IMX MEET WRAP UP

This past weekend we had 18 of our swimmers competed in the IMX meet at UMD over a three day period. It was a fun meet where the kids got to gain meet and racing experience as we head into the March championships.  This meet provided the opportunity for the kids to swim a meet without all of the 50’s.  It also provided an opportunity to gain a lot of confidence by swimming the longer events over a three day period and opened their eyes to the possibilities that are out their.  It also allowed them to swim kids from all over the northeast to give them a fresh outlook heading into March.

The meet started on Friday afternoon with all of the 11 and overs 🏊‍♀️ swimming the 500 free.  Following the plan that was set up for them the mako swimmers would produce 16 best times (a lot of them shattering their personal best) and quite a few of who got the bell 🔔 lap to win their heats.

Saturday started early with the 13&14 year olds competing in the 200 fly, 200IM and the 200 breast.  The mako senior prep group swam out of their minds on their way to 17 best times and winning several of their heats.  Even the few 🏊‍♀️ who missed best times were within a second of their best efforts, and this is a great place to be at this time of year.

In the afternoon our 9-12 year olds would come in to give it their best in the 100 fly, 100 breast and for Tony our 10 year old the 200 free.  Again the kids worked on their plans and the results were an abundance of best times.

Sunday the kids would return to finish the their events with the 13&14 year olds swimming the 200 back and the 400 IM. The 12 and unders had the 100 back and the 200 IM to finish off their lists.  The kids again took to the pool with a fire 🔥 in their eyes and agthe results produce many best times. 

Some positive lessons to take away from this meet;

1. Underwater (our fifth stroke).  From practice we have been working on how far can we get underwater and how fast can we get there in 4-5 seconds.  We were able to time your underwater off most of your walls so that you had a visual to see and compare to what you hear all the time.  Most of our walls started at 5 seconds off the start and dropped to 2.5-3.0 and on the last turns dropped to 2.0 or lower.  As we showed you when, adding all of them up showed you that you spend at least 35 yards or more underwater (the fastest water in the pool).  This is a great place to be at this time of the season and will help a lot when you get to those best events for championships.  You have responded well in this area keep up the great work and talk to your teammates about the importance of this area.  It means more when they hear it from you and know that it helps.
2. RACE PLANS.  Last week we worked out some strategies for swimming these events and you went to work at the meet and executed the plan, and believed in yourself.  Two great examples is the 500 free where we broke it into 3 races, the first being finding that easy speed for the first 200,  building that second 200 to a negative split or the same and not falling off and the third is pushing that last 100 as hard as you could to that finish.  The second was in the 400 and 200 IM where we really emphasized an easy fly speed and then really building the back half of the other strokes so that we could engage our other muscles and we would feel good going into that transition to the next stroke.
3. TEAMWORK.  The way you supported and encouraged each other throughout the meet was fun to watch.
4. FINISHES.    A lot of great finishes.  We still have to do some mental work so that we set those finishes up out at the 10m mark and get to that wall with a great tempo, strong kick, and a lunge into the pad.  This means that for fly and free we are not breathing after that 10 m mark.  You want air, pick up tempo and go faster. 

This meet provided an opportunity to swim all four strokes at the longer events, some that they may not or enjoy.  They were not allowed to pick favorites as each swimmer was required to swim the entire list of events to claim the title of “I M EXTREME “ and our mako extreme swimmers are Tony, Ben, Adrian, Will, Chaz, Matt, Blake, Sophia, Riley, Charlotte Prunty, Charlotte LIm, Emerson, 🐱 Kitty, Parker, Jackie, Ava, Kendall Vess, and Caroline.  Awesome 😎 job over the weekend by all of our EXTREME 🏊‍♀️.  Way to go sticking to our plan and the great support you gave each other throughout the meet.

Great meet guys!