9 LONG hours later...
It was the longest swim meet I've ever been too. 9 hours is WAY TOO LONG! A and I were there the whole time. M and D managed to only be there 7.5 hours. We're not doing this again! Either we will split up the kids and each of us adults will go with one kid to watch/help and then go home or we will arrange to be gone or something.
I was miserable. It was hot - no AC in the gym (where we were supposed to be hanging out) or in the pool area. The meet also ran overtime, big time. We should have been done by 7:30-8pm, instead we were there until 10pm. Ugh. I can't remember the last time I felt that miserable without actually being in pain.
The head of the team begs everyone to be there - we need all the swimmers, you're all important, etc. We want the team to do really well, win the county meet - but then they sabotage themselves by making sure every kid is in a relay. If they really want to win, then put together the best relays possible for this meet. They sabotaged some kids chances (albeit not very good chances, looking at their previous best times) at individual events by swimming them up so many age groups in a relay that they got out of the pool and didn't even have time to leave the pool deck before swimming again. A relay with 3 eleven year olds and one 16 yo is not going to be competitive with four 15-18 yos. Not gonna happen.
A did manage to improve his time in the long free (2 lengths of the pool). But it still didn't put him close to the top 8 places (which all get ribbons).
M had a good chance of placing in butterfly. There were 10 swimmers entered and one didn't show up, so 9 entrants, with 8 ribboning. M managed to swim faster than his best time and came in 7th, but he didn't manage to do it with a legal stroke, so he doesn't get the best time or the ribbon and points for 7th. He was doing a breaststroke kick (frog kick) instead of a butterfly kick (dolphin kick). M swears he wasn't, but I saw it and more importantly, the stroke-and-turn judge saw it.
What the kids spent most of their hours doing:
Hanging out in the hot gym
Waiting to be seated for their next swim (often immediately after finishing one race)
Reading - A
playing on the DS - M
(photos if Blogger ever cooperates)
Team party tomorrow. Might help to end the season on a better note.
I was miserable. It was hot - no AC in the gym (where we were supposed to be hanging out) or in the pool area. The meet also ran overtime, big time. We should have been done by 7:30-8pm, instead we were there until 10pm. Ugh. I can't remember the last time I felt that miserable without actually being in pain.
The head of the team begs everyone to be there - we need all the swimmers, you're all important, etc. We want the team to do really well, win the county meet - but then they sabotage themselves by making sure every kid is in a relay. If they really want to win, then put together the best relays possible for this meet. They sabotaged some kids chances (albeit not very good chances, looking at their previous best times) at individual events by swimming them up so many age groups in a relay that they got out of the pool and didn't even have time to leave the pool deck before swimming again. A relay with 3 eleven year olds and one 16 yo is not going to be competitive with four 15-18 yos. Not gonna happen.
A did manage to improve his time in the long free (2 lengths of the pool). But it still didn't put him close to the top 8 places (which all get ribbons).
M had a good chance of placing in butterfly. There were 10 swimmers entered and one didn't show up, so 9 entrants, with 8 ribboning. M managed to swim faster than his best time and came in 7th, but he didn't manage to do it with a legal stroke, so he doesn't get the best time or the ribbon and points for 7th. He was doing a breaststroke kick (frog kick) instead of a butterfly kick (dolphin kick). M swears he wasn't, but I saw it and more importantly, the stroke-and-turn judge saw it.
What the kids spent most of their hours doing:
Hanging out in the hot gym
Waiting to be seated for their next swim (often immediately after finishing one race)
Reading - A
playing on the DS - M
(photos if Blogger ever cooperates)
Team party tomorrow. Might help to end the season on a better note.
Labels: swimming
posted by owlfan at 10:30 PM
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