So, both the Senior Prep/Blue and the Gold groups just finished a week of practice that cumulated with our 50's test set. So your parents have an idea of what we are doing during this set, let us take a moment...... the first thing that the kids notice as they walk onto the deck is our "special pace clock with green numbers". The purpose of this is to change the atmosphere and to let the kids know we are going to race.....and race all day.
This set started back in September and repeats about every 3rd week hopefully having it fall one week out from our upcoming meets. The Senior Prep/Blue group set consists of 50x50 while the Gold groups set consists of 40x50. The interval for the groups were set the first time we went through this and have been getting faster by a few seconds each time we repeat the set.
You may wonder why use a different clock, but in addition to changing the atmosphere it can be set to reset to 0 after each swim and allows each swimmer to pick up their time after each 50. For the Prep/Blue group their 50's are choice/free, with the only rule being that each 50 is the same for the entire set. The Gold group set is all free and again remains the same.
The swimmers are instructed that the purpose of this set is not only to give them confidence to swim fast when they are tired but also to be consistent and try to come in on the same number every time. They understand that it is time to put on their big girl, big boy suits and race that clock. There is no strategy here its just go fast immediately from that push, and race the entire 50.
As the little story says the clock will never lie and the coaches can see what your coming in at on every repeat. We also know who might be faster and are able to judge the effort levels. Their are no drills here just the simple race rules such as no breath turns, no breath at the finishes and always great streamlines with maximum under water dolphins with speed.
The last 50 of the set is done from a dive in heats. The dive is important so that they can "hog "that lane and not circle swim. Yes we do not have blocks, but I look at the positives that we can still get from the dive, like the forward thrust we get from a little height with our legs, the streamline as we enter the water and just the overall feeling of moving through the water from the start. that dive is like first impressions in life such as eye contact, the old firm hand shake know now as a good elbow bump, the first scene of a movie or even that first paragraph in papers you write. It sets the scene just as the dive sets your race up especially the shorter ones. Great dives can go a long way.
This past Thursday we had a real good effort on that last 50 with many of the swimmers setting their best time of the set.....thus WINNING THE DAY...... We do have to give a shout out to one of our Junior Gold swimmers who yesterday swam like a "Big Dog" and won every one of her repeats. Sophia Speidell accepted the challenge and really stepped up and took it to the other 7 swimmers in her group. She knocked on their doors let herself in before they even knew what happened. Now we have to say that Luca and Ken gave her a bit of a challenge but in the end Sophia's fingers were on the wall first every time.
Let’s keep up our great effort as we prepare for the meet this upcoming weekend.
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