500 Fly: worthy challenge or arrogant showboating?

...gobears' declaration that I had no experience other than as a masters swimmer. Really? I said, "I don't think you ever swam in high school" because you never said if you had/hadn't. It was my best guess because I wanted to believe your attitude was due to your lack of understanding rather than a lack of empathy. Now I don't know what to think...

Follow up: one of the offending kid's teammates just stopped by to pick up one of my daughters. He told me the coach immediately texted the kid's father. The father was at NCAA D1 with his older son who swam 3 individual events. Coach: long, long ranting message about the 500 fly. Father: Did he win? Coach: no, he was 3rd Father: :sad: end of conversation. That says to me that by benching the kid the coach really was cutting off his nose to spite his face.

I prefer being stroked or chicked to being lapped (but being chick stroked is worse;)). That's my opinion. Feel free to disagree, but don't dismiss my view as irrelevant when I have plenty of experience on the matter. As a sophomore in HS, a guy swam 500 fly in the lane next to me at a dual meet. I thought that was really cool and hoped I could get in good enough shape to do it too some day. 2 years later I did. In both cases, no one on either team or either coach had any problem with it. I wasn't very good in college. I sat out 2 years with injuries but had plenty of experience with speed disparities. There were times it was a challenge for my free to keep up with a backstroker who was top 3 in both backstrokes NCAA D1 the previous year, or 2 guys who were Olympic Trials finalists in the 200 fly. We didn't train with the women's team much, but keeping up with the WR holder in the women's 200 free at the time could be a challenge. The reigning Olympic Bronze medalist in the women's 200 fly could make my free look bad in shorter distances (yep, I've been chick stroked). My last year, I was regularly getting lapped by the men's Olympic Gold medalist in the 1500 and the O record holder in the 400 free (2 different guys). Anyway, that's my perspective. In defense of those who disagree with me, the Starter I mentioned in the first post is one of the nicest people I've ever known (team mate for the last Trans-Tahoe & in my car pool for Nationals next month) . He never gets bother by anything but was definitely irritated by this incident. I, I, I, I, I, me, me, me, me, me. That's all that I read in your post. As a person who actually coaches you reflect your school and your swimmers at meets. A kid swim a 500 fly is indicative of poor sportsmanship, and you can't tap dance your way around that. You can laugh it off but I can assure you the opposing coach and team won't forget being showed up.

I, I, I, I, I, me, me, me, me, me. That's all that I read in your post. As a person who actually coaches you reflect your school and your swimmers at meets. A kid swim a 500 fly is indicative of poor sportsmanship, and you can't tap dance your way around that. You can laugh it off but I can assure you the opposing coach and team won't forget being showed up. The biography was in response to gobears' declaration that I had no experience other than as a masters swimmer. I can assure you the opposing coach in this particular case had no objections. I asked him.

Really? I said, "I don't think you ever swam in high school" because you never said if you had/hadn't. It was my best guess because I wanted to believe your attitude was due to your lack of understanding rather than a lack of empathy. Now I don't know what to think... Your perception of the event is based on empathy for the other athletes, which is a very positive thing about your character. I've experienced situations where a 500 fly is OK and no one had any objection. Don't feel bad if you think this particular one was not OK. I don't agree with you, but I started the thread to get other opinions.

Instead of showing off at the dual meets, how about swimming that 500 fly at state champs. That's the place to show boat!!

No one thinks you are arrogant when you do a 500 fly, they think that you are crazy. I know some people who think that I am crazy for the doing the 200 fly. I can't control what my best event is. 500 fly is worth the challenge. I just can't seeing doing it at a meet since there aren't that many options for meets in the Northeast. I would have to agree. That's the reaction I got when I swam a 900 yard fly, 1000 fly, and 2000 fly just for the heck of it. :shakeshead: For me, it was: :bliss:. I won't swim a 500 fly at a meet, though, because I would be a human meet delay. As it is, my last 200 yard free was a pokey 3:54. :afraid:

No one thinks you are arrogant when you do a 500 fly, they think that you are crazy. I know some people who think that I am crazy for the doing the 200 fly. I can't control what my best event is. 500 fly is worth the challenge. I just can't seeing doing it at a meet since there aren't that many options for meets in the Northeast.

I was on my last loop in Miami this weekend and saw one of the men doing the fly on the mile race! Amazing. He was almost done when I saw him.

I was on my last loop in Miami this weekend and saw one of the men doing the fly on the mile race! Amazing. He was almost done when I saw him. fly in open water is fun. Better for sighting. I will do it in an open water swim, not race though.