Does being tall give you an advantage?

I've brought this up before in previous threads. In summary of my swimming knowledge... I'm a girl. I'm about 5'11. I was AVERAGE height on my college team (all girls, D1 school). We had quite a few girls 6-6'3. I was beaten by people taller than me. I was beaten by people shorter than me. I also beat people both taller and shorter than me. Now I'm swimming USMS, and I know there are plenty of people both taller and shorter (and older) than me that can whoop me in a race. All in all, height can help, but if you're fast you're fast. And if you're slow you're slow. Hate to be blunt about it. Just because I'm nearly 6ft tall doesn't mean I can beat someone shorter than me that puts in as much effort as me in the pool. Speed, height, technique and practice volume...it's all relative!

Should somebody start a thread about thread-starting?:dunno:

What a load of man-ure, franlkly, They said Dave meggett was too small to play NFL, last time I checked he had a superbowl ring. Plot out the lb for lb and inch for inch stats divided over relevant speeds to confirm that being tall makes you "better." Really, this sort of crap is as bad as racial stereotyping, and "Master race Theories." Even if it was true, it's obnoxious to believe it makes you better. There's more to any game than physical appearance.

Should somebody start a thread about thread-starting?:dunno: Hi notsofast, Nah, just do a search for it--it's been discussed many times before. :wiggle: These just took me a few second to come up with. forums.usms.org/showthread.php forums.usms.org/showthread.php forums.usms.org/showthread.php forums.usms.org/showthread.php forums.usms.org/showthread.php

I didn't think being tall was an advantage until I saw "Midget Mac" trying to swim on last week's episode of "I Love New York 2".

Being tall does help on starts and turns; had a gal friend who was 6'2 and she always caught up to me after the turn, but my swimming was faster and I would then pull away in the stretch. But every turn, here she came and I am only 5'8. On another note, I like people starting new threads even if it contains a lot of the same information as old ones. A lot of new people enjoy participating in a new thread vs just reading the older ones. And usually the older threads are eventually introduced into the new thread making for greater information all-in-one. And a lot more information is usually gained because new people have new questions and new theories about the same older subject. donna

I didn't think being tall was an advantage until I saw "Midget Mac" trying to swim on last week's episode of "I Love New York 2". I caught that on The Soup, which is by far the best thing on TV right now. I'm quite sure I can beat Midget Mac in a race. Unless it's a race to drown on a popped floatie, then I'll let him win.

I caught that on The Soup, which is by far the best thing on TV right now. I'm quite sure I can beat Midget Mac in a race. Unless it's a race to drown on a popped floatie, then I'll let him win. I'm glad I'm not the only one here who watches and loves The Soup! I wonder if anyone else listens to Lil' Kim? ...oh yeah, this is about height...sorry...yeah, I think height could be an advantage... (But I'm still cheering for Midget Mac)

Height is a significant advantage on push offs and streamlines...... but that's about it.

Wow - is that a typo? 84" is seven feet.Not a typo, 7 foot arm span. Buying shirts and suits off-the-rack is not an option.