SWIMMING SAFE

 

Our swimmers had a good day Thursday at 14 and under champs.  We had a lot of swimmers posting personal best and had a good group at finals.  Winning their events Thursday night were Tyler Harris in the 100 free and the 50 fly.  Sadie Buckley winning the 400 IM and the 200 free.

After dropping time in the 400 IM in the morning Lyla Devlin showed up in the evening with her “A” game dropping another 4 seconds this after swimming a personal best in the 100 breaststroke.  

Anna and Laura Roth also had 2 races in the evening (50 breaststroke 200IM).  Laura posted a best time in the evening and her sister Anna who posted a best time in the morning swam a great race again posting the same time.  In the 200 IM the girls swam great races posting best times with Anna out touching Laura at the wall.  Claire Anderson also posted a best time in that 200 IM after having a great race in the 100 free in the evening.o

Anna Rizzardi was the iron woman of the evening swimming 3 events at finals.  Anna had the 100 free 50 fly and the 200 IM where she not only posted her best times but also winning every heat she was in.  She must have had a really good lunch between sessions.

Maddie Carroll was our other swimmer at finals and as I told her before she went up, “Maddie your swim is the most important” because your race is first and it sets the tone for the whole team.  Just as she did in the morning she swam the 200 back and posted a personal best just as she had done in the morning. Maddie sometimes you need that pressure put on you and then it’s up to you to rise up to the challenge.  Later in the evening Maddie posted another personal best time in the 100 free.

Now Thursday is behind us and it’s time to move on to the next events on your list.  

Something that I notice from some swimmers is that you tend to swim safe, yes I swam safe, I dropped time but I failed to take a risk during the race for fear of failure. Swimming safe does produce some good times often but swimming safe keeps you from reaching your true potential at times.  Swimming safe is basically the same as swimming scared where you are worried more about the unknown over the chance of having that lifetime swim at that moment.  Your body can handle so much more than you think it can.  The only limits it has are the limitations that you yourself place on it mentally.  What might happen if you go out just a bit faster, take one last breath, extend your underwater a little bit, work the middle of the race a little harder, or go harder off that lat turn to the finish.  WHAT IF’s. They are all around you. This them out of your races.  Talking to some of you I realize that you are aware of it also.