Age Group One Steps Up at Narwhal

When I sent out the meet info, I mentioned that we were ready to do fast, smart swimming. We all showcased that skill flawlessly. I'm really in awe of how smart all of our swimmers competed. Huge congrats AG1! I'm going to hone in on this while it's fresh in their minds, so we can replicate it in the practice setting. Nevertheless, great focus and discipline this past weekend, going right from one event to another was very challenging and we all helped each other out. 

 

The biggest technical component that I was saying, but not always seeing, is swimming tall. A lot of times when we face fatigue, we contract the length of our limbs. The longer and taller we swim, the more speed we maintain without costing energy. There are many ways this presents itself, in a breaststroke kick the legs won't get straight after each kick, in fly the hands land by the face, in backstroke we sit up in the stroke (butt drops and eyes look to feet). Hopefully, I can illustrate the difference for our swimmers so THEY recognize when this happens. 

 

Some notes about events. We were all very prepared for the 200 & up swims, from the splits to speed changes, what I saw showed how much you all wanted to succeed in these events. We were hit or miss in the 100 events, some not getting out fast enough and others not finding those gear changes later in the race. The 100-range events are where I saw the long/tall swimming falter as we grew more fatigued. MANY of our swims put us within 2 seconds (per 100) of state or regionals, so with great focus through the next few weeks we can close that gap!

 

New  Regionals cuts: Enung (50/100 Breast), Elise (50 BK/BR, 200 IM), Ellie (200 FR), Leila (50 FL), Rachel (50 BK), Nathan (50 BK), Sophia (200 BK), Ella (50 BR), Sydney (50 FL), Gavin (200 FR)

New  State cuts: Enung (200 FR/BR/IM, 50 FL), Mikaela (100 FL, 50 FL), Logan (50 FR, 50 FL), Elise (200 FL), Ellie (50 FR/FL, 400 FR), Leila (100 BR), Rachel (50 FL), Sophia (50 BK, 200 FL), Ashton (400 FR)