As promised last week I have been working on a new bit for my blog and I've been thinking about doing this for a while now. If you follow me close on Facebook or Twitter you'll know I share A LOT of cool swim posts from sites like SwimSwam, Swimming World, Swimming Science and today I'm launching a new weekly segment where I'm posting my favorite links with a short bit on what I think of the topic. My goal is to have between 5-7 links for each week, now some may have less (like this 1st post for example) and my goal is to have this 'Links of the Week' posted every Monday to help kick start your week.
1. What I Learned on my way to Swimming 35,000 Meters Last Week
More and more swimmers need to start having fun and enjoying themselves more in workout as well at meets. As an 18 year old I know that the days of 'a best time' in every race are over, heck if I swim a 0.01 best time it's huge. The important thing here is to have a plan and stick to the plan, if your falling off your path you need to figure out how to get back on the path by conferencing with your parents, and as well talking to your coach, but most importantly having faith in you that everything will be alright.
2. Tech Suits Tech Suits Everywhere
Every meet I attend it's obvious nearly all swimmers are in $300 + suits for guys and $450 + suits for girls and I always wonder where is the line crossed? Is it really worth all the money for these expensive suits? I'm a true believer in certain suits really should only be worn by certain swimmers. For example, athletes that haven't made a 'National level time' (Eastern's Western's Olympic Trials Summer Nationals or Canadian Age Group Champs) then they really don't need a suit over $300 BUT of course if the athlete or the athlete's parents is willing to fork out the money for these expensive tech suits then be my guest and go for it but really it won't make you faster, instead boost your confidence.
3. Records Records Records
I always love reading and watching Canadian, Ontario, or Meet Records fall. It gives me as a swimmer motivation to swim faster and faster. Currently Swim ON has a lot of FAST up and coming swimmers that could very well be one's to keep our eyes on heading into the 2016 Olympic Trials. Penny Oleksiak at just 14 years of age is on fire breaking Canadian Records nearly every time she dives into a race. Javier Acevedo he may only have the 50 free 13-14 SCM National Age Group Record but this dude is getting closer and closer to those 15-17 National Age Group Records. I watched him swim at the Ontario Age Group Champs in Brantford back in March and his strokes are beautiful to sum them up in one word. This dude is a tough swimmer training through many meets most swimmers in this country would 'taper' for. With his Bronze medal performance at the 2015 Canadian Swimming Trials in the 100 free with a time of 49:85 and cracking the 50 second mark for the first time, like Oleksiak, Acevedo is one to watch this summer at the World Junior Championships as well next spring at the 2016 Canadian Olympic Trials. Finally, we have the 13-14 boys quad from the Markham Aquatic Club where they are breaking both Canadian Age Group Records and Ontario Records for relays. Now back in a previous blog post I talked about Time Trials being a waste for swimmers, BUT these four 13-14 year old boys are stepping up EVERY TIME they dive into the water trying to chase down a record and it's paying off for these four boys. Congrats to all these swimmers mentioned in this blog post. Swimmers like Oleksiak, Acevedo, and the Markham quad are what's shaping Ontario and Canadian swimming. Good luck at future meets and I look forward to reading about more record breaking swims in the months to come.
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