Six months ago I decided to take a shot at a top ten time (my first) for the 400 free. Historically, a 4:48 has always been fast enough in my new age group (50-54), but my best time in Masters was a 4:59 from three years ago. So I decided to focus on that one event. I trained hard, bought a Blue 70, and hit my taper just right. In the end I swam what I thought was a perfect race and finished in 4:47.73, beating one of my training partners by seven seconds. And then I waited to see if the time would hold up.
As it turns out, it didn't. With the results from Long Beach, I will end the season ranked no higher than 11th. As the saying goes, the journey is the destination. But I really wanted one of those patches.
I'm still kind of new to the "Event Rankings" and this group...
I coach masters swimming in SoCal and attempt to regularly encourage any and all of our cruiser and new swimmers to join us at masters meets. At Long Beach, we had 103 swimmers out to participate and last spring we brought 119 to the SC Regionals.
(the secret is convincing them that a swim meet is just a big social event and that isn't hard to do since it really can be fun)
This Event Rankings system has been a huge motivator for all levels of our swimmers.
One story goes - a very new 30-34 year old woman swam her 1st SCM meet this Fall. She very nervous and inexperienced on the blocks for the 200 free. Got a little embarrassed and started VERY late after the gun went off. But afterall, her time ranked 19th in the USA after that weekend!
This girl was SO inspired... she fell in love with swimming over night and has been working very hard in practices since.
She understands that the ranking will not hold that high by the end of the season, but she has been thrilled at watching her progress.
We have swimmers who watch the rankings every day as well. I have actually been surprised that many swimmers tell me they already know about their ranking when I point it out to them!
Be sure your team mates know about it.
This is really a cool service for our members - thanks USMS!
Ahelee
I'm still kind of new to the "Event Rankings" and this group...
I coach masters swimming in SoCal and attempt to regularly encourage any and all of our cruiser and new swimmers to join us at masters meets. At Long Beach, we had 103 swimmers out to participate and last spring we brought 119 to the SC Regionals.
(the secret is convincing them that a swim meet is just a big social event and that isn't hard to do since it really can be fun)
This Event Rankings system has been a huge motivator for all levels of our swimmers.
One story goes - a very new 30-34 year old woman swam her 1st SCM meet this Fall. She very nervous and inexperienced on the blocks for the 200 free. Got a little embarrassed and started VERY late after the gun went off. But afterall, her time ranked 19th in the USA after that weekend!
This girl was SO inspired... she fell in love with swimming over night and has been working very hard in practices since.
She understands that the ranking will not hold that high by the end of the season, but she has been thrilled at watching her progress.
We have swimmers who watch the rankings every day as well. I have actually been surprised that many swimmers tell me they already know about their ranking when I point it out to them!
Be sure your team mates know about it.
This is really a cool service for our members - thanks USMS!
Ahelee
