Song in your head during practice?

I'm half surprised not to see mention of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water". Cheers!

Originally posted by Bob Boder During practice I am a counter. I even count lengths not laps. Odd numbers up and even numbers back. This helps me when I lose track. I do that too, and I still manage to get confused sometimes. :)

Wonder if there are any Mp3 players out there that are truly waterproof? It would be a great way to listen to tunes while in the water. Any ideas out there?

Geesh guys! And I thought I was the only one who did this. I never know just how far I have swum on distance because I get lost with some song in my head. I have to rely on the clock now. The favorite? "Daybreak"- that Barry Manilow song from that Kathleen Turner movie Serial Mom." Annoying perhaps, but catchy and I never seem to get tired of it. Otherwise, for some strange reason, it will be Rachmaninoff- usually Concerto 3 or 4. Nice to know I am not alone :) Tom.

Hey Skip, Between your story about In-a-Gada-da-Vida and mine, from now on whenever I hear that song I will have a mental picture of you and I doing a water ballet together, and you'll be costumed as you were in the infamous Smedley Relay skit at convention a few years ago! (BTW, I know "water ballet" is not the correct term--synchronized swimming is--but what we were doing at West Meade Swim Club back in the 60s was not a competition, just a sort of pageant the kids put on every year over Labor Day weekend. We were not good, and we were not competing, and it's a wonder none of us drowned! Mary Lee Watson was always standing on the deck during practice, hollering at us to point our toes!) Meg

I usually sing songs in my head when I am in a meet swimming 200 backstroke. If I don't I have thoughts of never swimming the event again because it is so painful. 200 back is way to painful.

Meet 200's are ALL painful!:)

This is a tremendous subject! :cool: Back in age groups, I would memorize Spanish lessons by replaying the lab tapes in my head during distance workouts. Because I'm an intractable "numbers guy" and knee-jerk split-watcher, there was never a problem getting lost in a distance set. Swimming distance free as a Master, I found myself using the rhythm from certain songs as a tool for keeping my turnover at a desired pace. At the Woodlands long course and LA short course nationals (1990-91), I psyched up listening to a repeating tape of "Rain in the Summertime" by the Alarm. Those 800m and 1000yd times are still the best of my life. In retrospect, I'd have to classify my 1000 at LA as an utterly perfect swim. In 2000, I was literally singing "Country Grammar" out loud behind the blocks as I visualized before the 200 fly at Long Course Nationals, and ended up with another incredible swim. I've been looking for a CD of the extended (12'' vinyl) version of the song for like 4 years, to no avail! If I find it ... watch out for me in the 800 in Cleveland! :D

Mostly I try to get pick a longer song with a good beat, like Fleetwood Mac's "Sara" or The The's "Uncertain Smile". Anything that lets me get into a zen state, where I can't feel the lactic acid burn so much. :D Most recently, I try to remember "Cherry Blossom", from Kiyoshi Yoshida's Asian Drums CD. Before a particular high school meet, I heard some awful '80s song that I couldn't get out of my head. Think the title was "You Gotta Slow It Down". I made the mistake of mentioning it to my teammates, who took every opportunity to sing it to me. I had my slowest 500 time of the season by 10 seconds. :mad: At a recent Master's meet, I found out the hard way that the jingle for Goldfish is also a poor choice. ("...the snack, that smiles back, Goldfish!")

Definitely the DJ Euro House Mix version of the Human League's "Don't You Want Me" BV