It has taken me quite a while to write this post as I wanted to make sure I worded it correctly.
First and foremost I want to thank everyone involved in making the County Championships happen, the officials both on deck and behind the scenes, the coaching staff at LESC, the team managers and the swimmers and parents.
Before Counties I did a blog post giving tips, advice and behavioral guidelines. For the most part these were followed. When swimmers stepped out of line the team managers pulled them back in, I am happy to report that these were only minor issues. Our area was the only area left spotless every night, with other clubs areas looking like travelers had just left. Some parents still seemed to be focused on times when I talked to them, but this is a work in process and honestly, there are less and less parents looking at the board or the results and more watching how much better the swimmers swam. Overall behind the scenes we were the best on show.
So onto the actual performance of the swimmers in the pool. With Counties being in the middle of the cycle and short course instead of long course it is hard to really make it a focus meet. That being said the fact that we worked on process goals such as, number of fly kicks, breath control, Streamlining, strokes per length, race tactics, starts turns, pre pool, post race recovery, reporting before and after races to coaches, all resulted in an amazing outcome in results. I am not going to list the numerous gold medalists as I do not want to miss anyone out, but if you go onto the Derbyshire website you can find all the results there. Whilst I wasn't looking at the clock on the day it doesn't mean I wasn't doing my usual swim nerd stats at home, we had an amazing 80+% PB or for senior swimmers Seasons Best time ration, going to prove that when you take care of the processes, improve technique and skills and do things right around the pool results will come. This included 2 brand new Regional qualifiers in Sky Torrington and Phoebe Goulton. The most pleasing block of results was in the relays where, particularly in the younger age bands, we showed more strength in depth at a higher level than in any other year previous. Overall all LESC had an amazing counties and I am really looking forward to seeing the results keep on improving through to the focus meets of these last 2 cycles this season.
