We are just returning from the Napa meet (11/5-6-7) and we have 17 more practices to get ready for Fort Bragg. Napa was a good meet, well run and this year the weather was not as bad as it could have been. The meet was a good measuring tool to see where the swimmers are in their preparation. Based on the amount of swimming and the intensity of training, combined with the fact that the kids were not rested before the meet, I was hoping most of our swimmers would swim close to their best time (within .5 sec on 50s, 1 sec on 100 sec and 2 sec on 200s). As it turned out, out of the 80 races performed at the meet, we had 32 best times and only 16 races were worst than predicted. Out of the 16, only 7 were out of character an 3 of them were an "off" performance by an otherwise good swimmer for the meet.
I don't usually get into such detailed meet analysis, but with our next meet less then a month away, I really wanted to make sure my gut feeling was correct. In other words the kids are doing well, and even though we had a 43% best time and 2 DQs - which in itself is nothing to rave about - they are swimming close to their best while not rested. Also worth mentioning, is that 4 team records were broken, Isabella Salmi in the 200 back 15-16, Jared Sears in the 400 IM, 200 back and the 100 back 15-16. In addition 2 new team records were establish in races never swam before in the 13-14 1000 free by Alicia Vogelaar, and the 15-16 1000 free by Justas Reskevicius. Good job to all of you!
Our next meet, and the focus of our preparation is Fort Bragg (12/4-5 the meet will close on 11/22 or when full). This is a first for the team as we have never traveled this far for a meet, but I was motivated by by some very tangible facts irrevocably linked to competing at this time of the year. Last December we attended Junior Olympics and it was 32 degrees on the pool deck during warm-up! Although not the optimal temperature to swim your best, it would not be so bad it the meet was in the middle of the swimmer's preparation, but about 3 times a year the kids need a focus meet were they can really shine, otherwise swimming hard at practice becomes less palatable.
I am delighted to see that parents and swimmers alike are supporting my decision to enter a meet held in an indoor facility, and at the same time providing swimmers and parents with an ability to bond with the team during the trip. So far, we have 23 swimmers committed to the event and we might get a few more before the meet closes.
We will also have a few swimmers who qualified, attending Junior Olympics on 12/3. It will be a busy weekend as they will be traveling straight from on meet to the next. this is exciting!
We are still having some problems with the pool heater. Seems that it turns itself off and needs to be reset at random times. The staff is staying on top of it and it is only a mild inconvenience for the kids as the water dropped to 81 - 82 degrees only a couple of times since we have discovered the problem. We are still working on solving the issue.
The transition to our winter schedule was pretty smooth and we will maintain the training schedule until the end of the session (12/17). We will be combining swim practice for all groups on 11/24. This is usually a poorly attended swim practice and we will use the same practice schedule as Fridays (G1 and G2 from 3:40 to 4:40 pm and G3 and G4 from 4:40 to 6:10 pm).
I have been experimenting with taking videos of the kids during practice. The concept is not new for the Marlins, but our technology has so far prevented us from sharing it with everyone as the finished result was such a big file (anywhere from 1 to 2 Gb) that it made it impossible to post it on the website or e-mail it, and very unpractical to burn on DVDs for everyone. But technology is catching up and with the use of a "flip" video I am able to take short clips 3 to 5 seconds of the swimmers in action, without affecting the flow of swim practice, and make it available for the kids to watch. I will be posting the videos on the Marlins Website and arrange them by practice groups. You do have to log in to access this section of the site, but I hope you will find it well worth it. I even plan on adding pointers and small critics as I get use to it to make it an even better teaching tool. I am also working on using the same camera and installing it on a pole so that we can see under water. Below is an example of a video:
That's it for now!
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