Question: Does appearance, demeanor, or reputation of fellow competitors effect your performance in your races?
Intimidation could be of any type really. Whether you're next to someone who looks like a real mean SOB, acts like a mean SOB, or has a reputation of being fast as hell and never losing, etc. Does it effect your performance in any way. Do you swim slower in the presence of such a person, or do they drive you to new bests? Or the converse, if someone looks weak, out of shape, or in some way inferior in skill to your perception of yourself, does it make you swim down to perceived level, or make you want to cause a crushing defeat?
Some of this may not be in the main spirit of masters swimming of course. We probably shouldn't go around with the goal and hopes of crushing everyone else in the pool, but I was always curious what other people thought about it.
If I'm eyeing up the competition and they look more in shape than I, its hard not to feel like i'm going to take a hard loss in my race. Of course I'd like to think I always push 101% on every race, but its hard to say whether or not I subconsciously hold back or push harder than I would've depending what the field looks like.
Part of it probably comes back to the type of swimmer you are too. Do you thrive on competition and winning the race, or is it just 8 people swimming alone against the clock at the same time for convenience?
No right or wrong answer, just thought i'd throw it out there.
Reputation is more of an intimidation factor to me than physical appearance. Sure, the ridiculously in shape guys in the lanes next to me are physically intimidating, but I know I can hang with a good few of them, and can even beat a number of 'em. (And I'd like to eventually get back into that shape again, but it's a long, slow, work in progress).
For me, the most intimidating this is the reputation of the swimmer. There are some folks I compete against regularly (well, regularly enough to know them by name and/or sight) who have the reputation of being able to outswim me with one arm tied behind their backs. It intimidates me, sure, but also gives me a push to swim faster.
Case in point--back in the day, I swam in KY. Clark Burckle (200 breaststroker for the US in the Olympics this year) is a few years younger than me, but was always faster--he swam for another team in KY and we'd race a few times a year. One of my last meets as a USS swimmer was short course State A's at the UK pool. For whatever reason, I was seeded right next to Clark in the 400 IM. Even back then, he was an up and coming swimmer and was making big waves in KY, dominating pretty much everything he swam. To say I was psyched out was an understatement. At that point in my career, the 400 IM was one of my better events, and I'd have had a shot at winning the heat without him in it. Anyways, I held him to half a body length lead at the back-*** turn, taking it out quite a bit better than I'd ever done (I was a 2:00 point for the first half, vs my normal 2:10-2:12). He absolutely crushed me on the second half, but the intimidation factor of swimming next to Clark was just the motivation I needed to swim lights out.
Eh, to bring the tangent back to the point--reputation is the most intimidating factor for me, but usually it just serves to fire me up and help produce a great swim on my part!
Reputation is more of an intimidation factor to me than physical appearance. Sure, the ridiculously in shape guys in the lanes next to me are physically intimidating, but I know I can hang with a good few of them, and can even beat a number of 'em. (And I'd like to eventually get back into that shape again, but it's a long, slow, work in progress).
For me, the most intimidating this is the reputation of the swimmer. There are some folks I compete against regularly (well, regularly enough to know them by name and/or sight) who have the reputation of being able to outswim me with one arm tied behind their backs. It intimidates me, sure, but also gives me a push to swim faster.
Case in point--back in the day, I swam in KY. Clark Burckle (200 breaststroker for the US in the Olympics this year) is a few years younger than me, but was always faster--he swam for another team in KY and we'd race a few times a year. One of my last meets as a USS swimmer was short course State A's at the UK pool. For whatever reason, I was seeded right next to Clark in the 400 IM. Even back then, he was an up and coming swimmer and was making big waves in KY, dominating pretty much everything he swam. To say I was psyched out was an understatement. At that point in my career, the 400 IM was one of my better events, and I'd have had a shot at winning the heat without him in it. Anyways, I held him to half a body length lead at the back-*** turn, taking it out quite a bit better than I'd ever done (I was a 2:00 point for the first half, vs my normal 2:10-2:12). He absolutely crushed me on the second half, but the intimidation factor of swimming next to Clark was just the motivation I needed to swim lights out.
Eh, to bring the tangent back to the point--reputation is the most intimidating factor for me, but usually it just serves to fire me up and help produce a great swim on my part!
