Call me an old fashioned cynic, but Gary Hall's oh so exclusive "Race Club" seems to generate more amusement than intimidation. To review the bidding for those with real lives, Mr. Hall announced a few months ago his intent to form his own club dedicated to elite swimming. It has a fabulous location and training facility in the Florida Keys. It will cover travel, training and living expenses. (I'm tempted to ask who is fronting the money, but I won't denigrade Mr. Hall's ability to raise funds.) If you want to join them, send in a resume; don't call us; we'll call you. Let us look over your accoplishments and decide whether you are worthy.
Hmm, great facilities, don't have to share pool time with the non-world class members (i.e. 99%) of a Swim Club, just about all expenses paid. Unless you have your own lucrative endorsement deal, what swimmer wouldn't want to join this team?
Well, the initial members of the "Swim Club" were announced last week. www.swiminfo.com/.../6097.asp Eight Olympians sounds real impressive. But then you look at the list a little more closely. Eleven swimmers, and although I have not googled everyone of them, all of the ones I have googled are in their late 20's or older. Or in other words, 3 of the 11 swimmers are chronologically at the back end of their careers, and they have not yet made their nation's Olympic Team. Closer scrutiny reveals 10 of the 11 are men. Just about all of them swim the 50 free or 50 fly, and few of them seriously compete in anything other that the 50 or 100 free or fly. In contrast to the lack of age, gender and event diversity, the team does have members of many nationalities and ethic backgrounds. However, the most telling stat of all is that roughly half of the members I checked are not currently ranked in the World Top 20 Rankings, LCM or SCM, in any event.
Overall, the "Swim Club" sort of reminds me of the kind of team a rookie fantasy league coach would assemble--there are a lot of names you would recognize, but their most productive years may be behind them. To be fair, all of these folks are amazing, world-class swimmers. Their careers to date have been awesome, and they remain extraordinary today by any standard, except arguably World Rankings. In contrast, I am an opinionated loud mouth. I would be delighted to see them find new speed and light up the scoreboards next year with medals and records, and make a complete monkey of me. As of right now, I think may the "Swim Club's" gloss may have exceeded its actual capabilities.
Matt
Parents
Former Member
Bert, always good to stir the pot. I deal in hard facts and ideas. There is always the goal of that "PERFECT" race. That would begin with the start and end with the finish. Doesn't matter how fast the swimmer. I believe in evidence-based coaching, vs. belief-based coaching.
Fact, the 1996 races could have finished differently.
The 2000 race did finish differently. There is a lot of evidence that Klim and Popov lost the races through bad coaching of dolphin kicking at the finish. But that is another story.
Now to the Track start. Bert has a great track start, he is amazing how fast he gets into the water in all his strokes. Sometimes he comes up with 50 breasts that are mind blowing, beating his breaststroker brothers.
Now in the ideal world, I do not like the track start. Bill Pilczuk may be talking about novice swimmers who can gain time by not causing resistance when diving into the water. The rest of the world prefers the grab start because it is faster in their opinions.
I believe the physics are strongly behind the two footed grab start. Check out Power Starts at http://www.quickgetaway.com/
Here is a treat for all of you. Go to www.swim.ee/.../index.html
Go to the mens 50 free
www.swim.ee/.../mfre50.html
Notice the time to 15 meters: Popov and Foster tied and Gary just slightly behind. Actually a great start for Gary. Poor Ervin and his track star was .16 seconds behind.
Go to www.swim.ee/.../dublin_index.html
and look at the videos. Notice the european sprinters all have their feet (Both) at the front of the block. If I remember correctly the 50 free final in the 2000 Olympics, 5 of the 8 used the grab start, the americans the track start.
You guys can have hours of fun at that web site. I spend a lot of time in the breaststroke sections. For mens 50 meters short course, there can be as much as 0.7 seconds difference to the 50 meter mark 6.5 vs. 7.2, and this is in the finals. Our Ed Moses used to have the best time to 15 meters, and the best time in and out of the turns. Then Japan's Kosuke Kitajima broke both world records, and he was faster to 15 meters and faster into and out of the turns. I would love to see his splits and times from this last World Cup in Berlin. He did a 26.68 for the 50, a 58.23 for his 100, and 2:02.92 for his 200. I bet he found his magic again on the start and turns.
Bert, always good to stir the pot. I deal in hard facts and ideas. There is always the goal of that "PERFECT" race. That would begin with the start and end with the finish. Doesn't matter how fast the swimmer. I believe in evidence-based coaching, vs. belief-based coaching.
Fact, the 1996 races could have finished differently.
The 2000 race did finish differently. There is a lot of evidence that Klim and Popov lost the races through bad coaching of dolphin kicking at the finish. But that is another story.
Now to the Track start. Bert has a great track start, he is amazing how fast he gets into the water in all his strokes. Sometimes he comes up with 50 breasts that are mind blowing, beating his breaststroker brothers.
Now in the ideal world, I do not like the track start. Bill Pilczuk may be talking about novice swimmers who can gain time by not causing resistance when diving into the water. The rest of the world prefers the grab start because it is faster in their opinions.
I believe the physics are strongly behind the two footed grab start. Check out Power Starts at http://www.quickgetaway.com/
Here is a treat for all of you. Go to www.swim.ee/.../index.html
Go to the mens 50 free
www.swim.ee/.../mfre50.html
Notice the time to 15 meters: Popov and Foster tied and Gary just slightly behind. Actually a great start for Gary. Poor Ervin and his track star was .16 seconds behind.
Go to www.swim.ee/.../dublin_index.html
and look at the videos. Notice the european sprinters all have their feet (Both) at the front of the block. If I remember correctly the 50 free final in the 2000 Olympics, 5 of the 8 used the grab start, the americans the track start.
You guys can have hours of fun at that web site. I spend a lot of time in the breaststroke sections. For mens 50 meters short course, there can be as much as 0.7 seconds difference to the 50 meter mark 6.5 vs. 7.2, and this is in the finals. Our Ed Moses used to have the best time to 15 meters, and the best time in and out of the turns. Then Japan's Kosuke Kitajima broke both world records, and he was faster to 15 meters and faster into and out of the turns. I would love to see his splits and times from this last World Cup in Berlin. He did a 26.68 for the 50, a 58.23 for his 100, and 2:02.92 for his 200. I bet he found his magic again on the start and turns.
