Turkey Classic- Meet Report
Meet Report- Turkey Classic
Last Saturday, MCDA swimmers traveled north to Pompano Beach to compete at the Turkey Classic. We had a significant number of personal best times, along with a handful of swimmers competing for the very first time. Watching swimmers conquer new events is extremely exciting for the coaches. Pushing oneself to try new and different events is something we encourage at MCDA. The chance to compete is an opportunity we hope all swimmers embrace, as competing is one of the most exciting parts of swimming.
As coaches, we noticed a few specific areas of training that need some extra focus in the upcoming weeks:
· Legal Finishes - All swimmers must complete the race from start to finish legally. We had a number of swimmers complete 95% of the race legally and then finish improperly. In practice, coaches emphasize doing the correct thing first- then worry about doing the correct thing fast. Many times swimmers get caught up in the idea of being first in practice. At this stage in the swimmers careers, going fast and doing something correctly do not always go hand in hand. The more focus the swimmer places on doing things correctly, the sooner the speed will follow. Our hope is all swimmers will start paying attention to the details more, rather than who is going first in the lane.
· Flip turns- Flip turns provide a swimmer the fastest possible way to get from one end of the pool to the other. By not doing a flip turn, a swimmer increases their chance for disqualification, due to incorrect body position. The question always comes up in practice- Do we need to do flip turns? The answer is always yes! (when applicable) We noticed many of our swimmers not attempting to do flip turns this past Saturday, even though most of them know how to do them. Doing flip turns must become an all the time habit, not just when the swimmer chooses.
· Swim Meet Etiquette- Each and every swimmer wants to run and see their parents when their race is over. While this is understandable, the coaches prefer to speak with each swimmer before and after every race. The first few minutes after a race provide both the coach and swimmer an opportunity to identify the strengths and weaknesses we noticed in the race. If the swimmer runs off without speaking to a coach, the opportunity to teach for the coach and opportunity to learn for the swimmer is lost.
Some things we thought the team did great on:
· Standing Dives- Our swimmers had some great dives throughout the day and are improving each and every time off the block! Many of our Blue/Adv. Blue swimmers are starting in what is called the ‘track start’ position, which really gives them some extra power off the start. The Red group swimmers are showing how great they are at locking their arms behind their head and entering into the water hands first.
· Racing Hard- Seeing swimmers look around while racing is not necessarily proper technique, but we love seeing the competitive side of each swimmer! From start to finish, MCDA swimmers competed tough and cheered for their teammates.
· Team Spirit- During the meet, I personally had swimmers come up and ask when other MCDA swimmers were swimming. After finding out when their teammates were swimming, they would go behind the lane and start cheering. As coaches, we are trying to teach each swimmer about teamwork and the benefit of belonging to a team. Seeing this type of team spirit is something we are thrilled about!! Keep it up MCDA SWIMMERS!!!!!
Looking Forward
We will be having a MCDA Mini-Meet this Friday at 4:00 p.m. The mini-meets offer a great opportunity for all MCDA swimmers to compete in a semi-formal meet environment. Each swimmer can learn a great deal after swimming in a mini-meet and receiving coach feedback. There is bound to be some fast swimming happening on Friday afternoon and we hope to see you there!!!
As always, Just Keep Swimming
Coach Zook
