Question about collecting data

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  • #2002
    billratio
    Participant

    We have our JV Conference meet today. They seem rested and ready to swim fast. I have a question about measuring how successful our training has been. Is it wrong for me to throw out certain swimmers’ results before I even go into the meet? I mostly have one swimmer in mind who has done almost nothing this year. She’s had constant excuses for why she can’t swim and why she has to miss practice. I have serious doubts about how well she will swim. Is it cheating to just decide ahead of time that I won’t include her results? I also have another swimmer who has been sick three separate times this year and has missed a lot of practice. She works hard when she is there though so I’m not really thinking of leaving her results out.

    As I’ve said before, I haven’t done well with recording results in practice, especially with the JV girls. I do have a pretty good idea of who actually swims their race pace and how far they have been able to go though. Next year I’ll be much more diligent.

    "Most people have the will to win. Few have the will to prepare to win."

    #2003
    wordofmouth
    Participant

    Bill, I think the first girl you are referring to is on my team as well 🙂
    You can definitely throw out her results. My general rule of thumb is unless a swimmer has at least
    75-80% minimum attendance, then there is no way for me to really evaluate weather or not out training plan was effective.
    Your second girl will be a good case study on her own. I think you might find that she does pretty well because even though she may have missed more practices than you like, she took full advantage of what you offered which was a lot of very “relevant” practice.
    Good luck! Let us know how they did.

    #2004
    oldschoolc
    Participant

    Billratio,
    My suggestion is “keep it all!” Especially race splits you can use them to evaluate training pace to race performance after the meet.

    Another one of your key indictors in the evaluation process will be percent of number made from number offered. I’ll use our “25s freestyle set” to date they have had 270 offered; swimmer A made 169 a 62.59% made, B is 116 a 42.96% made and C is 83 a 30.74% made, Which one has the better attendance? It’s B. Not that attendance is not important there are times it does state the obvious and there are times it is very misleading.

    That’s why for now I say “keep it all” easier to have and not need, then need and not have.

    Oldschool

    "Only in America. Dream in red, white and blue"

    #2007
    billratio
    Participant

    We didn’t do as well as I was hoping at the meet but we didn’t do horrible. I know some of them just didn’t swim as hard as they could have. Every girl who was competing for Section spots was able to drop time. The other girls probably just needed more motivation.

    We were 26/38 for best times. So 68%. Most of the races that weren’t best times are easily explainable or just not surprising to me. Overall for the year we improved in everything except for 2 girls each having one event and two events that they didn’t drop time in this year.

    We only had a 4 day taper (Monday-Thursday). I’m wondering if it wasn’t enough rest or if the girls just aren’t swimming their paces in practice. I haven’t been good with this group keeping track of their times. I know 3 of them were holding between 16-16.5 on 25s and they wound up going 1:05.4-1:05.8. So they were able to hit the times they were training for.

    I’ll have much better data with my section girls.

    I know I keep asking about rest but with Sections coming up in 2 weeks I’m starting to freak out a bit. I only get one shot at getting this right or I know I won’t be allowed to run USRPT next year. The head coach seems to be doubting it now. Most of my girls have been completing 2,000-3,300 yards at race pace per day. How much should they be swimming per day in the final week?

    I have a girl holding her pace for 60+ 25s a day at her 100 free pace. She is working so hard. 1500 yards that fast on top of her 50 free training makes me wonder if she’ll need more rest than 4 days. When in doubt error on the side of rest, right? I just don’t want her to lose what she has built up.

    Yesterday she completed 26 straight 25s and then missed by a 10th of a second. She said she could have done more so we did it again and she went 24 straight. We had to get out early for JV conference so we didn’t do any more after that. Am I making her do too much?

    "Most people have the will to win. Few have the will to prepare to win."

    #2011
    oldschoolc
    Participant

    Billratio,
    What where you “hoping” for? From what you stated your kids was pretty well.

    FYI. At the Olympics games in swimming the rate of improvement is only 25%, so your 68% is well ahead of that! I guess you can look at the “hole in the donut or the whole donut”.

    So you’d have to say they got what they trained for? I would use this as a teachable moment and show that those that held pace in training swam faster and those that didn’t for whatever reason didn’t achieve PB/BT or whatever. My question is “why are you guessing as to them swimming their paces”?

    1. Don’t “freak out”. You can never show chaos or uncertainty! You have to project an air of confidence and calm. Yes, your insides are churning a mile a minute and at times you fell like you’re ready to puke. But never display a lack of confidence as your athletes will pick up on that.

    2. I’m a club coach that has to get kids ready to swim fast for the end of the high school season and I think you know from the posts on this site I have a pretty good handle on what it takes to swim fast. The majority of my kids will swim in the last chance to qualify for HS State next weekend. This is exactly what I’m going to do. Monday we will be at current numbers (regular training day), Tuesday I’ll reduce the numbers by 25%, Wednesday another 25% and then on Thursday they will do a meet warm-up and Friday they start the meet. This is our 3-day protocol.

    I’m not trying to be mean here but you have to post numbers! “Holding her pace and “she works so hard” means nothing. I know what you what your’re trying to say and we all have kids that we want to do well because they work and believe in what we say. But without numbers it’s anecdotal.

    You’re correct with when in doubt “error on the side of rest”. But this is something you have to determine. There’s something in your gut that just tells you that you need to start earlier with certain swimmers.

    Best to you and your swimmers!

    Oldschool

    "Only in America. Dream in red, white and blue"

    #2012
    billratio
    Participant

    Thanks for the response. I guess I was just hoping that the rest would have helped a higher number improve but you are correct. As I reflect on it I’m not as worried about Sections.

    It’s not mean. You are right. 🙂 I’m no better than a TT coach in that way. I only have snapshot numbers of where they were in their training at certain points in the season. She came in out of shape and was struggling to hold 14.5 for 16×25. We got her pace down to 13.75 7 weeks ago because she’s training to break 55. She’s built her numbers up to 20+ 25s on a good set now. Holding 13.5-13.7.

    I will be recording every number next season though. And the rest of this season.

    "Most people have the will to win. Few have the will to prepare to win."

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