⚠️ Extremely Long Post⚠️ (not as long as the competition 🤦) Sorry not sorry Over the last 5 days, I've been racing at the Welsh Summer Nationals. I entered 7 races and was then selected for a relay, but ended up swimming 14 races due to finals qualifications. Day 1: 200 free Heats - I was a little nervous before this but mainly because it was the first race, it went ok and I swam a 2:19.33. This was 2 seconds off my best, but was a solid first swim and got me into the final. Final - I swam a 2:17.28, which was a pb by 0.02. Still a pb though! I raced it well, and went out harder than I usually would (1:06.5). This was better than almost even splitting which is my usual performance 🤦 50 breast Heats - I went straight from 200 free cool down to 50 breast marshalling so was living in the chaos. I wasn't nervous for this, and swam a 37.40, a pb by 0.03 from when I was absolutely on fire at 13. Final - Swam a 37.29, another 0.11 off of my time 😊 In both heats and finals, I counted my strokes and compared it to my 50 breast swims at winter nationals. I swam both races in a quicker time with less strokes, which is a positive (my stroke has become more efficient). Day 2: 200 breast Heats - I was really nervous before this, but didn't have a panic attack which is a big positive. I kept my stroke technique, and swam a seasons best (2:58.55). Final - I was nowhere near as nervous before the final. I swam it 6 milliseconds slower (2:58.61), but I raced it much better, splitting my first 100 2 seconds quicker than in the heat. I died on the last 50 though which is a shame, because I was on track for about a 2:55 😔 Still happy though! Day 3: 200 IM Heats - A bit nervous before this, but once again no panic attack. My backstroke split wasn't very good, but my fly was decent and my breast and free were good. Made up ground on the rest of my heat. Swam a 2:40.46. Final - Not as nervous, and swam a 2:38.95. My fly and back split was better, and my breast and free were the same. This still wasn't a pb, but I was content anyway.

1) First of all, @Yul Münger and I are sitting on hot coals🔥 cuz we wanna know how you swam at Natioals/Regionals etc!! Share it. All of it. 2) Today's Academy training is also open to everyone who's coming to camp. Agenda: - Questions for those who are still racing - Lessons from 2025/26 - Camp preparation for swimmers - When & how to change teams (if we have time) Starts at 7pm Zürich time, which is 6pm UK time. Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/2906319395 3) Right after the Academy training we'll have a quick update on the No-Nag Method right here on Skool: https://www.skool.com/live/qcyRPLMxD3M 4) Check the Swimpros Calendar for Camp Updates next Sunday! Add them to your calendar if you're coming to Tenerife so you don't forget. See ya sooner or later!!! 😃

Just wanted to put it out there for @David Karasek and @Yul Münger that it’s official that after the swimming camp in Tene, I’ll be moving to a new club. This club is basically very close to my previous club, as we share the same pool and used to collab in some competitions together, including trainings. Why I made this decision is because I haven’t been very included with my teammates, many don’t even come anymore and there are more unserious than serious, it’s more like me, my friend, and some other guy who’s actually taking swimming seriously… so I wanted to grow the circle a bit more. I know some girls and boys from the club I’m going to move in (It’s called Ármann) and I really like how everybody motivates everybody. I’ll finally (I hope) have a good circle of competitive swimmers who want more in swimming. Not only that, their trainings are very good, I really like them. I sometimes had the chance to swim in their trainings as our coach was coming late or some emergency came up, and that the other club coach took us in. It’s similar to what we did in the last camp, and it’s great because it means that I’ll keep doing what I was doing in camp in Iceland, because to be honest with you, my coach would have had some other kinds of trainings, way off from what I did in camp last year. I’m going to have to tell my coach about the decision and I am hoping that he’ll approve (and I don’t think that would be a problem because he had done the same thing at this age, so). Most nervous is about how im going to tell my friend, Emily, because she’s going to be the only serious girl there and she’ll be alone without me to push her. I have asked her many times about changing clubs, but she’s certain that she will never change (we’ll see 🤷‍♀️). It’s not like she alone ALONE, like there are other girls there too but they don’t take swimming easily, so I’ll have to call her and tell her the decision, because I’d tell her in person but I’m not in Iceland right now. I hope she understands…

Part 1 - Ireland 100 Breast - gained some time on my PB (+1.02) but still made it to the A final, unfortunately added another 0.09 to my time and finished 8th. 50 Fly not at all happy - added 1.28 and needless to say did not make it to any final. 50 Breast swam a tiny PB -0.03 and made it to the B final, there I managed to improve again by a tiny amount 0.10. 100 Fly complete disaster. This completely shook my confidence. Nothing went right. Goggles filled with water and just nothing felt right about the race. Wanted to quit right then and there but after a bit of deep breathing I managed to work through it a little and got myself ready for the 200 IM which I generally feel I am not very good at. 200 IM - surprisingly I managed to swim a PB dropped 0.48 and made it into the A final. That unfortunately did not go as well as the prelim but I will take it. 400 Free went ok, though added a little time. 200 Breast - in prelims dropped 0.77 seconds and made it to the A final, again in the final added time again but was reasonably happy with the end result. Last day 400 IM - Had a massive panic attack about 30 minutes before I had to go to the call room. Managed to calm myself down and relax enough to go do the race. Swam a much better race than I thought I would, gained a little time but considering where I was 45 minutes earlier I was pleased, also made it to the A final which was a great boost. I decided not to swim the final as I was exhausted from the week, but ended on a high nevertheless and I knew I had to do it all again the following week in Switzerland, but a lot less racing. All in all a good experience, realised I don’t really know how to race with prelims and finals as this is not really common in Switzerland except in the bigger meets. Things like how hard to race in the prelims and then still have enough in the tank (even with a rest) for finals. Also realised I have still some work to do with nerves/anxiety - first time in a long time that I had to work through such emotions.

this weekend i went to Junior Championship (LCM) for only one day due to me not liking the lineup of events on friday and saturday. so i only went on sunday. on sunday i was the #1st seed for 100 back so i was feeling a bit of nerves. but on prelims i did the micheal phelps breathing technique and did really well. i swam 100 back with a time of 1:12.04 (dropped 0.60). and got 1st in prelims. at finals is where…chaos… happened. i was super nervous, i was worried about everything, even though there was nothing to worry about. i tried to use the micheal phelps breathing technique that i had previously used at prelims, it helped a little. but i was still super nervous. i eventually went upstairs to talk with my mom, she told me to think about the camp and things that weren’t related to swimming. that helped me a lot and my friend went up to talk to me to distract me. i got calm and swam amazingly at finals. i swam 100 back at finals with a time of 1:11.84, a huge time drop and now im a second away from the nationals cut. and i got 1st so in the end, i think i swim better when im surrounded by my friends who distract me, or when im calm (obviously).