What's happening with the HOGS this week?

Final weeks of preparation

This has been another week full of fantastic training. We are now only a week away from our first meet and we are really anxious to start competing. All of our training groups have been focusing on race preparation and we have been fine-tuning our starts, turns and finishes.

Our sprinters have been through a heavy week of high intensity training. Early in the week, theydida lot of lactate training complemented by time on the power rack. By the end of the week, they were pretty broken down but still swimming fast. Even as late as Saturday morning, they swam a very demanding lactate set and were still impressive.

The middle distance and IMers were also really pushed. They continued to emphasize goal-split training and are doing very well with that. We have given them a lot of work on turns with a concentration on underwater kicks and streamlines.

Distance continues to train some over-distance and pace work. They have begun to decrease the intervals for pace training while still maintaining the goal speed.

The divers have been finalizing their dual meet lists. They continue to amaze the entire coaching staff with their talent and incredible work ethic.

We are excited to welcome Drury University to the pool next week for our first meet. Last year, they were very impressive with multiple NCAA Div II qualifying swims early in the season. We expect them to be even stronger this year and look forward to an exciting meet.

On Sunday and Monday of this week, swim coaches Anne James and Benji DeMotte were fortunate enough to be in Indianapolis for the Short Course World Championships. It was an amazing meet in many ways. The pool itself was a big part of the whole experience. The meet organizers built two short course pools on the basketball floor of Conseco fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Pacers. They were able to complete construction of the temporary pools in only ten days. Finacorrectly assumed that the meet would draw more spectatorsthan any pool in the country could hold. Some of the individual sessions sold all 13,000 seats with a meet total of over 71,000! There were many incredible swims which culminated in 5 world records. Australian Brooke Hanson was the female swimmer of the meet as she set a new championship record with 6 gold medals! American Brendan Hansen was the male swimmer of the meet with three individual gold medals and a world record in the 400 medley relay.

The whole meet was an exciting event for the world of swimming. International attention to swimming peaks every Summer Olympics but seems to fade quickly. Coming off the strong performance of the American Olympic swimming team, FINA wisely decided to schedule this meet only 6 weeks later. The result was record attendance for a short course championship and unparalleled media coverage. On the final night of the meet, ESPN broadcast the meet live for the first time in their history. Hopefully this marks a new level of attention to our sport and everyone at the meet had to leave feeling very optimistic.

Personal notes:

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