Did anyone see some of the swimmers with the long backstroke flipturn. Some of these guys are on their stomach for quite a while. Yes, it was one continuous motion but man, was it long. I saw Coventry do that.
In practice I am often guilty of this, since I am hellbent on maintaining the target stroke count (9 or less) no matter what. But preparing for competition I am very paranoid - when I do starts & sprints in warmups, I do backstroke sprint lengths all the way through the flip to verify that I know exactly where the wall is and that I'm turning at the right time. Every pool is supposed to be the same regarding flag distance/height, but none of them actually are, in my experience. Then in the races it is always an adventure, fearing the DQ that has yet to come...
Yeah, Santa Clara is such a small Club. A small club don't even have their own pool, let alone a 9 lane 50 Meter pool.
Pretty sure the pool is owned by the city of Santa Clara, not SCSC.
Correct. (I used to swim there)
Good to know. I think that there are two 50 meter pools that the city owns in PA(Eastern side). I think that Philly owns the Kelly Drive pool and the town of Ephrata runs a 50 meter pool as well. Other than that, every other long course(of lack there of) are private. But, these pools are no where near the caliber of the Santa Clara pool.
In warmup, I just do some practice turns to make to verify the flag to the wall stroke count right before the warmup ends. I have done that since forever.
Right, I do that prior to sprint lanes opening up, and then once sprint lanes are open, I do some backstroke sprint 25's at race pace to make sure I've got it right. Those sprints also ensure that my starts are good to go using what might be unfamiliar blocks. BTW, on backstroke starts, I follow Ande's awesome tip of holding my legs at a 90 degree angle. I don't know why it works, but I rip every entry so I'm just going to keep doing it... (thanks Ande :))
He also likes to get his blood taken, like two or three times after his races, all of them before, between, or after warmdowns (something I didn't notice about practically every other one of the swimmers).
That was probably lactate testing to help determine how much warmdown was needed after his races. He and his coaches rely on it to help provide a more accurate indication for the length of time required. I heard that after the 400, they eventually gave up on his warmdown, and he got out, as his lactate level plateaued and wasn't coming down to normal/acceptable levels.
I think the wind might have thrown people off at Santa Clara. The wind can really make the flags bow out and swimmers in the middle of the pool probably found themselves farther from the wall on backstroke than they thought they'd be.
In practice I am often guilty of this, since I am hellbent on maintaining the target stroke count (9 or less) no matter what. But preparing for competition I am very paranoid - when I do starts & sprints in warmups, I do backstroke sprint lengths all the way through the flip to verify that I know exactly where the wall is and that I'm turning at the right time. Every pool is supposed to be the same regarding flag distance/height, but none of them actually are, in my experience. Then in the races it is always an adventure, fearing the DQ that has yet to come...
In warmup, I just do some practice turns to make to verify the flag to the wall stroke count right before the warmup ends. I have done that since forever.
there were some truly impressive swims, I enjoyed following the meet & really look forward to World Championship Trials It's 2 weeks away.
Wonder what surprises are in store?
