What's happening with the HOGS this week?

Red/White meet and other news

This has been a week dedicated to preparation for the first few meets. In addition to the ongoing training, we have begun to concentrate on the small details of starts, turns and finishes. Our start work began with a discussion on the physics of the ideal start. We thenmove onto “trophy” starts in which we begin in the same position as most swimming trophies have the little swimmer in. Starting the arms from a back position allows a swimmer to gain a lot more momentum, height and distance during the early phases of learning a start. From the trophy start we then progress to both grab and relay starts. Throughout this whole process, we have an instant video playback which allows swimmers the opportunity to analyze every aspect of their start. Our turn work mostly consists of breaking down the open start into pieces and practicing each part. Finally, finishes get a lot of our attention as they come at the most crucial time of the race. However, finishes can also play a major role in relay exchanges. Poor finishes are the main reason for false starts in relays. Thus we really highlight learning to hit the wall consistently especially in breaststroke and butterfly.

Despite the fact that Diving Coach Scott Reich only allows his athletes to learn new dives when they have mastered every fundamental skill, the divers have been continuing to impress with the speed in which they are learning big dives. They are working hard and the results are paying off.

Saturday was our Red/White intra-squad meet. This is always a great opportunity to evaluate where we stand and have a lot of fun. We certainly did both! The red “devils” and white “fright” both put together the best possible line-up and in the end we had a 52-52 tie (results). Overall we were very pleased with the results and look forward to beginning the regular meet season.

Last weekend Fayetteville was host to a huge motorcycle rally. Over 200,000 people and 75,000 bikes roll into town for a weekend of music, food, and showing off their bikes. Even though I don’t believe that any team member owns a motorcycle, most of us went to Dickson street to check it out. Bikes, Blues and BBQ is just one of the many festivals that Fayetteville hosts throughout the year. Although campus life is great, it’s really special to have such a vibrant community life to enjoy as well.

Next week we are going to continue training with increasing emphasis on race preparation. We feel that we have done a great job thus far with the training and have been encouraged by our Red/White results. The upcoming meets are going to be exciting and we are confident that our team is ready.

Personal Notes:

Coaches Anne Goodman James and Benji DeMotte are traveling to Indianapolis to see World Championships.

Check back next week to see what’s happening with the H2OGS!