So, the verdict on the new fancy suit…. I would say….”very helpful but not magic, either”.
Asher had a great meet!! But that being said, it didn’t seem like the suit was absolutely life-altering, either. Which, in fairness, I think we expected. I mean, it’s still just a swimming suit, not a turbo-charged jet pack. Haha.
But he did say it felt way smoother and slicker in the water. AND he went PRs in 7 out of his 8 individual events, and he PRed on both of his relay splits, too. Woohoo!
He did not achieve any State cut times, which he was sort of hoping that maybe he could pull off, but also knew it was a real long shot right now. Again, without going too into the swimming weeds, there are different State time standards for each age group. (They get harder as you get older.) These also vary by state.
For example, in Wisconsin, an 11-12 year old boy needs a 1:03.99 to qualify for State on the 100 freestyle. When Asher was 12, he had easily achieved that time standard, by quite a lot. His 100 free time was around a 1:01 back then.
However, bumping up to the 13-14 boys group now, the cut times get DRASTICALLY harder. The 13-14 boys cut for the 100 free is a 54.99. Almost 10 seconds faster than the 11-12 year old cut. That is a LOT on a 100 yard race.
Asher’s 100 freestyle time is now right around 58 seconds. So, on the one hand, that’s great! He’s improved by over 3 seconds in the last year or so. (3 seconds is actually a lot in swimming, especially as you get older.). But he’s still way off the 13-14 boys State time.
For the 200 freestyle, the 11-12 cut is a 2:19.99. For 13-14, it’s a 1:59.99. JEESH! Again, huge difference; 20 seconds! (Asher’s time is around ~2:10 on the 200 free.)
The big drop in qualifying time standards is presumably because they expect that 13-14 year old boys will have hit puberty, hit huge growth spurts, have way increased muscle mass, etc., which should in theory lead to drastically improved speed in the pool. And that is probably true…. for the boys who follow that typical, “predicted” puberty age. 🙂
However, may I re-insert the photo of my 14 year old boy…..:
Not exactly a man-sized body here, yet. AT ALL. lol. So….it kind of is what it is. I think this next year will probably be really good for him. He’s likely to actually start growing/ hitting that puberty boost soon, I’d think. So by this time next year, it may be game on. Patience. 🙂
All that being said, he still hangs in there with the big boys and is not far behind (or he’s actually still ahead of many). He ran into one of his old coaches this weekend who said that based on his times for his current size, “Asher is going to be a beast in high school!” 🙂 Hopefully!
He also had some really great improvements in his butterfly races, down to a 1:08 on his 100 fly and 29 seconds on his 50 fly. I also think he has great potential as a flier as he gets a bit bigger and stronger.
Anyway, swimming is all very relative at this age. What’s fast for him is super slow for some boys, and vice versa for others.
The main thing is- he beat himself this weekend (with some really large time drops, actually), and that’s what matters. He also swam a ton of yards; he raced the 500 freestyle on Saturday and the 1,650 freestyle as his final event on Sunday afternoon! (In addition to all his other races, too.) For reference, the 1,650 is 66 lengths of the pool. 66!!! Very. far. That was a ~20 minute long race for him.
I did my volunteering and enjoyed watching all the kids and the races.
It was a pretty emotional day for a lot of kids, though! Kind of made me cringe occasionally. There seemed to be a LOT of tears happening, both of joy and of defeat. This meet is the last chance for kids to go for their state cuts before State in a couple weeks. The importance that gets placed on “qualifying for state” is probably a bit overblown (from parents/kids/coaches alike). I mean, I get it. I do. It’s a big deal to the kids (and/or, um, parents. lol.).
But with some of the meltdowns I witnessed, not to mention some wild-eyed parents freaking out over some things…. yikes. As a relative outsider this time around (my kid didn’t qualify), it’s like, whoa. Let’s all just take a deep breath. Haha. This is not, and I repeat, this is not the Olympic trials here. We are at a local high school. 😅
There was some serious devastation on the pool deck. Like, kids bawling and laying on the ground gasping for air and friends in big group hugs comforting each other.
But also, there was some serious elation, as many kids swam amazing and did get their cut times, too. Especially the girls on our team (who, in fairness, have much easier time standards to meet than the boys do…sort of a source of contention for Asher, because many of the girls are actually bigger/stronger than he is at this point (lots of 13-14 year old girls are basically full grown already, since they tend to mature sooner!). So although Asher may have faster times than they have, they get to qualify for State (girls standards) but he… does not (boys standards). 😦 Oh well! 🤷♀️ This is life.
Anyway! There’s some more swim talk/ athlete parent talk for anyone who can relate. 🙂
Charlie got a State Qualifying time in two events, both the Sitting Cute event and the Walking Around the Block while Sniffing Poles event:
Have you ever been to a swim meet?? Do you know what I’m talking about with the whole “kids getting super stressed out by their sport that is supposed to be fun” thing?? 😉
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for a FRESH START Monday today. Got back to my morning workout after a week+ of being kind of all over the place/ off track.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Ugh, I can relate. I am constantly reminding my kids that it is supposed to be fun. I quit a ton of stuff when I was a kid and wasn’t that competitive (for example, I had a goal to make tennis team varsity my senior year, which had lots of players, worked out all summer and paid for lessons, and then was told I had to play my friend C and beat her out for her spot. Uh, no thanks…)
Hubs, on the other hand, went to a small school, did lots of sports, and his fam is hard on quitting, to the point where you have to state your case why it doesn’t benefit you. Ugh. Life is too short.
Glad he had fun!
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Ha! That’s a funny story about your tennis team. I would NOT have liked that either! Competing with a good friend for a spot would be awful!!
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Yes, it’s been a while but back in the boys’ martial arts days there were a few tournaments that ended in tears. It was always amazing to see their progress, even during those times when they couldn’t.
Congrats to Charlie for his State Qualifiers! That’s some serious cute.
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Yeah, I remember my sister coming along once to a meet WAY back when Asher was like 7 or 8, and she commented “Why are so many kids crying?!” Hahaha. At the swim meets, sometimes little ones will get mixed up and miss their race/ heat and that can cause tears… or getting disqualified…. or just swimming poorly…. or losing their googles and getting water in their eyes or up their nose…. Oh, there’s no shortage of issues that can cause tears at a swim meet. LOL.
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It sounds like Asher had an all around very successful meet! PRs are amazing so to achieve so many is extra amazing. It is tough when kids develop at such different paces. I imagine Paul will be in the much slower end based on what I have observed so far. People often think he is younger than he is since he’s so petite. He’s more so the size of a pre-k kids. I think every kid in his class is taller than him. It doesn’t seem to bother him, though!
I haven’t been to a swim meet but I can just imagine what you are describing. It’s a big deal but it’s also supposed to be fun so like laying on the pool deck sobbing seems like an, um, outsized reaction? But hearing about parents’ reactions is what would illicit the internal eye roll because they are supposed to be role models for their kids and keep their sh!t together!
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At the end of this meet they had what’s called “time trials”, where you can pay $10 and get an additional chance to swim an event that you are super close to a state cut on. Like one last chance, basically, to qualify for state. Well there was this one little kid who did a time trial for the 25 yard backstroke. He was only 8! (Why they even have a State category for the 8&unders is kind of beyond me… I mean, really? Doesn’t that seem a little silly?) Anyway, the kid did the 25 back time trial and I guess got the time he needed- OMG, you should have seen the parents. They were whooping and hollering and going just crazy! Everyone else was kind of snickering, like, ok folks, you realize his ability to swim a 25 yard backstroke (ONE length of the pool) at 8 years old will have zero bearing on his future success as a swimmer? It’s essentially meaningless! There are kids who are super fast very young just bc they are a bit bigger, or more coordinated or mature, but are nothing special when older. Then there are other kids- like this one kid Asher used to beat all the time when they were ~10, but he is now 6′ at 14 and insanely fast (he switched to another team now but we still see him around and he’s crazy good now!). So all that fretting at 8 years old is pretty pointless. haha.
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You look so cute in that outfit! perfect fit/active mom outfit.
Congrats to Asher to PRs. that’s great! He definitely looks smaller than other boys at his age, so i’m sure he’ll catch up later.
by the way, where can I find state time for girls 11-12 years old? i want to know how far is Sofia from those.
how many sessions does Asher practice per week? does he do any other sport/strength training to support his swimming?
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Hee hee! I think Charlie should WIN states in the “sitting cute” competition.
So, I hope Asher was happy with how things went. It sounds like he did GREAT, and wow I didn’t know he swam the 1650 freestyle. I’m an avid fan of swimming during the olympics, but that’s the extent of my knowledge. I agree that the state qualifying standards seem unfair- but I guess there’s always someone who has to lose out. To expect that every boy has gone through puberty by the age of 13 seems a little off… but oh well. It sounds like Asher has great things ahead of him!
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Yes, I know there always has to be a cut off somewhere! It is what is is….. a bummer when you’re on the losing end of it, but on the plus side, eventually they’ll all be in the 15-18 year old range or beyond and the whole “growth” thing will equalize. I mean some people will always be taller or bigger or whatever but at least they’ll all reach full maturity and kind of have their own full set of cards on the table, for themselves, anyway- vs now when some kids have peaked sooner than others!
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Nice work Asher! It does suck to the be the small guy in the big pond, although I am sure things will change as they all develop more! In running it is better to be the young one in the age group, as you can beat all of the people that are older than you! Maybe in swimming it doesn’t work that way, or maybe not until they are a little older. My friend K’s daughters are 13 and 9 and it is fun to see how different they are in their same sports. Also, the 9 year old played soccer against a team that was mostly 10 year olds and it was amazing how much bigger the other team was! They had boobs and everything, while the 9 year olds were tiny and flat chested! I told her to just wait until next year, as she will be knocking people over with her hips then. 🙂
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Exactly!! I always tell Asher, especially when he gets frustrated that some of the girls his age might beat him or get the state times while he doesn’t- just tell them to check back in a year or two 😉 No doubt once he matures physically, he will most definitely be faster than all those girls! Just the way it goes as he will have more muscle, etc! 😉 So I told him to tell them to just enjoy beating him while they can. Hahaha.
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Congrats Asher! It sounds he did amazing on all accounts… and really, it’s all about #BEATYESTERDAY. That’s a life lesson right there.
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