So we end off Counties with a 3rd weekend of competition in the form of County Relays. Despite not winning a gold (missing out by less than second a couple of times) yesterday I came away with a massive sense of satisfaction and pride.
The satisfaction came from a few areas - swimmer development was one of them. The way we as a club develop swimmers through our pathway stood out last night as clubs that were strong in the early age groups faded away our teams got stronger and stronger, it is a well know fact in swimming that Olympic medals are generally not won at 15-17 (Missy, Katie and Ruita being the exceptions) and that swimmers who develop at the correct rates go on to have a longer more successful career. This is what we do at Long Eaton.
I also took satisfaction from the knowledge that people consider us a "big" club and when they say that the not only mean in terms of results but in swimmer numbers, little do they know we have one of the smallest memberships in the county (so for anyone wanting to join the Orange and Black attack we have room for you), but because of our set up and attention to detail we just continue to produce quality swimmers.
The final area of Satisfaction came from the professionalism of our swimmers, self management is vital to success in our sport which is why we are so strict on it and it showed yesterday in terms of behaviour, nutrition and recovery between events.
The pride came from the performances not just in times but skill levels from take overs, to underwater .to transistion, to turns, to finishes we were 2nd to none. I'd picked the teams based on the British Rankings in early Febuary and used those times totalled to work out the entry times instead of guessing. over 90% of the teams entered not only beat those times but smashed them by a number of seconds. This is a major step up for every swimmer involved yesterday all of which showed fighting spirit throughout the meet.
I pass on my congratulations to all involved yesterday and to everyone who has made this our most succesful County championships ever.
