Race Club Article

Originally posted by craiglll@yahoo.com The age groupers who I see at the Y where I swim seem to me not to swim enough. They work on starts and sprinting every day for at least 20 minutes. Some are really strong. That seems to me to be too much time for starts. But they seem to win. Those kids get to high school and do really well for our area (in western Illinois, basketball rules). The girls have sort of slacked recently but the boys have been undefeated in conference for 3 1/2 yrs. However, not many go to state- 2 or 3 boys. How many yards to swim is such a big, cloudy area. The boys high school coach is really rougfh. The girls coach is also the head coach of age groupers. ] Craig, not sure your Y program is a typical view of USS swimming. Since we have had swimmers come from your Y over to your team, I am somewhat familiar with the YMCA only swimming in our district. Many of the YMCA only swimming focuses totally on sprinting, because especially at the younger ages, that is all there is. The swimmers that have moved to our area, and swum with our YMCA/USA team are sadly behind. They may have as much talent, but because of the focus on all sprint, they cannot keep up in practice. If they stick with it, over time, they get better and keep up. That is why even though they do well in their area conference, once you get to the big state picture, they cannot compete with the swimmers who have put in the mileage. There was some extremely talented boys in last years and this years senior class. I am familiar with them, because the head to head competition with our boys(one of which was my son), and them through the years has been fun. But overall, that area of the state is weak in swimming and the HS sectional is known to be one of the easier ones.

Originally posted by craiglll@yahoo.com The age groupers who I see at the Y where I swim seem to me not to swim enough. They work on starts and sprinting every day for at least 20 minutes. Some are really strong. That seems to me to be too much time for starts. But they seem to win. Those kids get to high school and do really well for our area (in western Illinois, basketball rules). The girls have sort of slacked recently but the boys have been undefeated in conference for 3 1/2 yrs. However, not many go to state- 2 or 3 boys. How many yards to swim is such a big, cloudy area. The boys high school coach is really rougfh. The girls coach is also the head coach of age groupers. ] Craig, not sure your Y program is a typical view of USS swimming. Since we have had swimmers come from your Y over to your team, I am somewhat familiar with the YMCA only swimming in our district. Many of the YMCA only swimming focuses totally on sprinting, because especially at the younger ages, that is all there is. The swimmers that have moved to our area, and swum with our YMCA/USA team are sadly behind. They may have as much talent, but because of the focus on all sprint, they cannot keep up in practice. If they stick with it, over time, they get better and keep up. That is why even though they do well in their area conference, once you get to the big state picture, they cannot compete with the swimmers who have put in the mileage. There was some extremely talented boys in last years and this years senior class. I am familiar with them, because the head to head competition with our boys(one of which was my son), and them through the years has been fun. But overall, that area of the state is weak in swimming and the HS sectional is known to be one of the easier ones.