I have written before about my son. He is a sophomore this year and is in his second year of swimming. Last year he had a pretty successful season. He earned his varsity letter and scored individual points at the league championships meet. He also was names “Rookie of the Year” by his coach.
He stayed in the water after the season and only took most of August off.
This year he pretty much picked up where he left off. He seems to do best at the 100 Breaststroke and the 500 Free, although he is OK at the 200 Free and the 200 IM. He has trouble with butterfly because of a shoulder flexibility issue.
Anyhow, last weekend they had their conference championships and he swam the 500 Free in 5:09.xx which place 8th in the conference and the 100 Breastroke in 1:04.50 which placed 3rd all-conference. His breaststroke time was 0.11 seconds away from a State cut. UUGGGHHH.
His coach talked him into swimming the following week (today) in the “Last Chance” meet. This is a swim meet where swimmers get one last meet to try and get State cuts, Varsity times, individual goals. THe coach doesn’t tell the kids, but for many of them, if some of the slower swimmers show up and try to earn their times, he will often give them the letter on a Coach’s discretion because they showed the interest and the drive to achieve.
It was a long shot for my son because technically he had tapered for last week. But the coach worked him in practiced on several breaststroke specific drills. My son ate well all week and got plenty of rest. He went into the race today and swam the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.89.
I’m giddy with excitement and I just wanted to share.
Wow, Bernie, that’s amazing!!! Congrats to him and to you too!!! That’s a pretty impressive improvement in 1 week. So, he’s going to the State Champs, right? Woo Hoo!!
A sophomore in his second year of swimming going 5:09 in the 500. That’s great. However as a distance freestyler, I always thought those breaststrokers were a odd group.
agreed…that’s a damn good time, and second year no less! Awesome! Did he swim at all prior to last year? If not, that just makes it all the more amazing.
**Did he swim at all prior to last year? If not, that just makes it all the more amazing. **
Thanks. I am just flabbergasted. Yes. He has swum on a AG team since he was in the 4th grade. He was not super competitive about it though. When he was in the 8th grade he had that hormonal push that added the “edge” to start racing. He has gotten faster anymore.
**That’s a pretty impressive improvement in 1 week. So, he’s going to the State Champs, right? Woo Hoo!! **
I think there are a lot of reasons for the one week improvement. He was a lot more rested going into this week and he had better key workouts. Furthermore, he only had to concentrate on one race, not 3 or 4.
A sophomore in his second year of swimming going 5:09 in the 500. That’s great. However as a distance freestyler, I always thought those breaststrokers were a odd group.
Thanks. That is kind of funny. I have a friend who was a pretty decent swimmer and he always asks after my son when I see him. Last year when I bragged about his breaststroke time he said, “So he’s one of those, eh?” We have a freshman who is a true phenom. He swam the 500 in 4:56.xx last weekend and he wasn’t tapered.
Dillinger4-Thank you very much sir. I will pass the compliment on.
**What type of racing suit did they get for states? Anything fancy? **
We bought him a Speedo Lazr-jammer style. We noticed last year that the upper level swimmers were wearing technical suits, so we decided to get him one. There were other options, but we figured that we could afford it. We don’t go out to eat often, or drink alcohol, or smoke.
I get so jazzed watching my kids succeed. I have met with some success in my life, and watching my kids do things and watching them experience success is SO much better than I can explain.
Mean’t to pm you Bernie. Glad he is doing so good you have every right to be proud of him. It’s a wonderful thing to see your kids succed and the confidance it builds inside of them. When my son won his age group last weekend I fealt same as you did. its awesome isnt it.
how does he like the lzr jammer? and yea last week we had conferance finals (college though), and everyone in finals had a LZR, Tracer Rise or Blue seventy. Actually, everyone in prelims had them on too.
He took a little grief about it from his teammates because he was wearing it to try in practice. This was recommended because it is a bit different than other suits. It is super tight. and you have to wear it higher than other suits. He had to make sure he could do flip turns as normal. But I think he was more than happy with the results. The suit was more than likely a part of that.
