Blog 2093: Arena League

A fourth and a fifth for our Arena league teams in the first round this year. Whilst the results seem underwelming I have spent a long time analysing them and I am very pleased with the breakdown. Lets start with the non-performance points, team spirit was at an all time high in the A team, normally a high pressure event which forces swimmers into their shells we saw the opposite with everyone bonding and cheering each other on, behaviour and cleanliness were impeccable yet again and the swimmers were a credit to the club. My analysis of the results showed the vast majority of swimmers were either on pb, faster than pb or faster than this time last year and indeed in nearly every 11 year old age race we were a lot quicker than last season. All that being said you may wonder why were the results lower than anticipated and its a very simple reason. With a club our size (one of the smallest in Derbyshire with over 100 less members than the likes of Belper or Ripley) we are stretched to our limit in each age group bracket, unfortunately this meant that our 15 boys were 14 and our 13 boys and girls were mostly 12, we even had a few 9 year olds in the 11's and because of physical development it makes it hard to compete on a level playing field. Some may see this as a negative but I don't, I see a lot of positives, we were competitive even with bottom end age group swimmers as both galas were close in points totals, our 15+ swimmers were amazing, our youngest are stronger than before which can only bold well for the future and the vast majority will be in the same age bracket next season. This club is on the up and our performances are proving that, we are a fly weight boxer holding their own and in some cases out punching the heavyweights and I for one am very proud of this club.