SC Season Wrap Up

A pretty good finish to the 2011 SC Provincial Championships in Ottawa, ON. Sunday started with an okay 100BR from Aaron Brautigam, but a new club record from Kyle Haas in the same event. John Nucomb’s old club record of 1:10.94 had been replaced with Kyle’s new time of 1:10.36 (which also got him 5th seed into finals). An equal to PB for Mitchell Krafczek in 200BK (he finished 9th overall). Kyle dragged through the event but was still able to wrangle 3rd seed into finals that night (2:12.13). Trevor Burwell’s 800 was about 8 seconds away from his previous best and club record, while Elizabeth Skuriat removed 2 seconds from her’s (new club record of 4:39.26). She finished 34th.

Bjoern-Ole Schrader began the afternoon for the 13 and unders. His 200BK was about .5 seconds better than his previous best. He finished 13th. Nolan Haas finished his weekend with a 10 second PB in 100BR (1:22.35, and less than 1 second off of the club record). He finished 12th overall. Britney Dortona had a 1.5second PB in her 400FR, finishing a great weekend with a 14th place finish. Keri-Lyn Copeland was off of her best and finished 17th.

The evening started well. Kyle was in 2 finals and stood to possibly medal in both. 100BR was going to be a tough field (especially in an off event) and it would be the first head to head match up between Kyle and his adversary, Daniel Kuiak of Milton (by way of another team). There was only going to be about 15min between 100BR and 200BK so it was going to be a very tough performance. It was strategy time.

Obviously I am not going to detail our strategy for that duo of races, but I will describe the sequence of events that ended with a fist pump and a hard high five.
• 100BR was a tough field. Kyle was out under current SC club record in 50BR (32.20, unofficial record by almost a full second) and was physically exhausted in his arms by the end. Kyle finished in 5th place with a new club record of 1:08.14.
• He was tired and I could tell that 200BK was not on his list of things that he wanted to do next, but he also knew that he needed a good time in the event going forward. Quick warm down, followed by a refresher on key strategic points, quick pep talk and back behind the blocks to face off against his rivals.
• The 200 started well. Kyle in lane 3, Brandon Bronson from OSHAC in lane 4 (#1 seed) and Daniel Kuiak of MMST in lane 5 (#2 seed). Daniel and Kyle lead the first 50 together; Daniel had a slight lead which built on the entire field up to about 135m. Kyle’s 3rd 50 was what we expected, but I did not expect what was coming next. With Daniel leading by about a second at the 150 wall, Kyle burst off of the 150 wall, tightened his core and sped up his stroke rate, quickly gaining on Daniel (remember that Daniel was 2 lanes over and over a second ahead, he did not see Kyle coming). At the 175 wall, both turn at the same time, Kyle gets off the wall first, Daniel sees and there is very little he can do, as Kyle has a very strong underwater kick off the wall. With a little under 20m left, Kyle keeps steady, strokes hard and finishes in first. 2:06.34, new club record and his 4th gold medal of the weekend.

This event hammered his and our presence home for the weekend. We beat Milton at Halton Cup. We had already beaten Milton on the weekend at Provincials and now he had risen from the ashes to beat them head to head… because twice is never enough. HHBF finished in 28th place which is very good considering that we were missing Karl Massey and Matt Fox, both major contributors. MMST finished 37th. A grand total of 92teams were present and only 73 of them scored. There are 144 teams in Ontario.

The fact that Kyle finished out the weekend in this fashion really speaks volumes about the character that I am trying to develop in this club. I’ve said several times in the past: “Good enough is not good enough”. Had we decided that we couldn’t beat a rival who was significantly ahead of our best time in that event, or that we were not competitive enough to race the 100BR to our full capacity, we would have made a totally different statement: “Meh, whatever”. I rarely hear champions say that. Had you all seen the teams vying to beat other teams, thoughts like “meh, whatever” wouldn’t have entered your mind.

This is a good time for reflection, as the season is half way done. HHBF did some remarkable things so far this season and in the last 2.5 that I’ve been at the hull. I’m pretty impressed by that. The thing that still concerns me is the the sense of accomplishment before we actually have done anything. Sometimes when it's time to do something, a defeatist attitude seems to hold us back from being as good as we can be (this meet is really fast, I can't beat these guys). Other times we think we're working hard... until we see how hard others are working. I love that everyone is excited to be a Blue Fin. That was step 1. Step 2 is to make everyone have pride in what they’re doing and what being a Blue Fin represents.

Yes, being a regional qualifier is pretty good. Yes, being a provincial qualifier is pretty good. Yes, qualifying for anything is pretty good I guess… but are you a participant or a competitor at those meets? Our team needs more competitors.

- Competitors are fierce: they don’t skip a morning because they stayed up too late playing video games. They don’t back off because they’re afraid that something will be hard or uncomfortable.

- Competitors make decisions: they understand the relationship between risk and reward (I may not be able to play on that other team in order to be as good as I want to be in the water. I may not be able to do that thing on the weekend because it will interfere with my training). How much have you already missed? How much have your competitors missed?

- Competitors challenge others: They encourage their team mates to be better than they are. They stand in the way of their team mates and failure. That is to say: they don’t let their team mates fail… not even in practices.

- Competitors take responsibility: They know how much their team mates count of them and take that responsibility seriously.

- Competitors are interested: Rarely are they not watching what’s going on in the pool or with their team mates when they are around them.

- Competitors are proud of what they represent: There is no shame in being proud of what you do. There is no shame in working hard. There is no shame in our club.

I think it is time to remember how far we have come and what we have done. March is a rough time of year when you may be questioning your own motivation or wondering where you go from here. This is my challenge to you:

BECOME A COMPETITOR. You can make a difference in the atmosphere in the club and the athletes around you. Being quiet and waiting for things to happen is not a competitive attitude.
BE A BLUE FIN. Its not just a thing you do for a few hours/week: There is pride in wearing the Fin. Its who you are.
LIVE IT. Don’t just swim, be a swimmer.

One by One the 27 teams ahead of us will start taking note of what HHBF is capable of. I watched 8 teams in the top 20 overachieve this weekend, simply because they believed that they were good. Those teams are full of competitors. We’d better start stocking up on competitors too.


Love this video! Perhaps enough to start buying Nike products again...

Almost there

Another successful HHBF day!

Congrats, everyone on winning the Halton Cup! A huge statement by our club and thank you to everyone involved! Great work, you've all made me very proud. We still need to win the second session in June but its obtainable, especially with the lead you racked up today. Way to go bluefins!

Today in Ottawa was more of the same. Some great races and some less than spectacular ones.

Mitchell and Trevor were less than a second away from their best 100fr times. Kyle shattered Trevor Burwell's 3 week only club record in 100fr by 1.39 seconds and was going into finals first with a time of 53.70.

The 400fr races were a little weaker than I would have expected. Aaron Brautigam was about .4 seconds from his best 200im.

Elizabeth Skuriat was heroic in her 800 bettering her best time and club record by more than a second, but also placing top 25 in a bonus event. New club record of 9:31.80.

This afternoon also saw Bjoern-ole Schrader better his own club record in 200fly by 2 seconds and finish 10th. New club record of 2:40.03. His 200im was right on top of his best. It was a great day for him!

Nolan Haas just missed a second medal in 100fr clocking 1:01.48. Best time by 3.5 seconds, and good for 4th place. Very solid.

Keri-lyn Copeland was a little off in her 100fr and finished 10th. Britney Dortona was right on her pb of 1:09 in 100fr. Both are pretty focused on 400fr tomorrow. Expect to hear good things about that race tomorrow.

Kyle Haas entered finals with a mission: win 100fr! We were spured on by some negative talk from a rival Coach and decided that this one was his. Kyle led at the 50 wall with a split of 25.06 and turned uncontested. He finished 1st by 0.70 seconds with a final time and new club record of 52.38. GREAT race for Kyle and fantastic representation from HHBF. Thank you to those of you who were able to come back to watch. Your support was appreciated. Remember: no one stands on the podium alone!

1 more day and tomorrow is going to be a long one for me. I'll do my best to update, but it'll be tough. Hopefully I'll have time.

Congrats again, see you soon!

Mike

Provinicals Day 2

Pretty good follow up to day 1. 2 medals, 2 club records and 4 top 8 finishes.

Kyle's rival was dqed in 100bk which left the door open for his second gold medal of the weekend. Kyle won in 58.02, a new club record and back on track in bk speed. Mitchell krafczek's 100bk started out great but finished out a little bit rough and he was just off of his best. He finished 13th of 23.

200br was not a great showing for us, sadly so I'll skip over that one.

Britney Dortona started the afternoon by being right on top of her best and finishing 15th. Keri-Lyn followed that up with a 7th place finish and pb (29.25).

Nolan fought and raced to a bronze medal in his first ever provincials AND a thrilling race! Nolan's time was 27.94 which is just shy of the club record, but it was an incredible race when you see that he was much smaller than the 2 who beat him, which means that he actually had to swim faster! Well done! Update: video of Nolan's medal presentation can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-C3mKShxos&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Keri-Lyn Copeland then had one of the toughest races of the meet in 200fr. She lead out in 30 seconds, then hit 105.02 at the 100 mark, right on target. She turned 1st at the 150 wall and tried to hang on for dear life to the finish, but was out touched to 4th place. A heart breaking finish to a great race, but I wouldn't be any prouder if she medaled. She owned that race and made the top seeds challenge her for it. I loved that race so much and keri-lyn's spirit in it. She finished 4th with a new club record of 2:15.24, breaking Tasha Truscott, old club record of 2:16.15. I'm very proud of her!

All in all a great day 2. Lots more great races today tomorrow and sunday. Stay tuned.

Good luck at Halton Cup tomorrow, everyone. We're all counting on you and will be keeping tabs on results.

Mike

Wow

Wow what a day. 4 club records, a gold medal and numerous top 8 finishes. Kyle Haas repeats as short course 50fr provincial champion (24.15). Also killed the 4 week old club record in 200fr (1:56.23) and finished 5th. Both were new club records.

Nolan Haas was 7th in 100bk (1:11.12) and 5th in 100fly (1:10.05 - new club record). Some good competition between Bjoern and Nolan in these events. Nice to have 2 of the fastest in the province on our side. 

Keri-lyn Copeland gave the field a 2 second head start in 100bk and still equaled her best time. In actuality she missed the start, but it wasn't the only official error today. She made up for it in the 800 where she beat her best time by about 10 seconds and set a new club record of 9:55.44 (8th place).

Britney Dortona had an OUTSTANDING first race at provincials! I love the fact that she is a racing machine and shows no emotion; no excitement, no nerves, just calm. Love it! She stuck it to the other 11 year old girls and took about 23 seconds off of her 800 (10:38.24) and finished up in 9th place. Excellent first race, especially since she was seeded second last. Remember her name because she is going to be good. 

Elizabeth had a best time in her 100bk and was around 3 seconds slower than she was last weekend at Easterns in the mile where she finished 11th (this was her 4th 1500 in 6 weeks, they can't all be brilliant). 

Aaron finished 50fr .3 away from his best. I'm pretty excited to see his 200br tomorrow. 

Mitchell arrived tonight and looked great in the water. I'm excited to see him race tomorrow. 

All in all a GREAT representation by our club on day 1. Let's not forget that this is a representation of you and that no one stands alone on a podium: you are all a part of this. Keep tuned for updates throughout the weekend. Live results are available at http://www.swimnkb.com/html/index.php.

Thought for tonight

This is in a book I just finished reading. I found it quite poignant.

When I was a child, trees were trees, rivers were rivers and mountains were mountains.

When I grew up, trees were no longer trees, rivers were no longer rivers and mountains were no longer mountains.

Now, as an adult, trees are once again trees, rivers are rivers and mountains are mountains once again.

~ Zen poem, author unknown

Championship Season: going pretty well

A proud moment for HHBF:

After a rough week and not knowing what to expect on Sunday night, I was releived and very happy to see Kyle arrive for warmup ready to race. I, admitadly, wasn't fully sure what to expect at race time so I didn't record it: Mostly because I wanted to fully emerse myself in the moment. Kyle looked better than I had ever seen him before on the first 25 (split 13.11) and came off the wall without missing a beat. The finish was so fast and tight that I wasn't sure if he was going to steal the silver or finish 6th. Kyle was out-touched for the silver medal by 1 hundreth of a second, but still a very fast race (27.16) and I'll take a National Championship medal any day of the week. In hindsite, I wish I would have recorded the race. It really was great! Before sending him down to the blocks, prior to his race, the message was simple: "No one can make this meaningful for you or give you a reason. Find yourself and do it".

I was pretty happy watching the results from Central Region Team Champs in Etobicoke. I saw a lot of great results and, being the smallest of the medium teams, I think that we did quite well. As with Central Region Championships, We have a lot of athletes over qualified for this meet, so it is a much greater opportunity to swim fast than it is to win a championship. Well done by all involved! I know that this is a tough, confusing and long meet (especially for parents) but thanks for your patience through it. It builds great swimmers going forward.

The Halton Cup is this Saturday. Time for some redemption. Last year's Halton Cup left a sour taste in my mouth because I know that we are a better team. Being beat really stuck in my craw. This year, My message is simple: Be ready and be excited to RACE FAST. Best times will come when people stop focusing on time for a min and just race the field. It sounds silly, but sometimes its easy to forget that. JUST RACE!

I leave with 9 athletes to Ottawa this week for Provincials. The contest lasts from Thursday-Sunday and we stand to do well... possibly the best SC provincials team ever to go. Check the blog and my facebook page for daily (hopefuly) updates and real time results will be available @ http://www.swimnkb.com/html/index.php. These athletes are representing YOU at this meet, lets give them our full support.
Karl Massey and Matt Fox: We will miss you both; you both are a HUGE part of this team and we wont let you down.

When I return, I will be home for less than 48hours, then flying out to Indianapolis with some of the best athletes and coaches from Ontario. Check out the list: http://www.swimontario.com/page.php?id=2351. I'll make sure to take lots of video and pictures to keep you all posted.

See you soon.

Still @ Easterns

Yesterday was a rough day for me (personally) so I didn't post, sorry. Kyle was solo in the morning for his 100BK, where he unfortunately missed the finish and was 59.38. Still good enough to make it into finals 5th. 50FR was decent as well, 2nd fastest time ever and less than 3 tenths off of his best. He missed finals and ended up in 13th place. In finals, Kyle had a tough time finishing up the 100BK and finished in 7th @ 59.05, a little off of his best time.

Today, Elizabeth was within her best time for 100FR and a little off in 400FR (44th and 42nd) and Kyle's 200BK was pretty rough. He finished @ 17th with a time of 2:11.23. Kyle will return tomorrow night for finals of 50BK.

Overall things are not going bad. Its tough for these 2 to have very little team support and have to go it alone, but I applaud them for the experience that they're gaining from it. I'm pleased that HHBF has representation at this meet again (we have 4 swimmers qualified) because we spent a long stretch with no one. I'd rather have a rough time here, than not be able to be here. It is fortunate that this championship was close enough to home to be easily added to our meet schedule. In order to grow as a team and be competitive, we need opportunities like this (especially when we don't have to travel far).