Advice Needed: Prelims/Finals question
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When you have a swimmer who will make top 8 in a race easily what do you tell them? I typically would say just cruise to a top 4 spot so you’re not in an outside lane and save it for Finals.
Does swimming a race in prelims as hard as you can really affect how you will do the next day that much?
Is it better to just give it your best shot at prelims and finals because you’ll have twice as many chances at swimming a really good time?
The girls I’m thinking of really stand no risk of swimming too easy and not making finals. So the only real risk would be for me not seeing their truly best possible race because if they hold back a lot for finals they’ll only have one chance to swim it really fast.
Along the same lines, is it wise to keep as many of my A relay swimmers off the relay at prelims as possible while still making finals? Or should I just have the top swimmers do it and go easy?
"Most people have the will to win. Few have the will to prepare to win."
I’d look at the total workload of the individual swimmer. Are we talking someone who will be tapped to swim 300 yards or less on finals day? If so, I’d say “go for it” in prelims. If we’re talking someone who’s gonna swim a 200, the 500, and maybe a 100 leg on a relay, I’d coach them hold back a touch in prelims if I were confident they could still make the A Final.
As for the relay, I’d lean towards getting as many people the experience as possible while still having a high certainty of transferring to the A final.
Billratio,
I think you swim fast all the time. You get cute and it may bite you in the ass. To many things could go wrong and they miss the opportunity to swim fast. In 23 years of coaching senior swimmers never told a swimmer/s just make finals and then go fast.We swam fast in prelims and then we’ll think about what adjustments we need to make for finals.
oldschool
? All that is not shared... is lost.I tend to agree with both of you. I’ve been debating what to tell my top sprinter who will be the number 1 seed by far in her events and her slowest time from this year would still get her 2nd in prelims. I don’t see any scenario where she would swim too slow to make finals but as I think about it more I think it’s better to just have her swim fast so we can see if there are things to be improved for finals.
My 500 swimmer I am still unsure about. You don’t think swimming a 500 all out on back to back days is going to hurt her a little at finals? Doc, you would still have a distance swimmer go all out at prelims if she was a near lock for top 8?
"Most people have the will to win. Few have the will to prepare to win."
Billratio,
If you stop and think about it. We/you ask them to swim far more then a 500 at race pace everyday in practice and then we get to a meet and all of a sudden they somehow can’t repeat efforts. Does make you think.If it were me and I did that type of strategy I’d have them swim no slower than 3% of LTB in prelims as a target time.
Just thoughts,
oldschool/doc
? All that is not shared... is lost.My 500 swimmer I am still unsure about. You don’t think swimming a 500 all out on back to back days is going to hurt her a little at finals? Doc, you would still have a distance swimmer go all out at prelims if she was a near lock for top 8?
Billratio,
If it were me and I did that type of strategy I’d have them swim no slower than 3% of LTB in prelims as a target time.
I don’t think I’d even hold her back that much, really. I’d want to see ~the same swim both days to the 400y mark, but have her hold that pace steady to the finish in prelims while unleashing her to close faster in the finals. I would hope to see new LTB’s both days, with day 2 being 2-3 seconds faster. 2-3 seconds doesn’t sound like a lot of difference, but there’s a big difference in the fatigue factor between cruising to a finish and sprinting to the finish.
Thanks for the input. I was going to talk to a few of them about holding back in prelims but now I think I’ll just let them go for it for the most part. I’ll let her know she doesn’t need to go crazy on the last 50 if she’s winning her heat.
Maybe going fast in prelims will strike fear in the hearts of the other teams.
We did have 4 swimmers qualify first in prelims last year and wound up getting 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, and 3rd at finals. It’s much more fun to be the team that holds back than the team that looks like they got worse at finals (though they all went faster).
"Most people have the will to win. Few have the will to prepare to win."
I’ll let her know she doesn’t need to go crazy on the last 50 if she’s winning her heat.
Pre-arranged signal using the lap counter? You watch the splits, decide whether she can hold steady or needs to go for it on the last 50. Relay that info (verbally if you’re close, by signal if you’re farther away) to the lap counter who lets her know with a left-right, or up-down, at the 425 mark.
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