Lincoln Vulcans Open Meet Result

Had a good day on Saturday at the Vulcan's open meet, spaced my swims out over the day, had a good laugh with my mates, all was good :)

Because of how and what we are doing in our training at the moment, I didn't expect to make any huge headway on any of my times. I got slight pb's on most of the events with a good 6 sec one on my 400 free which gives me my first regional qualifying time for next year as a 14 year old (i'm 13). I've never had a regional qt in the first month of the new season with over 6 months before the closing date of the Midlands.

I just pb'd on my 200 breaststroke and managed to get a bronze which was a nice surprise!. My mum +Sue Davies video'd the race with the iPad and did some fancy graphics (which is below). It was nice that I won my heat for a change....lane 9 is horrible place to swim with all of the style and  turn judges watching me!

Below is the little medal I won for the 200 breast in my last event of the day :)

Had a great day yesterday with my mate Simon (who's also a swimmer). We played golf and went to the gym at night. I was back at training this morning at 5.15am and i'll be going later on this evening at 5.30pm, can't wait!

National Arena Swimming League and Lincoln Vulcans Open Meet

I swam with the Leicester Sharks in the National Arena League last Saturday. We went to Birmingham knowing full well it was going to be a tough meet, we were against City of Coventry, City of Derby and City of Hereford amongst others. We only had 23 swimmers in our squad but we showed even though we aren't a City squad we could still compete with the best. I swam in 3 individuals and 3 relays...I was pleased at how I swam. We came 3rd with Coventry and Derby in front of us and Hereford behind us in 4th place, it was a great night, it felt like a win...the atmosphere on the coach was fantastic on the way back :)

National Arena Swimming League

This Saturday i'm at the Lincoln Vulcans open meet, Ponds Forge Sheffield. It's the first long course meet of the season and one of my targeted meets. There are 3 sessions and i'm taking part in all 3 so it'll be a long day. I'm hoping to get some new PB's to continue good start.

On the day, i'll be competing in:

Session One

200m Backstroke

200m Freestyle

Session Two

400m Freestyle

Session Three

200m Breaststroke

Ponds Forge Sheffield

Have a good weekend all

James ;)

I've reached 4000 pageviews!

This little blog about one swimmer who loves to swim and loves everything around swimming has had over 4000 pageviews! Hopefully it makes for an interesting quick read about a 13 year old swimmer in the UK who's aiming for the Nationals next year.

From me and my dad....thanks for reading :)

Breaststroke action shot!

Here's a picture of me doing the 100m Breaststroke from the Penguins Open Meet

with the Leicester Sharks Swimming Club

Just need to have more of a neutral head position and we're good to go!

Follow me on twitter swimmerjd ;)

Good result at Penguins Open Meet

After swimming in an early season open meet, it's nice to see a little improvement this early on, it's encouraging and makes the 5.15am starts all worth while.

I got first place for 100m breaststroke, and 3rd places for 200m and 400m freestyle.....I missed out on 3rd place for my 200m medley by 0.40 sec.

Got some really nice, laser etched trophies, think these are my favourite one's so far :)

These are my new short course times:

100 Breast 1:20.73

200 IM 2:33.52

400 Free 4:38.66

200 Free 2:13.80

James :)

Leicester Penguins Open Meet

It's been a great start back to High School, i've been made a Sport's Ambassador at school which means I'll be part of a group travelling to primary schools encouraging and teaching younger children about sports, taking part and leadership....can't wait to get started!

I'm taking part in my first open meet of the season, this early on, it's only going to be a paddle!

The Leicester Penguins open meet is on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th October but I'll only be going to the afternoon sessions on each day. I'll be going as a Leicester Shark which'll be different as I usually do all my open meets as the City of Leicester.

On Saturday i'll be doing 200 I.M & 100 B/S on the Sunday I'll be doing 200 & 400 F/C. Going on 2013's Regional Midlands qualifying times, I'm only 3.5 secs off my 200 F/C and 4.4 secs 400 F/C 14 year old qualifying times (i'm 13 years old). This meet is only to see where i am after a few weeks aerobic training which is always the case this early on a season....i'm really looking forward to the 200 F/C

Thanks for reading and I'll catch-up with you guys after the weekend

James :)

Arena Powerfin's

It's been a while since I posted anything on here.....it's been manic! Back to High School after the summer break, started a new squad at the City of Leicester, plenty of homework that needs doing as soon as I get it and just trying to fit everything in :)

As part of our season's preparation, the squad has been running in the park on Tuesday night's....it's been brilliant, it's showed me how much i've missed running & i'm still quite rapid :)

I took delivery of some new Arena Powerfins the other day, I had a black pair before these but I've now outgrown them. They are the best for me as I know they are really making me work hard instead of those other makes that are sooo huge they only have to do 5 fly leg kicks with them on and they get to the end of the pool...to me, you're only cheating yourself and you'll wonder why you won't have that regional or national time by the end of the season :)

Arena Powerfins

What's your favorite piece of training equipment?

Coach Grant Kritzinger Camp

Had 3 great days at the Grant Kritzinger camp last week. Two sessions a day, 4 hours in the pool made me really think about loads of technical stuff. Starts, turns, transitions and brake-outs also learning about reactions times, entry and underwater work. Was pretty intense but was worth it....hope I remember it all! :)

Whilst we were at Loughborough ITC swimming pool, we had a nice surprise and met current 50m Backstroke World Record holder Liam Tancock  which was great, he was really nice :)

Liam Tancock having a quick questions and answers with us at the end of our session

Liam in the middle of the Kritzinger Squad, with me 2nd from top right smiling at the camera :)

Swim Camp with Olympic Coach Grant Kritzinger

I'm lucky enough to be going on a 3 day Performance swim camp with South African

coach Grant Kritzinger on the 21 - 23 August so I can't wait!

I'll be training at Loughborough University ITC in the mornings and then at Welbeck college in the afternoons so it's going to be busy :)

Leicester Sharks coaches +Darwin Davies and +Guy Worrow  will be there along with various coaches from the Leicester Penguins.

Coach Kritzinger has his own swim squad called Players in South Africa too. 

Grant Kritzinger

Grant is the coach for Cameron van der Burgh, who won gold at the 100m breaststroke in a new world record time at the London 2012 Olympics. Breaststroke is my favourite stroke so I'm really looking forward to some tips

Cameron van der Burgh

Coach Kritzinger has also been coaching the Maltese, fly and free swimmer, Andrew Chetcuti who holds 5 individual national records.

He was one of five athletes to compete for Malta in the London 2012 Olympics

Andrew Chetcuti

It's going to be AWESOME!

Having fun pool side with swimmerjd and charlieread2000

A little bit of footage of me and Charlie Read messing about after we'd

been talking to the camera man!

Click here to see it! 

Swim Wales Summer National Swim Video's

I've managed to find my heats and swims from the Welsh Nationals and save them to

Tube Chop so that I can only see my races instead of the whole session :)

I seem a little way down on the other swimmers during my races...thats because they are 14 and i've only just turned 13 so I'm not that far down really! (In the 1st and 4th video I'm nearest the camera at the start)

200 IM Lane 1 (finished 10th 13 year old)

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1384672

200 Breast Stroke Lane 7 (finished 5th 13 year old)

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1384883

100 Breast Stroke Lane 2 (finished 10th 13 year old)

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1384899

200 Back Stroke Lane 1 (finished 6th 13 year old)

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1384911

400 Freestyle Lane 4 (finished 5th 13 year old)

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1384926

Success at the British Gas Swim Wales Summer Nationals!

I had an amazing time at the Welsh Nationals, spent time with my mates, had a BBQ with Charlie Read (and his mum and sister, that's Charlie in the photo!) and Simon Scully at Charlie's campsite.

The event was streamed live for the whole week and now footage from every day is available to watch on YouTube

Below is a screenshot of me and Charlie that Swim Wales tweeted whilst we were there!

I had 5 great swims and got 5 PB's. I realised that the times that they had taken from the national rankings were short course times converted to long course as these were faster.

I'm really pleased that I've not put any time on considering it's at the end of the season.

These are my new times:

200 IM 2:37.81

200 Breast 2:57.83

100 Breast 1:24.68

200 Back 2:34.82

400 Free 4:47.25

:)

Swim Wales Poster

This is a poster that my dad +Darwin Davies has done for the City of Leicester squad for when we go to the Welsh Nationals in a few days. It's a photo of me at my first open meet about 4 years ago!

@SWIMLEIC  @SWIMWALES  #BGSN

A drive in a Caterham!

Just before we go into the last week of training for the season, I was lucky enough to be taken out by +Guy Worrow to let my hair down (or up!) in his Caterham. It was supremely quick (0-60 in 4.6 sec) and low to the ground.....could have stayed out all day :)

Next stop British Gas Swim Wales Summer Nationals!

Live Streaming of British Gas Swim Wales Summer Nationals 2013

Just found out that there'll be live streaming of the Welsh Summer Nationals of all the heats and finals how cool is that? Coverage starts on 27/7/2013 - 02/08/2013

I was looking forward to it before, now I can't wait!

My entries are:

200 IM 2:37.71

200 Breast 2:58.04

100 Breast 1:24.34

200 Back 2:32.83

400 Free 4:46.66

Follow me on twitter to find out how I get on swimmerjd ;)

City of Leicester Sprint Meet at the Pool of Dreams!

Had a great day at the City of Leicester Sprint Meet at Loughborough University's

"Pool of Dreams"

This is a photo of me and some of my team mates taking a breather during lunch

the weather was great :)

Part of the City of Leicester Squad Loughborough ITC July 2013

Braunstone Sprints 3 Gold's and a Silver!

I had a great day on Sunday at the Braunstone Sprints Open Meet, it was good to spend all day with my Sharks mates, hadn't seen a few of them for a while. Got some good times, would have liked to have dropped a second on my 50 free and 50 fly as I've been working on my fly, lots have improved but I want the times to show it. It'll be my last Braunstone Sprints so it was good to finish well.

I came 2nd in the boy's aggregate time by just under a second, it was my fly and free that cost me first place but I'm very happy with what i've got as I'm not really a sprinter!

50 Back 33.74 Pos 1

100 Free 01:02.41 Pos 1 (mqt)

100 IM 01:13.46 Pos 1

50 Breast 38.61 Pos 2

50 Fly 35.32 Pos 4

50 Free 29.97 Pos 5

Aggregate Time: 04:33.51 (Pos 2)

I'm on twitter too @swimmerjd :)

British Gas Swim Wales Summer Nationals

Below is a photo of me standing outside the Wales National Pool Swansea last year where I took part in the Welsh Nationals. I'm really looking forward to it this year as we'll have quite a big squad going from the City of Leicester and it'll be cool to compete with my mates for a few days plus it's a really nice pool!

This year I've entered for the following races:

200 IM 2:37.71, 200 Breast 2:58.04, 100 Breast 1:24.34, 200 Back 2:32.83, 400 Free 4:46.66

Can't wait!

Don't forget to follow me on twitter @swimmerjd :)

My Personal Best Times

You'll see a screen shot below of all of my current pb's. I'm looking forward to the Braunstone Swimming Club Sprint meet this Sunday where I'll be competing with 68 Leicester Sharks swimmers, we'll be the biggest club there. It'll be good to get some short course 50m sprint times in the bag. The following week it's the City of Leicester long course sprint meet  where we'll be at the Loughborough ITC 50m pool

Hopefully I can get plenty of pb's over the next couple of weeks before we go to the Welsh Nationals at the end July before a well earned rest over the summer :)

Champion (Inspiration)

I like this type of thing, it makes you think....

follow me on twitter too @swimmerjd