High School Swim Mom
 

A whole new era starts tomorrow. First high School Swim Team practice, followed by a shitload of meetings and paying for gear type things. Stuff like this doesn't happen in the UK, so it's all new to me. School doesn't start for another three weeks, but they will have had three meets by then! CRAZY. Plus, my kid is actually pretty good, so that kinda adds extra something because she will probably be noted by the local news and may go straight to Varsity even though she's a freshman..... scary but cool....

I intend to use this thread as a blog about being a high school swim mom over the next 4 years, so tune out now if you are bored already......

She was put into the Varsity practice group... but practice was lame... and we're $100s poorer. $250 for suit, caps, warm-ups and bag, and $40 for the front snorkel....

Front snorkel?


Funny, if I don't know what it is, pretty much everything sounds dirty.

Never used one of those. Of course, I never trained within a team. I always considered swimming as fun. And I usually never worked on speed, more on endurance. My longest distance being 50 km in one session of 12 hours.

That's a lot of Kms and a lot of hours

24 years later, I'm still able to do 7 km in about 2 hours.

I love long distance swimming too. Once, in a previous century, I swam from Log Boom Park in Kenmore to Gene Coulon Park in Renton. It took all day and I had a boat (not a chase boat, they actually were off to the side to keep from poisoning me with their exhaust). It was a fundraiser and I made a bunch of money for the cause. Google maps pegs the distance at about 17 and a half miles, by road of course, but that's probably close, call it 15 miles as the fish swims.

snigger

First week of practice done. Whew. This is a whole new level for sure, with lots of equipment and instructions i don't even understand and I've been poolside for many years now. Who knew there were a bajillion parts to each stroke and someone had taken the time to name them all? The coach is all miked up even though there are only 30 girls swimming at the moment (the rest are at orchestra camp)

20 hours of practice a week, the swim taxi drove over 300 miles and the pool is only 10 miles away. Swimmer Girl coaches between practices (and from next week will do an hour of synchro too). here I was thinking I'd get loads of cleaning and sorting done between pool runs and be ready for a yard sale today. Wrong. :lol:

The coach has tweaked her breaststroke kick and changed her freestyle completely and says that she is very coachable. She says she feels faster but she has yet to really test them at a meet She did get put in the Varsity practice group. First meet is next Thursday, we're hearing coach makes all the freshmen swim the 500. She has never raced a 500 -the 200 is like pulling teeth.

She just got together with her summer team buddies who are going to the other schools and they are practising nearly twice as much as the other teams. It's their first year with seniors and first year in Division 1, so I guess they have something to prove. The coach's husband is there coaching most days. He's a former U of M swim coach. I think they mean business :lol:

The coach is definitely a one for having favorites, I wouldn't like to get on her bad side, but right now it looks like Swimmer Girl is going to be a favorite, so it's good for now. And I think the early sport involvement is helping ease her into the new school. She's still apprehensive about getting lost etc, but she knows kids in every grade and at least knows her way around the pool and gyms.

sracist

shar.

...or dolphi?

:notworthy:

Been savin this for just the right occasion...
 

Here's to swimmer girl!

Watching an army drama... swim team practice isn't a whole load different from army training!

Boot camp babby , Boot camp
She will be a Betterer Person for it
she will be able to look back when time are Bad
and rember what she acomplished and
what she had to go thru to get there ,

Ha this aint Shit , YOU should have been on Coach XXXXXXXX's team ,
Damn she flogged us !!!

:lol:

So, she has definitely got/gotten/become faster! After I finished walking with a mate, I popped into the bleachers to read/watch the last half hour of practice. By this point, they had swum thousands of yards. They were doing an interval set (where they have a specific distance to swim within a specific time and anything left over is their rest period before they start the next one...). They finished with a 100 free on the 1:15. She came in at 1:06. That's equal to her personal best swimming the 100 in a meet (i.e. off the blocks, not exhausted after two hours of hard practice....)

Go Swimmer Girl!

Def dalphi !!!

mermai?

WOOOOT!
 

She placed in her first meet! 5th in the 200 IM -top 5 score.

But OMG does the coach get tight as a wire! This is a whole new level of swimming.

I was learning how to work the computer and the coach had tried to speed things up by preparing it all on her laptop. First of all, we couldn't load the meet data for the visiting team, then it turns out she seeded her swimmers wrong anyway so we had to hand enter all their entries. I was shown how to do it and did it very quickly.... we printed the heat sheets and then........ the guy who actually knows how to do the stuff shows up and works out that the coaches laptop does not have the right connection for the cable that talks to the timing system.

so we need to switch back to the pool lap top. which has nothing set up. and we can't find a data file to transfer the meet over. So we have to build the meet from the start, then import the rosters, then the entries, then merge them, seed them and then fix the problem caused by the visiting coach seeding stuff wrong.

The coach got really mad with us (well in our direction), even though it was her error we were fixing. But now i know how wound up she gets, i can let that pass!!!

They started about 15 mins late without us, we got it sorted by the diving and were able to import the times for the heats already passed, but that was crazy nuts. And, after the diving it was tied, so both coaches kept making changes to the line-ups. Mo-Jo (yes, that's the coaches name) was pacing the pool on every race, even the slow heat of the 500.

We won by 2 points.

Swimmer Girl was in the slow heat for both her individuals, but won both easily (as I knew she would because even though there were no seed times, i know who she is faster than......#crazyswimmom). I guess you don't put untried freshmen in the fast heats. After she placed, she got moved up from the C to the B 200 free relay, and they came in 3rd, also scoring points.

WTG Hebe. She was so pumped when we got her home, never seen her this "high" before. Had to force her to bed because it's freshman orientation tomorrow. early.

Nice. High fives.

thanks.

So... results are up, and include splits -times for each swimmer's leg of relays or events longer than 50y. OMFG, she did awesome. (to be a little unBrit there for a moment)

dropped
2 seconds (35>33) in 50 breast unbelievable
3 seconds in 50 fly (33>31) surprising as her coach hadn't even worked on Fly at this point (she did today and didn't change her stroke at at all -she has changed her free and breast (she's a breaststroker first, IM second, fly third)
2 second in 50 free (29.5>27.5) AMAZING

Splits from relays are generally faster than individuals but this is so much faster, and the fly is from the IM!

Her coach really moved her up in the relays for the meet tomorrow and I was kinda suprised, but now I see why.

Braggy Braggy Braggy -almost everyone is swimming the medley relay -we have teams A-H. She's on B. as a freshman.

Lots of pressure, though -and that's just what I feel! :lol:

Excellent!

What stroke is IM?

The Infinite Monkey stroke.

You propel yourself forward by doing this:

Individual medly, one swimmer does:
Backstroke
butterfly
breast
freestyle

I know back is always first and free is always last. Not sure the order of middle two.

That's how I will picture you from now on. :D

Actually it's fly back breast free so the swimmer can start from the blocks.

The medley relay is backstroke first (then breast fly free) because the backstroker will always start in the water so it makes more sense for them to go first.

That was a crazy meet! There were eight schools, all with about 40 swimmers and they all did their little war chants for about 15 minutes before the meet actually got started. It was LOUD! But such a good atmosphere. The bleachers sure hurt our butts, though, we need to dig out the cushions we have somewhere.

It wasn't a regular meet, it was a relays meet, where each individual event was turned into a relay event. There were only two heats of most things -an A heat and a B heat, one team from each school in each, but there were unlimited entries allowed for the 200 Medley relay (a regular event) and the 200 free relay (ditto), but only the A and B heat were scoring heats.

First off, there was a regular medley relay where she was on the B relay, which cam in third in the B heat, scoring major points and she dropped more time off her 50 breaststroke split.

Then the IM relay, where she was in the A relay and they came in second! They only swam 100IMs each -normally at this age they swim a 200 for an individual, so her 100 time is old, but she dropped at least 5 seconds on that.

And then the breaststroke relay, where she was on the B relay. And here's where she kinda gets stiffed. They call her school the "Breaststroke Battalion" -they have 4 amazing breaststrokers already. So she gets to be number 5. in any other school, she would be #1 or 2. Her relay came in 4th, but she was first swimmer and led the field by over a second. she was the fastest swimmer in the entire heat by over a second. In fact, she was also faster than 21 of the 32 swimmers in the A heat! Including all of the swimmers from the other two Ann Arbor High Schools. But 4 of the 11 girls who were faster than her (one only just) were our A team -who won the event and set a new record.

So an awesome meet, all in all. Shame about the team dinner afterwards at Applebees :vomit: :zzz:

:lol:

Meet Report and more
 

Hmmm.

School actually started and is going well, away meet tonight. They finally got their team warm-up suits last night and were instructed to wear them to school today, and Swimmer Girl reported that it was cool to spot all the other swimmers in the halls, and see all the other athletes who had games/meets tonight wearing suits/ties (boys) and warm-up suits (girls)!

So, to the meet. An away meet in a 6 lane, 25 meter pool (8 lanes of 25 yards is the norm). So the coaches agreed to run only one heat in some events to speed things up. There are usually two.

Swimmer Girl swam three events (the maximum), all in lane 2, which had timimg problems, so results are somewhat uncertain until the manula times are posted.....

SG got on the B Medley Relay, swimming breast. They got third and scored points. rocking!

SG was in the 200 IM (one heat only = 6 swimmers, top 5 score). We think she got 4th (behind her two teammates) ..and she might have got 3rd -but she started the last leg (freestyle) in 5th, and that's her second worst stroke. Way to catch up, honey. Coach was pleased.

Then.... she got "lucky" and was swimming the "freshman 500". Her coach makes all freshmen swim the 500 free at some point. She got "lucky" tonight. She is NOT is distance or a freestyle swimmer. It was actually a 400 because it was a meter pool. But there was only one heat. So only one swimmer would fail to score. That was her. The time she swam was actually freaking fantastic and will probably get her a Junior Olympic cut for USA swimming, but her coach tore her a new one! She's a freshman swimming against 5 seniors/juniors FFS! and is a breaststroke /IM sprinter.

I guess the coach just has big dreams for her, but really? is it necessary to pile the high pressure on so early?

BTW, all the other freshmen and most of the sophomores only swam one event because places were limited.

I am one proud -but kinda pissed- mama.

Maybe he was doing a reverse psychology thing so that the juniors/seniors won't hate her for being such a superstar? Berating her in public so they don't think she's the coach's pet.

Could be, although it's a little late for that. It's probably to make sure she remembers her place, but she's not the sort of kid who gets too big for her boots anyway.

So....... this week's meet (on Thurs) is against a school with 20 swimmers and Swimmer Girl can beat their fastest in anything -and so can most of the rest of the team of 45. We know them well because SG's Winter club before she went to high school is located in this school and is their feeder team.

So the result is pre-determined

Just last night, SG and I discussed that she wanted to try a free sprint -even though that is not her thing- just to see how much she'd improved. I speculated that the coach might even put her in back (her worst stroke).... we didn't go far enough....

The coach is making her dive! Her School has two divers, most others have 5 or 6. Top 5 score, so we bleed points there. SG dives in summer, is OK/good, but not good enough to get near places at championships any more (places are taken by year-round divers). I had said to SG she may need to dive as a Freshman to get more events, but it turns out so far her swim times are good enough to get the maximum number anyway. (They can compete in 4 at dual meets, each swim race is an event, diving is also an event.)

She is amused. Which is good, because we're at that teenage point where we could get any reaction from tree falling in the forest to 9/11 on acid

I'm beginning to have mixed feelings about this coach guy. I guess he is thinking more about the overall team, whereas I'm seeeing just what concerns Fishy Beast-Monster.

Coach is female....

she's fine diving. It's good for them to do events they wouldn't normally so they can develop as all rounders. 13 is too young to specialise for good. But they really can't in meets that will be close because they need to put the best in each event in that event. We just never imagined coach would have her dive -we didn't even know she'd remembered she could.

Although this morning we realized it might be a reverse meet and a reverse is the one dive she doesn't have. So she's going to mention that to coach today.

And.... not diving any more because the required dived for the meet is a reverse. The only dive group she doesn't have a dive from. Two days is not enough to learn a whole new complex and dangerous dive. (Reverses are the hardest group, you take off the board in a forward dive, but then you arch/flip back so you enter facing away from the board)

Definite potential for head-thunking there.

Just reflecting that Fish-girl is only starting out, and in a few years she'll be swimming her core events, so a bit of diversification now is probably harmless, and maybe a good thing.

Thing is, one of her two "core events" is the IM, so includes all of the strokes (except diving), so no event is a time waster for her. Except diving.

But she's actually a very beautiful and graceful diver. The problem is that she only dives for the 6-week summer team and our board is .5 meter, static fulcrum.

no thanks.

First in the 100 breaststroke, dropped 5 seconds!!!!!

Half a second is a big cause for celebration at this point, she had a 1:19.xy and has swum close a few times, but she got 1:14.93 tonight. Amazing. And her coach reckons she can drop another 5 by the end of the season which will be well within a State Cut (qualifies her to swim at High School Division 1 State Championships). She's now less than a second off the State Cut for USA age-group swimming.

She also dropped 7 seconds in her 200 free and took 2nd, but she should have dropped more -that time was old, she has only swum it once a year to this point.

The first and second are great, but there was never a question of not thrashing this team tonight, so coach did not swim the fastest and best in their regular events. The A Medley Relay team was all freshmen -including SG. And they took first. The four super-breastrokers on the team did not swim the breaststroke event. It was on SG and she pulled it off!

Enough about her, back to me.

last home meet, I was shown how to run the computer -get the times from the scoreboard, match them to the swimmers, enter DQs and manual times when the electronic time is incorrect (swimmer didn't hit the pad), make the last minute line-up changes, produce scores and results etc. Tonight was supposed to be my second "training session" but no-one else showed. just me. i made it. but several hair-raising moments along the way including the program crashing in the middle of the meet. And lots of manually entered times -this is very unusual.

The team we were swimming against is from the high school where Hebe's winter team for the last 6 years practice. So we knew loads of them. they have all been on the same team for a long time. Weird to swim against them. She triumphed, though. Incidentally, it was them mostly failing to hit the pads properly. Faulty pads has plagued that pool forever. now I'm wondering, maybe it isn't the pads hat are faulty? Or perhaps they are just so used to them not working, they just touch wherever.....

Let me tell you this, though. Coach is nutso. This was a given win. Some of the oppo could barely swim. And yet she was still wound up tight as a scotsman in a gay bar befoe the meet.

Oh and the name-embriodered team color/logo Speedo backpacks came in today, but somehow SG's got missed from the order. :(

Swimmer Girl don't need no stinkin' embroidered suit. Throw on a burlap bag and she'll STILL kick AZZ! :)

Ha!

OK so I'm all WTF with this shit.....

i'd kinda got the hang of if the meet is a challenge, they swim "their events" and if we're gonna kick butt, they do kookie stuff.

So last week, the meet was a given (they could barely swim either), but coach put most of the girls in their best events. So SG came 4th in her two individuals -she scored points for the IM, but not for breast beacuse only 3 from each team actually score and we came in 1-7 in that event....

And then coach tells the girls "OK, I'm done with experimenting, from now on you only swim your events..."

This week, we should win, but it isn't a given and it's anothe AA school -former state champs..... and coach put SG on the 500 free, the 200 free, the 400 free relay (and the medley relay)

SG maintains coach is not pissed with her. I don't think coach is pissed with me. but rly? distance freestyle for a breaststroke sprinter? And shitloads of it?

Odd. Has anyone asked Coach to ... explain ... ?
I'm trying to think from the coach's point of view. Here are the events to fill, here are the swimmers I have. Hmm...
This team already has four star breaststrokers (straightfacestraightfacestraightface) doesn't it? And they're seniors, so they will swim the breaststroke events. Hebe is good, but as a novice, will have to swim what is available. Next year she'll be doing the breaststroke.

it's not that, though. She is a top placer in IM already. It's that she said one thing then did the complete opposite. And if she wants her to do well in the 500, why is she wearing her out with all the other distance events? And she's got 4 events. Plenty freshmen will swim only one (which means that SG is a valued team member), but they could "fill up" in other ways.

The one thing I know is unless it is physically damaging your girl YOU NEVER QUESTION COACH!

So i'mm'a just be puzzled here instead.

"That which does not kill me makes me stronger?"

or maybe the coach has an un-diagnosed brain tumor? No one ever expects that.

Or the, umm, you know. That other thing no one ever expects.

Lupus?

The Spanish Inquisition?


Sod that. Let her know that you accept her decision, but would like help understanding your (kid's) role in the team and what plans coach has for developing her.

^^^ding ding ding^^

Coach came over after the meet tonight. Apparently SG had showed so much improvement in the freestyle at practice, that's why she got those races (and I think she knew in advance the meet would be a walkover). But she was concerned that SG seemed to be taking her post-race coaching as "yelling at her" rather than positive reinforcement and steps for further improvement, and wanted (me) to reinforce that it's just because she gets so excited and sees so much potential and she's impatient for it to bloom that maybe it seems like admonishment........:rolleyes:

and it never occurred to coach (until i "joked" about it) that this might be seen as a punishment set for someone who is a sprinter

Tough love, baby.

She told me that SG is a good swimmer now, will be a great swimmer and may well be a super-great swimmer. Which is nice.

btw, she was lagging almost all they way in the 500 and then pulled it out at the last minte to take 4th (and score points). She plowed the 200. Well no, that's not fair, she did drop time, but she should have dropped more because her time was old. Her two relays were good -her medley relay came second.

With this coach, you have to wait until she's ready to tell you (which turns out to have been tonight, sorta) She's a great swim coach, but not so good with the interpersonals and everyone sees that the kids of the parents who piss her off swim less and get less coaching. There comes a point when the swimmer has enough value on the team that you can get away with more as a parent..... but that time isn't as a freshman.

The coach and I actually get on OK -we've been dealing with each other for a few years prior to this -she and I both coach middle school teams and are both in Summer swimming and swimming is a small world. And I've watched unsuspecting parents wade in and their kids suffer as a result.

And they are at the age where they should be starting to fight their own battles. But it's hard sometimes.

Bit of a shortcoming in a coach, IMHO.

Still, can't be as bad as the twerp who coaches at the tennis courts near the park near my house. I've walked past and seen him yelling at kids who looked about 10. "That was YOURS, Timmy, WHY DIDN'T YOU GET IT? WHY WEREN'T YOU THERE?" etc. :facepalm:

He must be really good at tennis, cause he's a horrible teacher.

ya know.... it's only a shortcoming for the parents. And they aren't really important. She sees what is wrong with as stroke an is able to communicate with the swimmer how to fix it. That's what makes a good swim coach. If you can improve any swimmers time in any stroke, that's all you need to be a good swim coach.

There are plenty of coaches out there who are popular because they make nicey with the parents... but they don't know wtf they are doing and their kids may do well, but not as well as they could.

Surely there is more to swim coaching than stroke correction. Motivation, focus, long-term development management, etc.

So last night's meet was agaianst one of the other two high schools in the city. The one that won State champs several years running. The one whose district was completely fucked up by the new school, resulting in all the best athletes (=rich kids who have received top tuition on travel teams) coming to us.

We slaughtered them. which is nice. kinda. and sad at the same time.... (not so sad though, because this is not the school that SG is zoned for) But what was really nice is that I knew many parents on the other team, and many of them took the time to tell me that they knew SG was a swimmer, but had no idea she was so good! A proud parent moment.

yup she's good at that too

she just doesn't play well with parents .....I supect unless they have multiplr state-qualifying swimmers and then they can do s they please......

Err, well, if you say so, but it doesn't look that way from here. Meh, I have very limited information. Whatevs.

really? That's funny. This coach is awesome. As a coach. One of the reasons for choosing the school (not one of the main reasons, though, the coach at the other school is good too)

She just hasn't "got" my kid yet. And that's why she talked to me after the meet last night. She knew she wasn't connecting quite the way she wnted to. If she could only show this witht he parents too then..... wait.... she wouldn't be coaching high school.....

She's a Team USA caliber coach with personality issues that have her coaching high school and college. I think. Rumor has it she was Phelps' breaststroke coach at one point.... Shew was certainly a CW coach at the right time for that....