2023 November AGI Meet Recap
2023 NOVEMBER AGI RECAP
On November 18-19th, 109 IST athletes and Coaches traveled to Curtis Aquatic Center for the 2023 November Age Group Invite. The November AGI represented the first meet that required swimmers to possess a certain time standard in order to participate. In this instance, swimmers must have achieved at least a PNS Gold Time in one event in order to enter the meet.
Entry strategies and meet goals for this competition varied widely depending on the training group and individual. For some swimmers, entries will be limited simply by the number of Gold times they possess. For other swimmers who may have had an abundance of cut times, the strategy might include looking ahead to December Championship meets in order to plan the timing of repeating races in order to maximize the impact of time drops.
In general, however, the meet goals for each training group consisted of:
Senior Squads: Fine-tuning race details and strategies heading into December
Sockeye Squads: Focusing on pure racing and trying not to worry about goal times or expectations
Surge Squads: Enjoying the experience and environment of a time standards-based meet
Finally, part of any successful meet involves managing expectations and mindset. It’s important for coaches, athletes, and parents to all understand that carrying specific performance goals or expectations into a meet can be disastrous. IST strongly believes that the appropriate place for those performance goals or expectations remains in practices only. Meets serve as a time to keep things simple: swim loose, swim fast, and have fun; they are not a place to worry about time standards or anything else. The mindset of coaches, athletes, and parents should be one of mutual support and enjoyment. We were successful at this competition thanks to these shared goals and a collective, focused mindset.
Check out our meet stats below:
As always, thank you to Coach Amanda for being on deck and taking some excellent pictures during the competition! You can find more pictures from IST events on our Instagram.
