suspect...but potentially decent for a summer team.

25 Free
Bear finished 2nd here to Riley, which isn't a surprise given that Riley is a freightrain on Free...powering through the water. He made the county team as a 9 year old for the Free Relay and he has a chance to be top 3 in the county in this stroke this year. what was surprising was how well Bear kept up. He finished about an arms length behind and recorded a time of 15.32.

25 Back
This was the other stroke that Riley was dominating in, but Bear beat him and won this event. Bear posted a 18.5, but would have been faster if he hadn't gotten caught up in the ropes while trying to see where Riley was during the race.

25 Breast
I'm so proud of Bear. It's just summer league, but my kid that could barely keep his head above water in this event at the beginning of the season won this event. He posted a very respectible 22 second time.

25 Fly
This was a huge surprise. Bear is a good flyer as I've mentioned before, and he is working on changing his stroke (in fact it looks really good right now - I'll need to get a video up to show you if you're interested), which has slowed him down some, but he's still fast...however, he lost this race to Riley. It was strange Riley was a full body length ahead when he surfaced after the dive. Bear swam him down but was beaten by about .75 seconds. We found out later that Riley did freestyle kick underwater after the dive...which make since because his fly kick isn't that good and in fact he never swims the fly because he hasn't been particularly good at it.

---------------------------

Brett

Poor Brett...the 1 other year round swimmer in his age group elected not to be on the team this year, and the rest of the team is bad. Not below average or poor...Bad. Just to put it in perspective. As you know Brett is a breaststroker that struggles with the other strokes. Because of this he is basically a good summer swimmer in the off strokes. He is also very small for an 11 year old (have I mentioned that Bear actually out weighs Brett now), and he is swimming against 12 year olds...but despite all of this he won all 4 strokes at time trials...and they weren't even close...

50 Free

Swam a 36.06 and won by 2 seconds over 2nd place

50 Back

Swam a 43.25 (not bad for him), won by 4.5 seconds over 2nd place

50 Breast

Not a great swim for him, but he posted a 46 second time and beat 2nd place by 10.25 seconds...

50 Fly

47.31 which was also not a great swim for him, but good enough to win by 4 seconds...

(his relay teams are going to be AWFUL)...

[Breeze]

Summer League

CRC vs Windemere

The first Summer swim meet is tonight, and likely this will be our only chance at a win (and we would have to be considered an underdog in this one)...

Bailey

100 Medley Relay - Breast (she should be swimming fly and the girl swimming fly should be swimming breast to get the best splits, but oh well)

25 Back - This probably isn't a bad thing as she really needs to focus on sprintng and finishing...probably helps her in the long run

25 Breast - Again, fly would be her best stroke, but Breast might be Bailey's second chance at getting points for CRC at county and earning a spot on the county team so getting the sprint this might be good for her.

100 Free Relay - Leadoff leg - which if she is focused is good because she can get very good starts...

----------------------------------------

Bear

100 Medley Relay - Fly - Bear was very happy about this and it will be good to get him quicker in the short Summer sprints

100 IM - Bear loves this event, but he'll have strong competition...should be a good race

25 Fly - hoping to see his time drop into the low 17s...

100 Free Relay - Leadoff Leg - remember what I wrote about Bailey, Bear is the same, only better...he can really get off the blocks quickly...

-----------------------------
Brett

Well Brett's new coaching is already starting to pay off and he's only gone about 5 times. His freestyle form and kick is much better and I'm eager to time his split in the free relay to see if it is improved...

100 Medley Relay - Fly - Yes that says fly...not breast. Unfortunately the coach is afraid that Brett is the only child in the 11-12 age group that can swim a 50 fly legally...and since you get more points for relays she doesn't want the team DQed...

100 IM - despite the fact he isn't fast in his off strokes, he is the fastest swimmer in every stroke in the age group, so not sure who else she'd put here. He won't win this one as the other team has a great IMer...but hopefully he'll post a good time with his improved strokes

50 Breast - Brett will be racing the kid that beat him at county by .04 seconds. Could be fun...

100 Free Relay - Anchor - but it won't matter...the race might actually be over before Brett even hits the water....(not joking)...

[Breeze]

Summer Swim Team

We won our meet on Thursday night...(not sure what the official score was yet...I'll try to remember to update this when the score is posted). There was an interesting effect that I hadn't considered when I posted that we were probably underdogs. We did lose quite a few year round swimmers, but we also lost a bunch of swimmers that weren't any good. This allowed the few remaining year rounders to compete in additional events (in summer league you are allowed to swim in 2 events, until everyone on the team in your age group has competed in 2...then you may swim a 3rd, etc...). Thus a few of our elite swimmers got to swim 6 events, thus maximizing the teams points. The lack of swimmers hurts us in the relays (in fact, we swam a 9 year old in our 13/14 boys relay, just so we could have 4 swimmers...), and it will kill us at county where our elite swimmers will only be allowed 2 events, but overall in the dual meets we'll score about the same as we would have last year...

As for my kids...

Brett

The relays were as I expected awful...but they did manage to finish second (not losing to the other team's B relay). Brett's IM was 1.27.25 and he looked good. He finished 3rd but kept up with both of the boys that beat him. In fact, he was only about a second behind the winner. In the Breast rematch from last years county championships, Brett had the lead by a fraction at the 25 yard turn, but lost at the wall...outtouched, he was beaten by less than .5 seconds...

Bear

Bear's IM was impressive. He swam against another year round swimmer and beat him by over half a lap...posting a 1.26.00 time. That time has historically been good enough to finish in the top 3 at county and often 2nd. His Fly form is starting to turn into speed as he posted a personal best 16.22...that would have been 2nd last year and will probably be 2nd this year (as the kid that finished 2nd last year is back and he is an exceptional flyer)...
Bear's relays both won....both had to come from behind on the anchor but they won...

Bailey

Bailey's relays were very strong...both won by over half a lap. Bailey's Breast looked much better as she posted a 20.10. That wouldhave won the event at county last year, but it won't win this year, as her teammate has beaten that time several times and Bailey actually finished 2nd in her race. She also finally charged into the wall in back and posted an 18.10...that would have won county last year as well...it won't win it this year though as her year round friend Haley is swimming in the upper 16s I believe....but all in all extremely impressive performance from Bailey...

[Izulde]

Sounds like a fantastic meet all around. Glad to see things are improving for everyone.

[Breeze]

Betsy Dunbar Meet @ Ga Tech

The twins will be competing in the Betsy Dunbar Long Course Meet this Sunday (6/3). We were unable to attend the first day of the meet because I was stuck in a D.R. test. Brett will not be competing. He was given permission, and he even registered to swim, but because his new team won't be present, and his new coach isn't there to provide guidance he will skip this meet...

Bailey

200 Free- Seed Time 3:00.78
I am going to be very interested to see this swim by Bailey. Her free in the summer meet on Thursday looked exceptional...with her reaching further and getting a good early grab on the water. This could translate into a very good swim if she can maintain that form over the entire race. (Note: I believe the seed time is actually a conversion from short course and not an actual long coures result)

100 Back - Seed Time 1:42.07
Bailey has always been pretty strong on back in the middle of the pool and with long course there is a lot of middle...with her improved finish on Thursday maybe she'll trust her counts into the walls more and significantly improve on her seed time. (Note: I believe the seed time is actually a conversion from short course and not an actual long coures result)

50 Free - Seed Time 39.39
Like the 200 Free, Bailey could improve significantly here if she can maintain the great from she had on Thursday...really excited about the potential here...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Bear

200 Free- Seed Time 3:00.78
No this isn't a cut and paste error....the seed time for Bear is the same as Bailey's. Bear's free has been stedily improving with his strong level of effort in practice. I don't expect a big improvement here... (Note: I believe the seed time is actually a conversion from short course and not an actual long coures result)

50 Breast - Seed Time 54.24
This is still Bear's weakest stroke, but he gotten much better. Not sure what to expect. If I had to guess I'd say a slight improvement.

50 Free - Seed Time 40.56
Bear has looked exceptional in his free for a while and the speed is starting to come. He has posted some good times in the short summer sprints...and endurance really hasn't been an issue for him in the past. I'm expecting good things here as well...(fingers crossed)

[Breeze]

Betsy Dunbar Results

Well the results from Sunday weren't exactly what I expected...In fact, I was really quite surprised...

Bailey

All and all Bailey had a pretty poor outing...in her defense she was starting to come down with a cold that I fought with on Thursday night and am still dealing with the after effects today - so that had to hinder her performance a bit...

200 Free - 3:14.55
This was a very disappointing result. I was shocked at how slow Bailey looked here. I did find out the seed time wasn't a conversion time, but rather a made up time by the coach in an effort to put Bailey (and Bear) into a heat of swimmers of similar ability levles...unfortunately, Bailey didn't do well. We really need to get her catch worked our on the Free...

100 Back - 1:42.12
Another poor result...way to much bouncing in the stroke and the chin was down creating too much drag. These are issues she didn't have on Thursday so I'm not sure why they cropped up here, unless she is putting to much pressure on herself in a year round meet.

50 Free - 40.12
This was about where she's been recently, and being the last event of the day I can write off a 1 second drop in time to fatigue, though I really believe improved arms will drop this time significantly...

(also need to clean up our dives...Bailey has gotten really deep for some reason which is slowing her down)

----------------------------------------

Bear

Bear had an excellent meet...

200 Free - 2:56.74
Bear swam an impressive time, but Bear really embraces the longer distances and more difficult strokes (fly). He prides himself in being tougher than his competition and it showed here. This is now one of his favorite events and his time is almost 20 seconds faster than Bailey...so that toughness is starting to show...

50 Breast - 54.41
Bear's time here is almost identical to Time Trials...and he was actually high in this stroke. If he'll clean up his lines and concentrate on pushing forward I could see a 52 flat range swim...but he won't get many more chances at this before the season ends.

50 Free - 38.04
Bear's time here is faster than Bailey's best by a good bit, and Bailey has for quite a while been the fastest Freestyler due to her strong kick. Bear's hard work in practice continues to pay off. He just misses a state cut here by .15 seconds (actually made the girls cut time).

[Coffee Warlord]

C'mon, tell the kids to man up and swim the 500.

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

C'mon, tell the kids to man up and swim the 500.

They will swim this during short course this fall...

Gotta get older before they will be allowed to swim the 1650...but it's coming...

[Coffee Warlord]

I still find it annoying we capped out at the 500 in high school. I wanted a 1000 yard race, dammit.

[Izulde]

I hated swimming the 500. My mind always wandered when trying to swim a race that long.

[Coffee Warlord]

Heh. That was my primary event, but yeah, your mind does tend to wander, and in practice, when we didn't have lap counters...I ALWAYS was second guessing myself on how many laps we had left.

[Breeze]

Summer Swimming Results

CRC Stingrays - 433
Windemere - 363

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by Izulde

I hated swimming the 500. My mind always wandered when trying to swim a race that long.

It takes dedication to be a distance swimmer. We had a girl on our Summer Team (she was also a Swim Atlanta swimmer - that signed to swim at NC State last year) who was a distance specialist. Someone asked her what are you thinking about when you see the lap counter numbers as you approach the turn. Her response....

"Why the hell am I not a sprinter..."

[Breeze]

Summer Swim Team

Laurel Springs Piranhas vs CRC Stingrays

Last year when we swam against Laurel Spring we won by 4 points - 400 to 396. This is the difference between a first and second or a second and third place finish - flip flop the order of any finish and we've got a tie...

This year will be close again because of the fact our good swimmers in the older age groups will be able to swim multiple events, but I think we'll lose by about 30 points...

----------------------------------------------------

Bailey

After her strong backstroke last week, she has been moved to that leg in the medley relay...the freestyler will take over the Breast and the Backstroker will move to Free...

Bailey will also swim the IM and Fly. She is excited about the fly because she fells (and rightfully so in my opinion) this is her best stroke right now. I have urged her to work on sprinting it and only taking 1 breath...thus improving her chances of reducing her time. In the IM I'm hoping she'll beat the 1:26 time the other year round swimmer on the team posted last week.

-------------------------------------------------
Bear

Bear will not swim the fly this week and he's a bit disappointed. That stroke is going to the other year round swimmer. Bear get the back and IM. This will be an important week for Bear as he'll need to decide what he's going to swim at County and these two strokes are the top choices to go along with the fly. He'll still swim fly in the Medley Relay

------------------------------------------------
Brett

No change for Brett in his individual strokes. Still has the IM and Breast. He'll have a shot to win in Breast I believe, but he'll get killed in IM...In the Medley relay they have moved him back to breast (but it won't matter they'll still get killed)

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Breeze

It takes dedication to be a distance swimmer. We had a girl on our Summer Team (she was also a Swim Atlanta swimmer - that signed to swim at NC State last year) who was a distance specialist. Someone asked her what are you thinking about when you see the lap counter numbers as you approach the turn. Her response....

"Why the hell am I not a sprinter..."

Or, "fuck, me, it's only at 9!?!?"

[RPI-Fan]

I'm confused. I thought Brett was not swimming on the same team as his siblings?

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

I'm confused. I thought Brett was not swimming on the same team as his siblings?

Sorry about the confusion...you're right, Brett has moved to a different year round team...Chattahoochee Gold, but in the Summer League they still swim together. CRC is basically our neighborhood team, and Summer League is like Rec Ball for swimming.

The Summer League is mostly just for fun. There are 2 big meets, the County Championships and the State Championships (which you only get to swim in if you qualify at county). My kids only go to an occasional practice with the CRC team, because they are excused due to attending year round practices which are much harder. The CRC team and Summer League in general is set up to give kids that aren't year rounders a chance to compete and get exposed to the sport (there is a bunch of socializing that goes on as well - including the parents that hang out and drink at the meets). Just to give you an idea of the difference. Bailey and Bear are swimming around 3400 yards in a hour at practice. Brett swims around 4000 yards in an hour and a half, and CRC practices are 1250 in 45 minutes on a hard day...

Thanks for reading and chiming in, hope that helps clarify things...

[Breeze]

Summer Swim Team - County Meet

I don't want to confuse things by getting ahead of myself on the schedule, but this is the part of the Summer League that is extremely exciting, nerve racking and has a considerable amount of drama. We have seen some amazing things at the county meet, and in fact, it is our results here that led us to being year round swimmers (I'll gladly narrate some of the past results if anyone is interested, but I wasn't planning on going into the past. Just let me know if you'd like me to go into those races). Anyway, the reason for this post is...it is time for the kids to choose which events they are going to swim at county. In the county meet, each kid may choose 2 events and exhibition 1 (to explain: when a kid exhibitions a swim, they are not allowed to win the event even if they have the fastest time, but they do qualify for the right to be on the appropriate relay based on their time). This is from a statisical perspective a very interesting time, because based on what other good swimmers choose to compete in, the field to qualify for the county team can be VERY strong...or extremely easy...


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Bear
Bear is absolutely planning to swim the fly, and why not. If he can continue to duplicate his 16.22 from the first Summer meet, he should make the county team. Bear finished 4th in the fly last year as a 9 year old in the 9/10 age group and two of the kids that finished in front of him aged up. The one that returns is exceptional...and he finished 8th in the state last year (was the fastest 9 year old at state), and he is probably the favorite to win the state championship this year (his time last year as a 9 year old was @ 15.5). Bear's 16.2 time is typically right on the cusp of making the state finals (fastest 8 times in preliminaries).

As for Bear's second stroke. He's wrestling between IM and Back. Both are good choices but I think he should swim back, and here is why...

- The IM will most likely have the same kid that swims the 15.5 second fly from last year, and Bear's not going to beat him
- There is a second kid that moved into the county that has a 1:22.xx time in the IM...Bear is @ 1:25.xx, and while he is good at coming up big, that is asking a lot. Plus with these two out there, he'd have to beat the rest of the field to get to state.
- If he were to make it to state, he'd need to swim @ a 1:20 flat to get into the finals, and I've seen him drop tons of time when he needed to, but I can't expect that from the kid
- In back, his best time would have put him 3rd last year...and the fastest returning swimmer in the stroke wasn't as fast as Bear's best last year (Bear slipped on the start last year and it cost him...)
- Bear's best time in the back is boarderline finalist in state...

Bear will exhibition the sprint Free in hopes of getting on the Free Relay. His best time would put him 8th, which is the B relay and typically good enough to get to the finals and earn a medal (anybody that swims the finals gets a medal)

Will update this once he makes a decision...

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Brett
Brett will obviously swim the Breast, but this will be the first time he won't represent the county at the state meet. He's best time would put him @ 10th last year. This year the group won't be as strong (I don't think), but he'll still do well to finish 7th...

Not sure which other stroke Brett will choose. He's leaning toward IM to help the team get as many points as possible (fewer IM Swimmers so the chance of earning better points goes up)

He'll also swim the sprint free as exhibition, but he has no shot of getting on a relay

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Bailey
Here is my kid that will have the toughest time...mostly because the number of girl year round swimmers is exceptionally high and there are so many that are about even with Bailey in ability.

Bailey will swim the fly, as this is her best stroke right now...but unfortunately, her best time 16.2 puts her in a large group of sub 16.5 second swimmers. Not sure who's going swim it at county, but regardless it is going to be a tight one. Interestingly, this will be a very strong Fly this year. Last year 16.22 would have finished 2nd by .8 seconds...and it is typically good enough to be a borderline state finalist...

Bailey's second stroke is up in the air. It looks like she'll choose between IM and Breast...I'm not sure what to advise here. Unfortunately I think she'll finish around 5th in either race...

We are working on trying to improve her catch in the Free, hopefully, we'll get that and her sprint free time will drop. As it stands, her free would have put her 5th last year. This year things will be tougher, but baring something strange, she should get top 12 and on a Free Relay...hoping to get sub 15 so we can potenially make the A or B relay...

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[RPI-Fan]

I'd read the stuff from past County Meets if you want to write it up!

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

I'd read the stuff from past County Meets if you want to write it up!

Cool...I'll put some stuff together and post it...

[Breeze]

Summer Swim League - Results

CRC Stingrays - 457
Laurel Springs - 339

We won the second meet of the season, and I was surprised to see how decimated Laurel Springs was. This is a team that for about 5 years was the second best in the county. This year, judging from the results of our meet with them, they might be hard pressed to get in the top half of the standings (or course they still might beat us at County when our good swimmers are limited to two races). Laurel Springs is a nice subdivision/country club in our area, and apparently the economy has hit the facility pretty hard, which has trickled down to the swim team. Sad actually. Brett asked a former SA Gold teammate to join our team and the kid said his parents had talked about finding a new team next year...

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Brett
Brett had an amazing meet. It all started with the Medley relay. Brett's A relay backstroker was not only behind the Laurel Springs A team at the end of the first leg, but he was also behind the CRC B team, and the kids swimming Breast for Laurel Springs was a the same former SA Gold teammate of Bretts...but Brett dove in and had reeled them in on the first 25, and by they time he got to the wall Brett had a 4 body length lead. Unfortunately, the flyer dove in and stopped (thinking people were telling him no, no, no...not go, go, go...kids nice, but not the smartest)...but even with the stop, when he started swimming he still had the lead, held on and the freestyler was able to hold of Laurel Springs (the CRC B team faded fast).

Brett's IM competition was...you guessed it, same former teammate (Luke). The fly leg was surprisingly close as Brett kept up pretty well...then the back and again Brett was right there with Luke, in fact, I'd say their touch for the turn was almost simulaneous. Then came the Breast...and Brett blew by Luke, opening a good 4 body length lead, which was important because Luke's specialty is the Free. Brett turned quick and used his new form to charge back. Luke turned and started his chase. He closed slightly, but Brett won going away. His time was recorded as a 1:28.47...that seems slow to me, as he looked real strong, but it doesn't really matter.

Breast stroke was a non-event. Luke (there best breaststoker) didn't swim this event and Brett won by about 8 seconds...

In the free relay, Brett's team got an early lead, and Brett brought it home. Luke was the anchor on their team but Brett's lead was too big for him to even try and mount a charge.

(note: for full disclosure...Laurel Springs only had 3 11/12 boys and were forced to use a 10 year old in their relays. This explains some of why Brett's relays were able to win)

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Bear

Bear's medley relay team was well ahead when Bear dove in, and Bear actually lost ground to another swimmer that has been on the State Team (in Fly too) in the past, but they won going away. I was however admittedly concerned with the fact Bear lost ground in his leg. He was a little deliberate in this strokes and he breathed several times...so that could have been most of it, but I made a note to watch the fly leg in the IM

Bear's back started out great. Got a huge lead and was cruising until he got into the lane rope. This allowed his competitor to get back in it...at the wall Bear actually out touched the Laurel Springs swimmer, but he did the underwater dive to finish and the stupid place judge (and I can say that because that's my job as well) gave it to the other team(...this judge was bad - so bad our coach had demanded she not be allowed to work that job in the future - this wasn't the only result she screwed up) (oh, by the way...each team provides a judge and it was the judge from our team that we weren't happy with...)

Bear raced the same kid in the IM he raced in the fly leg of the relay and the back...the IM started out with the other kid (who is much larger than Bear) getting a better dive. Bear was a bit high in his stroke early and it took him a while to hit his rythem, but he did and it was a close touch on the wall to turn for back (Bear was slightly behind). The back was a blow out, bear opened a big 3 body length lead, lost just a bit of that on breast, and pulled away on free.

Free relay was very exciting. Bear opened a big lead, but the 2nd swimmer lost all of it on his leg. The 3rd swimmer got down by about 2.5 body lengths but Riley (freighttrain) the anchor below by the Laurel Springs anchor to win by about a body length.

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Bailey
Bailey's medley started out with Bailey getting an amazing start in the back...she surfaced late and about a full arms length in front. Real good underwater work. She then opened the lead until she go in the ropes. Still managed to win her leg and the team won going away.

In the IM, Bailey faced a fellow SAer...and it was close. Bailey had the lead of the fly, and was opening the lead on the back until....you guessed it...she got in the ropes again (she's working on staying lower in the water and keeping her head up, but that change removes her normal ability to see where she is in the lane...thus the problem staying straight). This hurt as they touched the wall to go for breast at the same time. Bailey got a very small lead in the Breast, but the opponent is a better freestyler and she passed Bailey. Beat her by .3. But it was a personal best at a time of 1:23.34

In the fly, Bailey was facing a girl with a seed time faster than hers, but it wasn't even close. Bailey nailed the dive, again good underwater work brings her up last and out in front, then she hits her stride and pulls away. Swimming a 16.13 and winning by over a second.

Free Relay was over the moment Bailey hit the water at the gun. She immediately opened up a big lead and the team slowly built on it.