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06-11-2012, 09:45 AM
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#101 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer League - County Meet Update
So we have made our initial submissions for the events we will be swimming at county. It is just an initial submission because I am such a stat geek that the team has asked me to look over the entries and try to location areas where we should make changes to maximize the team's points. This will allow me to make a change if I need to prior to making the final submisison for the meet. Though I have to admit I think the kids made the right selections. Brett Brett will be swimming the Breast and the IM. He'll get killed in the IM at the county level but he'll still earn around 7 points for the team... Bear Bear's swimming the back and fly...I've seen some times that make me nervous about his chances in the fly. He's fast with his new stroke but inconsistent with it as well. He's just as likely to swim his 16.22 as he is to swim a 17.5 (which won't get it done). In back, his times look good, even though he hasn't matched his best time from last year yet. Bailey Bailey's going the fly and IM...my only concern is that she won't get a bunch of time to recover from her IM before she swims her fly, and the fly is her best chance to get on the county team (even though the race will be tight) and with that a spot on a good relay team... Last edited by Breeze : 06-11-2012 at 09:47 AM. |
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06-13-2012, 09:28 AM
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#102 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Swim with Dad Invitational @ GaTech Pool
We have our first Chattahoochee Gold meet this weekend. Brett is signed up to swim 7 events over the 2 days... 200 Free 100 Breast 100 Back 50 Free 50 Breast 200 IM 200 Breast He does have a chance to get state cuts in all 3 Breaststroke events, but that's not our focus with him right now. He's really pumped up about swimming again (so much so in fact, he has an appliance in his mouth to spread his jaw in preperation for getting braces, that appliance broke on Monday, but he begged my wife to let him practice and take him to the orthodontist afterwards), and I'm just hoping he sees some improvement here (his coach is even talking with him about making improvements that might not show up on the stop watch yet...but they are improvements regardless...and will ultimately create faster times). With Chattahoochee Gold we don't pick the events that Brett swims his coach does. This is a huge change for us, and a really good thing for Brett because he won't be able to avoid the longer swims in strokes he doesn't like. Right now he's pretty intimidated by the line up of events, and he's really concerned about the 200 IM. He's been negotiating (which is his personality) with us and his coach about not swimming that one, but agreeing to swim the others. The coach is urging him to give it a shot and building up his confidence by saying things like "you can do it", "I believe in you", and "you do it everytime you are at practice"...we'll see if he can convince Brett to swim it when the weekend rolls around (remember, he's quite possibly the most stubborn child I've ever met)... Last edited by Breeze : 06-13-2012 at 09:38 AM. |
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06-13-2012, 11:20 AM
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#103 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League - General Information
The Summer League is always full of interesting developments (and one of the reasons I started this thread was to outline some of the stuff that goes on during the season, even if it doesn't directly involve my kids - so I figured I'd hit on this one for you). In this case the drama revolves around Maddie. Anyone who's been reading for a while is familiar with Maddie and her accomplishments. She is unquestionably the best 9/10 year old swimmer in the county and will ultimately win whatever 2 events she enters, but that's not the issue...the issue is that she has positioned herself in the GRPA Summer League to potentially set state records. Her best shot at this is the 25 free where her personal best is only .2 seconds from the current record. To try and give Maddie her best shot at State Records her parents signed her up to swim 25 Free & 25 Back in the county meet (to qualify for state a swimmer must finish in the top 3 in county and a state record can only be broken at the state meet), and they had her exhibitioning 50 Free, which is a waste of time because the whole purpose of exhibition swims is to get an opportunity to be on a relay (so this was a mistake on the parents part). Now, in order for you to understand the situation I have to take a minute to give you some background on the Summer team that Maddie swims with. The team is Grand Cascades...and they take this stuff WAY to seriously. To begin, they have won the county team championship something like 17 years in a row, and they don't just win, they typically score about 800 points more than 2nd place. They have well over 300 swimmers on the team. They have an 8 lane heated pool and they start Summer practices in mid April, where most teams start in mid May (assuming a mild Winter). They have touch pads in all the lanes and an electronic scoreboard (pretty flashy equipment for a summer team). The organizer for this team is also the organizer for the league in Forsyth County...so all other county teams must submit their county swim plan to him ahead of time...and it has been reported (by people that used to work with him on setting lineups) that he uses this information to adjust his county entries to place swimmers in areas where he can improve his team's results (like he really needs to do that...without it he might only win county by 785 points). Back to Maddie...because her parents put her in something for Exhibition that was useless the organizer changed her to 25 back and 50 free, and she's now scheduled to exhibition 25 Free (which is the most important one to the family). They requested he switch the 25 free to a regular event and exhibition 25 back, but his response was that he has another swimmer that he thinks will win the 25 free which means he'll get 2 first place results rather than a 1st and 2nd in free and less points in back...(again like he needs the additional 3 points, which is the difference between 1st and 2nd at county). The parents were going to impress upon him that it is important to them that Maddie swim 25 free at county so she'll have a shot to swim it at state and thus get a state record...but we'll have to wait until close to next weekend to find out if he listened or if his selfish desire to blow out the rest of county was more important to him... |
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06-19-2012, 02:58 PM
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#104 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Swim With Dad @ GaTech (6/16 - 6/17)
Brett's first meet with Chattahoochee Gold was a huge success...he was very concerned about swimming so many long races leading up to the event (in fact, it wouldn't be an overstatement to say he was stressed out). Before warmups he had a borderline panic attack, because things were so different for him...(he didn't have his siblings with him, doesn't really know anyone on the team well, couldn't find his coaches, was scheduled to swim long events, and I was out of town and for the first time ever would miss on of his meets). Thankfully, one of the team coaches came by...got him to relax, took him to his coaches and they were able to calm him down and focus him on the swimming... Day 1 200 Free - First time ever swimming this event (long or short course) and he did a very nice job. Form looked so much better and effort was unquestionably greater (saw the wife's recordings)...3:17.41 - not far off of Bailey's time a few weeks back... 100 Back - was really not excited about this race as he doesn't like back and it is a longer swim than he had ever done before in this stroke. Form was pretty good...time was acceptable for him 1:45.10 100 Breast - Brett swam this one well and posted a personal best time of 1:44.22...an improvement of 2.25 seconds, and good enough to finish 8th out of 25 swimmers Day 2 50 Breast - Brett swam this at time trials and he swam a 49.9...in this meet he swam a 47.72 for a personal best and he missed a state cut by less than .5 seconds... 200 IM - This was the huge stressor...really was scared about it, but he talked to his coaches, didn't fuss and jumped up on the blocks when it was time to swim. He was DQed for an illegal fly to back turn (he got on his side to much...I think he was so focused on the swim he actually thought he needed to swim another leg of fly...like he was swimming 200 IM short course). Regardless, the error didn't help him and he posted a nice 3:33.xx time... 50 Free - Brett's improved kick and effort showed up here as his best coming in was a 41.12 - he again improved by about 2 seconds swimming a 39.xx (unfortunately, I don't know the exact time because the timing system messed up and officially recorded his swim as a 24.37...we are getting that deleted before he ends up swimming in heats with national level competition)... 200 Breast - Finally, he got a chance to swim the 200 Breast. As you may remember from short course he got the state cut but was DQed for a one hand touch on the final turn. We entered him in the State Meet but he failed to get the cut time, which cost us $50...but because he never actually recorded a state cut in this event, he hadn't qualified for state in long course. Brett had never swum the 200 Breast long course so we didn't have a time for him....but also because he is faster in the middle of the pool and turns and pullouts are where he struggles I felt he had a decent chance of getting the cut time of 3:52.39...I wasn't there to record the splits and the official results didn't post them either (unfortunately)...but he swam a...3:43.04...almost 10 seconds below the cut time   ...I didn't expect that...his coach also told him there are some pacing issues they can clean up to improve the times significantlly....Last edited by Breeze : 06-19-2012 at 03:00 PM. |
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06-21-2012, 03:24 PM
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#105 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Ooo...got some summer league results to fill in...plus our county meet is this weekend...
I'll try to update all the information tomorrow... |
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06-22-2012, 07:38 AM
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#106 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League - week 3
In week 3 we matched up with The Polo Fields. They owere for years, ne of the worst teams in the county, but last year they hired the swim coach from the high school around the corner (and she demands her high school swimmers swim on the Summer team) and a YMCA and SA facility opened around the corner. Plus there are no other neighborhood teams on that side of town. So now, they are far and away the second best team...and we know we'll get killed... Polo Fields - 425 CRC Stingrays - 364 ----------------------------------- Bailey Her medley relay swam the best they ever have...posting a 1:09.50. Bailey handled the fly leg, Reese moved to breast and they were quick. They were also out touched at the wall...the freestyler couldn't hold the lead and they lost by .35 seconds Bailey did the backstroke in the individual and she was clean through the swim...not her fastest time at 19.11 but she won by almost 3 seconds Bailey then did the breast and it was a touch/touch situation, so close we weren't sure who won until the official results came out. Bailey swam a 20.23...her opponent was a 20.28 In the free relay the girls got a bit of revenge as they swam a best time of 1:02.02. Bailey established a lead on the opening leg and they held it. ------------------------------------------------------ Bear Bear swim the back leg in the medley and it was a touch/touch at the wall...but the rest of the team swam well and they were able to win 1:14.55 Bear swam the IM against the best kid in the county and had a very respectible showing, posting a best time of 1:23.53, but he lost by about 2 seconds. In the fly Bear swam against the same kid and lost by .2 of a second... In the free relay Polo got the revenge. Bear gave the team a lead, but it was lost on the 2nd and 3rd leg and the strong anchor was unable to make up the gap, losing by 1 second ------------------------------------------------------- Brett Brett's relays were laughable. In both cases the other team was finished with race before the CRC team even dove in for their 4th leg...so no point in beating that dead horse with details... Brett swam IM and did a nice job...strokes look much better, but their team is ridiculously strong here and he settled for 3rd. Brett was also asked to swim the fly...which he did very well for him. Almost a personal best time, posting a 42.25 (best is 42.22)... ----------------------------- Note: this meet will cost Bear the MVP for the team. Because he matched up with one of the 2 best swimmers in the county in his age group in both events and took 2nd both times, he will earn less point than Riley, who by simple luck of the draw didn't have a difficult night Last edited by Breeze : 06-22-2012 at 08:17 AM. |
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06-22-2012, 09:21 AM
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#107 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer League Week 4
Week 4 is a match up with the team that beat us out for the 3rd place trophy (Aberdeen). They also beat us heads up in 2011 by about 50 points. They will also be the team that we will most likely battle with for 3rd again this year at county. Before the meet I looked at the Psych Sheet and figured they'd beat us by about 10 points...as it turned out we beat them by 7... CRC Stingrays - 400 Aberdeen Breakers - 393 -------------------------------------------------------- Bailey The Aberdeen girls 9/10s are pretty weak. Bailey's good friend Haley is the only real good swimmer they have. The others are solid Summer swimmers, but they don't compare to our relays. Bailey swam the breast in the medley (Reese the fly) as we were looking to get a comparison on time from last week...The team won but was over 2 seconds slower. The free relay was also an easy win and the time was only slightly off their best without having anyone pushing. Bailey swam the IM and matched up with her good friend Haley...The fly leg was touch/touch, but Haley is a sectional level backstroker and while Bailey's back is getting better she's still just borderline state level, so she fell way behind. Bailey is a better breaststroker, but she didn't seem to have the drive to chase her down...and Haley won by about 3 seconds. Bailey posted a respectable time of 1:23.xx Bailey also matched up with Haley in the fly. Haley has a faster seed time...but the race started and Bailey out dove Haley...then held the lead for about the first 2/3rds of the race, then Haley pulled even, but Bailey out touched her. Winning by... .04 ----------------------------------------------------- Bear Bear's relays were both winners as the Aberdeen team was good, not great at this age group. Bear swam fly in the medley and had a lead he extended off the wall. In the free, he led off and opened a good 2 body length lead. Times were good (but unfortunately two of the swimmers that typically swim the A relay for this team will not be going to county...more on that later). Bear swam the back in individual, opened a big lead - and - you guessed it, got into the ropes. Cleaned it up to out touch his opponent...but he can't afford to do that on Saturday... In the IM, it was a cake walk...he won by almost a full length of the pool. With no one pressing him his time suffered...but he did great... --------------------------------------------- Brett Brett's relays are laughable...as average as Aberdeens 10U swimmers were, the 11/12 - 15/18s are quite good. The only fortunately thing that occurred was, the A 11/12 Aberdeen Medley team was DQed because the Breaststroker had an illegal pullout. Otherwise this team finishes 3 in both free and medley relay... Brett finished a strong second in his IM...time was similar to the previous weeks. Coasted a bit in the free because he couldn't catch first and he had a big lead on 3rd...so time could have been better In the breast Brett also took second. The kid with the illegal pullout in the medley relay cleaned it up and won going away...of course Brett didn't even come to his shoulder so the stroke and glide for his opponent was significantly longer... ----------------------------------------------------- Note: Bailey's loss to Haley in the IM will pretty much guarantee Reese will win team MVP. It's pretty sad, because of the 6 strokes Bailey can beat Reese easily in 4, Reese wins the Breast, and the Fly is a toss up. But unfortunately, Reese hasn't had to face other year round swimmers this season and Bailey has faced a bunch.... |
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06-22-2012, 10:05 AM
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#108 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer League - County Championship
The County Championship meet is this weekend (6/23) at Ga Tech. The psych sheet is out and here is how things break down... ------------------------------------------------------------------- Brett Brett is going to have a tough time. He's so much smaller than the boys he's racing and he's still cleaning up his strokes that he has no shot at making the state team. He is swimming the IM, and seeded 9th out of 13 kids. With a good swim he could get to 6th...he shouldn't do worse than 9th (unless some of the seed times are really old for the kids behind him and they don't represent how fast the kids actually are - which is possible if they haven't swum IM in a long time...like since last year)... Brett will also swim the breast and he comes in seeded 9th (with 2 kids exhibitioning the stroke - meaning they can't win the event, but can based on times swim it in the state relays). Brett is the second fastest 11 year old (behind the kid at Windermere that out touched him by .06 in the first meet of the season and beat him for the county championship last year by .04). There are several kids that are almost 10 seconds faster than he is...so 8 or 9th is about the best he coudl do. A poor swim could drop him to around 14th out of 35... Brett's relays will do go not to be last... -------------------------------------------------- Bear Bear's individual events look pretty good. He is seeded 2nd in fly, behind the best swimmer in the county (Alex) at this age group, and mabye the best in the state. His seed time is several seconds off of the 1st place time, but also .78 seconds faster than 3rd. In fact, even when he doesn't hit his best time, Bear has been below the 3rd place time...His chances of getting on state are good here... Bear is also swimming backstroke...we selected this over IM because we knew about Alex and the kid from Polo Fields that is the second best in county and we figured both would do IM. As it turns out Alex is doing back...ugh....anyway...he outclasses Bear there. Bear is seeded 2nd, but he hasn't hit that seed time all season, because he ends up in the ropes. If he swims clean he'll battle Riley, his team mate for 2nd. If he gets into the ropes, he'll have an outside shot at 3rd.... Bear's relays, if their best were swimming would be solid choices for top 3 in county, but because they aren't swimming it looks like 5th or 6th is the best they can do... Bear will lead off in the free relay and swim fly in the medley (riley get's the back leg) ---------------------------------- Bailey Bailey is swimming the IM at county...and she comes in seeded 4th. She is in a tough spot, as top 3 go to State, and she has strong swimmers in front of her - 4 year round swimmers. The top swimmers time if accurate is untouchable by Bailey. The other's she could reach, but she'd need to swim a personal best...and improve by about 2 seconds (doable in a 100)...The girl that beat her from Laurel Springs is currently 3rd. Bailey is also swimming the fly...and she is also seeded 5th in this event as well. All 4 in front of her are year round swimmers. This time things are bit more confusing, Bailey's best time of 16 flat was swum with a dive off the side of the pool not blocks, the others ahead of her all had the benefit of blocks (which they won't get at county)...so hard to tell how we stack up...She has already beaten 2 of the girls seeded in front of her...but there are 4 behind her that are only a half a second behind. This is going to be extremely thight. Bailey's relays are in a tough spot too. They are fast, but Grand Cascades has Maddie along with 3 other year round swimmers are are on pace to break the county record in both the free and medley relays...so the won't win county. There are several other relay teams that are close on their heals. Currently Bailey's team is seeded 2nd in the Medley (my guess is they finish 3rd) and they are 5th in the free (my guess is they finish 3rd)... We'll see... ----------------------------------- Overall it looks like CRC will finish 4th again, but this time we'll lose out to Aberdeen by only about 10 points.... |
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06-22-2012, 01:49 PM
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#109 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Stu Hixon Invite - @Mt. View Swim Center
Just because we aren't busy enough...Brett will swim the Sunday events of the Stu Hixon long course meet. He will swim... 50 Fly 200 Breast 50 Free I would not be at all surprised if he swam personal bests in the Fly and Free given is confidence and improved strokes. Might be hard to improve on the 200 Breast. I know that his coach says he can cut some time with pacing changes, but they haven't practiced them yet, so not expecting it there... |
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06-25-2012, 02:47 PM
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#110 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League - County Champoinships (@ GaTech)
In order to accomodate everyone that participates at the County Championships, the meet is divided into 2 parts...11 & overs and 10 & unders, so lucky me, I got to stay there the entire day. Brett So Brett and I got up early and caught a ride with a teammate down to Tech. We didn't want to get the twins up early and force them to sit at the meet all morning with nothing to do, as we wanted them as fresh and prepared as possible. Medley Relay The meet started with the Medley Relays...Brett was swimming the breaststroke leg for his team, but it was irrelevant as they are so bad. They did manage to beat 1 team, and 1 team was DQed for the anchor leaving the blocks early, so they finished 11th out of 13. 50 Free Brett exhibitioned the 50 free next. I didn't expect him to do much here as his form is better, but he still needs to learn how to use that form to create speed. He swam a personal best of 35.51, which is nice, but isn't nearly good enough to get him on a free relay. 100 IM In this race, Brett came in seeded 9th, so he was in lane 1...he started off with the fly and he did a nice job staying with the boy in lane 2 (this is the same boy, JB, that beat him by .04 in the county breaststroke champoinships last year, and beat him by .06 in the breaststroke at the beginning of this season). In the backstroke Brett lost a bit of ground but was still within a body length. On the Breast brett caught JB and passed him, opening up a lead of about 3/4th of a body. He held this lead for about 2/3rds of the free leg, but lost it at the wall and was out-touched by .1 second. He did swim a personal best time of 1:26..35, but still ended up 9th. 50 Breast Brett came into this event also seeded 9th, and again in lane 1. However, 2 of the kids seeded in front of him were exhibitioning so they are not considered in the overall placing. Brett dove in a looked strong, pulling away from the boy in lane 2, who's seed time was 1.5 seconds faster. At the turn, Brett and JB (yes, same kid), who was in lane 9 on the other end of the pool were about dead even. On the back half though, Brett pulled away and finished with a personal best time of 41.72, JB finished with a 43.01. Brett is credited with 6th place overall. As he beat 2 people seeded ahead of him (But 1 was an exhibitioner - so wasn't going to affect Brett's standing in the event anyway). The interesting thing here is...3 of the boys that finished ahead of Brett didn't exhibition anything in the meet. This may be an indication that they aren't planning on attending the State Meet in late July (of course it could also be that they are typical Breaststrokers who only like to swim Breast and Free and didn't see a point in swimming anything else). If for some reason all three of these kids don't go to state, Brett would get the nod as the 3rd Breaststroke representative and swim the C 11/12 boys medley relay. Free Relay Brett's Free Relay team is just as bad as their Medley team...they finished 10th out of 12 teams... ----------------------------------------------- Bear Medley Relay Bear's relay teams came in at a bit of a disadvantage, in the Medley relay their Breaststroker who isn't pretty, but he's tall and pretty fast, and their freestyler who isn't a world beater but can swim a 16.2 25 free, didn't participate. So the team plugged in two other swimmers. A 9 year old, Ian, that had looked pretty strong in free in the previous weeks (though his times weren't reflecting the improved technique), and a kid, Sean, that had been on vacation for 2 weeks and hadn't even been to practice since the first meet of the season. The big guy Riley started the race with the back, but he slipped on the start and that put the team in a bit of a hole. It was a shame actually, as Riley is a very strong back stroker, but in this instance the team was 5th after the first leg. The breaststroker was Sean, and he did an adequate job, maintaining his position in the standings and getting to the wall in 5th place. Bear then took the fly leg, and from the moment he hit the water he was flying. He ate up ground with every stroke and got to the wall in 2nd place...an impressive swim. This left Ian, who was not the typical free anchor. But he performed extremely well, holding off all comers and finishing 2nd... 25 Free Bear's next swim was the 25 Free exhibition. And it started with a false start. Luckily Bear heard it, stopped and returned to the bulkhead quickly (due to Tech being a long course pool, to make is short course, bulkheads are added so the pool will be 25 yards. 10 and Unders when they swim 25s, go off of the bulkheads so they swim towards the electronic touch pads), while the officials rounded up the rest of the swimmers. Unfortunately, because he returned to the bulkhead quickly, he also dripped all over his starting point, and when the restart occurred - he slipped - BAD. He managed to swim a 16.02, but he lost to 2 kids he outswam earlier in the season...He ended up 13th overall. This is 1 swimmer outside of those that automatically qualify to swim in the free relays at state. We are in wait and see mode to determine if anyone that beat him isn't going... 25 Back Bear's next swim was the 25 back. He attempted this event last year, but he slipped on the start and ended up way back in the standings. Had he swum his typical time he'd have been 4th or 5th last year, and would have made the State team due to people not going. This year he came in with the 2nd seed time...and he looked good in practice leading up to the race. The race started and Bear - Slipped...  By the time he got going he was a full 2 body lengths behind the rest of the field. He swam hard, and actually passed 4 guys, but he ended up 6th (got credit for 5th because 1 person exhibitioned). He swam a 19.23. The boy that ended up second in this race was one that Bear raced during the regular season, and beat bad, even though Bear got into the ropes about 2/3rds of the way down the pool...very disappointing...for his sake. 25 Fly Bear's last chance to make the state team outright is in the fly. In this case, he doesn't slip on the dive, but he does go a tad bit deap, which puts him a little behind at the start. But, once he surfaces, he starts blowing by people He ends up running out of pool and has to settle for 3rd, but he was clearly going much faster than the boy that finished 2nd. Bear's time was a 17.00. So Bear makes the county team, will swim 25 fly, and will probably be on the C medley relay Free Relay Bear's relay team, with all their normal pieces was seeded 3rd. The race started with Bear at leadoff, and he was the first to finish his leg. The second swimmer was Ian, and he was able to open a bit of a lead on the 2nd and 3rd place teams. The 3rd swimmer lost some ground and the top 3 teams pretty much came off the wall together, but Riley, the anchor brought it home and Bear's team takes the gold in this event... ---------------------------------------------- Bailey Medley Relay The girls medley relay was very frustrating. I was asked pretty early on to help make sure that we had people swimming the right events this year. And pretty much from the start I told the coaches for the 9/10 girls medley relay you will be much faster if you put Bailey in the Fly and Reese in the Breast. Moreover, my opinion was proven out during the season, as the best time recorded by the girls came with this configuration. It was easily 2.5 seconds faster than any other combination, but during the meet Bailey swam Breast and Reese swam fly. Bailey urged Reese to switch with her, but Reese replied "We don't need to switch, I'm faster than you in both strokes to it won't matter..." ...(more on this later)...(of course Reese's parents realized they were not configured right too and were upset). Well the team swam their typical 1:12.xx time in this configuration and finished 4th, out of the medals. Alternating the swimmer to right set up, and based on time they would have taken 2nd pretty easily... 25 Free Bailey continues to struggle getting speed in the free. She swims a 16.04 and is currently sitting at 14th, out of the free relays. From looking at the names in front of her, it is doubtful 2 girls won't be going to state, so she'll probably miss out on the free relays... 100 IM Bailey raced the IM against a very tough group. In the fly leg, she was even with the other 4 good swimmers. In the backstroke she lost a little ground but not much...unfortunately, when she did the turn, she did a touch and go, and failed to do a pullout...3 of the other 4 good swimmers all did their pullout and they opened a body length lead on her that she couldn't make up and she ended up 4th...so 1 spot away from the automatic bid to state. Time 1:23.63... 25 Fly Bailey like, Bear comes into her final race, needing to get into the top 3 just to make state, and as I detailed previously, this is a star studded cast of swimmers. The race began with Isabella false starting, but it not being caught by the start (an terrible mistake...the entire stands saw it and a gasp went up when they weren't called back). Making matters worse, Isabella is one of the swimmers with a better seed time than Bailey, so she's already beind at the start. The entire field in this one is tightly bunched, but Bailey appears to be moving up...they get to the wall, and Bailey is 2nd...16.23. The overall winner was 16.22 - And Miss "I'm better than you in both strokes" Reese finished 3rd at 16.33 and has now lost to Bailey twice in this race this season...Because Bailey was so close to the girl that won, and because that girl also won backstroke, Bailey will probably end up on the A medley at state and Kayla (the winner) will swim the Back leg...Free Relay Bailey led off here and did a nice job, as she was second at the end of the leg. Reese swam next and lost ground back but held 2nd. Jordan went next and lost 2nd barely, and the anchor Cameron wasn't quite able to swim down the other team. So Bailey's free relay settles for 3rd... Last edited by Breeze : 06-25-2012 at 03:38 PM. |
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06-28-2012, 12:41 PM
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#111 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Stu Hixons Invite @Mt View Aquatic Center
Brett's performance at this meet wasn't as good as last week, but after the emotional meet on Saturday I didn't expect it would be. Moreover, he woke up Sunday morning with a migrane like headache...so just being able and willing to swim following that was a minor victory. All in all his fly was about .5 seconds slower than the previous meet. His free was about 1 second slower and the 200 Breast was about .3 slower. All were close enough to show that he is consistently able to swim these times and while they weren't personal bests they continue to show his improvement, as he didn't fall off the map with these efforts. Last edited by Breeze : 06-28-2012 at 12:41 PM. |
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06-29-2012, 07:49 AM
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#112 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer League County Championships
Standings Here is the top half of the final standings Code:
------------------------------------------------------- Prior to this meet I was asked by the team to look at our line up and project how many points we would get. I told them we were going to be around 940 assuming everything went well (no DQs, sick kids, etc.). Then they asked me to make some suggestions on where we could put kids in order to maximize our points. So I did and my projection increased to 1043.75, but unfortunately, I still had us calculated to finish 4th. As you can see above, my projection was pretty close on the points and the position was perfect. In fact, my projection of the order of finish for all 16 team was only off by 1 team (which failed to field some of its relay teams, and thus significantly through off the prediction). Last edited by Breeze : 02-12-2018 at 07:49 AM. |
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06-29-2012, 10:54 AM
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#113 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer League - County Team
The county team has been announced and unfortunately, Brett just misses getting in, as 2 of the 3 kids that I mentioned in the county results posts elected to skip the state meet, but the kid that finished 1 spot in front of Brett is going. Bailey will swim the fly (we knew that already), and she will also swim the fly leg in the A Medley Relay. Since 2007 this relay is the 3rd fastest the county has fielded. She unfortunately didn't get into a Free Relay as all the girls that beat her in the 25 free elected to swim... Bear will swim the fly as well at state. He also gets the benefit of moving up to the B Medley Relay (the 2nd place finisher at county isn't going to state), so his chances of medalling just improved dramatically. His relay is the 8th fastest since 2007, trailing 2 other B teams and faster than the '08 A team. Bear also snuck into the C Free Relay. Interestingly, his C team is the second best the county has fielded since 2007, and actually with Bear's slip and another child's poor swim (based on seed time)...this team could be as fast as the B team...we'll see, but I don't expect the Free Relay to make the medal round. |
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07-05-2012, 12:45 PM
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#114 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer League - Week 5
Our last Summer meet was against Grand Cascades. I'm not going to go into many particulars because it really isn't worth it... Bear did win both his backstroke (yes he got into the ropes again, but still won) and his IM. Bailey won the fly, and beat 2 girls that finished in the top 8 at the county meet in the process... The final score was CRC - 234 GC - 556 So we finished 4th in the county...only 35 points from 3rd and GC more than doubled our score in a dual meet...  Last edited by Breeze : 07-05-2012 at 12:47 PM. |
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07-06-2012, 11:26 AM
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#115 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Tara Invite @ Steve Lunquist Aquatic Center - July 7 - 8
The Tara Invite is the last long course meet before the state championships and all 3 kids will be swimming in this one. The twins will swim for SA and Brett will actually swim for Chat. Gold (up until now he was swimming unattached as there is a waiting period when kids switch teams to reduce recruiting of swimmers). This meet functions a bit like a last chance meet as quite a few of the great regional a swimmers are skipping the meet because they have no reason to swim it, as they have already qualified for state in everything they want to swim. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bailey 200 Free Last time Bailey swam this it was a big disappointment. Bear was able to swim this event 15+ seconds faster and that shouldn't happen. I'm hoping for a better time...something around 3:05 would be good. Seed time is 3:14.55 and she is seeded 7th overall at the event. 100 Breast Bailey hasn't swim this event long course yet, so it will be interesting to see where she ends up. Her breast has looked a bit better lately...but I really don't have a good guess here. If I was put on the spot, I'd say sub 1:50 would be good... 100 Backstroke Bailey's 1:42.07 is probably a bit slow...but she has to stay out of the ropes. If she can do that, I expect this one will improve 50 Breast Current time is listed as 51.51...she could improve this if good form holds up through the race 50 Back Still no cut in this race...47.31 coming in...we'll see how brave she is with the walls on the finish. That plus not getting into the ropes are the key. 50 Free Still need to clean up the pull portion and get an earlier catch to improve. Has the potential to do much better than her 39.39...but won't until she figures the upper body part out... --------------------------------------------------------- Brett 200 Free Seed time is 3:17.xx, he can improve on this a good bit if he is willing to push himself. Because he's never done many distance events (and I know 200s aren't really distance, but they are for him), he has a tendancy to hold back and conserve energy. If he'll go harder we could see a good bit of improvement. 100 Breast Here brett is seeded 6th overall...and only 3 seconds from 4th. He could do well here...seed time 1:44.22 100 Back Form is much better here...but the kid still doesn't like being on his back in the water and he doesn't race this well. Needs to increase effort significantly. If he does, he'll improve a bunch. If not, we'll see more of the same regarding time. Seed time 1:45.10 100 Free Improved form here too... and again it is about effort. Gotta work harder to improve...and can pretty easily if he has the stamina. No official Seed time - 200 IM Swam this in the meet in mid June and recorded a 3:33.xx, but was DQed for a minor mistake on a turn. No big deal, the bigger issue was just getting him to swim the event. He'll probably try to beg out of this one again this weekend...we'll see. If he doesn't I don't expect a time improvement as I would guess he'll conserve his energy so he'll finish. Officially he comes in with a NT 50 Breast Overall he's seeded 4th in this one, and 1 second from 2nd place (no shot at 1st). Seed time 47.72. Hopefully, he has a good race here with swimmers around him and it pushes him to a Personal Best, because if he improves by about a half a second he'll have the state cut. 50 Back See 100 Back...no official seed time (though I believe he swam a 51.xx at time trials earlier this year) 50 Free No seed time, but I swear he swam a 39.9 in mid June (wasn't at that meet or I'd know for sure)...I know he swam a 41.12 during time trials earlier this year (lack of times is due to switching teams and not having access to the SA Database with times recorded) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear Bear is set up to do real well in this meet as you'll see below... 200 Free Bear comes in seeded 2nd and only a fraction of a second behind the top seed. Seed time 2:56.74...if he gets his adrenaline going in this one he could win it...and post a personal best. 50 Fly Bear is seeded 3rd here, less than a second from 2nd. Seed time 45.18. 100 Breast Bear continues to improve in this stroke, but it is still by far his weakest. He has no seed time listed, as we've not asked him to swim the 100 Breast until now as his stroke was too weak. No idea where he will finish...and here is why... 50 Breast Amazingly, the boy is seeded 4th overall, with a time of 54.24. Less than a second from second. I don't expect much here, but wouldn't be totally surprised with a personal best. 50 Back Seeded 8th overall with a time of 46.70. A good swim and he could get the state cut. But of course he has to stay off the ropes, which has become a big problem for us during summer league. 50 Free Bear is tied for the top seed time here, and I believe he is faster than his time, but I expect someone from the back of the pack, who hasn't swum this event in a while and is seeded based on an old time to come out of nowhere and win this one. Seed time 38.04 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Unfortunately, we recently returned from a vacation, where the kids missed a full week of practice. So they won't be in top form this weekend, which could have a significantly negative impact on their performance....keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't, but expecting it will... |
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07-09-2012, 02:16 PM
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#116 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Tara Classic Results
------------------------------------------------------------ Brett This was another good meet for Brett. While he didn't place well in mos to the events, he did have a number of improvements... 200 Free Brett came into this race with a seed time of 3:17.41. He looked pretty good during this race, with solid form throughout. He'll need to learn to push himself a little harder as, to me, it appeared he was holding back a bit to make sure he didn't overexert himself early. He finished with a good improvment though...3:13.87 - so a drop in time of around 3.5 seconds. PB 100 Breast Next came the 100 Breast, and Brett started out strong, he was in an outside lane and he was keeping up with the swimmers to his inside, but about midway through the opening lap he momentarily stopped, thinking their might have been a false start. He was distracted by one of the coaches whistling (and as he was on the side of the pool where the coaches were - the whistling was pretty loud). He restarted and swam an exact match of his personal best 1:44.22 - he clearly would have beaten this if he didn't hesitate in the race...PB (tie) 100 Back Brett was feeling pretty good by the time this one rolled around...he was determined to do better in back and so he went out the first 50 much harder than he normally does...and he made the turn at a pretty good split, but unfortunately, this new form of his didn't stand up to the fatigue on the back half and he posted a slower time by about 2 seconds...1:47.24 - but there were some good signs in the early part of this race. 100 Free to end the first day Brett had the 100 Free...It's been a while since Brett swam this event, he hasn't done it at all this year, and last year his best time was around a 1:39.xx (I believe). He looked real strong in this one, actually racing the kids to both sides of him. He finished with a personal best time of 1:29.17 - Even given a year off...the 10 seconds is a huge improvement and earlier this year he would not have been close to this time. PB 200 IM Brett started the second day with his dreaded 200 IM. It ended up being a really cool race. He started in Fly and was behind early on the dive. The boy next to him was easily twice his size (height and weight), but Brett caught and passed him before the leg was over. In the back, the big kid swam by him and left him far beind, but in the breast Brett caught him again and passed him before he got to the end of the 3rd 50. The big kids free was much stronger than Brett's and he fell a good ways back before the finish, but it was fun to see him swim someone down and push himself. He gets credit for a personal best with a time of 3:32.07 (I'm not sure if this is slightly better or slightly worse than the DQ time from his last meet, but it's a good effort regardless) - PB 50 Breast Brett had a good swim here. He finished a bit short armed and it cost him a personal best. His seed time was 47.72 he swam a 47.75... 50 Back Brett was listed with a no time in the 50 back according to the event, but he did swim the 50 back in time trials for SA, and his best time was around a 51.50. In this race he took it out hard again, like he did in the 100 and it paid off. Official time was 47.45, a huge improvement...PB 50 Free Brett's 50 free officially from his first race with Gold had to be dropped because of a timer issue. I know it was in the upper 39s but I'm not sure the exact time. So he entered here with his seed time from the long course time trials at the beginning of the Summer...41.93. He swam a 38.68...an huge improvement from May and a good improvement from even the first Gold meet. PB ---------------------------------------------------------------- Bailey 200 Free Started with the 200 free and improved over last time, but her swim still seemed labored to me...she is still missing the relaxed gliding form that works so well in the longer freestyles, and with her naturally strong kick this shouldn't be the issue. I think her body posture is wrong and I'm a little upset that SA hasn't done more to address the issue of why her Freesytle is so much slower than many of her teammates when she is by far the fastest on kick sets. Regardless...it was a 1.5 second improvement 3:12.95 - PB 100 Breast Bailey had no time in this long course and she like Brett stopped in the middle of the pool because she thought there was a false start. In her defense, because she came in with a no time she was swimming in the slower heat, and when she stopped to look around she was already over 2 body lengths ahead of the entire field...I'm sure she was wondering where everybody was. Had she not stopped she would have probably finished in the top 5. As it was, she finished 7th with a good time of 1:50.88 - PB 100 Back Bailey improved on this stroke, but she wasn't terribly happy with her swim. She wanted to go faster. Official time was 1:40.71 about a 1.25 second improvement...PB NOTE: at the end of the first day, Bailey was very upset. She is feeling that she isn't measuring up to her friends Maddie, Haley, Lexi and others. She is stating she is the worst of the bunch...While this isn't true - her back and free are slower and in some cases considerably slower. I think once she figured out what his holder her back from a speed persepctive she'll catch right back up...but right now it is severly impacting her confidence. 50 Breast Day 2 started with the 50 breast, and Bailey improved by just over a second 50.42...PB 50 Back Bailey swam the 50 back and went through spirts of real fast swimming followed by slow swimming with the head up to make sure where she was. But in the end, she put her head back and charged into the wall to post a 45.85, which is a personal best and the state cut (finally)...PB 50 Free In the 50 free, I suggested bailey drop her hips a bit to get a better leverage point for her kick, she didn't, but she did try to increase her reach on both arms. And it helped. She posted a personal bset 38.78, but she missed the state cut by less than .5 seconds - PB -------------------------------------------------------------------- Bear 200 Free Bear swam hard in this race, and actually probably a little too hard early, as he faded a bit on the 3rd 50, but he only added 2.7 seconds to his time, and given we were out of the pool for several days it isn't overly surprising his time suffered in this event. 2:59.38 50 fly This was an exciting race. There was 1 kid that jumped out to a big lead, but then the rest of the pool was battling for second most of the rest of the race. Bear was slighly trailing coming into the final 10 meters, but he put his head down, charged into the wall and outtouched th rest of the field to finish 2nd and post a personal best time of 42.69 (an improvement of 2.4 seconds) - PB 100 Breast Bear swam a great 100 breast, in fact, he won his heat going away and his time held up to be 3rd overall. He posted a 1:57.27 and earned a state cut - PB 50 Breast Bear started out this race real well. He was actually leading coming into the mid-point, but then his form started to suffer and he ended up 9th...and he missed a personal best by .4 seconds. Official time 54:67 50 Back Awesome start for Bear, he was the last to surface, which sometimes is a problem because he isn't going fast enough underwater and he finds himself way back when he does come up, but this time he was even with the rest of the leaders and he had good momentum out of the hole, which he carried to an early lead. He ended up losing ground but charged to the wall for a 4th place finish a personal best time of 44.30 and a state cut - PB 50 Free This was another race like the fly, only this time no one pulled away from the field. Bear was in the middle of the pack and he worked hard, coming in 4th again and posting a time of 37.57 wich is a .4 second improvement on his best time and another state cut...PB ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Last edited by Breeze : 02-12-2018 at 07:50 AM. |
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07-12-2012, 08:05 AM
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#117 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Long Course State Championship @ Ga Tech - 7/19 - 7/21
We are now signed up for the Long Course State Championships, and thankfully the event is at GaTech, because this year it starts on Thursday and runs through Saturday, rather than the typical Friday through Sunday set up. There is no way that my wife and I could have taken 2 days off to go to Augusta (where the state meet has been held for the past several years), so being in the Atlanta area is very helpful. However, the meet will start each day with an afternoon session, because of this we are going to be unable to get the twins to all of their events. In fact, sadly, it is the 50 Back (that Bailey has been so close to for so long) that they will be unable to swim. Basically here is how it works out... Thursday Afternoon - 10U Session 50 Free - Bear 100 Breast - Bailey and Bear 50 Fly - Bailey and Bear Friday Afternoon - the only event we qualify for on this day is the 50 back so we changed the day my wife doesn't work (she usually only works Mon-Thu) to Thursday so she can take them to that days competition since we have 5 events to swim, and she'll work on Friday instead, and we'll just have to miss those 2 events. Saturday Afternoon - 10U Session 200 Free - Bear 50 Breast - Bailey 100 Back - Bailey and Bear Saturday Evening - 11/12s Session 200 Breast - Brett I'll update the thread with anything interesting I see once the Psych Sheet comes out... |
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07-19-2012, 11:02 AM
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#118 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Long Course State Championships @ GaTech - Day 1
Bailey and Bear kick off the long coures state championships today. They will be swimming around 2. I'm going to take a late lunch in hopes of seeing some of there events. I don't expect much...in most of the events we are seeded either in the mid - 30s or mid-50s....so personal bests are a good goal... |
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07-19-2012, 03:08 PM
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#119 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Long Course State Championships
I wasn't able to leave the office and see my kids swim... However, I do have some results to pass along... Bear's 50 Free - he finished at 37.82....33 seconds slower than his personal best. He finished 49th, after being seeded 41st coming in... Bailey's 100 Breast - Finished with a Personal Best 1:50.29, an improvement of 3.5 seconds... Bear's 100 Breast - Finished with a Personal Best 1:52.82, an improvement of 4.45 seconds.... Bailey's 50 Fly - she swims a 43.30...a poor swim...a full 1.46 seconds slower than her personal best. This one concerns me with GRPA State coming up next week... Bear's 50 Fly - swims a 44.58...also a poor swim...a full 1.89 seconds slower than his personal best. Also a concern with GRPA State... |
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07-24-2012, 11:24 AM
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#120 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Long Course State Championships
I probably should have logged on here before the races on Saturday to predict the results...but I didn't so I try to frame them in the context of the write ups below... Bear 200 Free I was hoping Bear would be able to maintain his times in the mid 2:50s.xx...but I did have some concerns. When he was swimming well a month or 6 weeks back, he was really working hard on his rowing machine, which had greatly increased his stamina. Unfortunately, he stopped the extra work, shortly after his PB in this event, and my fears that his lack of stamina would be a problem came into play. He swam a very poor 3:01.53 time. He was extremely disappointed. He also said after the race that he was trying to swim the way the coach framed the race....which was to build his effort every 50. This is a complete departure from Bear's normal practice of going out hard, resting on the 3rd 50, and then bringing it home best he can, and he didn't execute the style very well... 100 Back Bear didn't have an official 100 Back Long Course time. He quaified for this event during short course season. So I didn't have a seed time to compare to. If I take his personal best from short course and run it through the swim tie conversion tool, he was supposed to be around a 1:38.xx (typically I find the conversions to be a bit faster than the kids actually swim). Also, due to an error on the part of the coach, Bear was in the fast heat for the back. The coach entered Bear's short course time without conversion into the meet registry and thus Bear was swimming against the best the state had to offer, and he wouldn't be able to keep up. As it turned out Bear did pretty well. He didn't get embarrassed in the event and his PB (of course it is a PB he had never swum the race before...) time was officially 1:36.73...also better than the conversion time (which I was proud of) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bailey 50 Breast This was a real ugly race. Not sure what Bailey was doing but she clearly wasn't concentrating on her swim. At the begining she was busy looking around...and she actually looked like she was swimming a warm up lap...then she dropped into race mode and closed on the field...looking real strong in the process...but at the wall she started overworking the stroke and she lost the nice glide part, which cost her some time. Officially she swam a 52.46...a full 2 seconds slower than her PB 100 Back Like Bear, Bailey was entered into this event with her Short Course time, and was in the fastest heat. I was concerned she'd get intimidated and shut down during the race...especially since her best long course time coming in 1:41.xx was a good 20 seconds slower than the best swimmers in the state. However, she looked good, worked hard and swam a solid 1:35.03. A huge improvement from just a couple weeks ago and a PB --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brett 200 Breast Brett has another anxiety attack...in fact, this one was before we ever left the house. Not sure why he's all of a sudden become so high strung about swimming, but it was painful trying to get him out the door. But we got him to Tech, and he went through warm ups. Once he started on our trip down to the pool, he settled in. Before the race he talked to his coach, who told him the goal was to improve by 3 seconds to he'd get his 12 year old state cut in the event. The race started and Brett did a great job keeping up with the kids around him. At the first turn he was tied with both swimmers to his inside...coming off the wall he was over a body length behind (gotta get a stronger pull-out). He closed on the two swimmers in the middle of the pool, only to again lose ground on the turn. This continued for most of the race, but Brett swam a strong...His 100 split was 1:45.29 (which by the way - would have been a personal best for the 100 Breast). This was such a strong effort in the beginning of the race, I was afraid he was going to fade bad, but I had faith because he has such a technically sound stroke that he'd be able to ride the glide portion a bit more on the back half to keep from fading too badly. In the back half he posted a 1:52.21...and overall he swam a 3:37.50 for a Personal Best, an improvement of 5.5 seconds and his 12 year old state cut... I was super proud of this effort (and so was he, which is the most important thing)... |
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07-25-2012, 08:52 AM
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#121 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer League - State Championships
There has been a change in the schedule for the Summer League Championships this Friday. Due to a couple of injuries Bailey will now be swimming in the C Free Relay. They will be hard pressed to make the finals...the team comes in with the 4 individual race times combined to equal 63.5...to make the finals they'll probably need to get below 60 seconds. With the rolling relay starts it is possible, in fact, last year 2 of the relay teams improved by over 3 seconds... As for individual races...it looks like Bailey and Bear will both finish outside of the top 8 in the state. They could get close with a great swim, but my guess is best they can hope for in an alternate (9th or 10th place)... Last edited by Breeze : 07-25-2012 at 08:53 AM. |
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07-25-2012, 11:04 AM
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#122 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Next Season Plans...
We'll it is time to sign up for next year (actually it is past time) and we have some very difficult decisions to make... Brett is the easy one. He has improved so much and his confidence is so much higher now that he is part of Chattahoochee Gold that there is no question he'll be returning there. He'll be on the Region team (which is like a promotion for him from SA). His practices will be 1.5 hours long accept on Saturday when they are 2 hours. He'll be expected to go to practice 5 days a week...(we'll see how well that works out). Brett has been very excited about the team and has been urging Bear to switch over and swim with him. Notice, he hasn't talked to Bailey about joining...he'd rather Bailey stay away, as the two of them have a very competitive relationship... ---------------------------------------------- Bear is the frustrating one...We received news from SA that they'd like to move Bear up a level to AAG (Advanced Age Group), which is very rare for any 10 year old, but extremely rare for a 10 year old boy. Part of the impetus for this promotion in my opinion is SAs move to get younger and open some lower level spots with the bump in enrollment they will see with it being an Olympic year. That isn't to say he can't do the practice, he can, but I'm not sure a 10 year old should be doing it. We would prefer that he move to Chattahoochee Gold for several reasons. One it is potentially more convenient for us. Two it is about $40 cheaper per month. Three the coaching of fundamentals and technique is much better (which Bear could benefit from...as effort and conditioning isn't his problem). However, Bear isn't much for change, so he's not really interested. We are still trying to determine where he'll end up... -------------------------------------------- Bailey is the difficult one. Bailey has also been told that she'll be moving up to AAG (see above comments about age and reasons for promotion). This is more problematic for Bailey because she also plays USTA tournament level tennis, and AAG will require more time. Ideally, the coach would like for the twins to be at practice 5 of the 6 days that it is offered, but said 9 days in a two week cycle would be ok for now. That still limits the days where Bailey can practice tennis. Moreover, we really can't afford to pay the higher fees for both boys and Bailey, plus pay for Bailey's tennis lessons. Ideally, we'd keep her back for another year so as not to force her to make a swimming vs. tennis decision as a 10 year old (it's really a shame that kid sports have become so specialized that in order to compete you have to dedicate yourself to a sport so early). However, all of her friends were promoted to AAG as well and she'd be left behind if we do that (and if we move her to another SA facility in the area, she wouldn't be with her close friends that way either). We are still looking for a solution here...but at best we'll be able to hold off the tennis vs. swimming decision for 1 year, then she'll have to choose (and if you are wondering...in my opinion she has a much higher upside in tennis). We need to get the twins signed up somewhere tonight (or risk losing out on a spot)...I'll update the thread once we've decided what we are going to do... |
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07-25-2012, 06:57 PM
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#123 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Troy, NY
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You should add tennis to the dynasty! Also, can you provide more background on how all these meets work? -- I get confused about the various state meets, how you qualify, who is qualified for which meet, and why being in the top 8 is important, etc.
__________________
Quis custodiets ipsos custodes? |
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07-26-2012, 08:38 AM
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#124 | |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Quote:
RPI...thanks for checking in. I had thought about adding in Bailey's tennins, and in fact, I believe I mention it a few times in as much as it impacts her practice schedule for swimming. I'll start adding in that info, when she gets back on the court. Her coach suffered a stroke at the beginning of the Summer, and with that being our busy swim season, and with us not terribly fond of our other options for coaching, we allowed her a break. She's been idle for over 2 months...so she'll be real rusty when she returns. Currently she is ranked 34th in the state...and she'd be higher if we had a doubles partner for her to play with (doubles gives kids extra ranking points...and Bailey doesn't have a set partner, because she doesn't play out of a tennis center). Now let's see if I can adequately explain the different state meets, etc... Basically the swimming I describe here is divided into two separate organizations or leagues. 1. USA Swimming 2. GRPA Swimming USA Swimming (yes the same group that runs the USA Olympic Swim Team), is the bigger of two organizations by far and it is for the year round swimmers, thus all of SwimAtlanta, Chattahoochee Gold, Dynamo and more. There are a number of meets during each of the seasons (Long Course & Short Course) that are hosted around the country, and results from the meets are maintained in the USA Swimming Database. Each state has their own time standards, and if a person swims faster than the standard they are eligible to swim at the State Meet. In fact, the time standards are in place for Sectional, Regional, and National meets, and the Olympic Trials Cut is also part of this same process. So a kid that swims an exceptional race and gets an Olympic Cut time (even in the same events my kids are in), they are then "invited" to compete at the Olympic Trials. Bringing it back to my kids level, the Long Course State Championships that were held last weekend, were the results of the kids efforts during the season. The events they swam were the ones that they qualfied for during the season (except we weren't able to do the 50 back because we couldn't get them to the meet). Also the cut times to swim at state change as the child ages up. The first level is 10U, then the cut changes every year. That is why it was such a big deal that Brett got his 12 year old cut in the 200 Breast during the state meet. Next year the twins for short course will be still under 10, so they will have a majority of their cuts before the season even starts, and we'll be pushing for Sectional Cuts, while keeping an eye on 11 year old cuts for Long Course (they age up prior to the start of the long course season). The second organization is GRPA (Georgia Recreation and Parks Association). This is the state meet taking place over the weekend (7/27 - 7/28). Here the kids swim on a neighborhood team each week leading up the county championships (which were held about a month ago). If a swimmer places in the top 3 finishers in their event, they represent the county at the state meet. Which is why Bailey and Bear are going. Bear finished 3rd in fly, Bailey finished 2nd. They also get put on relays for Medley and Free (free relays are the top 12 finishers)...The interesting thing here is - even though this is just a summer league, the county team is better than the year round teams at any singular year round facility. This is because there are so many year round swimmers at so many different facilities and when they race off you get the best of the best. In the county I live in alone, there are 7 year round organizations that can feed swimmers to the county team, so it is a big deal to make the team. So basically if you think about this in the context of other sports it's a bit like having a child that plays on a travelling team but also plays in the rec league during the week. Then ends up on the rec. league all-star team that goes to the state tournament. Hope that makes since...let me know if it doesn't and feel free to ask questions, I'm more than happy to answer them... Last edited by Breeze : 07-26-2012 at 08:45 AM. |
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07-26-2012, 07:04 PM
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#125 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Troy, NY
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Perfect, thanks.
__________________
Quis custodiets ipsos custodes? |
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07-31-2012, 10:23 AM
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#126 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer League - GRPA State Championships
HISTORY Before I explained what happened in this meet I figured I'd provide a bit of perspective by writing out the medals we've won in the past here. I'm pretty sure all this information is writen in the thread earlier, but it gives you some insight into why this is a big event for us... ----------------------------------------------- 2008 – Boys 7/8 Medley Relay, A Team – Brett (Breast) – 8th Place Brett didn’t even know how to dive and was scared to death to go off of the blocks during this meet, but his team still managed to make the finals. They swam the prelims in 1:23.96, and improved in the finals to 1:22.76, 2009 – Boys 7/8 Medley Relay, A Team – Brett (Breast) – 5th Place Brett was able to dive (though not well) this time around, and his team was vastly improved over 2008, finishing 4th in prelims with a time of 1:16.59, and 5th in the finals with a time of 1:17.72. 2009 – Boys 7/8 Free Relay , B Team – Brett – 6th Place When Brett was younger he was a decent freestyler…and he just missed getting on the A relay here, but they finished 5th in state, so it really didn’t make much of a difference. Brett’s team snuck into finals in the 8 spot (1:10.85), got 6th overall with a time of 1:10.19. 2010 – Girls 7/8 Medley Relay, B Team – Bailey (Breast) – 6th Place Bailey Medley team consisted of 2 teammates from the CRC Summer Team and Maddie (at this point Bailey and Maddie didn’t know each other). The group qualified for finals, finishing 7thwith a 1:20.53, in finals they finished 6th with a 1:22.88 (note: the Forsyth County A Team was DQed in the finals, along with the Dekalb County A Team). 2010 - Boys 9/10 Medley Relay , A Team – Brett (Breast) – 4th Place Qualified for the finals in 6th place with a time of 1:07.15. Finished 4th with a time of 1:07.20. 2010 – Boys 7/8 Individual Medley – Bear – 8th Place This was a real emotional race for us. Bear qualified for the finals, our family’s first ever individual finals, and he had to improve by 6 seconds over his personal best to get into that 8th spot (only beat the 9th place swimmer by .2 seconds). He then went on to finish 8th in the event, and was very upset. We have a picture of him sitting apart from the other swimmers, almost crying because he felt he had finished last (took a lot of convincing to tell him he was far from last…just didn’t get the whole prelim/finals set up at this point in his life), this was an unbelievable effort, and I was extremely proud of him, and thankful, given both of his relay teams were DQed this year or he would have had 2 more medals at this meet. 2010 – Girls 7/8 Free Relay , A Team – Bailey – 2nd Place Bailey’s relay was extremely strong…they finished 3rd in qualifying with a 1:08.55, but swam a 1:06.21 in the finals to get 2nd place and a silver medal. This was our first appearance on the podium…and it was exciting and memorable. 2011 – Boys 9.10 Medley Relay, B Team – Brett (Breast) – 4th Place Brett was stuck on the B relay because he was out touched at County by .04 seconds, had he made the A team he would have earned a Bronze medal in this race. His relay was strong though and they qualified for finals in 4th place with a time of 1:06.91, the finished 4th overall with a time of 1:07.02… Last edited by Breeze : 07-31-2012 at 10:24 AM. |
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07-31-2012, 10:45 AM
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#127 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship
Every year this event is exhausting…physically, with the overwhelming heat, mentally, trying to coordinate all the items that need to be accomplished before and during the event, and emotionally with the highs and lows of a tough competition…and this year was no different. We arrived in Carrollton, Georgia Thursday night around 5, checked into the hotel, and almost immediately headed out for dinner reservations with 30+ other people in swim families. I was concerned the meal was going to turn into a nightmare of waiting and hyperactive kids, but it actually worked out well. The kids ate well, and carbed up for the next day, which came really early… We got up at 5:45, dressed, grabbed the swim bags and went down to eat breakfast before heading to the pool. It was a little difficult to get Bailey to eat (she has problems eating first thing in the morning), but she finally choked down enough to sustain her. We headed out to the ball field where we would set up our chairs and sit under a big tent for the rest of the day. Warm-ups started at 7…the meet started at 9… Now, unlike most of the events that I write about here…the GRPA state meet is run more like a major event, in that the swimmers don’t do timed finals, they qualify for finals through a preliminary swim. Similar to what you are currently watching in the Olympics. In order to make the finals at GRPA the swimmer has to have one of the top 8 times in the preliminaries (RPI-Fan…I believe I failed to explain this in my answer to your questions above…), and if a swimmer can get a top 8 time, assuming they aren’t DQed in the finals, they will receive a medal regardless of what place they end up in…with the overall winners getting the typical Gold, Silver, Bronze awards. ------------------------------------------------------- PREDICTIONS While most of our success in this meet has been team driven, this is still one of the few meets where my kids actually have a chance to earn a medal, and thus it makes this meet special. I had intended to give you guys some insight into how I felt we would perform here…but apparently I failed to do the post with how our seed times match up with past years results. Here is what I meant to say about our chances coming in…Unfortunately, this meet doesn't release Psych Sheets or Heat Sheet ahead of time, so I had no idea what to expect when we got there...here were my pre-event predictions... 9/10 Girls Medley Relay, A Team – Bailey (Fly) – Prediction 3rd Bailey's Medley team was very strong coming in. In fact, it is the 3rd fastest combined time the county has sent to the state meet since 2007, only falling behind a team that had 2 multiple event state champions competing on it (they were together for 2 years). My initial reaction was they would be hard to beat at state, until I found results from other county meets and noticed quite a few swimmers as fast or faster than our group. I did feel the team would have a shot to win it all, but ultimately I felt 3rd was going to be the spot. 9/10 Boys Medley Relay, B Team – Bear (Fly ) – Prediction – not in the finals Bear’s B relay was solid, but not spectacular and I felt they’d have a chance to get to the finals, but I expected they’d be an alternate in the 10th or 11th spot… 9/10 Girls Fly – Bailey – Prediction – not in the finals Based on Bailey’s time I felt she’d be close to getting into the finals…her 16.22 was recorded without the benefit of diving off of blocks, which would make her faster…but she’d need to get sub 16 to really have a change to get into finals, and I felt it would be close. I felt an alternate spot of 9th or 10th was likely. 9/10 Boys Fly – Bear – Prediction – not in the finals Bear was going to be hard pressed to make finals. If he swam around his personal best of 16.2 he might slip in, but most likely he’d be mid 16s and finish 12th or so… 9/10 Girls Free Relay – Bailey – Prediction – Not in finals Bailey’s relay team with combined times averaged out to around 64 seconds, to make the finals she’d need to be sub 60…relay starts allow for some improvement, typically around 2 seconds, but to drop 4 and still beat all the other teams isn’t very likely… 9/10 Boys Free Relay – Bear – Prediction – Not in finals Bear swam poorly at county because of a slip on the dive. Another boy based on his seed time at county swam poorly as well. If both swim close to personal bests in this meet, they could beat the B team and make the finals…of course they probably won’t both swim well, and there is no guarantee the B team will even make the finals… Last edited by Breeze : 07-31-2012 at 11:09 AM. |
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07-31-2012, 11:44 AM
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#128 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship
After arriving at the event, and purchasing the heat sheet we determined the follow… 9/10 – Girls Medley Relay, A Team – Bailey (Fly) – Seeded 3rd Right in line with my prediction coming in, but I still felt they had a shot to win it all...and the seed times showed they weren't far off the top 2 teams... 9/10 – Boys Medley Relay, B Team – Bear (Fly) – seeded 11th Bear’s group was seeded 11th and thus would require a strong swim to make it into the final 8, but not undoable… 9/10 – Girls Fly – Bailey – Seeded 7th Once I saw this, my expectations changed. With her seeded 7th, and getting to dive off of blocks, I felt pretty sure she’d have a shot at making finals. 9/10 – Boys Fly – Bear – Seeded 14th Even with his personal best time, Bear would have been seeded 11th, so this was going to be a tough field for him to make top 8 9/10 – Girls Free Relay – Bailey – seeded 14th Need strong swims from all 4 to make finals, not likely 9/10 – Boys Free Relay – Bear – seeded 16th See above Note: seed info is from memory and I might be off a bit... Last edited by Breeze : 07-31-2012 at 12:31 PM. |
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07-31-2012, 02:19 PM
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#129 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship
So the meet started out for us with the event that has the best shot of competing for the state championship – Bailey’s medley relay. The team was the fastest seeded team in the second heat…and the race was over early. Maddie (swimming back), opened a huge lead on the opening leg. The Breast swimmer opened it up a bit, then Bailey swam a strong 15.2 split in her Fly to open up the lead, and the freestyler touched the wall a good half pool ahead of everyone else. The time was 1:01:55… At the end of the 4th and final heat, the Forsyth County Tide (FCT) A relay posted the fastest time in qualifying, and would be heading into the afternoon finals as the #1 seed. Here is how the event broke down… Code:
Note 1: The FCT – C team finished 9th Note 2: Bailey's friends Lexi, Haley, Lily and Reese were all on FCT - B Last edited by Breeze : 07-31-2012 at 02:20 PM. |
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07-31-2012, 03:30 PM
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#130 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship
Bear’s medley relay was our second race of the day, and we were really hoping Bear could make the finals here, especially knowing Bailey might be in a position to get a gold medal. We really didn’t want him to go home empty handed. With the relay coming in with the 11th fastest seed time, they were going to have to beat someone to make it in. Things started out bad for Bear. Two teams in the opening heat swam strong, posting times that I didn’t think Bear’s team could match…thus 2 teams that were within striking distance for the relay were now looking safe into the finals, reducing the number of targets that Bear’s team could beat. Bear’s group was in the 2nd heat, and they were the 3rd fastest team in the heat. The race started, and the backstroker swam a decent lap, getting to the wall in the middle of the pack. The Breaststroker was good as well, getting to the wall a distant 3rd…Bear dove in and closed the ground on, and then passed the team in second place, giving his freestylers a lead for 2nd…which he held on to (1:07.62) This was a big swim, because by finishing 2nd, they had beaten a team that seeded above them coming into the event. The 3rd heat was fast with several teams bettering Bear’s time…in fact, Bear’s team was seeded 7th overall going into the last heat. This means if the 2nd place finisher in the fastest heat beat their time Bear would be an alternate. The race started off fast, but other than the top seed the rest of the teams faded in the back half and Bear’s team held on to the 8th seed…by .3 seconds Here is how the event broke down… Code:
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08-01-2012, 11:26 AM
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#131 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship
The 3rd race of our afternoon was Bailey’s 25 Yard Fly. She came in seeded 7th, and after her strong leg in the Medley relay I felt pretty confident she’d qualify for the finals. The race started and Bailey got a poor start…she was last off the blocks and my confidence immediately dropped a bit. In a 25 yard race a poor start can be a major impact…but Bailey swam strong blew by most of the field. Finished 2nd in her heat and posted a strong 15.69 time. After all the heats were run, Bailey ended up in 7th place and swimming in the finals. ------------------------------------- As soon as Bailey was finished, it was Bear’s turn to go. He was going to have a tougher time making the individual finals, and even after his strong swim in the Medley I didn’t think he’d make it. At the start of his race the official blew it…For some reason the starter had the swimmers take their mark, but then held them a bit longer than normal and half the field started leaning forward….which should have resulted in a false start, but the starter fired the gun instead…thus allowing half the swimmers a rolling start. An audible gasp went up from the stands when the swimmers weren’t called back to the start…and many coaches protested the heat. As far as Bear is concerned…it hurt him because he wasn’t one of the ones that rolled through the start - and he typically is one of the best starters in a heat, but he wasn’t going to make the finals anyway. He swam a pretty good 16.86 and finished 15th…To make finals, he would have needed to be 15.7 or better and he has never come close to that number. Last edited by Breeze : 08-01-2012 at 11:26 AM. |
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08-01-2012, 12:39 PM
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#132 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship
At the end of the morning session, the free relays took center stage. Bailey was up first with her C relay. Bailey got on this team in the last minute due to an undisclosed injury…in fact, 2 of the 4 swimmers on this relay (including Bailey) were replacements due to injury. The team was going to be hard pressed to make the finals. The team came in with the 3rd fastest time in the heat, and a seed time of 1:03.xx…to make the finals they would need to post a sub 60 second time… The race started and the leadoff leg swam 14.34…and was as fast as the top seeded teams… The second leg was an ok 15:35…this leg the team lost ground on the top two teams… Bailey was third and she swam a very good 14.73…and passed the 2nd seeded team in the heat and pulled up on the first team… The anchor swam a 14.34 as well and they FCT – C team finished 2nd in the heat with a time of 58.85… an over 4 second drop from the seed time and sub – 60, which should get them in… The final heat ran, and only the top 2 seeds beat Bailey’s team…and they not only qualified for the finals but they ended up with the 5th fastest time in prelims… Here is how it broke down… Code:
Note 1: Haley and Maddie are on the FCT - A team Note 2: Lexi and Lily are on the FCT - B team Note 3: the times might not add up perfectly...the spits were my hand times...not official... Last edited by Breeze : 08-01-2012 at 12:50 PM. |
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08-01-2012, 01:12 PM
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#133 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship
Bailey’s free relay making it to the finals gave me a bit of hope for Bear’s chances…even if he had a tougher road. Bailey’s C relay was seeded 5th going into finals, maybe Bear’s could get 8th…like the girls the boys needed to be sub 60 to have a shot at finals and Bear’s team came in with a seed time of 1:03.68 Bear’s team was in the last heat…and it appeared to me from quick figuring it would take even better than 59.5 to make it in… The heat started and it was pretty obvious early on they weren’t going to make it in… The leadoff leg swam around a 15.78 Followed by a second leg of 15.9, at this point the team is sitting in the back half of the heat and well over 60 second range… Bear went 3rd and swam a strong 15.05, but he was still over the 60 second split… The anchor swam 15.10… Total time 1:01.83…and the team finished 5th in the heat…no way they were in… Officially they finished 14th…and interestingly the FCT – B team swam exactly 60 seconds and they finished 12th. It took a 58.51 or better to make finals... This was an extremely strong event this year…for perspective...Bailey's C relay that finished 5th in the girls event, wouldn't have made finals in the boys event either... Last edited by Breeze : 08-01-2012 at 01:17 PM. |
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08-02-2012, 08:31 AM
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#134 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer League - GRPA State Championship - FINALS
Girls 9/10 Medley Relay Final The link above is the race...however a couple of items to note... First, this was filmed by one of the parents of the FCT-B team, so they are often the lane in the middle of the screen, and it is hard to see the finish. Second, here is how you can locate Bailey's team...when the video starts they are in lane 4...with lane 1 the furthest from the camera. The backstroker in Bailey's group (Maddie) is wearing a bright red swim cap. After her, all the other girls on the team wear a white cap with the American Flag on it. (Note, FCT-B is in lane 2...just in case you were wondering). I'll leave this post up for a while so you can watch the video and then I'll post my comments in the next thread below... |
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08-02-2012, 12:17 PM
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#135 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Wow...no comments...
I expected someone to say "we'll your daughter is the reason they lost..." After lunch I'll fill in info on the race... Last edited by Breeze : 08-02-2012 at 12:17 PM. |
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08-02-2012, 03:01 PM
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#136 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League - GRPA State Meet - Finals
Girls 9/10 Medley Relay - Bailey (Fly) If you've seen the video you may not be able to tell what happens and you may not be able to read the scoreboard at the end of the race...but ultimately Bailey's team finished 2nd. They lost to the Cobb - A team by .17 seconds... There is one thing that is important to note here before I get into explanation. The girl that swims the fly leg in for the Cobb team (the one that blew by Bailey in the video), Addie, is an exceptional swimmer. She was within .5 seconds of breaking the state record. Addie and Maddie (the backstroker for Bailey's team) were the two best swimmers at this meet, and we knew going into this race that Bailey would not be able to beat Addie. We were hoping she'd be handed a big enough lead to hold her off, or stay close enough for the freestyer to catch Cobb's anchor. As it turns out, Maddie started off the race in the backstroke and she got the team the lead. But being honest, I have to say as soon as the backstroke leg was over, I turned to my wife and said, "That's not a big enough lead"... The breaststroker opened up the lead slightly so Bailey was the first one in on the fly leg. However, before she even takes 3 strokes, Addie has already caught her. Bailey swims a great leg. She only breathes 2x and her split is around a 15.2. Unfortunately, Addie's split is a 12.79... When the freestyler hit the water she was about 1.4 seconds back, and she lost by .17...it was an awesome swim and had the pool been 26 yard she'd have gotten the win... Unfortunately, it looked as if Bailey was the reason the team lost, and in fact, she took it quite hard...but I told her it wasn't her fault and when I looked at the splits I was right... In the prelims Baileys team was faster than it was in the finals. In fact, had they matched their prelim time they would have won the race. So I looked at the official splits in the race, which are done in pairs (Back/Breast split and Fly/Free split). In the prelims it broke out this way... Back/Breast - 33.10 Fly / Free - 28.45 In the finals these were the splits Back/Breast - 33.62 Fly / Free - 28.67 So Bailey and the freestyler were .2 slower but the back and breast stroker were over a half a second slower...that tells me the biggest impact was on the front end of the race. Also when I look at the video and get the fly splits for all the swimmers I can see start I get the following... Lane 1 - 16.02 Lane 2 - 15.75 (this is Bailey's friend Lexi) Lane 3 - 15.08 Bailey - 15.20 Addie - 12.79 Lane 6 - 16.59 Here were the final results with the splits included... Code:
Last edited by Breeze : 08-03-2012 at 12:08 PM. |
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08-03-2012, 09:13 AM
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#137 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship - Finals
Bear’s Medley Relay race immediately followed Bailey’s…Bear’s team came in seeded 8th. They were in striking distance of 7th, but that would probably be the best they could hope for., especially given the fact the 6th seeded team was Forsyth County’s A team. While Bailey’s relay was in the staging area preparing to go on deck, Bear decided to go to the bathroom (as he would be in the staging area next…and once in there, he wouldn’t have a chance to go). Unfortunately, while he was gone…someone slammed his right hand in the heavy oak door. He came out of the gym crying, his hands had 2 huge purple indentions on them right above the knuckles on the first and second fingers, and the underside of the finger was already turning purple. We got him some ice, but this was literally just 10 minutes before he was supposed to race. He was in serious pain, and it looked like he wasn’t going to be able to swim...but I explained to him that if he didn’t swim…the first alternate team would move into his teams spot and he wouldn’t get a medal. So Bear swam his fly leg…it was obvious he was in pain, because his right arm was slightly slower than his left through the stroke (I was so afraid they were going to DQ him for asynchronous arms). They finished last, and a full 3 seconds off their preliminary time…amazingly Bear’s back half split with the freestyler was only 1.3 seconds slower (I expected Bear’s split alone would have been closer to 2.5 seconds off). We had the paramedics at the event look at his finger after his race, and they suggested if the swelling didn’t go down in a couple of days to have it looked at. Well, the swelling didn’t go down so we took him to Children’s Health Care to get it X-rayed and evaluated, and it turns out he broke the second knuckle (the big one) on his right index finger. The ER Doctor refused to treat the injury because it was a knuckle, on his dominate hand, and he is still young and growing. He referred us to a hand specialist. The hand specialist casted the entire hand, several inches past the end of his middle finger and told us the cast will stay on for 3 to 4 weeks, but we have to go back and have it evaluated in 10 days… Poor kid won’t be able to swim at the swim banquet and awards ceremony in a few weeks and he won’t be able to write when school starts on Thursday… But he swam with a broken hand to make sure he and his 3 teammates got the medal they earned and I’m extremely proud of him… Last edited by Breeze : 08-03-2012 at 09:13 AM. |
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08-03-2012, 12:41 PM
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#138 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship – FINALS
The next race was Bailey’s 25 fly final. She got a better start this time, but fatigue was a bit of a factor at this point. She looked good and strong, but she was only a hair faster…she posted a 15.68. That’s .01 faster than her preliminary time, and she came in seeded 7th and finished 7th… ---------------------- Finally, we end the meet with Bailey’s 100 Free Relay. The leadoff leg swims well, but not as fast as she did in preliminaries…her split was around a 14.7 The second leg was way off, and any chance Bailey’s team had hoped for to challenge for a higher placed finish was gone. The second legs split was 15.9+ Bailey sway a pretty good 14.8+ And the anchor was in the 14.6 range. All in all the team swam basically where I expected they would in qualifying. ..1:00.37 This placed them 7th overall… |
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08-08-2012, 09:34 AM
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#139 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Offseason Notes
Not much to report right now as the kids are still enjoying their time out of the pool. Swimming will start up for Brett and Bear on Monday (8/13) (though Bear will be limited...he'll probably just do kick sets the whole time). Bailey will start a week from Monday (8/20). We haven't discussed any goals at this point but I'll fill you on on them and the odds that we achieve them later. Right now the biggest thing we are doing is trying to put weight on Brett. When he went for his checkup recently he weighed in at 66.5 lbs. The doctor told him at that time that if he didn't put on weight we'd have to readdress his lifestyle (read as...change your meds to a non-stimulant or pull you out of the pools so you don't burn so many calories or both). This has my wife and I very concerned, as his meds are working very well for him and swimming is his only sport. We've really been pushing him to eat more (man is that frustrating), and we've provided him with a bunch of junk to eat (Doctor's orders, believe it or not)...but we are still fluctuating quite a bit. In fact, it is suprising how much his weight varies. We are basically doing the following to try and gain weight... Breakfast (try to get 800 Calories) Snack - (300 Calories) Lunch (800 calories) Snack (300 Calories) Dinner (800 Calories) Bedtime snack (600 calories) Plus we try to get him do drink juice throughout the day to add a few hundred more calories. Honestly, he isn't great about any of this...and he often comes in under the target numbers. Which may not seem like that big of deal...but when he comes in under on all of the meals and doesn't drink (which he almost never does), he ends up around 2200 to 2500 calories, which isn't going to put weight on. We have gotten him up to 70 lbs., (actually over 70...the highest we've recorded is 71.8), and I've challenged him to keep it above 70. We'll see. He was dead on 70 last night, so he'll really have to eat to keep above that number. We'll see what happens. Hoping to get him to 75 lbs by the end of the year... |
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08-08-2012, 09:52 AM
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#140 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Massachusetts
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Quote:
He likes swimming right? Maybe point out how much some of the Olympic swimmers eat (Michael Phelps' whole joking thing about 12,000 calories or whatever) to try to get him to like...live up to what his "idols" are doing in that regard?
__________________
Get bent whoever hacked my pw and changed my signature. |
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08-10-2012, 07:54 AM
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#141 | |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Quote:
Hey DT... Brett is aware of the calories Phelps eats...he read his book that came out after the '08 games that outlined the diet in detail. He also gets Splash Magzine, which does a great job of outlining nutritional needs of swimmers...and he's learned that on average swimmers consume around 8000...but the fact that we struggle to get 3500 into him doesn't seem to register. We have attempted to create that relational mindset of do what your idols do...but he just doesn't... It crazy...one day he'll eat like a champ then the next he fight and slow play eating so he'll run out time. Remember I said he was the most stubborn kid I've ever met. Also remember that he takes stimulants every day, which makes it so he isn't really interested in eating. Anyway...he's currently hovering around 71 lbs. My bet is he'll be around 71.5 when practices start on Monday. I'm just not sure how much of an impact swimming is going to have on the weight. I'm sure we are going to drop below 70 several times and miss some practices before he'll finally buy in to the need to eat more. The kid just has to learn the hard way... Thanks... Last edited by Breeze : 08-10-2012 at 07:55 AM. |
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08-10-2012, 09:14 AM
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#142 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Massachusetts
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Aaah...gotcha. That's tough. I don't have kids, so I can't really say I know how to get them to eat more or anything.
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08-13-2012, 09:54 AM
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#143 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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We had our Summer Team end of the year banquet last night...and the kids had a good time...
Our team hands out quite a few awards during the event. We have... - 2 MVPs per age group - 1 for year round swimmers, and 1 for non-year rounders - Most improved for every age group - 2 coaches choices for the entire team As expected Brett got the year round MVP for the 11/12 boys age group... Surprisingly Bear got the year round MVP for 9/10 boys. This was a surprise because I felt Riley was going to win this award (and actually Riley did out-point Bear during the season), but the team gave Riley the Non-year round MVP. In my opinion this was wrong. Riley was a year round swimmer until Christmas time, so to call him a non-year rounder was a bit of a stretch. Honestly, Riley should have gotten the year round award and some other kid would have earned the non-year round medal, but Bear was happy... Bailey lost out on the year round award to Reese when we expected... |
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08-13-2012, 09:57 AM
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#144 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Chattahoochee Gold - 2012 Short Course Season
The Short Course Season practice starts today for both Brett and Bear. Bear with his cast will probably only do kicking for the next couple of weeks. Brett is very excited to get started (we'll see how long that lasts), and he weighed in a 71 lbs on the nose last night so he's go to go today...and seems to be aware of staying above 70. We'll have to see how much swimming impacts his weight going forward and how quickly he responds to drops... We still haven't laid out firm goals yet...but they are coming. We'll probably discuss them this weekend... Last edited by Breeze : 08-13-2012 at 09:58 AM. |
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08-20-2012, 11:56 AM
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#145 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
Bailey's new short course season starts tonight. She's really excited to get back into the water with her friends... Brett has for the first time this season fallen below 70 lbs. He's stayed above the number for 2 weeks, but was 69.2 last night. We are giving him through the day to add the extra weight (though it isn't likely as he eats best in the morning and evening). It was his birthday this weekend, and he got very distracted messing with his presents and he didn't want to stop to eat (and when he ate he rushed through it to get back to his stuff). Because he's done so well recently, I will hedge a bit on the weight. If he can get close to 70 I'll allow him to swim. Bear gets his finger reexamined tomorrow (8/21) and if it has healed as expected he'll get his cast off and will be able to practice in full... |
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08-28-2012, 09:32 AM
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#146 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
Bear did get his cast off and is back to full steam and he seems to be really warming to the Chattahoochee Gold practices, coaches and teammates. Of course it helps that half the team is boys so he has some friends that he is swimming with. Brett is continuing to keep his weight above 70 lbs...averaging out around 71 now...the only problem we are having with him is getting his homework done. But unlike in the past when he fought us about doing it, now he's willing, just can't focus well by the time he gets home from practice to get the work done efficiently At the end of the season last year, Bailey developed some pain in her shoulder. We figured having a month off at the end of the season would resolve the issue, but apparently it hasn't as she mentioned Friday after practice that her shoulder still hurt. We are now doing some more serious, swimmer specific stretching exercises and we are going to work on strengthening the shoulder through exercise, but if things aren't some better in a few weeks, she will be going to the doctor to have it looked at. We believe the pain is coming from repeatedly swimming her freestyle incorrectly (I think earlier in the thread I talked about Bailey's poor left arm motion on the free). We are also working to clean that up as well... Still need to post goals for the upcoming season. Short Course Time Trials will start in about 3 weeks... Last edited by Breeze : 08-28-2012 at 09:33 AM. |
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08-30-2012, 12:37 PM
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#147 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
Took Bailey to the doctor to get her shoulder looked at, and it turns out we are dealing with a strained rotator cuff and rhomboid muscle. She has no restrictions from a swimming standpoint other than to reduce practice time for a while. She will also be required to do physical therapy 2x a week for 4 weeks... |
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09-07-2012, 11:12 AM
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#148 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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General Update
Bailey is at the physical therapist today...will update any news when I hear the results... |
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09-07-2012, 11:38 AM
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#149 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Short Course Season Goals - Bear
Bear has been the most vocal about his goals for the season, and he is getting very pumped up about his prospects. His goals are:
Bear has some other time specific goals, but they aren't as important as they'll change based on results, and in all honestly he might smash the numbers he currently has set with a good season, so I'm not going to list them here. As for the ones listed...Bear has a great chance to achieve his goals. He basically has almost all of his state cuts already (though the state cut numbers will be changing this season, we are still waiting for the Georgia Swim Association to publish the updated figures). Based on last seasons times Bear is only missing the 50 Breast and the 100 Free. He'll undoubtedly swim some races he's never done before with Gold like the 200 IM, 100 Fly, and maybe the 400 Free...so he'll need to get cuts in those as well, but things look good on this one. Getting a sectional cut will be a bit harder, but if the cut figures stay the same, he's about 3 seconds off on a couple of them. That level of improvement is very attainable. This would be a huge achievement to make the sectionals. Swimming on the Gold Relay will also be within reach. In fact, one of the parent volunteer coaches last night told me (without prompting), that the Gold Relay team for the 9-10 boys will probably all come from our facility. With Bear being one of them in both the medley and free teams. This coach has been with Gold for several years and knows the boys from the other facilities so this was very encouraging. Last edited by Breeze : 09-07-2012 at 11:39 AM. |
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09-07-2012, 11:57 AM
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#150 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
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Short Course Season Goals - Brett
Brett has been a little more reserved in his goals. He's excited about swimming again, and looks forward to practice, but he understands his position and that he has some work to do, so he's not getting carried away with setting goals right now. Basically, all he wants to accomplish is to get the state cut in all 3 breaststroke events and in 1 outside event. As for his prospects. I believe by long course season he will have all 3 state cuts (actually he only needs 2 as he already has the 200 Breast). I'm not sure he'll be able to get the 50 and 100 Breast in short course. He's a couple seconds off in the 50, but several seconds in the 100... I don't believe he has any shot at getting a cut in another stroke (though his off strokes are improving signifcantly...). If he can start swimming similar times to Bailey and Bear in his off strokes it will be a huge improvement and indicate that he might be able to become an all around swimmer... There is 1 other goal for Brett...he has a chance to swim Breast on the Chattahoochee Gold Medley Relay team at state... Last edited by Breeze : 09-07-2012 at 11:59 AM. |
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