Already? And it's only August 6th? Too bad, it's over.
So, this.
It doesn't help that the typically oppressively hot and swamp-like summer climate of northern Virginia have recently given way to less humid, cooler, and (today) overcast and stormy conditions.
And last Saturday marked the official end of the Northern Virginia Swimming League summer season with the individual all-stars meet, held in Annandale, VA.
A little bit more about all-stars:
In order to be invited to the all-star meet, swimmers must compete the week before in their respective divisional championship meets. Based on those swims (each swimmer is allowed two events), only the swimmers with the top 18 times (plus two alternates) in each event -- from all 17 divisions -- are called up to swim at all-stars.
So regardless of how well you've done all season, or whether or not you even raced all season, it only matters how you perform at divisionals. No pressure, right?
My team had a decent divisional meet, and we ended up with a dozen swimmers making it to all-stars. Not a bad showing. And a number of those swimmers didn't even swim their best times, leaving room for improvement at the more competitive all-star meet.
As for the all-star meet itself: It was, like any culminating event, a mixed bag. The weather was an icky summery melange of cool rain, stuffy clouds and patchy sunshine. For a time it looked like there might be a complete rain-out -- the accelerated pattering of drops on the pool during the singing of the National Anthem reminded me of the sustained drumroll that sometimes accompanies the song in other settings.
Not many of my swimmers managed best times, unfortunately. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly why.
Possible coach-blaming explanations could be: insufficient aerobic training over the course of the season, insufficient sprint training the week leading up to the final meet, insufficient warming-up the day of the meet, or insufficient final pep talks immediately before the event.
But we're only talking about 50-100-meter swims. So again, it's hard to make a strong case for any of those; I felt confident about my physical and mental preparation.
Though could I have done a better job coaching them, in general? Probably. This was my first season being the head coach of anything, so I'll humbly admit there's plenty of room for improvement. But I think the outcome of all-stars, relative to the ups and downs of posted times over the course of the summer, also speaks to the unpredictability of summer league swimming.
I hadn't even seen several of my all-star swimmers the week of practice leading up to the meet, much less the rest of the season. They were practicing with their year-round club team. And that's completely understandable: Generally, their regular coaches are probably able to give them better workouts than the (pardon the pun) watered down, one size-fits-most sets I am basically forced to run.
But my influence over these swimmers' race-day outcome is limited to one day, out of a possible six. Not much time for me to feel terribly responsible for their times, fast or slow.
And then we're also talking about the mental fortitude of 7-15-year-old boys and girls. Not that they aren't mentally tough, but it's not difficult for any number of influences to distract their focus or competitive drive. Friends, crowded warm-ups, a little water leaking into their goggles, etc. And some kids just don't lock in for meets. Some kids would just rather be somewhere else, doing something else. Welcome to summer league.
But the meet came and went, just like the summer. Now I have no one to coach until September, when I'll be working as a regular coach with a large group of 13-18-year-olds in a competitive program at a year-round club. Exciting. Anticipation. What now?
Perhaps a few entries about swimming masters? Seems likely. LIS out.
