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| | |  | The [Already] Storied Swimming Phenom |
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| Posted By: Tyler Remmel on 2008-03-14 18:34:54 EST | Email Story | Flag As Spam | Comments (1) |
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I'm not the fastest swimmer.
Now, you're probably thinking, why would someone say something like that about himself,
and my answer is simple: I simply haven't had enough time.
My times alone do not tell an adequate story of my career, so here is what the
numbers would say, if they could of course.
2005-2006: Freshman Forthcoming
I was a skinny little boy who didn't have any idea of what to do. I'm not going
to put them down too much, but my middle school years were not the greatest. We
all know what life is like in middle school: if you are good at a select few
sports, like basketball, baseball, or football, you will be deathly popular
among the few people you know. The others, well, don't get so much attention. I
was one of those others. I was a good student, but highly uncoordinated, making
my life quite boring. Simply: I had a large number of free hours each night and
nothing to occupy them. That's where swimming comes in.
Sometime over the previous summer, I decided that I was going to try out a few
sports in high school that I wasn't able to participate in middle school. My
plan was to swim from the start, but I didn't foresee the future success that
swimming would bring me at that time.
So, I started out the season among the top of the new people on our team, which
was most of the team (if we deserve to be called that). At our time trials this
year, my 50 times were approximately the following: Free: 36.5, Back: 42.1,
Breast: 58.5, Fly: 46.0. I was actually in the top half of the team at that
time, if it says anything about our team.
The team situation, as I previously alluded to, was not the greatest, by far.
Coming into my freshman year, the team hadn't won a meet (duals included) in
three years. During that time, there were no state qualifiers, either. My
freshman year was no different: we remained an excruciating poor team (which
had no seniors, by the way), failing to win a meet for the fourth year in a
row.
As for my season, it was a great chance for me to get a feel of what high
school swimming was really like. That's because it didn't take long for me to
move up from a top-tier JV swimmer to a "top-tier" varsity swimmer
(not saying much on our team). By the end of the season, I was practically the
best swimmer on the team, being the best in both the backstroke and individual medleys.
After my parents, coaches, and I realized how quickly I had improved, I decided
to get into club swimming. I was soon overwhelmed by how much faster than me
everyone else was, but I didn't give up. Heck, by the end of the long course
season, I found myself making it to the Wisconsin 13 & over State Meet
swimming on relays, but swimming nonetheless. It was at this point that I
realized that I may have somewhere to go in this sport.
2006-2007: Sophomore Slump?
I continued swimming this fall coming into the season, now moved up to the
'actual' training groups in the club (at this time, Senior Silver moved up from
Hartford Senior, a sad excuse for a 'training' group). This is when I first
realized that the fact that I was essentially still a beginner (less than one
year), primarily in the training. I was just not fit to keep up with the others
in the group, even the ones that would be much slower than me in the meets. I
would sit out often, usually because my shoulders were not used to the
workload. At this time, my breaststroke was really starting to come through: I
came into this fall season at a 1:09 in the 100. Over the next three months,
though, that time would drop by another three seconds, bringing me into the
high school season.
Starting the season, I was easily one of the top guys on the team. And, for the
first time in my career, I was really hungry to fulfill a goal for myself: to
make it to State. Not an easy thing to do when you are still an infant in the
sport. One thing I struggled with more than anything else during this season
was just keeping my head forward, looking forward to what was to come. I just
had an increasing fear that my times would soon begin to plateau, which they
fortunately did not. By the end of the season, I was able to squeak into the
WIAA State meet, qualifying 24th in the 100 Yard Breaststroke with a time of
1:04.28. My performance at State was modest at best, adding three tenths,
mostly because my taper had worn off. Club state was even worse, but I'm not
even going to waste my time talking about that (I was tapering for a solid
month-and-a-half coming into it, so you can imagine how my endurance was). Oh,
and I almost forgot to mention: I was also named MVP of our high school team.
As for the high school team, we again had a very large team, 36 guys this time,
20 or more of whom could be described as newcomers to the sport. We finally
managed to win our first, second, and third dual meets in the last four years,
the first of our seniors' careers. We also managed to move into second place in
the conference, nearly upsetting first place in a dual meet a few weeks prior
to conference.
This season was in many ways my outbreak season; when I first started realizing
what the sport is all about. It was also when I consider myself to have moved
out of the mediocre stage and into the proficient category, being moved up
again after the season, this time into the Senior Sterling Silver group.
Although worthy of its accolades, I did not stop raising the bar here.
Over the summer long course season, I was able to greatly improve my times from
the season, but my primary focus was the training. I knew that if I wanted to
reach that next level of excellence, I was going to need to practice like a
champion. So, I began to build a tolerance to any pain that I felt, overcome
any other major training deficiencies I had, and just get back to the basics. I
put forth 110 percent effort each practice, working on maintaining technique
throughout the sets, and my times would soon show it. Although my times didn't
drop off nearly as rapidly as they had in the preceding season, I did drop
enough time to make the consolation finals in the 100 Meter Breaststroke at the
summer state meet.
2007-2008: Junior Year Already
Fall season again was another season with the focus on training more than
anything else. In the process of continuing my training success I was again
able to lower my times, primarily in the breaststroke. At the Grand Prix meet
in Minneapolis, I went a 1:03 in the 100 Breaststroke (1 second improvement
over 3 months) and a 2:19 in the 200 Breaststroke (a 10 second improvement over
my pre-season best). Then it was back to high school with high hopes again.
As a team, we came into the high school season with a number of new club
swimmers, and with a very real shot at a conference title. This season would
soon prove to be our team's real breakout season as well. In the first meet of
the season, our own relays meet, we managed to win our first varsity-level
invite in a great number of years. And then we won another at the Fond du Lac
Invitational. Then another at conference. And on top of all that, we won the
conference dual meet title after going undefeated in conference duals, winning
all meets by at least a 50 point margin. Plus, we sent five guys to State this
year, with only one of those five swimming not swimming in multiple events at
State.
As for my season, an injury brought the season to a sudden stop. That is, I
found out about the patellar tendinitis in my knee (remember, I'm a breaststroker).
So, hoping that it would not cause trouble if I held off of doing breaststroke
in practice, I tried to just avoid any more breaststroke kick than I needed to
retain strength. Fortunately, this worked magnificently, as I had my best
season yet. My times continued to drop over the course of the season, and I
found myself in the final heat of the state meet in the 100 Breaststroke, as
well as qualifying in the 200 Medley Relay, 50 Freestyle, and 200 Freestyle
Relay, all of which were named to the First Team All-Conference, winning at the
conference meet. I was also given an All-State Honorable Mention nod for my
performance in the 100 Breaststroke, taking seventh at State. I also was named
the MVP for the second year in a row, as well as being named the conference
swimmer of the year, the first time the award was won by a Hartford Union
swimmer in 10 years. Oh, and my 'record' for the 100 Breaststroke this season
was amazing in duals and invites combined, totaling six outright wins, two
second-place finishes, 1 fourth, and one seventh.
Two of our relays also managed to set records during this season. Our 200
Freestyle Relay set a conference record at the Wisconsin Little Ten Conference
Championships, and our 200 Medley Relay set a school record at State.
Club state went better this season as well. I took a seventh, two eighths, and
a ninth place finish in the 100 Breaststroke, 200 Medley Relay, 200 Free Relay,
and 200 Breaststroke, respectively. Qualifying for the Speedo Sectional, my 100
Breaststroke took 21 at the Waukesha, WI stop. Serving as another indicator of
my quick success is the fact that I just missed out on making it to NCSA Junior
Nationals on relays, which was a minor disappointment. |
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| Tags: tyler remmel, huhs, lake country, improvement, review, phenom |
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| Posted in swimming, high school sports, men's athletics |
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