{"id":29042,"date":"2011-12-12T17:16:12","date_gmt":"2011-12-12T22:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/uncategorized\/2011\/12\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/"},"modified":"2014-07-29T00:25:31","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T07:25:31","slug":"journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/","title":{"rendered":"Journey to Olympic Trials: What a Difference a Day Makes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>Commentary by Jeff Commings, SwimmingWorld.TV associate producer<\/i><\/p>\n<p>PHOENIX, Arizona, December 12. TWENTY-FOUR hours ago, I swam the worst 100 breaststroke race of my life. It left me upset, confused, depressed and searching for answers.<\/p>\n<p>I&#39;m very ashamed to even type the time here. 1:03.02 (short course meters). Ugh. It even stings to see that time on my computer monitor, knowing it&#39;s associated with me. As I mentioned <a href=http:\/\/commings.blogspot.com\/>on my blog,<\/a> I know many Masters swimmers would be ecstatic to see that time for a <i>freestyle<\/i> event, but you must forgive me when I say that doesn&#39;t make me feel better.<br \/>\nAfter the race, I couldn&#39;t look at anyone. I felt so embarrassed by the swim, I didn&#39;t want anyone beyond the 100 or so who were in the complex at the time to know about it. But in the 21st century, everyone eventually knows everything, and I was compelled to write about it on my blog.<\/p>\n<p>Hours later, I started wondering if I should give up on the Olympic Trials. If I was swimming this bad now, I didn&#39;t want to really embarrass myself in front of thousands in Omaha. <\/p>\n<p>Everyone has those thoughts pass through them after bad swims. It&#39;s the nature of the sport, since <i>everyone<\/i> has a bad swim now and then. I hadn&#39;t had a swim that bad in many years, and it was only natural to doubt things. As I was warming down, the questions started flooding my head. There had to be a good explanation for the bad swim, especially since I had swum so well in the 100 back, 100 IM and 200 IM this weekend. In those events, I nearly surpassed my best Masters times, all of which were done more than three years ago.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#39;t until late last night that the pieces of the puzzle started coming together. During one of many emotional discussions with my partner, we figured that the issue wasn&#39;t my training, my diet, the weather or funky planetary alignments. To paraphrase Occam&#39;s Razor: All things being equal, something must be wrong with my breaststroke. Since I qualified for Trials, more than a few people have offered up tweaks to my stroke in order to be faster. Those who have followed my blog since the beginning will know those names well. I took all the advice to heart, and plowed ahead in my training. Some of these people have reached the pinnacle of this sport, either in the pool or on deck. I was not going to question them, even when my in-season times weren&#39;t as fast as they should have been.<\/p>\n<p>Does this sound familiar? It should, if you&#39;ve read <a href=http:\/\/dolphinsofthedesert.com\/odd_man_out.htm>my autobiography<\/a>. I am following the same path I took in college, when I took the advice of my highly-accomplished coach, only to find that the stroke change was not effective. The only difference between then and now is I am aware that the changes aren&#39;t working, and that I should return to the stroke that has worked for me. Back then, I trusted that the change would eventually make me faster. It didn&#39;t.<\/p>\n<p>I&#39;m confident that all the other new things I&#39;ve embraced in the past few months are working, especially my dryland training with J.R. Rosania.<\/p>\n<p>The slow swims still sting today, but not as much as they did yesterday. Twenty-four hours ago, I couldn&#39;t find my way out of that haystack of emotions. Today, I have a little better sense of optimism. I&#39;m getting back in the pool on Thursday, and almost immediately I&#39;m going to deconstruct my breaststroke and re-assemble it. I know the strengths and weaknesses of my stroke, and I think it&#39;s best to make my strengths stronger (through dryland and time in the pool) in order to hide most of my weaknesses. I&#39;m going to be extra vigilant about any changes to my stroke in the next 196 days, but not so much that I lose the enjoyment of this journey.<\/p>\n<p>I hope to have things back in working order before mid-January, when I compete at the Austin Grand Prix. If you see me on deck and want to give me stroke pointers, feel free to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Just don&#39;t be hurt if I decide not to take your advice.<\/p>\n<p><i>Jeff Commings is still going to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials, where he will be the third-oldest male in history to compete, and the oldest male in the 100 breaststroke. He is the author of &quot;Odd Man Out: An Autobiography&quot; and a Masters world record holder.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Commentary by Jeff Commings, SwimmingWorld.TV associate producer PHOENIX, Arizona, December 12. TWENTY-FOUR hours ago, I swam the worst 100 breaststroke race of my life. It left me upset, confused, depressed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-commentary","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Journey to Olympic Trials: What a Difference a Day Makes - Swimming World<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Journey to Olympic Trials: What a Difference a Day Makes\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Commentary by Jeff Commings, SwimmingWorld.TV associate producer PHOENIX, Arizona, December 12. TWENTY-FOUR hours ago, I swam the worst 100 breaststroke race of my life. It left me upset, confused, depressed\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-12T22:16:12+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-29T07:25:31+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Archive Team\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Archive Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Archive Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/794d59f870d64f0d99b6c19bcc198ae7\"},\"headline\":\"Journey to Olympic Trials: What a Difference a Day Makes\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-12T22:16:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-29T07:25:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/\"},\"wordCount\":787,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"-Home Slider\",\"Commentary\",\"zz Import (Home Page)\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/\",\"name\":\"Journey to Olympic Trials: What a Difference a Day Makes - Swimming World\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-12T22:16:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-29T07:25:31+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Journey to Olympic Trials: What a Difference a Day Makes\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"description\":\"The Global Leader in Aquatic News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"width\":1799,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Swimming World\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/794d59f870d64f0d99b6c19bcc198ae7\",\"name\":\"Archive Team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b6954d08fa89e8fe6d2fbf8f02cb5500?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b6954d08fa89e8fe6d2fbf8f02cb5500?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Archive Team\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/swimmingworldmagazine.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/archive\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Journey to Olympic Trials: What a Difference a Day Makes - Swimming World","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Journey to Olympic Trials: What a Difference a Day Makes","og_description":"Commentary by Jeff Commings, SwimmingWorld.TV associate producer PHOENIX, Arizona, December 12. TWENTY-FOUR hours ago, I swam the worst 100 breaststroke race of my life. It left me upset, confused, depressed","og_url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/","og_site_name":"Swimming World","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","article_published_time":"2011-12-12T22:16:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-29T07:25:31+00:00","author":"Archive Team","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@swimmingworld","twitter_site":"@swimmingworld","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Archive Team","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/"},"author":{"name":"Archive Team","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/794d59f870d64f0d99b6c19bcc198ae7"},"headline":"Journey to Olympic Trials: What a Difference a Day Makes","datePublished":"2011-12-12T22:16:12+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-29T07:25:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/"},"wordCount":787,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["-Home Slider","Commentary","zz Import (Home Page)"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/","name":"Journey to Olympic Trials: What a Difference a Day Makes - Swimming World","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-12-12T22:16:12+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-29T07:25:31+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/journey-to-olympic-trials-what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Journey to Olympic Trials: What a Difference a Day Makes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","name":"Swimming World","description":"The Global Leader in Aquatic News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Swimming World","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","width":1799,"height":900,"caption":"Swimming World"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld","https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/794d59f870d64f0d99b6c19bcc198ae7","name":"Archive Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b6954d08fa89e8fe6d2fbf8f02cb5500?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b6954d08fa89e8fe6d2fbf8f02cb5500?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","caption":"Archive Team"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/swimmingworldmagazine.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/archive\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p56Jja-7yq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}