Jason Magness, father of the newest USA Swimming National Age Group Record breaker Matt Magness, has posted a video on YouTube of his son’s record-breaking 200 yard free swim at the 2013 Diplomat Holiday Classic on Sunday evening.
On his 13th birthday, though still counted as an 11-12 by USA Swimming, the younger Magness was a 1:45.52 in the 200 yard free, which bettered the 1:46.23 that current high school senior Nick Silverthorn did back in 2008.
In an era, admittedly through some fault of ours, where National Age Group Records rarely ‘sneak up’ on anybody anymore, this was a true out-of-nowhere swim. It was one of those swims where until someone confirmed that it actually happened, it would have been easy to assume perhaps a timing error.
To the contrary, though, this was just a spectacular, breakout performance by Magness, whose best time coming into the meet was a 1:52, and on top of which who was only a 1:51 in prelims.
Seeing the video though, Magness is solid through all portions of his race. He has very good underwaters, and as can be clearly seen in the video, he has a fairly advanced stroke for a swimmer of his age – the best comparison is in the lanes next to him, where there’s a lot more thrashing in his competitors’ strokes.
The most striking technique difference is how efficiently Magness breathes. He has only as much head motion as is absolutely necessary to get his breath – a great lesson for a lot of young swimmers, where often you’ll see a challenge in separating strong body movements from head movements.
Meh, I still say this is bogus. He did this on his 13th birthday so it shouldn’t count as an 11-12 NAG record. I know rules are rules but I just don’t agree with it.
A 1:45 200 free for a 13 year old is quite good. But not worthy of the attention it is getting.
If he was one day younger this swim would be amazing, but since he is one day older it’s bogus and over-hyped? I don’t think so.
What a logistical nightmare if USA Swimming followed your desires. Do you happen to know what little league does, this is far more fair..
We could argue then, that if we are going to go by day, then we should also go by time. Might as well be 100% accurate, right?
I was born at 8:46 PM, there is a good chance if I was swimming at a prelims/finals meet that I would be 12 until after the meet concluded on my birthday.
If we are going to pick nits, might as well pick them all…
I think underwaters are the key to this wave of young swimmers who are revolutionizing swimming with their consistently jaw-dropping performances. Phelps used it to win his 8 golds, catching his competition by surprise. 2008 was already a long time ago in the life of a 16 year old.
The underwater dolphin kicks are faster and more efficient, of course, but the even bigger benefit is the core strength and overall muscular system integration that mastering the technique develops. David Nolan was the first of this new generation of all-around great swimmers. When he burst onto the scene he seemed like a once in a generation phenom….Wrong.
I recently watched some footage from the 2000 Olympics and the start… Read more »
Very impressive. Agree his stroke and everything is advanced. but as we all know kids who are this advanced at age 12 (or 13) have far less to gain through technique (and maybe training) than those ‘thrashers’ next to him. Silverthorn is still a nationally ranked swimmer…but now in the breastroke (he was in that fantastic HS race in CA last May). Its always interesting to me to see these kids develop through the years.
It is so impressive today and so different from a generation ago that kids kick so well. Decades ago you would never see a kid with a balanced 6 beat flutter kick for a full 200 yards. Bravo kid, wonderful stride in the water and a most impressive accomplishment on the record!
I must admit the first time I read that news on swimswam, I thought it was perhaps an error.
Thank you for the video. No error at all! Congrats to Matt Magness for an impressive time drop. I don’t think many people could predict that record. And interesting technique analysis by Mr Keith.