Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Correction to Yesterday's post and other stuff



I would like to make a correction to yesterday's blog. How could I forget ROMANA MATTHEWS of Laureintian University who is another GDHS alumni swimming in University. Romana will actually be competing with an HHBF cap this season post University competition. I hope that I made this correction before she noticed. So to recap, there are currently 2 swimmers from GDHS Rebels swimming at University, not 1 as I posted yesterday. Sorry, Romana!

Last night, former National Team member and one of the fastest breaststrokers in Canadian history, Jen Noddle, came to visit our Gold group to share some knowlege with them about breaststroke. I feel that her visit went very well. Although less meterage than normal, Jen spent lots on time on body position and teaching. The girls in the Gold group were especially engaged and I think that the group in general learned something. I was happy to have Jen Noddle in especially since I could not get the Gold group to meet with Jen Button on Saturday. I will continue to draw on my network of resources to keep these swimmers exposed to new visitors, ideas, drills and techniques as often as possible. I just don't want to drain my resources too early in the season.

The Video of the day is one that was sent to me by Kyle Haas earlier this week. Kyle asks if the swimmer in the video (listed as Hill Taylor on You Tube) is faster than Ryan Lochte. My imediate answer is no. The video I posted a couple of weeks ago of Ryan doing 50 dolphin kick underwater was done at a swim clinic in California. Ryan was likely not well rested (he has a reputation as a bit of a party animal) and was asked with no prep to demonstrate how fast he could kick 50 underwater. 25.01 seconds with no prep is VERY good! Hill Taylor kicks it in 23.10 in this video during a LC University meet (it looks like in the southern USA). So is Hill Taylor faster?

Does it matter? Have you ever heard of Hill Taylor? How many world records does he hold? He was obviously fast enough to make the final of 50BK at a University meet, but his prelim time was only 28.43. Kyle Haas, on paper, you are faster. Ryan Locte, on the other hand, holds the WR for 200IM LC and has held both IMs and both BK events SC. So I defend that Ryan Lochte has nothing to worry about from Hill Taylor (based on this video).

As I have mentioned several times this season, the fastest people in the world are getting faster by mastering underwater dolphin kick. Lots of people have gotten very good at it. Maybe rules should be put in place for it and it should be considered an event. Can you imagine the level of difficulty of a LC 100m underwater dolphin kick? Obviously a WR at this point would be silly because there are no rules. Hill Taylor rolls (did I spell that one right, Lori?) onto his stomach before he finishes which, in my book, should be against the rules for that event. Butterfly came to be a stroke as a variation of breaststroke, so maybe this is the new event. What do you think? Email me... not that I can make it happen or anything... Just want to know what you think.

In the mean time, enjoy the video below. DQ or not, it is very cool to watch.