University of Minnesota Athletics
Keeping up with Kierra: Blog #1
9/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
Sept. 23, 2015 
Coming off her NCAA title in the 200-yard breaststroke this past March, Minnesota's Kierra Smith is taking the season off from collegiate competition to train for a spot on the 2016 Canadian Olympic team. Get inside the mind of a champion in the first installment of her blog for gophersports.com.
Before starting the 2016 season preparing for Olympic Trials, I like to look back at the summer. Every international meet I gain a little confidence, and make a lot of mistakes that I try to learn from.
Worlds was going like clockwork. Nailed the prelim swim and advanced. Had a PB in the semifinal that night with energy to spare and earned lane 2 for the final next day. Things were going according to script. I wasn't intimidated and it even seemed like there could be some sort of pathway to the top of podium if I could keep on this improvement arc and things broke my way.
Everything felt really good in the ready room and I found myself thinking of the Canadian women breaststrokers who preceded me in the chair I was sitting in. I thought of Jillian Tyler, Annamay Pierse and Martha McCabe and the tradition we have in this particular stroke. Everything pre-race went well, I had never felt better and I thought I was going to do something special. I was full of optimism.
Then the race started.
I was in a lane beside the woman who most thought would win. Spoiler alert: She did. Pretty good person to pace myself against in a tactical race like this so I had that going for me from the get-go. I did a pretty good job of staying with her but she was slipping away and getting out of reach going into the last turn. My strength in this distance has always been my endurance on last 50 and my strategy has been if I can see you after the last wall I'm going to catch you because you're going to come back to me. I knew Kanako Watanabe wasn't going to come back to me though. She beat me last year in Australia, squished me earlier this year in Qatar, swatted me away in France, bug-in-windshielded me in Spain and sprayed me with a can of Raid in Monaco. She was faster in both prelims and semis. Behind at the 150 I could sense another fly swatter.
At that point I did a quick check of my energy levels and had to decide if I had the endurance to find another gear after the final turn to catch her. This field was a little more cutthroat than I had bargained for though. At the time, I didn't think I had the energy to increase things a notch despite feeling better than the previous day at the 150. (Thank goodness she isn't in the Big Ten.)
Laws of physics would say I should have just kept doing my thing (counting strokes, building speed etc… you know, race your own race) but I decided to go for it regardless. And why not? At this point in the season everything had unfolded my way. I got into this meet as a discretionary pick so I was already playing with house money. Why not roll the dice? I'm still not sure if it was inexperience on my part shredding the race plan at the 150-meter mark and perhaps getting a best time, or if the takeaway is encouraging that I had the primal instinct to try catching her. We all know by now what happened. Fact is even if I had the reserves to catch her on the last 50 she probably would have found an even higher gear and plucked my wings anyway.
After having time to think about things, a lot, my sober and thoughtful post-race feeling is I didn't lose that race on the final turn on that on a cool evening in central Russia. Instead, I lost it last September through November back in Minneapolis. If I could have a do-over I would go back redo Kelly Kremer's sets with just a little more effort each day.
One day, when I'm an old lady with a dozen cats, playing bingo pretending I know where the numbers are, I'm going to look back on 2014-15 with a goofy grin on my face remembering the Pan Am Games and NCAAs. I hope I don't look back with disappointment at not being able to finish the trifecta here in Russia.
I'm enjoying the ride and the process of getting better, albeit slowly. Slow progress is still progress. I know full well that this will end abruptly one day either by some Manitoba 15-year-old who'll knock me off, or another body part might breach the surface of the water at an inopportune time. Just not today.
The good news is that I'm getting faster. Bad news is so is everyone else. A 2:22 high falls into the "pretty good" category and I've got to somehow figure out if I'm capable of a 2:19 high (or low) in a pretty short time frame.
This year's plan to forego classes but continue to train in Minnesota will help. Academically, a senior year in college takes up a lot of time and energy. Instead of rushing from swim practice to a classroom I can rush off to a spin class. Instead of studying I'll have time for yoga. I'll be able to replace tutoring sessions with naps. An immeasurable amount of stress will be eliminated.
I think there's a tacit understanding that senior swimmers have a responsibility to set an example for the younger swimmers and I'll probably be pretty good at that when my time comes. I just need to be selfish and put all of that off for a year. I'm a huge believer in training in shorter 25-yard pools, but it's going to help not having to focus on those two big meets at the end of the college season. Those two meets are impossible to do well in without your complete attention and it wouldn't be fair to anyone training through them. The price tag is that am going to miss graduating with my class though.
A year ago on this keyboard I wrote about how great it was that my club coaches Takeo Inoki and Emil Dimitrov were both able to make the trip to Australia for Pan Pacs and how we were all able enjoy the experience together. It was intimidating stuff but helpful to have strength in numbers and a pretty smart cheering squad watching the whole thing unfold live. It worked out reasonably well with a fourth-place finish and I think the three of us knew I was knocking on the door to the podium and our time would come. No one really celebrates fourth-place finishes, but on a personal level we all enjoyed each other's company and we celebrated it a bit.
A year later the three of us found ourselves here in Russia. Takeo and Emil shared an apartment together and paid their own way here to help out. How's that for support? Neither was allowed on the deck but that was okay because I was in pretty good hands with Claude. Claude St. Jean had been coaching me for the past month or so with camps in London, Ontario, and Sabadell, Spain, as well as the Pan Am Games and Worlds. It worked out really well. There's a different coaching skill preparing athletes for that one final race complete with time zones changes, culture/language differences and putting up with anxious athletes during a taper. If Emil couldn't be on deck I wasn't going to let it bother me. Do you remember the scene in the Victor Davis made-for-TV movie where Davis's coach went on a rant criticizing Swim Canada for not inviting him to a meet? But unlike him, Emil was pretty cool with things sitting up in the stands watching everything unfold. He and Takeo were in let-us-know-if-you-need-anything mode and it helped more than they know having them up there.
My first really big swim meet was in Montreal at the 2007 Canadian age group nationals with Takeo and the Kelowna Aqua Jets. I remember like it was yesterday coming out of nowhere placing third and getting a bronze. All of us felt a huge sense of accomplishment at the time. There were two other swimmers with me along with three sets of parents. Fourteen-year-old me didn't understand at the time why so many people were stopping by and congratulating Takeo, but 21-year-old me knows why. I'm humbled and grateful that I have as good an inner circle of people around me as anyone, and those who've tried throwing obstacles in front of us have disappeared. Thanks, Mom, Dad, Emil, Kelly, Terry, Takeo, John et Claude. Thanks, Minnesota, Liquid Lightning and Kelowna Aquajets. Thanks for all the messages of encouragement over the past month. I read, re-read and re-re-read them all and they meant a lot.
I'm back in Minneapolis now and training for Olympic Trials with the Gophers.
Working the Dream. Married to the Game.
Kierra Smith
@kierras
Coming off her NCAA title in the 200-yard breaststroke this past March, Minnesota's Kierra Smith is taking the season off from collegiate competition to train for a spot on the 2016 Canadian Olympic team. Get inside the mind of a champion in the first installment of her blog for gophersports.com.
Before starting the 2016 season preparing for Olympic Trials, I like to look back at the summer. Every international meet I gain a little confidence, and make a lot of mistakes that I try to learn from.
Worlds was going like clockwork. Nailed the prelim swim and advanced. Had a PB in the semifinal that night with energy to spare and earned lane 2 for the final next day. Things were going according to script. I wasn't intimidated and it even seemed like there could be some sort of pathway to the top of podium if I could keep on this improvement arc and things broke my way.
Everything felt really good in the ready room and I found myself thinking of the Canadian women breaststrokers who preceded me in the chair I was sitting in. I thought of Jillian Tyler, Annamay Pierse and Martha McCabe and the tradition we have in this particular stroke. Everything pre-race went well, I had never felt better and I thought I was going to do something special. I was full of optimism.
Then the race started.
I was in a lane beside the woman who most thought would win. Spoiler alert: She did. Pretty good person to pace myself against in a tactical race like this so I had that going for me from the get-go. I did a pretty good job of staying with her but she was slipping away and getting out of reach going into the last turn. My strength in this distance has always been my endurance on last 50 and my strategy has been if I can see you after the last wall I'm going to catch you because you're going to come back to me. I knew Kanako Watanabe wasn't going to come back to me though. She beat me last year in Australia, squished me earlier this year in Qatar, swatted me away in France, bug-in-windshielded me in Spain and sprayed me with a can of Raid in Monaco. She was faster in both prelims and semis. Behind at the 150 I could sense another fly swatter.
At that point I did a quick check of my energy levels and had to decide if I had the endurance to find another gear after the final turn to catch her. This field was a little more cutthroat than I had bargained for though. At the time, I didn't think I had the energy to increase things a notch despite feeling better than the previous day at the 150. (Thank goodness she isn't in the Big Ten.)
Laws of physics would say I should have just kept doing my thing (counting strokes, building speed etc… you know, race your own race) but I decided to go for it regardless. And why not? At this point in the season everything had unfolded my way. I got into this meet as a discretionary pick so I was already playing with house money. Why not roll the dice? I'm still not sure if it was inexperience on my part shredding the race plan at the 150-meter mark and perhaps getting a best time, or if the takeaway is encouraging that I had the primal instinct to try catching her. We all know by now what happened. Fact is even if I had the reserves to catch her on the last 50 she probably would have found an even higher gear and plucked my wings anyway.
After having time to think about things, a lot, my sober and thoughtful post-race feeling is I didn't lose that race on the final turn on that on a cool evening in central Russia. Instead, I lost it last September through November back in Minneapolis. If I could have a do-over I would go back redo Kelly Kremer's sets with just a little more effort each day.
One day, when I'm an old lady with a dozen cats, playing bingo pretending I know where the numbers are, I'm going to look back on 2014-15 with a goofy grin on my face remembering the Pan Am Games and NCAAs. I hope I don't look back with disappointment at not being able to finish the trifecta here in Russia.
I'm enjoying the ride and the process of getting better, albeit slowly. Slow progress is still progress. I know full well that this will end abruptly one day either by some Manitoba 15-year-old who'll knock me off, or another body part might breach the surface of the water at an inopportune time. Just not today.
The good news is that I'm getting faster. Bad news is so is everyone else. A 2:22 high falls into the "pretty good" category and I've got to somehow figure out if I'm capable of a 2:19 high (or low) in a pretty short time frame.
This year's plan to forego classes but continue to train in Minnesota will help. Academically, a senior year in college takes up a lot of time and energy. Instead of rushing from swim practice to a classroom I can rush off to a spin class. Instead of studying I'll have time for yoga. I'll be able to replace tutoring sessions with naps. An immeasurable amount of stress will be eliminated.
I think there's a tacit understanding that senior swimmers have a responsibility to set an example for the younger swimmers and I'll probably be pretty good at that when my time comes. I just need to be selfish and put all of that off for a year. I'm a huge believer in training in shorter 25-yard pools, but it's going to help not having to focus on those two big meets at the end of the college season. Those two meets are impossible to do well in without your complete attention and it wouldn't be fair to anyone training through them. The price tag is that am going to miss graduating with my class though.
A year ago on this keyboard I wrote about how great it was that my club coaches Takeo Inoki and Emil Dimitrov were both able to make the trip to Australia for Pan Pacs and how we were all able enjoy the experience together. It was intimidating stuff but helpful to have strength in numbers and a pretty smart cheering squad watching the whole thing unfold live. It worked out reasonably well with a fourth-place finish and I think the three of us knew I was knocking on the door to the podium and our time would come. No one really celebrates fourth-place finishes, but on a personal level we all enjoyed each other's company and we celebrated it a bit.
A year later the three of us found ourselves here in Russia. Takeo and Emil shared an apartment together and paid their own way here to help out. How's that for support? Neither was allowed on the deck but that was okay because I was in pretty good hands with Claude. Claude St. Jean had been coaching me for the past month or so with camps in London, Ontario, and Sabadell, Spain, as well as the Pan Am Games and Worlds. It worked out really well. There's a different coaching skill preparing athletes for that one final race complete with time zones changes, culture/language differences and putting up with anxious athletes during a taper. If Emil couldn't be on deck I wasn't going to let it bother me. Do you remember the scene in the Victor Davis made-for-TV movie where Davis's coach went on a rant criticizing Swim Canada for not inviting him to a meet? But unlike him, Emil was pretty cool with things sitting up in the stands watching everything unfold. He and Takeo were in let-us-know-if-you-need-anything mode and it helped more than they know having them up there.
My first really big swim meet was in Montreal at the 2007 Canadian age group nationals with Takeo and the Kelowna Aqua Jets. I remember like it was yesterday coming out of nowhere placing third and getting a bronze. All of us felt a huge sense of accomplishment at the time. There were two other swimmers with me along with three sets of parents. Fourteen-year-old me didn't understand at the time why so many people were stopping by and congratulating Takeo, but 21-year-old me knows why. I'm humbled and grateful that I have as good an inner circle of people around me as anyone, and those who've tried throwing obstacles in front of us have disappeared. Thanks, Mom, Dad, Emil, Kelly, Terry, Takeo, John et Claude. Thanks, Minnesota, Liquid Lightning and Kelowna Aquajets. Thanks for all the messages of encouragement over the past month. I read, re-read and re-re-read them all and they meant a lot.
I'm back in Minneapolis now and training for Olympic Trials with the Gophers.
Working the Dream. Married to the Game.
Kierra Smith
@kierras
Players Mentioned
Breaststroke
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