New Sectional Cut (without the Blue Seventy)

My daughter got her sectional cut in the mile this weekend. She swam the race in 18:38:something (I can’t remember the last two digits and it’s not posted as of this writing.) She was about 3 seconds below the cut, which is 18:41:59.

There’s been some controversy about the Blue Seventy racing suit she wore when she got her first sectional cut in the 100 back. I wrote about that here, here and here. So, I thought I’d write about the fact that she DIDN’T have it on when she swam this weekend.

Getting a sectional cut in a Nike Hydra!

Unfortunately, after she got the cut in the mile on Friday night, she didn’t do too “swimmingly” during the rest of the meet and had some significant adds in her other races.  She was disapointed in her performance, and I had to remind her that one year ago, she didn’t even have a zone cut, much less four sectional cuts. (Funny how we always raise the bar for ourselves, isn’t it?) Besides, it’s her coach’s job to be disappointed with her, to talk to her about swimming tired and to point out the work she’s going to have to do to improve her turns, etc. It’s my job to be proud of her and to help her enjoy her accomplishments.

Anyway, back to the Blue Seventy. I think some of the controversy regarding the suit is waning. I’m glad.  The whole issue was silly, in my opinion. Fortunately, I’m aware that opinions are like . . . (well, nevermind).

New Sectional Cuts for My Daughter

My daughter achieved two new sectional cuts this weekend at a swim meet at the St. Peters Rec Plex.  She swam the 1000 free in 11:02:54 and the 200 back in 2:13:88.  Congratulations girl!  We’re very proud of and happy for her, as she has been working extremely hard and hasn’t missed a practice in more than three months.

When she got her new cuts, she was wearing her Blue Seventy racing suit, which I wrote about for the first time here.  She wore the suit at the suggestion of her coach.  A large number of other swimmers on our team, as well as other teams, also wore the Blue Seventy for competition this weekend.  Some swimmers in the suit achieved new best times and got new qualifying times.  Some did not. In fact, my daughter was the perfect “case study.”  She achieved new best times in the suit on Saturday, and she added to her best times on Sunday. Like her coach said:  “The suits do not make you fast.  When used properly, they are the finishing part of championship performance.”  (She’s not only a good coach, she’s good at summing things up without wasting words.)  Coach Pete , who writes a blog on Wordpress, tends to agree.  He wrote about it here. 

There has been controversy about these suits within our club and within the sport.  I applaud healthy debate, emphasis on the word ‘healthy.’  Simply put:  FINA has approved the suits, as has USA Swimming and our own LSC, Ozark Swimming, which I wrote about here. More simply put:  If I bought the same golf clubs that Tiger Woods uses, I couldn’t hit a hole in one.  If I wore the same tennis shoes as Michael Jordan, I couldn’t sink a basketball. If my bat was borrowed from Barry Bonds, I doubt if I’d even make contact with the ball, much less hit a home run. I don’t even think the steroids would help me.   The athletes using the equipment in combination with their hard work achieve the results.