A kid swam the 500 all fly in a high school dual meet yesterday. His coach was furious and benched him for the rest of the meet. One of my lane mates this morning, who was the Starter at this meet said that was showboating and demeaning to the other competitors. I disagree. Was that any more demeaning than swimming free and lapping people? Plus, I saw the flyer ask everyone in the heat if it would bother them. Even on the blocks he said "Are you sure you guys are OK with this?"
USMS has an event called "Butterfly is not a Crime" running from Oct 2013 to August 2014 that is replicating the Australian's.
http://www.swimflyfast.com/
You may know this already, but Austrailian Masters has Top Ten Times for every stroke at every distance including the 1500 fly!
Masters Swimming Australia - Ranking - MSA Portal 2004-2014 by Frank Braun
I would love to compete in that, since I have swum 2000 fly. It may have been a very slowww fly, but I did it!
OK, true. In a high school (or college) meet your obligation is to the team.
To me this is the whole point. It's obvious (by the coach's reaction) that the swimmer wasn't following team protocol. THAT was the issue. There's nothing wrong with swimming a 500 fly when you aren't affecting a team by doing so. My very young high school assistant coach had me swim a 500 breaststroke and my teammate swim 500 fly one year at a dual meet. We beat the other team's freestylers and he was in hot water after that. It made him (and our team) look like arrogant jerks - and he never made that mistake again.
As a HS coach with 22 seasons - I would really want to know more of what both were trying to prove. Yes - the kid maybe did it on his own to show the coach he is a really good fly guy or it was a bet. I think benching him was the coach's idea on how to control his team.
In terms of the HS incident, I don't really have a strong opinion in the absence of facts (and honestly I don't consider the matter important enough to spare much thought about it).
But if we are talking about masters swimmers doing a 500 fly (or 500 back or 500 *** or 500 kick or whatever) instead of a 500 free, I think they are perfectly free to do so without asking for approval from anyone else in their heat. Hopefully they entered a time reflective of their best estimate of what they will do; other than that it isn't really anyone else's business. (If someone is going for a 50 or 100 split -- taking out the race much faster than normal -- then it is courteous to let the rest of the heat know. That is different, IMO, and even then it isn't asking for permission but simply an FYI.)
If one starts worrying about the psychological impact of splashing or swimming fast or whatever on the other swimmers in the heat, I think that's a slippery slope. If I enter an event with a realistic time and I'm fast enough to lap others in my heat, should I refrain from doing so b/c of the psychological damage it might cause them?
I find it somewhat offensive that I should have to alter my race in any way due to anything the person in the next lane is doing.
...and there's no such thing as a WR in the 500 free.
2004-2014 by Frank Braun
I would love to compete in that, since I have swum 2000 fly. It may have been a very slowww fly, but I did it!
