Age Group Invite Recap

2022 AGE GROUP INVITE

On November 19th-20th, IST athletes and coaches traveled to the Snohomish Aquatic Center for the 2022 Fall Age Group Invite. 82 IST athletes participated in this competition. 

The November AGI represented the first meet that required swimmers to possess a certain time standard in order to participate. In this instance, swimmers must have achieved at least a PNS Gold Time in one event in order to enter the meet. 

Meet goals for this competition included:

Senior Squads: Fine-tuning race details and strategies heading into December

Sockeye Squads: Focusing on pure racing and trying not to worry about goal times or expectations

Surge Squads: Enjoying the experience and environment of a time standards-based meet

Finally, part of any successful meet involves managing expectations and mindset. It’s important for coaches, athletes, and parents to all understand that carrying specific performance goals or expectations into a meet can be disastrous. IST strongly believes that the appropriate place for those performance goals or expectations remains in practices only. Meets serve as a time to keep things simple: swim loose, swim fast, and have fun; they are not a place to worry about time standards or anything else. The mindset of coaches, athletes, and parents should be one of mutual support and enjoyment. Please assist us in monitoring yourself and others this weekend, and especially in supporting your athletes, as many of them may feel the weight of chasing cut times or performance standards. We want to do our best to take that weight off their shoulders and free them to enjoy themselves and swim fast!