US Olympic Swim Trials

[TU_BLA]

So I spent last Wednesday and Thursday at Lucas Oil Stadium taking in the US Olympic Swim trials. Observations: 1) Katie Ledecky is an absolute freak athlete. She swam her 1500M final on Wednesday night, the same night the women swam their 100M final. After the 100M final the women interviewed were all winded and gasping for air. After Ledecky pretty much lapped the entire field in the 1500 (30 lengths of the pool), she gets out and does her interview and you could barely tell she spent the previous 15 minutes swimming what essentially is a mile. And she kicks very little in that race...it's almost all only her arms. Crazy. 2) Lucas Oil is a really nice stadium and their concessions prices were surprisingly low. Bottle of water was $3.50. I know last time I was at OneOK we paid $5.00 for a bottle of water. 3) The incredibly slim margins between going to the Olympics and not must be gut wrenching and heartbreaking. We saw a 100M swim off FOR 6th PLACE on Thursday AM. Why? Because 6th place goes to the Olympics as an alternate on the women's 4x100 relay as swimmer 3-6 typically will swim the prelims and semis of that even before spots 1 and 2 swim in the finals. The swim off margin was .04 seconds...half a finger length. We also saw a swim off for the men's 50M free for 17th place...why? Because that spot is the 1st alternate into the semifinals if a swimmer scratches. That race was determined by .01, or a fingernail. Apparently the 50M free semifinals resulted in a tie for 8th place which was settled on Friday AM (we had gone back to StL at that point). The 1st race of the swim off was again a tie. The swimmers came back 30 min later to settle it AGAIN and this time the margin was .02. Just ridiculous how fast these swimmers are.

My daughter had a swim meet in St. Louis Friday-Sunday. Not as fast My daughter did drop a collective 106 seconds of time from her 8 events. That was a good thing. She also qualified for the state meet in the 100M butterfly which was a goal of hers. She also met 8 different B standard times (every event she swam) which opens the door for her to some other swim meets. She's put in a lot of work and she seems to really be enjoying the swimming thing.

Remarkable thing...I watched a 12 year old girl from St. Louis swim a 28 second 50M free style yesterday. That's about 4.5 seconds off the world record which is 23 seconds and some change. She took 1 breath in the race and I swear she looked like a dolphin gliding through the water. Remember the name Emma Fouke in 4 years for the Olympic trials. We did see 1 16 year old in the trials and there were a number of 17 year olds who made it there as well.

 

[tudirk]

That's cool for your daughter. I hated being in the pool area at ORU when my kids were just taking swim lessons and was hot and humid. I was miserable. Give me an hour and a half at soccer any day. Swimming is great for your health though.

 

[rusty-c]

That must be a really cool event to attend and Lucas Oil is a great stadium, and as you said concession prices are fair and parking isn't an issue. My experience was from attending several marching band events there. Such a flexible use facility.

 

[TU_BLA]

That must be a really cool event to attend and Lucas Oil is a great stadium, and as you said concession prices are fair and parking isn't an issue. My experience was from attending several marching band events there. Such a flexible use facility.

I would really love to return to Lucas Oil in August for DCI World Championships. The drum and bugle corps I marched in has been finishing top 3-4 the last few seasons. I'll see them in BA in July but I'd love to see the finished polished show at finals.

I do find it odd that the Colts celebrate losing to the Patriots in a couple AFC Championship games by hanging "AFC Finalist" banners. I told my wife that US Swimming hosting the event there was a trial to see how they could pull it off in such a large venue. Sure enough they announced that swimming was going to be hosted in SoFi for the LA games and I think you'll see them bid more for World Championships to be hosted at places like At&T, Mercedes Benz in Atlanta, NRG in Houston.

It also would not surprise me if US Swimming makes Indy the permanent site for the swim trials every four years. Indy as a city just knows how to host large, world class events. I think Indy could probably pull off an Olympics as well, my only question would be is the airport big enough to handle that amount of people in that short of a time span?

 

[lawpoke87]

So I spent last Wednesday and Thursday at Lucas Oil Stadium taking in the US Olympic Swim trials. Observations: 1) Katie Ledecky is an absolute freak athlete. She swam her 1500M final on Wednesday night, the same night the women swam their 100M final. After the 100M final the women interviewed were all winded and gasping for air. After Ledecky pretty much lapped the entire field in the 1500 (30 lengths of the pool), she gets out and does her interview and you could barely tell she spent the previous 15 minutes swimming what essentially is a mile. And she kicks very little in that race...it's almost all only her arms. Crazy. 2) Lucas Oil is a really nice stadium and their concessions prices were surprisingly low. Bottle of water was $3.50. I know last time I was at OneOK we paid $5.00 for a bottle of water. 3) The incredibly slim margins between going to the Olympics and not must be gut wrenching and heartbreaking. We saw a 100M swim off FOR 6th PLACE on Thursday AM. Why? Because 6th place goes to the Olympics as an alternate on the women's 4x100 relay as swimmer 3-6 typically will swim the prelims and semis of that even before spots 1 and 2 swim in the finals. The swim off margin was .04 seconds...half a finger length. We also saw a swim off for the men's 50M free for 17th place...why? Because that spot is the 1st alternate into the semifinals if a swimmer scratches. That race was determined by .01, or a fingernail. Apparently the 50M free semifinals resulted in a tie for 8th place which was settled on Friday AM (we had gone back to StL at that point). The 1st race of the swim off was again a tie. The swimmers came back 30 min later to settle it AGAIN and this time the margin was .02. Just ridiculous how fast these swimmers are.

My daughter had a swim meet in St. Louis Friday-Sunday. Not as fast My daughter did drop a collective 106 seconds of time from her 8 events. That was a good thing. She also qualified for the state meet in the 100M butterfly which was a goal of hers. She also met 8 different B standard times (every event she swam) which opens the door for her to some other swim meets. She's put in a lot of work and she seems to really be enjoying the swimming thing.

Remarkable thing...I watched a 12 year old girl from St. Louis swim a 28 second 50M free style yesterday. That's about 4.5 seconds off the world record which is 23 seconds and some change. She took 1 breath in the race and I swear she looked like a dolphin gliding through the water. Remember the name Emma Fouke in 4 years for the Olympic trials. We did see 1 16 year old in the trials and there were a number of 17 year olds who made it there as well.

Going to need some “swimming” education.

1). What is a “B” time?
2). Do you have to swim a certain time in an event to qualify to go to certain meets?
3). Why do the call them “meets”?

 

[TU_BLA]

Going to need some “swimming” education.

1). What is a “B” time?
2). Do you have to swim a certain time in an event to qualify to go to certain meets?
3). Why do the call them “meets”?

So the answers to 1 and 2 kind of go together. So there are B times, BB times, and A times with each being sort of a standard. Meets that don't want swimmers/racers just entering can set a meet standard for events. Meets that want to showcase faster swimmers and to also limit the number of entries can set the B, BB, or A as standards for certain events, which they usually do for longer races, like the 200M races. This way you don't have swimmers taking 5 minutes to complete a 200M freestyle (for 12 year olds, 2:30-3:00 is a good time). So my daughter and her swim team went to Dallas for a meet last summer and she could only swim in the 50M events because she hadn't yet hit any B times to compete in others. Considering she had only been swimming competitively less than a year at that point, it was fine. If you watched the 10K run in the Olympic Trials on Sunday evening, the announcers (and US Track) were hoping the top 3 finishers would be the 3 guys who had met the Olympic standard of time either in that race or previously this year because if someone who hadn't met that standard but finished in the top 3, the US would only have 2 spots at the Olympics unless the 3rd runner met that standard between now and then.

State times vary from state to state and it's usually a median time which you can reasonably expect a certain number of swimmers to meet that time in your state based on past years' results in that age group. My guess is they want about 40 swimmers (5 heats worth) to be eligible for the state meet. Sometimes you'll get more and sometimes you'll get less and not everyone with a state qualifying time will swim that event at state as you are limited to 3 individual events per day and 2 relays per day.

As for why they call them "meets" I have no idea 🤣

 

[rusty-c]

I would really love to return to Lucas Oil in August for DCI World Championships. The drum and bugle corps I marched in has been finishing top 3-4 the last few seasons. I'll see them in BA in July but I'd love to see the finished polished show at finals.

I do find it odd that the Colts celebrate losing to the Patriots in a couple AFC Championship games by hanging "AFC Finalist" banners. I told my wife that US Swimming hosting the event there was a trial to see how they could pull it off in such a large venue. Sure enough they announced that swimming was going to be hosted in SoFi for the LA games and I think you'll see them bid more for World Championships to be hosted at places like At&T, Mercedes Benz in Atlanta, NRG in Houston.

It also would not surprise me if US Swimming makes Indy the permanent site for the swim trials every four years. Indy as a city just knows how to host large, world class events. I think Indy could probably pull off an Olympics as well, my only question would be is the airport big enough to handle that amount of people in that short of a time span?

If everything works out I’ll be at DCI finals/surprise 40th birthday gathering for a dear friend in August. I’ve been out of teaching for four years now and one of my last students is with Crossmen and aging out this year. She’s been on the contra line the last four years and it would be nice to see her out.

 

[TU_BLA]

If everything works out I’ll be at DCI finals/surprise 40th birthday gathering for a dear friend in August. I’ve been out of teaching for four years now and one of my last students is with Crossmen and aging out this year. She’s been on the contra line the last four years and it would be nice to see her out.

Did you march? I marched with Boston back in the 90s. Played baritone. We weren't very good but we also had a relatively small horn line compared to the top 12 corps. I think we marched 48 horns my age out year while most everyone else was marching 60-64. And the corps was nearly bankrupt...sort of amazing they were able to keep operating and the generosity of some benefactors helped as well. And the corps director those years helped turn that aspect around as he found some corporate sponsors to help and then was part of the group that backs the corps now, Inspire Art & Music (IAM) which helps support about 300 different music programs in the Boston area. When I marched I'd say 80% of the membership was local New England. Now I think that number is only about 20% as they do some heavy recruiting in TX and FL and even host their Spring camps in those places to make it easier for corps members to get to. They still do their 3 week long camp at Castleton College in VT. And they've pretty much gone out and gotten the best creative staff in DCI and somehow kept them together.

We used to do a lot of shows with the Crossmen back in the day so I knew a lot of their members (back when they were from the Philly area). Still one of my favorite shows ever was '92 Crossmen, Songs for Planet Earth. If you've never seen it, go find it. The battery that year was insane.

 

[TU_BLA]

Wednesday, June 26, 2024 12:13 PM by Brandon Almeida

adobe.ly

This is a picture of my daughter during her swim meet. I actually took some good photos, way better than the soccer ones I never get because I'm not ready to shoot because I'm too invested in the game. Swim meets present more opportunity to take pictures without missing the bulk of the action

 

[rusty-c]

Did you march? I marched with Boston back in the 90s. Played baritone. We weren't very good but we also had a relatively small horn line compared to the top 12 corps. I think we marched 48 horns my age out year while most everyone else was marching 60-64. And the corps was nearly bankrupt...sort of amazing they were able to keep operating and the generosity of some benefactors helped as well. And the corps director those years helped turn that aspect around as he found some corporate sponsors to help and then was part of the group that backs the corps now, Inspire Art & Music (IAM) which helps support about 300 different music programs in the Boston area. When I marched I'd say 80% of the membership was local New England. Now I think that number is only about 20% as they do some heavy recruiting in TX and FL and even host their Spring camps in those places to make it easier for corps members to get to. They still do their 3 week long camp at Castleton College in VT. And they've pretty much gone out and gotten the best creative staff in DCI and somehow kept them together.

We used to do a lot of shows with the Crossmen back in the day so I knew a lot of their members (back when they were from the Philly area). Still one of my favorite shows ever was '92 Crossmen, Songs for Planet Earth. If you've never seen it, go find it. The battery that year was insane.

Never marched Drum Corp, but through my 25 year teaching career I became connected with a number of well respected folks that had roles within the activity. I've lost track of a lot of the "going ons" since leaving teaching, but know it's intense and unfortunately we're losing corps due to numerous pressures. Songs for Planet Earth was a great show, but I'm pretty fond of 2008 Phantom's depiction of Sparticus.

 

[TU_BLA]

Never marched Drum Corp, but through my 25 year teaching career I became connected with a number of well respected folks that had roles within the activity. I've lost track of a lot of the "going ons" since leaving teaching, but know it's intense and unfortunately we're losing corps due to numerous pressures. Songs for Planet Earth was a great show, but I'm pretty fond of 2008 Phantom's depiction of Sparticus.

We could probably compare a lot of stories.

Cadets shuttering this year hit me hard. Always respected them. But with what Hopkins was doing and the pending lawsuits that even reorganization will not shelter them from, I was told this was the only way and that it was a permanent thing since any attempt to reorg later on after the suits are settled would subject that org to the terms of any settlement (don't ask me how this works, just what I was told).

I've been partial to Boston's shows the last few years. Wicked Games and Paradise Lost were just freaking incredible concepts IMO. I was also a big fan of Crown's show 2 years ago. I'm getting tired of Bluecoats and Devils as it seems to be the same crap each season. I swear the Bluecoats are just recycling shows right now. And last year I think I counted 37 Devils horn players that were mic'd and the mic's were hot for the big show hits so they seemed even louder than normal. Not a big fan of all the tech and audio and even the sets as they seem designed to take up space and hide marching/formation deficiencies.

Looking forward to the DCI Premiere tonight. Just restarted my FloMarching subscription for the next 2 months. Pretty sure my wife is going to be tired of DCI as I will pretty much watch every show night from here on til finals.

 

[Gmoney4WW]

Wednesday, June 26, 2024 12:13 PM by Brandon Almeida

adobe.ly

This is a picture of my daughter during her swim meet. I actually took some good photos, way better than the soccer ones I never get because I'm not ready to shoot because I'm too invested in the game. Swim meets present more opportunity to take pictures without missing the bulk of the action

Lt blue & diving in, or red and black suit standing up to the left? Swim meet is exactly what it sounds like. A group of swimmers meet each other for athletic competition. Boring self explanatory term.

 

[TU_BLA]

Lt blue & diving in, or red and black suit standing up to the left? Swim meet is exactly what it sounds like. A group of swimmers meet each other for athletic competition. Boring self explanatory term.

My daughter is the one diving into the pool. I can't remember which race this was. It was her 2nd race on Friday. I tend to not take random pictures of swimmers who are standing outside the pool for obvious reasons. I did take some of my daughter and her teammates waiting for their races and shared them with our group. Weird thing is I set the camera to sports mode with rapid shutter and just pressed the button and I would get bursts of 15-20 photos in a 4-5 second period allowing me to capture photos like this along with 10 others that just show splashing. I did get a couple of great head on shots of my daughter in the breaststroke and fly and those are some cool pictures as well.

Youth swim meets like this is like herding cattle. Call an event and watch 50 swimmers gather behind the blocks lined in by lane and heat. This particular meet separated out every age group so you had the 12s, then 11s, then 10s, 9s and 8U, and then separated each of those out by gender. Typically the afternoon sessions are 13 and up. They do 13s, 1;s, and essentially a HS group of 15+.

Weird thing is at the younger age groups, the times to qualify for a B standard or state are faster for girls than they are the boys. That changes when they get to 13-14 when the boys finally have faster qualifying times than the girls. And my daughter routinely beats the about out the 12U boys on her team. She is both taller and stronger than all of them.

 

[rusty-c]

We could probably compare a lot of stories.

Cadets shuttering this year hit me hard. Always respected them. But with what Hopkins was doing and the pending lawsuits that even reorganization will not shelter them from, I was told this was the only way and that it was a permanent thing since any attempt to reorg later on after the suits are settled would subject that org to the terms of any settlement (don't ask me how this works, just what I was told).

I've been partial to Boston's shows the last few years. Wicked Games and Paradise Lost were just freaking incredible concepts IMO. I was also a big fan of Crown's show 2 years ago. I'm getting tired of Bluecoats and Devils as it seems to be the same crap each season. I swear the Bluecoats are just recycling shows right now. And last year I think I counted 37 Devils horn players that were mic'd and the mic's were hot for the big show hits so they seemed even louder than normal. Not a big fan of all the tech and audio and even the sets as they seem designed to take up space and hide marching/formation deficiencies.

Looking forward to the DCI Premiere tonight. Just restarted my FloMarching subscription for the next 2 months. Pretty sure my wife is going to be tired of DCI as I will pretty much watch every show night from here on til finals.

I bet we could....

You are correct regarding reorganization being impossible. All assets were liquidated and I believe the marching Pa gentry Art Museum is holding all historical memorabilia until the legal process comes to conclusion and instructions are given. What George did was absolutely despicable, but he was not alone, which makes it even more shameful and they should all be buried up to their ear and covered in honey right next to an ant hill. That would still be too good for them....

Boston has always been a favorite of mine, and a number of years ago I bought the battery equipment, a set of vibes, and a 4.6 marimba when they were still with Pearl and my students put it to good use for a number of years. Crown likewise is a favorite, Matt Harloff does amazing work with the brass and is just a good all around dude, as were all the staff I ever interacted with. My niece aged out with Bluecoats as a member of the color guard (three year all-state horn player) before they started winning. I enjoyed them much more in those days.

Joe Allison was my mentor as I completed my judges training, may he rest in peace, did a research project with the help of his students where they analyzed a number of things about DCI groups shows. What I found most interesting was the group that played the least (front ensemble excluded) and moved the least over a several year period. You guessed it BD.

I haven't renewed yet, but need to do so and appreciate the reminder.

 

[TU_BLA]

I bet we could....

You are correct regarding reorganization being impossible. All assets were liquidated and I believe the marching Pa gentry Art Museum is holding all historical memorabilia until the legal process comes to conclusion and instructions are given. What George did was absolutely despicable, but he was not alone, which makes it even more shameful and they should all be buried up to their ear and covered in honey right next to an ant hill. That would still be too good for them....

Boston has always been a favorite of mine, and a number of years ago I bought the battery equipment, a set of vibes, and a 4.6 marimba when they were still with Pearl and my students put it to good use for a number of years. Crown likewise is a favorite, Matt Harloff does amazing work with the brass and is just a good all around dude, as were all the staff I ever interacted with. My niece aged out with Bluecoats as a member of the color guard (three year all-state horn player) before they started winning. I enjoyed them much more in those days.

Joe Allison was my mentor as I completed my judges training, may he rest in peace, did a research project with the help of his students where they analyzed a number of things about DCI groups shows. What I found most interesting was the group that played the least (front ensemble excluded) and moved the least over a several year period. You guessed it BD.

I haven't renewed yet, but need to do so and appreciate the reminder.

BD has always been a park and blow unit. While they are incredibly clean, their visual has not really been a favorite of mine although I do consider My Spanish Heart ('94) still the best show of all time. Maybe the most perfect horn line performance ever in that finals. I have an eclectic taste in shows and the one that made me fall in love with swim corps was SCVs Phantom of the Opera show in 1988 (which was far superior than 89s version in terms of artistry and concept). '88 was a fantastic year for DCI. Scouts Malagueña became a staple of the TU marching band for many years under Prof. Grass and it was one of those rip your faces off shows. My pillar years for DCI were probably 88-94, just old fashioned drum corps, no electronics, no sets really, just brass, percussion, and visuals designers trying to push the envelop. '93 and Phantom's crab stepping wedge, and the dogfight between Star and Cadets that year. The Holzinger stuff the Cadets did was really innovative and Star was so far ahead of everyone in terms of that show, the judges really were perplexed and didn't know how to adjudicate next to the more traditional shows. It took me 15 years before I truly understood the show and was able to appreciate how good it was.

I am hoping Boston's "Glitch" this year gets understood. It's a departure from their story telling shows of the last 8-10 years. It is visually stunning and the battery was on fire. And you could sense that the design team is holding some stuff back to add in later and you can almost pick the points in the show where they're going to add in some "OMG" features.

 

[rusty-c]

BD has always been a park and blow unit. While they are incredibly clean, their visual has not really been a favorite of mine although I do consider My Spanish Heart ('94) still the best show of all time. Maybe the most perfect horn line performance ever in that finals. I have an eclectic taste in shows and the one that made me fall in love with swim corps was SCVs Phantom of the Opera show in 1988 (which was far superior than 89s version in terms of artistry and concept). '88 was a fantastic year for DCI. Scouts Malagueña became a staple of the TU marching band for many years under Prof. Grass and it was one of those rip your faces off shows. My pillar years for DCI were probably 88-94, just old fashioned drum corps, no electronics, no sets really, just brass, percussion, and visuals designers trying to push the envelop. '93 and Phantom's crab stepping wedge, and the dogfight between Star and Cadets that year. The Holzinger stuff the Cadets did was really innovative and Star was so far ahead of everyone in terms of that show, the judges really were perplexed and didn't know how to adjudicate next to the more traditional shows. It took me 15 years before I truly understood the show and was able to appreciate how good it was.

I am hoping Boston's "Glitch" this year gets understood. It's a departure from their story telling shows of the last 8-10 years. It is visually stunning and the battery was on fire. And you could sense that the design team is holding some stuff back to add in later and you can almost pick the points in the show where they're going to add in some "OMG" features.

You have good taste.... Brought some good memories back to me when you mention Prof.. loved that man! He was always so supportive and encouraging to me clear up to the time of his passing. Perfect show for him Malaguena, When I Fall in Love, and Legend of the One Eyed Sailor. Higher, louder, faster was his style and my one of my favorite sayings I picked up from him was when he'd start the band with a two bar count off of "one, two, you know what do...." We had some really good times through the years, for which I'm so thankful.

Star was very perplexing for the judging community at the time. The evaluation sheets and rubrics simply didn't have an avenue for the innovative ideas they were putting on the field and performing.

I don't think you'll have to worry about the judging community understanding "Glitch". Seems that the show is written, like all the upper tier corps shows, directly to the sheet and rubrics. Trick will be, at least from the judging aspect will be the execution, because the demand and repertoire/content are certainly there, and we know if it's not being rewarded initially, it will be adjusted to where it fits. They will certainly add those things as they move through the season, or already have and will hide them till finals week. In 2006, I was in Indiana sitting in the stands with a prominent director from the Chicago area and watched the Cavaliers rework an entire segment of their 2006 show. It was super early in the season and the adjustment clearly worked out for them.

 

[TU_BLA]

In 2006, I was in Indiana sitting in the stands with a prominent director from the Chicago area and watched the Cavaliers rework an entire segment of their 2006 show. It was super early in the season and the adjustment clearly worked out for them.

In 1993 in my age out year with Boston, going into the DCI Premier show in Ypsilanti, we had a drill instructor who rewrote the ending drill for the opener during our lunch hour, taught it to us (alone, everyone else went to lunch), and when we ran that segment after lunch, we did it and the drill/visual designer went "What the **** was that?!?!? I love it. It's in the show for tonight." We jumped 4 points. The drill instructor was a former Cadet. Marched '88-90 so was part of some great corps and knew what the hell GE visual wanted in terms of how it fit the music.

Our drill/visual designer those years was Chris Raichle who is now a DCI judge on the visual side specializing in Color Guard. Always found it odd he would be adjudicating shows that Boston was in. In addition to being part of BAC staff, he was the drum major for Boston in the mid 80s, including the year Boston did a European tour...when the corps director left them there and this 21 year old drum major had to manage the 100 or so members and figure out how to get them home (that's the story that has always been told in the member circles). Chris Holland, who is the current IAM/BAC CEO/Corps Director, was my hornline captain the 2 years I marched. Those were the years the BAC meant something a little different and you basically didn't **** around with any of us because if you did, you were ****ing around with 110 corps members, some of whom grew up in rough neighborhoods in Boston. Some of the stories the old members would tell you...they wouldn't be repeated in front of parents because if parents knew, they probably would yank you from the corps. I miss some of the tradition though. I miss the red and black cadet uniforms. I miss Conquest although I do think you'll see the corps 'Glitch" into Conquest (at least the calls) at the end of the show by the end of the season.

Someone is going to have to help me with how judges see GE and execution. I am certain that Boston's hornline was the best in the activity last year (and I believe they actually beat BD in semifinals in one of the brass categories, maybe performance). Like I get so disappointed in how shows are viewed when you keep seeing the same show trotted out year after year. Bluecoats change the music slightly but the show concept is so tired doing the psychedelic smatter of noise. And Devils...they do what they do well but they never seem to try to push the envelope. Reason I like Crown's "Right Here Right Now" show 2 years ago is it was a unique concept, brought some new energy, and the ending was bad ass and the crowd was involved in it the entire time.

Interesting Tulsa connection to Boston (besides me)...their color guard caption head is also the color guard designer/caption head for Union HS. Understandable when you see that Union did extremely well in the visual/guard captions the last couple of years and also at WGI Finals (Union made the HS final 12 this year).