mattie g

8 hours ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Definitely. I was only addressing @mattie g’s concern regarding the consistency of any one station reporting regularly.

I'd love to be an observer, but I fear I'm too lazy to stick with it.

Nearest CoCoRaHs to my location in Burke shows 0.6" for yesterday. That's a little higher than I thought it might be, but it does make sense since the cell blew up just enough to get us in north end of the reds as it passed.

Since they don't always report, I'm not sure how reliable those CoCoRaHs are for the month, but they all show about 4" of rain. I think that tracks pretty well with what I would have expected.

1 hour ago, 87storms said:

The rain shadow of Frederick continues to be a powerful force.  This pattern, for whatever reason, doesn't seem to be working too well for those on the lee side of the Blue Ridge (my guess is it's due to a lack of direct hits from these shortwaves rotating through).  On the bright side, I'm loving this weather.  I'm not interested in a NW flow in July...I want that mid-Atlantic swamp filth.  The only place I want desert-like weather is in the desert.

The storms fired well southeast of your area, so it's not as though some local feature caused you to miss out this morning. Just the luck of the draw!

17 hours ago, vastateofmind said:

Congrats. mattie! I've no doubt that your swimmers, as well as you and the rest of the parents deserve it.

And, oh yeah...Overlee...and "sportsmanship"...like, in the same sentence:

Thanks! I think once you create the culture, the expectations to act in a manner that can win you that award follow suit. Divisionals on Saturday was madness (though a blast) at our pool, and winning that award was the icing on the cake!

I was shocked to see one of the "big three" win the award, but I can only assume they did *something* that led to the other teams voting for them!

All my co-NVSL peeps know what this is about. Suffice to say that this is what we strive for every season, and we’re so proud to be on this list.

This makes it three years in a row for our team!

1 hour ago, H2O said:

I understand what you mean.  A team can get better thru good coaching and just being lucky when some new kids move into the area and help make the team better.  Thats when a team can start that rise up.  Sometimes a team being down low isn't always a sign they have been bad for years.  It could have been a sudden loss of one age group or people moving and so on.  We have gone from D17 to where we are now thru great coaching and just a good group of kids that listen and swim hard.  We have some kids that swim year round but a lot don't.  Mine don't.  What I've noticed is how many kids from D8 up DO swim year round.  Thats what happens with the rise up.  These teams and kids and parents are ALL about swimming.  I'll take wherever we get put but the NVSL should warn the pools we will face that we are a janky pool with janky facilities and one janky ass chief timer as well.  

 

A story i heard from my pool's coach that happened at this years all star relays.  For warm ups the rule is that kids dive in, swim down, get out, and walk around and repeat.  You aren't allowed to practice starts and all that.  They are just trying to let kids get in to warm up.  There was one D1 team that rhymes with Buckatoe that their kids started to work on starts and turns and all that.  Our coach saw it cause we were next to them and said to the coach they weren't allowed to do it.  Their coach's response?  "Oh I don't care.  We will do it the way we want."  The kids for that team were told not to do it.  Their response?  "Coach said we could so we will."  A formal protest was filed against them because of it.  I'm sure nothing happened.  But thats the shit that happens at all stars.  The D1s just act like they own the place because they have over half the kids swimming.  

I have a loud voice.  I have made it a point to go to all stars to root four our kids and make sure these parents and coaches HEAR the name of our pool.  Just so they know.  

100% agreed that the kids can improve via coaching. We're lucky to have the coaching staff we have, but we might have one more year with the head coach we have now because he'll be graduating from college in a couple years and has plans and an "in" to coach at at a certain higher-level club. We just need to have a succession plan to keep us rolling!

The vast majority of our kids come from the neighborhood our pool is in, but we're an open pool and can get families from anywhere. There's just never been an outreach program, but that's something we've started to do in the last two years and it's beginning to pay off. Honestly, though...I don't want to be massive, but I do want the coaches to be able to go into a meet with the ability to fill all the lanes and put together a somewhat competitive set of relays!

19 hours ago, H2O said:

I think I didn’t explain myself well enough. I don’t want my team to be bad. I’m really proud of the climb we’ve made since my kids joined. What I mean is that the teams and parents and pools were much nicer and fun at D10 and thereabouts. 

I would much rather have THOSE teams and families and kids with us. Being up high just carry more arrogance and attitude and lower Ds were much more fun. that fun attitude is what I miss and wish would be up where we are now. Not the snootiness from some teams and people who just make it less fun. 

That’s what I fear the most about being moved up. We want to be a fun team and try to be. Some of how competitive these top teams are is rubbing off on a few of our kids/parents  and I hate seeing it infect our culture despite the best efforts of our coaches and team reps

I totally get it - I think my post came across a little differently than I wanted to.

I agree with what you say completely. Where I was coming at it was from the vantage point of how part of being in a lower division is because your team isn't all that good, relative to the other teams in NVSL. When the team gets better, it moves up, and with that comes a little more pressure, a little more snootiness, etc., and while the prospect of seeing our team get better is really enticing, I (like you) would fear losing the truly fun aspect of summer swim. HOWEVER, if we somehow rocketed up the table (which isn't going to happen anyway), I would find it tough to accept that "I wish we weren't as good now" even if deep down inside I knew that to be true.

I know what I'm trying to say, but I don't think it's coming out right  

18 hours ago, vastateofmind said:

The "culture infection" can certainly be a concern. As I said, my younger son tended to qualify for all-star meets as he grew older...and I despised going to them, because of the arrogance, the cockiness, the outright unsportsmanlike conduct that (often, not always) reared its ugly head once you started competing with swimmers and their families from, say, the top 5 divisions in NVSL. Absolutely hated it.

Last year was my first at All Stars. Our team had four kids there, so we went to support them, and it was a pretty cool experience simply because it was the first one for me. I didn't really follow a lot of other races except for the heats our kids were in, but if we go back again this year I'll keep an eye open for it.

47 minutes ago, H2O said:

@mattie g I agree that with a record like ours it will be a hard sell NOT to get moved up.  So I expect it.  I get that if we are strong(which we can be at times) to stay could mean a lot of unfair meets next year given that some will be dropped down who might still be struggling.  But other good teams will move up so it could be a wash.  

For me its just that it really does feel that in these upper Ds its gone from people wanting to have fun and parents be social and jovial to the exact opposite.  So far in the D we've been in for two years I've seen a LOT of snooty parents and some really poor sportsmanship by some swimmers.  Older kids talking trash more, slapping the water if they lose, throwing stuff.  And the parents just seem to think that they are supposed to win because of who they are and how long they've been in the upper Ds.  

And that feeds back in to comments I made and the very kind words @vastateofmind said about our pool.  He's being very generous  hahaha.  We aren't a total dumpster fire pool  Our pool itself is nice and we have lovely shade for the deck and the hill to one side gives an awesome view.  But our bathhouse is old and small, the grounds itself aren't super great to look at and our parking lot is tiny.  Inevitably when we host meets, unless a team is familiar with us and accepts our warts some of the reactions we get from visitors are "oh, this is.....nice."  Or "wow, what an unusual pool.  Its old."  The comments only have gotten worse with each move up in the standings.  When we visit other pools in McLean and Chantilly and so on its like we are a Howard Johnsons and they are the Ritz Carltons.  It really is that stark a difference.  I'm a Miller Lite guy having to be around Stella Artois drinkers.  Thats what it feels like.  And if we beat them they get extra salty McSaltface.  

It just my cautionary tale of how everyone's goals might be to move up in the standings every year but I would be happy as a pig in doodie back down in D10.  

I think NVSL does a great job, in general, of putting teams in the right divisions. There are some bad choices (some teams have been absolutely mauled week-in and week-out this season), but overall they get it right.

I guess once you get high enough up in the league the prospect of moving can be something of a deterrent. It's easy for me to sit here and say I wouldn't want to be in a much higher division, but I think once that kind of momentum starts (see: certain teams who have rocketed up the league in the past few years) even I might find it hard to say "well...we used to be pretty bad but now that we're good I'd rather be bad again."

30 minutes ago, vastateofmind said:

I missed the kids departing at start of relays discussion up above....and I'm with you all. That's unacceptable. There were plenty of times when my guys did NOT make relays...but we made them stay to the end. Demonstrating good sportsmanship is as important on the deck and in the team area, as it is when you're in the water.

And, well...again, you guys get it. Too many parents don't. Summer swim should be developmental AND fun....I think that concept is completely lost in the top three divisions in NVSL, having been replaced by draw-blood, cutthroat levels of competition. Who the hell wants to compete in THAT kind of division???

Exactly. I was a pretty competitive athlete, and I couldn't imagine being in intense training and competition nearly year-round and then coming out for what's supposed to a fun summer and being that competitive over the course an incredibly intense 5-6 weeks. I'd want to do well, but man...I'd need a break!

We have a few kids who have made/make All Stars pretty regularly, but you would never know they were fairly accomplished swimmers based on how they conduct themselves. We're not perfect and we have our share of...difficult...kids and parents, but I like to think that we keep most of that from bubbling up.

23 hours ago, H2O said:

We won our last meet by a surprising margin. All week the numbers said it would be close. Like 5-10 points one way or the other. But they had a few kids missing for a big meet in stafford. By the start of breast we had a bigger lead than expected and it seemed like the other team just gave up. By relays half their team had left. Our coaches noticed it and commented after the meet. 

Our record and margin of victory will really make for a tough call if we stay where we are or get moved up. I REALLY don’t want to move up. We just aren’t a pool for that level of NVSL. Mainly due to how old our facility is. We just don’t have the niceties one would expect. 

Still a darn good season and we got payback against one team that drubbed us a couple years ago. Just divisionals left to go and then FREEDOM!!! Mel Gibson style 

Unreal that kids would up and leave by the time relays started. I mean...it sucks that they had kids missing to start, but you just have to suck it up and do your best. If you lose, then you lost knowing you gave it what you could...but to pack up and leave? Nah, not having it.

Looking at your record and total points, and I can't see you guys not moving up. The only thing that could be done is that your reps make known in the post-season seeding survey that the final meet didn't reflect the actual quality of both teams. They definitely take those surveys into account, but sometimes they're going to do what they want.

We host Divisionals this weekend, so we have a hell of a week coming up. I just don't know what I'm going to do with myself when it's all done!

19 hours ago, vastateofmind said:

that, in the 

You both give voice to the conundrum that most of us upper (or is it actually lower?) NVSL-affiliated pools face at this point in the season...we want to be competitive, but PLEASE don't move us too far up in the NVSL divisions!!!   

And @H2O is being far too modest. His pool, and the entire community of families that comprise their pool membership, have always been GREAT to work with, and to do swim meets with. It's a bit sad that he, or anyone from his pool, would ever be made to feel that their pool (and "pool" of officials/volunteers) would be somehow "less than" or not have the "niceties" when it comes to NVSL "standards" -- because I always loved when we went to his pool, and worked with their families. His pool is one of the BEST....both facilities-wise AND people-wise.

Unfortunately, those kinds of crap attitudes come from the pools comprising the top two divisions in NVSL...and I know that, because our neighborhood pool volunteers and officials (which hosted league-wide IM and Relay Carnival meets a decade or so ago) heard first-hand the nasty, vulgar and judgmental comments that came from those 10 or so pools that comprise the top two NVSL divisions. That's about the time when my attitudes on NVSL soured. But again, for you younger parents....I'm glad and hopeful that your experiences and community-building remain untinged from that kind of nastiness.   

You hit on something that we've been discussing a lot the last few weeks. A lot of parents, my co-Rep, and one coach really don't want to move up next year, especially since we only came up to D15 this season. At 3-2, tying for 2nd in Relay Carnival, having two pretty close meets against the other top teams in the division, and in running virtual meets against other teams in the few divisions above ours, I have a feeling we'll go up to D14. If it happens, I  personally think we should see it as a reward for the hard work the coaches and kids put in this season, and the way we age next year we should be even stronger than this season (and we are normally stronger in even years).

I absolutely understand teams not wanting to go up but, looking at it objectively, if you think you might be relatively strong, then it's not fair for the other teams you might be grouped with should you stay in the same division. If it goes well, then great! If not, then you go back down and try again!

The pools we swim against have generally been awesome. Even the team that came down from D11 this year (and got smacked this season) was a lot of fun! H2O and I have discussed this before, but I wouldn't want to be in a tier where we couldn't just have fun on an A Meet day and not worry about a protest or asshole pools or whatever. We want to grow and get better, but NOT at the expense of the culture we have now! 

14 hours ago, MN Transplant said:

This is where I again complain that we got 8” of snow near the Pentagon and it immediately started melting when the sun came up.  That one actually ends up on my dud list.

Now Feb 2014 had some rates in the overnight hours.  

I was in Fairlington for that one. Can confirm that melting ensued quickly.

19 hours ago, WxUSAF said:

^thats a great one. 6” of pure cold fluff

That we all willed north in the last 24 hours before first flakes...

8 hours ago, vastateofmind said:

I was a middling athlete in MS/HS and an okay but noncompetitive swimmer...my wife isn't a swimmer at all! I don't know where our sons got their swimming genes, but without going overboard I'll just say they did well growing up. I think our oldest still holds a pool relay record with a couple other guys, and our youngest still retains a number of pool records, and hangs on in the NVSL top 50 for fly and back as well as couple of relays. End of the day, summer swim season should be about the community-building, as you so wisely suggest...and I'm glad that you (and @H2O) aren't as jaded as me, and still have that, and enjoy that, at your respective pools.   

It’s so cool that your boys found their way successfully in the local swimming world despite any other expectations! We have a set of identical twin boys (11s) who have turned it on this season (not having swam year-round), but whose parents aren’t particularly athletic.  I guess you just never know!

Fun final dual meet of the season today. Lost to our local friendly rivals, but it was a relatively close meet, despite our missing some significant swimmers. 3-2 after moving up a division for a team like ours is a damn good result. Now it’s up to the NVSL gods to determine if we move up again next year!

DC corn dust fail.

3 hours ago, Terpeast said:

 

What more needs to be said? 

 

That’s been my life for the last week or two. I feel your pain.

This afternoon was a different story. The southern edge of that line blew up and dropped a 45-to 60-minute deluge on MBY and cooled things off really nicely at just the right time if the day. Lawn and garden are booming, and this will freshen everything up.

4 hours ago, vastateofmind said:

Sage advice above, from an experienced pro/old hand in NVSL...especially the part about the "special water."   

Usually those bump-ups in team size happen gradually...I hated B meets for that reason when we first got involved, but if you get enough experienced officials and on-deck volunteers and (perhaps most importantly) FILL THOSE LANES on every blow of the whistle, it can go pretty quickly. After free and back, of course...   

See? Y'all already getting too damn efficient! And I always loved to see the records made (and old records fall!) during this point of the season over the years...not just for my own sons, but to see the younger swimmers especially work their arses off and to see the sheer joy on their faces when they drop their times!

It’s really is great when these kids hit their stride as the NVSL season ends. We’ve had a fantastic season and we’re still seeing phenomenal time drops across our team. Our 6-year-old who just set that IM record is one of the nicest and most humble boys you’ll ever meet, and watching him crush it all summer (dropping 8 seconds since our B Meet on Monday!) has been one of the highlights of the season.

Best race last night was in the 13-14 Boys group where one of our most experienced swimmers dropped 5 seconds(!) in his IM against the kid he knew was his biggest competition. The other boy was seeded to win by 4 seconds and in the end ours came in .04 behind the other one. We were all so proud of him and the effort he put in - it was truly inspiring and you could just feel the positivity he was putting out afterwards!

For a guy who was an athlete but never a swimmer, I’ve been bitten hard by the bug. I truly care for these kids and the community we’re building. It’s the best part of the summer for me, despite the grind, and I’m already looking forward to next year!

31 minutes ago, WxUSAF said:

And ensembles keep a trough over us in the means for the next 2 weeks. Seasonable heat? Sure. But no sign of any persistent mid-upper 90s kinda Bermuda high. If we can get through mid-august without that, climatology starts working in our favor.

Exactly. There's no way in hell we escape a summer without heat at some point, but to keep from going 98/77 or worse for an extended period is a win.

Of course, we can get well into the 90s in September, but that's usually short-lived and a drier stuff than the soup we can get in the summer.

Lots of complaints about a day or two with highs in the 90s. Folks are getting spoiled by the lack of big heat, which is a pretty common thing around here in the summer.

Hosted our IM Carnival last night. 195 swimmers and we got through it in 1 hour 45 minutes! We opened it up to more swimmers than usual (no seed time cutoffs), so we were a little apprehensive going into it, but it turned out great.

Super fun meet with a group of pools we swim against regularly and many of whose kids go to school together. One of the other pools (PAR) set a record in 11-12 Boys 100M IM and one of our 6-year-old boys beat our 8&U 100M IM record by 5 seconds! 

3 hours ago, Terpeast said:

Yeah I have mixed feelings. As much as I want a big winter here to break the pattern, ninos are really hit and miss here. Basically half really deliver, and half give us nothing. 

I just want some reason to feel optimistic. If it doesn't pan out, then whatever, but at least we can go into the fall dreaming of a mashed potato Christmas morning.

12 hours ago, pazzo83 said:

megalopolis starting to flex the overnight lows:
73F at DCA
76F at NYC
79F at LGA
72F at BOS

The ease with which LGA records lows 78-80F these days is disturbing.

Is that any different than their lows in the recent past? I'd expect their lows to remain relatively warm given serious UHI and its proximity to water. 

2 hours ago, MillvilleWx said:

A few days ago I was followed by CWG on Twitter. I followed them for a LONG time. 

This morning I got followed by Jim Cantore and Stephanie Abrams. 

What on earth is happening? 
 

 

Everyone else is leaving Twitter, so they need someone new to follow.

6 hours ago, Terpeast said:

My grass has gone dormant. At least I don't have to mow every week?

My grass has been growing pretty nicely since the dry spell broke. I just choose not to mow often.

1 hour ago, H2O said:

They acted that way for a B meet?  Weird.  

 

Ours was against @vastateofmind former team.  The combo of their team size and ours meant that it took over 2 hours to get thru free and back.  When you hear that 8&Us have 5 heats and 9-10s too you are in for a long evening.  My only complaint was clerks not stacking lanes to fill all the way.  Just combo the shit out of events and if they are mixed boy/girl then just do it.  Fill 6 lanes as much as possible.  

So between team size and wanting to do IMs as well it meant a long night.  My knees and back were tapping out after 2.5 hours.  But my data people are so fricken awesome.  They knew I was hungry and they got me some pizza.  Then I had to figure out how to yell "timers clear" with a mouth full of za.  

I swear that snack bars need to have concession sellers walking around like sporting events.  Cold beer!, donuts!, ice cream!

One last A meet saturday then I have one more B meet to go.  We do a B meet for kids that won't do divisionals and also they hold an IM invite at another.  So for this next monday I will make up some "special" water for my timers to say thanks for all the help.  It might get sloppy but who cares.  Last B meet and it will be fun.  

Two hour for free and back...yeah, no. lol We had four heats in one or two events last night, but it was maybe two heats per event on average.

They strolled in and made comments about us being D15 team, commented on how some of our less-experienced swimmers did, wouldn't shut the F up in clerk of course, had kids yelling on the blocks after the long whistle, etc. Just lots and lots of unsportsmanlike behavior that was inappropriate at any meet, whether competitive or not. There was one point when some of their older boys were being incredibly rude to our younger kids, so our soft-spoken 19-yo coach laid into them. It just wasn't cool all around. It was bad enough that a senior official from their team reached out to a coach of ours this morning and apologized for their team sucking.

That's awesome about your data folks, but yeah...clerk needs to get hose lanes filled for B Meets! Neat idea for the additional B Meet. I do recall you mentioning the "special water" last year. Love it!

We're so small that a most of the kids who will be around for Divisionals will get to swim (plenty of our better swimmers aren't in town), so it's a good send off for them. But we still host an IM Carnival this Thursday, have an A Meet away on Saturday, then our Lolliop Meet and Community Relays next Thursday prior to hosting Divisionals. Still a TON to do until we're off the hook!

1 hour ago, hstorm said:

Our club's location gives us the (mis-)fortune of having most of our B Meets against D1/D2 pools.  (By comparison, we are D10 and quite happy to be there.)  Most of them have large teams and LOTS of B Meet swimmers.  It can make for long evenings, especially when we do IM.  Last night we were at Tuckahoe, which has an enormous team.  We hosted them for a B Meet a few years ago and the meet ended at 10:15, so we were prepared for the worst.  Incredibly, however, we finished last night at 7:40.  Small miracle!

They were ruthlessly efficient in combining age groups to fill lanes (plus they have 8 lanes).  So nice to get home at a reasonable time.

Yeah...figured that might be the case for you guys. That really sounds rough for a lot of your meets...but finishing a B Meet at 7:40? How in the hell did you do that, even with 8 lanes?! Are those teams pretty chill, all things considered? I just can't shake the impression I have that all those teams are always amped up and uber competitive in everything they do.

It's funny how relative it is when talking about team size. The team we swam with last night has 170 kids. We have 96 (including our littles), so they're MASSIVE compared to us. The rest of our B Meet group is currently D9 (last night), D10, D13, D14, and D15, with only the D15 team being about the same size as us. The D13 and D14 teams are like 120 kids or so and the D10 team has 150. I honestly don't know what I'd do if we had that many kids. 

13 hours ago, H2O said:

3.5 hour B meets are a grind

True...especially the final one of the season.

We swam the biggest team in our B Meet group last night. They're the f*cking worst, which made the meet all that much more annoying. They showed up at our pool with a cocky-as-hell attitude, and even their Reps did nothing about it after we mentioned it multiple times. My (female) co-Rep was ready to throw down