2012 2011 USA Swimming Grand Prix Meets

There were some great swims both in Austin and Santa Clara, but I find myself questioning the wisdom of splitting our best swimmers between two meets in the final runup to trials. Especially with the foreign stalwarts who showed up in Santa Clara. Duel IN the pool makes sense; duel OUTSIDE the pool (by meet organizers) doesn't seem to make much sense for the swimmers. As an example, our freestylers should be facing Park Tae-Hwan every chance they get. His 400fr time in Santa Clara was over six seconds faster than the Austin winner. His 200fr victory was more than three seconds faster. In fact, the winner of the M200fr in Austin would have placed something like seventh in the Santa Clara final. Breaststrokers should also never miss an opportunity to face down Kitajima, especially right before the Olympics. Even Phelps' 200fl time was bested by Matsuda in Santa Clara (although I think his time got DQ'd later for some reason). Great swims in both meets, but USA-S should get their arms around this one. Don't think it really matters, Santa Clara GP & Austin Elite Invite were just tune ups for trials. Some swimmers didn't want to travel to Cali or swim in an outdoor pool. You can bet your britches there's going to be some very fast practice swims as those going to trials fine tune, taper, & prepare to race. Our best swimmers can watch race vids of Great swimmers like Park, Sun Yang, & Kitajima. They can do race and split analysis to know what to expect. Like Park has a tremedous kick, he's likely to even split his 200 & 400 and has the ability to go 53 on his last 100 in his 4 fr & maybe 52 on his 2nd 100 of his 2. The work and ability development needed to be done months ago. Now it's time for USA OT qualifiers to get ready to rumble at TRIALS Days Till Then those fortunate qualifiers will get ready to really rumble at the Games

There were some great swims both in Austin and Santa Clara, but I find myself questioning the wisdom of splitting our best swimmers between two meets in the final runup to trials. Especially with the foreign stalwarts who showed up in Santa Clara. Duel IN the pool makes sense; duel OUTSIDE the pool (by meet organizers) doesn't seem to make much sense for the swimmers. As an example, our freestylers should be facing Park Tae-Hwan every chance they get. His 400fr time in Santa Clara was over six seconds faster than the Austin winner. His 200fr victory was more than three seconds faster. In fact, the winner of the M200fr in Austin would have placed something like seventh in the Santa Clara final. Breaststrokers should also never miss an opportunity to face down Kitajima, especially right before the Olympics. Even Phelps' 200fl time was bested by Matsuda in Santa Clara (although I think his time got DQ'd later for some reason). Great swims in both meets, but USA-S should get their arms around this one. Don't think it really matters, Santa Clara GP & Austin Elite Invite were just tune ups for trials. Some swimmers didn't want to travel to Cali or swim in an outdoor pool. You can bet your britches there's going to be some very fast practice swims as those going to trials fine tune, taper, & prepare to race. Our best swimmers can watch race vids of Great swimmers like Park, Sun Yang, & Kitajima. They can do race and split analysis to know what to expect. Like Park has a tremedous kick, he's likely to even split his 200 & 400 and has the ability to go 53 on his last 100 in his 4 fr & maybe 52 on his 2nd 100 of his 2. The work and ability development needed to be done months ago. Now it's time for USA OT qualifiers to get ready to rumble at TRIALS Days Till Then those fortunate qualifiers will get ready to really rumble at the Games