Several of our 12 and under's traveled out to Rockville this past weekend to swim at the Maryland States championship meet.
The weather gods were doing everything in their power to make it as
difficult as they could for our swimmers especially with the older kids sessions. As always, in the end it was the swimming gods who eventually won the weekend
We would be amidst if we did not give a shout out to Will Maier and his family for braving the Friday storms ands tornadoes so that he could have the opportunity to swim the 200 Free in which he set a new team record.
As we arrived Saturday evening the sun was shining although a little on the cool side, but as we started
our warmups the skies opened up with the wind, hail and torrential rain and according to Gina those were giant rain drops. The good news was there was no thunder or lightning so we could continue in the pool although in a long course pool they faded out of sight as they were meandering down the pool like ships disappearing over the horizon. The bad news was that as we finished our warmup we arrived back at our team area only to find our stuff soaked which would end up making for a cold evening for everyone.
As far as the races our performance measured up to what I would expect at a long course meet outdoors in a crazy environment maybe no so fun. for parents.
The progress that you all have made in your kicking (which was a priority) and the way you built the kick as you moved down the pool was awesome to watch. It shows that if you buy into it and focus on it during the sets you can learn the skill.
The starts where you controlled yourself and did not take those breaths during the first 2 strokes is starting to show up in your races something you can carry into your summer races and next season short course.
One area that we need to improve is our last 10 meters into the finish. The object is to get your hand to the wall and last time I checked the wall is not coming g to you! I've seen sooo many races lost from the flags in because of lack of focus. Either your breathing, slowing down your kick or just plan lack of effort to finish it out like a CHAMPION. We need to increase our effort drive and aggressiveness as we approach the finish.
Our breathing during the fly and breaststroke is actually looking better, as we are staying low on the surface and moving forward as we are moving down the pool. Now our breaststroke kick needs some work as I still think we go tooo wide and the wider those legs go you start to lose the water thus the power.
We want to draw those legs up to our butts and drive that water backwards thus powering us forward.
Our backstroke is looking strong with good head position and the rotation of our hips. Liam Wall also had an excellent finish only problem was that it was in the middle of the pool, but he did recover and finished the race.
Over all it was a good weekend with some good racing opportunities in challenging conditions.
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