Well, that didn't go according to plan

[swimclublurker]

Feel sad for Becky A, she looked tired and sluggish, turns looked poor in comparison to the others.
So we have one (unexpected) silver and two bronze to show for all that money and the ITCs, what's gone wrong?

[awaldram]

Originally Posted by swimclublurker

Feel sad for Becky A, she looked tired and sluggish, turns looked poor in comparison to the others.
So we have one (unexpected) silver and two bronze to show for all that money and the ITCs, what's gone wrong?

Pretty much as expected

Over hyped and under-performing , There are serious questions to be asked of the British swimming development programme.

I would be surprised if funding is not heavily reduced off the back of the team performance.

I sad week for British Swimming Athens all over again.

[dalex]

Strange that 2 British Coaches have Olympic Champions.

[Leprechaun]

Originally Posted by awaldram

Pretty much as expected

Over hyped and under-performing , There are serious questions to be asked of the British swimming development programme.

I would be surprised if funding is not heavily reduced off the back of the team performance.

I sad week for British Swimming Athens all over again.

OK, good start for a thread 'lurker.

I doubt we would have won a few more medals if we had done a bit less over-hyping, ie hyped a bit less. Indeed sacking all of the Hyping-us-up department wouldnt have made anyone any faster.

So what would YOU do - 'lurkers and Walders? Thread now open for ideas to be put forward, commented upon, shot down in flames and whatever.

My starters for 10:

1. Focus a bit more on racing and less on times. Le Clos troued the world doing World Cup events and racing the best. Do we do enough of this? Moving down the tree, get more kids racing and spending less time getting obsessed with QT and so on?

2. Get the Governing Body to strip right back to basics and manage the competitive sport that is swimming (aquatics if you must). Forget all the add-ons that the corporate body has decided are all part of its mission. It has been said that if Uk Athletics organised as the ASA does, then UK Athletics would be teaching people to cross the road safely. Its a nonsense, lets stop the commercialisation and focus on finding swimming talent. Get rid of 80% of the hangers-on in HQ and regions and let talent have some room to flourish.

[storpedo91]

I agree that we need to put more emphasis on racing, especially in the morning. We were pretty poor at getting out of the heats in most events.

For me,
1) we need to be able to race fast in the mornings. For this to work, I think BS has to say that for all major trials, the swimmers need to make the qualifying times in the heats, and then its the fastest 2 swimmers in the finals. At least then, we can go to major international competitions, and come closer to making the semi's/finals.

2) we need to put a lot more emphasis on starts and turns. In quite a few of the swims, we were getting blown away by some of the US swimmers coming off of the wall

3) we need to find some world class sprint talent on the mens side. We only qualified one swimmer in both the 50 and 100 free, and even then, it was because he had made the times at the World Champs last year, but couldnt make them at either of the trials this year.

4) our swimmers seemed to have had too much pressure forced on them. Take Becky's swim tonight. She looked tired throughout, and for me, was lucky to get a medal. Don't get me wrong, any medal at the Olympics is a fantastic medal, but I think some of our swimmers froze under the pressure of a home Olympics and the expectations that came with it.

[awaldram]

@Leprechaun
Wow what an abusive post.
I would hang my head in shame if anyone I knew behaved like you !!

Do you have a drink problem ?

[Leprechaun]

Originally Posted by awaldram

@Leprechaun
Wow what an abusive post.
I would hang my head in shame if anyone I knew behaved like you !!

Do you have a drink problem ?

?
Not sure what post you're looking at.
Confused R us.

Enjoy your evening.

[awaldram]

Originally Posted by storpedo91

I agree that we need to put more emphasis on racing, especially in the morning. We were pretty poor at getting out of the heats in most events.

For me,
1) we need to be able to race fast in the mornings. For this to work, I think BS has to say that for all major trials, the swimmers need to make the qualifying times in the heats, and then its the fastest 2 swimmers in the finals. At least then, we can go to major international competitions, and come closer to making the semi's/finals.

I don't think the Uk has enough class swimmers to support heats and final, The recent Nationals followed this format and was a shambles with finals being a re-run of the heats.

Ensuring top swimmers attend more events would probably help , especially with the noticeable fading the swimmers suffered.
Less specialisation for more events would improve this

Originally Posted by storpedo91

2) we need to put a lot more emphasis on starts and turns. In quite a few of the swims, we were getting blown away by some of the US swimmers coming off of the wall

I think thats strange given the lack of 50m pools you'd think we'd ace turns. You right generally were poor but how to fix.?

Originally Posted by storpedo91

3) we need to find some world class sprint talent on the mens side. We only qualified one swimmer in both the 50 and 100 free, and even then, it was because he had made the times at the World Champs last year, but couldnt make them at either of the trials this year.

Where do we 'Find' this talent ?
I think our LTAD approach tends to limit sprint development but I'm not sure how you can have both.?

Originally Posted by storpedo91

4) our swimmers seemed to have had too much pressure forced on them. Take Becky's swim tonight. She looked tired throughout, and for me, was lucky to get a medal. Don't get me wrong, any medal at the Olympics is a fantastic medal, but I think some of our swimmers froze under the pressure of a home Olympics and the expectations that came with it.

100% hence my point over hyped - under perform they tend to go hand in hand.
Seeing Becky apologise for getting a bronze made my heart skip a beat, How can we have got to the point where such a swim results in apology ?

[awaldram]

Originally Posted by Leprechaun

?
Not sure what post you're looking at.
Confused R us.

Enjoy your evening.

OK, good start for a thread 'lurker.
So what would YOU do - 'lurkers and Walders

your intent was clearly to be insulting.

@Leprechaun

Sorry reading back in the light of day it was me the fool.
Bad day late night and grouchy

[Matron]

I thought Becky was brilliant tonight and I loved watching her swim. The pressure on her must have been enormous.

How can two bronze medals in an Olympic Games be deemed an underperformance? It's absolutely incredible to have four Olympic medals from four Olympic individual events.

She is, and always will be, my swimming heroine. When I watched her incredible swims in Beijing four years ago, she was the one who spurred me into getting off my backside and going to a swimming pool for the first time in years in Sept 2008. I have a lot to thank her for.

[colonelhall]

Our swimmers were marvellous. They seem like well balanced, articulate human beings. However, they performed poorly. Surely it comes down to coaching. I agree that our starts and turns we're poor. I fail to see how sprinters can ever hope to be the best, unless they are honing their skills in regular competition, such as that found in NCAA.

[selkie]

1. Race more against the best competition you can find. The more you race at that high level, the better most people get at managing nerves.

2. Take taper seriously, but realize you just can't think about swimming 24/7 without frying your brain. Make a lip-sync music video to relieve stress:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPIA7mpm1wU

(Seems like the girls most heavily involved in the video were among the US's best performers.)

[swimclublurker]

I am not a coach so I haven't a clue what went wrong, hence me asking the question in the first place.
However I was looking at the cyclists and canoeists results. Maybe we need to look towards the model they have been using for bringing people on as they seem to be doing well, and, apart from the odd disaster dq type happening, mostly getting the results they expected.
Right off on holiday. Play nice....

[50DASH]

Originally Posted by swimclublurker

I am not a coach so I haven't a clue what went wrong, hence me asking the question in the first place.
However I was looking at the cyclists and canoeists results. Maybe we need to look towards the model they have been using for bringing people on as they seem to be doing well, and, apart from the odd disaster dq type happening, mostly getting the results they expected.
Right off on holiday. Play nice....

I would agree with swimclublurker, get some advice of the cycling coach. The Manx Missile said last night how hard the track cyclists train and how the technical team analyse everything.

[bystander]

Craig Lord in the Times seems to blame the two blazers, Sparkes and Mason ! I bet the real blazers, the British Swimming Board might get upset. Sparkes and Mason are paid staff !

Perhaps the real blazers will exercise their powers and sort out the employees and move on.