Swimming update

Kate continues to love swimming, and is improving all the time.  She has a love/hate relationship with the high school coach.  She knows he is pushing her to make her faster, but she hates his tactics.  Her club coach is laid back and encouraging, the high school coach seems like an ogre.  Oh, the perspective of a 13 year old.

Kate doesn't seem the competitive type, but put her in the pool and she is all about beating you. Rome middle schoolers swim with the high school, but they don't count for points.  That is too bad, because Kate usually gets to the wall first.  Now, don't look for her in the 2016 Olympics, but she is fast and her strokes are beautiful.  She works hard to perfect the details...starts, turns, underwater work, dolphin kicks, breathing, etc...

She recently swam at the annual Jingle Bell meet, which is a USA swimming meet and had a great day of racing against girls in her age division.  USA swimming is where she gets her real competition, and she can see how she stacks up against other year round swimmers.  High school swimming is fun for her because they have a meet every week and she is one of the best in the pool!

This  video is her 100 individual medley at the Jingle Bell meet on December 8.  She didn't win the event, but it shows all her strokes and you can get a sense of her competitiveness, as she almost catches the girl beside her. She finishes in 3rd place, but it's still a very strong swim. Kate is in the green swim cap and is in lane 5, which is closest to the camera most of the time, when I don't lose her in my videoing!

She recently broke 6 minutes for the 500 freestyle.  Her new PR for the 100 free is 1:01 and she recently won the 200 freestyle in 2:14, beating the 2nd place swimmer by 14 seconds.  She likes the backstroke and swims the lead off leg of the 200 medley relay.