What we learned in Chilliwack

You can learn a lot by attending a swim meet. Maybe it’s all new to you: the heats, the whistles, the nerves, what it’s like to race. Everything is unfamiliar, and you are picking it up as you go along. As you become more experienced, your focus shifts to the details — turns, breathing strategy, split times — but you’re still on that learning curve. In fact, even the most seasoned athlete, who knows exactly what to expect, has something to learn from every race. Swimmers at the highest level use meets as an opportunity to gather information: there is nothing like a race to tell you exactly where your fitness level is at or to suggest areas you might be neglecting in your training.

Last Saturday, a group of Legacy swimmers attended the March Madness Masters Swim Meet in Chilliwack. By way of a synopsis of the event, we’d like to share what we learned. Here is the list:

Vicky learned that one of the reasons you might want to jump in during the warm up is to get a feel for the pool, thereby mitigating the likelihood of missing the shallow end wall three times in your 200 freestyle.

Don learned that when you’re racing backstroke, you have to stay on your back the whole time, or else you get disqualified.

Mark learned that he is pretty good at butterfly. He also learned that he should be faster at freestyle than he is at butterfly. So maybe what he learned is that he needs to work on his freestyle technique.

Tara learned that she could be a start and turn judge because she catches everything. Except that guy who swam in the wrong lane — her lane — for his 25 freestyle — her 25 freestyle!

Susie learned that the pain involved in a sprint race is very shortlived, and that it might be time to expand her repertoire in this area.

Ilya learned that he had plenty left in the tank at the end of his 100 butterfly, and that he really didn’t need to scratch the 100 breastroke to save his energy, and that in doing so he in fact may have missed out on an opportunity to swim a best time.

Chris learned that he doesn’t get nervous. Ever. And that this peculiar capacity to stay chill could be honed into a secret weapon.

Overall, we learned that swim meets get you out of your comfort zone. They force you to break up your routine, jump into a different pool, and push your threshold that little bit further. Plus, they’re fun!