Meet Recap

ICE Meltdown

May 1-2, 2010

Goals

1. Familiarize swimmers to long course swimming.

We performed some sets during warm-ups for extra practice.

Plus, swimmers swam a full slate of events allowing them to gain more experience in long course racing.

2. Learn Race strategies.

The swimmers took time to plan out race strategies. We still had a few swimmers that were unprepared for a few races. I believe we will get better throughout the course of the season.

3. Understanding swimming fast versus getting best times.

We did a great job of this. Swimmers got up and performed well. They did swim fast for themselves and against competition. Swimmers were generally not focused on beating the time in the heat sheet. This allowed swimmers to focus more on how to swim the race.

4. Learn Swim Meet procedures.

Swimmers were mostly on task. There were a few instances where swimmers needed to be reminded that they needed to cool down. There were also a few instances where swimmers were not completely warmed-up for the races. Swimmers did an excellent job making sure they were behind the blocks at an appropriate time; not too early, not too late.

5. Understanding how to eat properly during the course of competition.

Swimmers did a good job of bringing their own food to eat during the course of competition. I did not see a lot parent interaction, meaning they had worked out plans before the meet started and that swimmers were taking ownership of their swim meet diet plans.

Areas for Improvement:

Transitions: Swimmers were able to perform long underwater dolphin kickouts, however, we did not breakout with any competitive advantage. This was due to the fact that swimmers lost speed between the dolphin kicks and the breakouts. Swimmers need to learn more about the transitions between underwater swimming and surface swimming.

Turns and Finishes: Swimmers were gliding into walls on both the turns and finishes. This resulted in a few disqualifications for backstroke turns and some slow finishes in freestyle events.

Mental Preparations: Swimmers did a great job with swim meet procedures. I do think we could have done a little more to get “fired-up” for some races. Some swimmers still did not know which events were on which days. This means that swimmers were not mentally prepared before the meet. If swimmers take the time to rehearse strategies and plans before the meet, they will also likely go through mental “pump-up” procedures as well. This will lead too more focused swimming at the meet with reduced effort to get oneself “pumped-up”.

General Comments

I noticed some of the faster swimmers from other teams were really snapping kicks, or really snapping their hips in a freestyle rotation. Swimmers should always practice to be powerful. Notice how your own body reacts to the water and whether or not you are “snapping” your own movements.