Blog 2763: Open Meet Round Up

A superb weekend of swimming for Long Eaton SC saw club records fall, regional times gained and Esther Halford qualify for Olympic Trials on the 400fr. What also impressed me was the understanding swimmers are developing for processes and outcomes and the professional manor they are starting to handle themselves with, even after a long day staying and warming down properly. Little things like this will make massive differences further down the line. The understanding of doing things right is great and learning valuable lessons like - when their swims are, is so important, so they can warm down, recover, refuel and be ready to go again in time! With this knowledge and development swimmers saw in Esthers swim the long term outcome of the way we do things at Long Eaton. We follow a pathway to performance and do not rush to get easy early success. Swimmers trusted in swim processes like number of fly kicks off the wall, number of breaths on a 50, holding stroke skills etc to post some very impressive Long Course times, many of which were the first Long Course open meet swims since May last year, realising that when these skills are set in stone outcomes will be easy to come by. The difference between Long Course swimming and Short Course swimming is massive, and after having a successful Short Course season swimmers have to effectively re learn how to race. Conversion times are a only a rough guide and are not that accurate. For Example Katinka Hosszu the womens 400IM world record holder Short Course in 4:19 has not been under 4:30 Long Course however her converted time is 4:25.7. Also pleasing was the manner in which the parents poolside handled themselves and learnt about the process procedure supporting their children and encouraging them not worry about the clock but how they swam. Now only if those parents would wear Orange tops and "bleed orange", just like the Stealers fans!!!!!!!! sorry Duanne and Russell couldnt resist.