We went 4x200 Fly from a dive on Wednesday. As I'm sure all the athletes will agree, it was a fun set!
We lined up in order of 100 SCY Fly best times (we used 100s instead of 200s because I thought it would be more competitive). So the top 6 100 Flyers were in the first heat, then the next 6 were in heat two, and so on.
The most fun was had during the third round. We issued a challenge: the top 2 athletes in each heat didn't have to do the final (4th) 200 Fly. We saw people step up and challenge for the top two spots, and we also saw people fall apart and fade back on the third round. So, while some athletes went 2-4 seconds faster (perhaps they saw they were close to moving into the top 2), we had other athletes go 2-6 seconds slower (their fatigue, coupled with their lack of motivation to get into the top 2). It was a wild round!
I'm not going to post all of our times. Our top boys were Rip, Jack, Shawn, and Cole. Rip went 2:00 3 times as our top performer. Our top girls were Karen and Bean. Biggest step-ups in the set probably came from these people, as well as Emma and Allie M….Emma had been going 217s (PR is 209), and Allie had been going 221s-222s. Allie stepped up and challenged Emma for the 2nd place in the heat on Round 3….getting out fast and working the walls. Emma responded and closed the gap. With 4-5 athletes trying to call a winner (and me), we couldn't do it…it was a tie at the end. They both ended up going 213 or 214 (I can't remember). I liked the fact that Allie took it out and swam with a focus on being great and knocking off a member of our Junior Nat team. Emma, to her credit, was able to respond in a positive way; after being a body-length behind she was able to come back and at least get the tie. Both athletes had to go through the process of elevating their own personal self-belief…and then put that self-belief into action.
This self-talk practice, and this practice of the ability to "DEAL" is more important that "what we did for practice"!!
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