 |
| The bulkhead marks the 25 yards on the pool. |
Okay, I already schooled y'all about short course vs. long course, right?
This is short course season, which means the pool length is either 25 meters or 25 yards. If a swimmer is swimming a 100 meter event, then there are 3 turns for each stroke . . . and three chances to screw up. :-) The important thing to realize that in short course that if you don't have good turns you can easily add A LOT of time.
This is actually something my horse friends would understand. You hit a fence too far away, your horse either 1) takes the jump, but it throws their rhythm and might take a rail, 2) adds a short step and 'chips' the jump, which throws the rhythm off and might still take a rail.
The right answer to all of this is pacing. If a rider can count strides--this is learned ability--they can adjust the horse's stride evenly, longer or shorter, on the way to the jump until you hit the perfect 'spot' to take off from, comfortably, evenly and in rhythm.
The same goes for swimming.
You have to hit the wall hard and in stroke to get the most out of your turn.
Out of the kidlet's eight events she qualified for OAG's in the 13-14 age group in three of them.
...erm, my daughter isn't 13 yet. .
And all three of them are in the 200 meter length . . . she missed qualifying for the 200 Breast stroke by 3 seconds. :-( She had never swum the 200 breast before, so this was a VERY good time even if she didn't qualify!
A couple of weeks ago, she moved up to the 'gold' team, which is composed of 13 and older swimmers. She's swimming with older kids and high school swimmers AND she swimming for two hours every day instead of 1 1/2 hours.
She took time off every event. I think it's working for her.
Here's the breakdown of her events:
Event -- time -- +/- time
100 Yard Free -- 1:05.67 -- -3.14
*200 Yard IM -- 2:36.99 -- -6.62
100 Yard Back -- 1:15.87 -- -3.89
200 Yard Breast -- 3:03.64 -- no previous time
----------------------------------------------------
*200 Yard Back -- 2:34.86 -- no previous time*200 Yard Free -- 2:20.89 -- -7.65
100 Yard Fly -- 1:15.15 -- -2.24
100 Yard Breast -- 1:27.93 -- -0.78
* Qualified for Oklahoma Age Group finals March 2014
Again, she had a great meet! She missed qualifying for the 200 Breast by 3 seconds. Most of the 100's she missed by a second or two, with the exception of 100 Breast which is 4 seconds off pace. BUT she knew she messed up. After the meet she confessed that she thought it was a 200 instead of 100, and had been conserving her energy. She did turn it on during the last 25 yards, but it was too late . . . and she still shaved time off her previous time!
That's it for now.
Later, Peeps!
