Local swimmers improve on reactions times

Aside from coming up with 12 Life Time Best swims, Saipan Swim Club coach Mike Stewart said Dean Palacios and Nina Mosley also showed the most dramatic improvements in reaction times in the recent Short Course World Championships held in Indianapolis, Indiana.

In an e-mail to the Saipan Tribune the other day, Stewart wrote that one aspect Short Course Swimming is working on is the starts and turns. He said after the first day of the World Championships he noticed a couple of things in both Palacios and Mosley’s starts that needed a little fine-tuning.

The SSC coach said after the first day of swimming, which was held at the indoor Conseco Fieldhouse, Palacios recorded a .88 reaction time on his starts. Stewart noticed a flaw on the Stanford University swimmer’s starts and quickly began remedying it.

Amazingly, the next day, Palacios’ reaction times greatly improved and averaged .67 on the swimmer’s next two swims. Stewart said it peaked in the 100-meter freestyle when Palacios clocked a .64 reaction time off the blocks, second overall only to Luis Rojas of Venezuela.

Stewart added that only two other swimmers in the entire World Championships had faster reaction times than Palacios, the fastest being .61.

For her part, Mosley improved her reaction times from .75 at the start of the World Championships to consistently log in .70 and .68 reactions times, with her fastest reaction time at .67 putting her among the elite of these championships, according to Stewart.

“Dean had the most dramatic improvement of all swimmers here. Swimmers are not only timed for their swims but are also timed for their reaction times off the blocks, example: Fastest starts. Considered average for an elite athlete is a reaction time maybe of .70 seconds to get off the blocks. So both Dean and Nina did tremendous jobs,” Stewart wrote.

Coinciding with the World Championships was the American Swim Coach Association Level V Coaching seminar attended by Stewart.

The ASCA Level V accreditation is the highest level of swim coaching certification any coach could get and gives the CNMI considerable recognition and prestige in international swim competitions.

While Palacios flew back to Palo Alto, California to resume his college studies, Stewart and Mosley are expected back on Saipan. Stewart said he would resume his training sessions with other swimmers at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool this afternoon with Mosley likely to resume her training on Friday after Stewart gave her Thursday off.