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Parenting Bringing up the shorties so they aren't completely messed up

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Old 09-03-2011, 09:04 AM   #31
monster
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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

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Old 09-08-2011, 09:41 PM   #32
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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.
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Old 09-09-2011, 02:43 PM   #33
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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.
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Old 09-09-2011, 04:05 PM   #34
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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.
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Old 09-12-2011, 08:52 PM   #35
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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
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Old 09-13-2011, 12:30 AM   #36
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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.
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Old 09-13-2011, 07:03 AM   #37
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Coach is female....
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Old 09-13-2011, 07:06 AM   #38
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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.
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Old 09-13-2011, 08:47 PM   #39
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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)

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Old 09-13-2011, 08:54 PM   #40
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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.
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Old 09-13-2011, 09:33 PM   #41
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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.
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Last edited by monster; 09-13-2011 at 09:44 PM.
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Old 09-13-2011, 10:16 PM   #42
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no thanks.
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Old 09-15-2011, 09:49 PM   #43
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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.
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Old 09-16-2011, 07:30 AM   #44
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Swimmer Girl don't need no stinkin' embroidered suit. Throw on a burlap bag and she'll STILL kick AZZ!

Quote:
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.
Ha!
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Old 09-26-2011, 10:54 PM   #45
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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?
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