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
Former Member
Well, its not like the Anaheim Angels either coming out of nowhere to win the worlds series in 2002.
Originally posted by lefty
That said, you take the top 7 swimmers from any D 1 men's team and put it against the 7 men on this team and they lose in a dual meet every time.
The D1 club would sweep all the points in the 1000 or 1650 free, 200 fly and 400 IM, that's for sure! But the Race Club would probably kick butt in the relays.
Just an opinion, but the whole thing reeks of elitism. Haven't heard one word from John Leonard about how this benefits the US National Team. Outside of Shoeman (and this is personal opinion here), none of these guys will medal in the 50. Hall will be lucky to be 4th in the 50 and Foster won't make the final. BTW, by concentrating on solely 50's (which is expected for many of these people), their efforts don't seem to be helping their teams and countries in the big picture: there are no 200 relays, only 400's and again, outside of Shoeman, I don't think that Hall and Foster are going to help the relay cause. We became a country of sprinters in the 80's and with the addition of 50's to the World stage and 200 relays to the National one, we have further widened the gap between ourselves and everyone swimming 400s and above. There will always be sprinters for us, but more of the Eric Vendt's, Chris Thompson's, and Brooke Bennett's are what we need...again, all opinion, and as a sprinter, I think I am seeing this clearly. This doesn't help anyone on a grand scale; only the few who are chummy with Hall and can afford it.
Hall has agrued about this with others and like Bert, many feel that American men have become lazy in regards to distance freestyle while the women of course have never suffered. Hall's father started out as a 400 meter Im'er in 1968 and by 1976 he was a 100 meter flyer. So, let's say that Hall Jr is a very different swimmer from Hall Sr who never was the fastest 50 and 100 meter freestyler.
Matt S:
The team is called a sprint club. By Gary himself. And the application specifically says the team will be for sprinters. Truth in advertising - you bet! This is why the Yankess analogy is spot on. A team that specificaly holds itself out as a sprint club does not need IMers.
That said, you take the top 7 swimmers from any D 1 men's team and put it against the 7 men on this team and they lose in a dual meet every time.
I agree with Bert’s overall thought process. Being a distance guy, I lean heavily toward the United States moving more and more into that Arena. Teams designed to promote, train and support pure sprinters are not going to lend a helping hand to the United States with respect to distance swimming. Having said that, I may not like elitist sprint camps, but this is America, and that is their choice. Whatever floats your boat!
well, Brain Goodell did a 15:05 way back in 1976. Now women swimming has progressive much faster, if you swim like Shirley Bashashoff in the 800 meter at the elite level you would not medal. And Shirley was a very fast sprinter in her earlier career. In 1972, she won two silver medals in Munich at the 100 meter and 200 meter. And for sprinting its not easy but its easier to do than 200 yard swims or longer and swim a half decent time. I knew novice swimmers in California that could swim a 50 yard butterfly in 28 seconds for a girl back in the 1970's. They workout around the 3,000 yards that masters do. The same girl in the 100 yard could not hold out and I out touch her. And I was only a 30.0 to 31.0, 50 yard butterfly as a teenager Why the US male team can't be good in distance like the ladies, I don't know.
My $0.02...
1) Good for Dr. Hall! He is taking his interest and expertise and applying it to help people who could use it. Why not? It certainly does not hurt, or detract from, any other segment of the swimming community. Nice to see someone doing SOMETHING. Any success that they have will only serve to draw interest and $ to the sport. Even if it is a disaster, we will be little worse off than now.
2) It is likely that the US will NEVER be a dominant distance power. We are not a patient people and the development of distance swimmers is not geared to instant gratification. Look at Track & Field - it's been a long time since we've had much success in distance events. We have the most genetic diversity on the planet and yet we don't seem to be able to turn that into distance success. SO it isn't the people, it's the training/support.
-LBJ
United States is not a top distance program that is false. In women swimming they have been better at middle distance to distance free rather than sprints. Women t develop thru the club system they don't become a world class swimmer by starting competitve swimming in high school. They develop physically younger. Men can start competive swimming at 15 years old and make nationals, so the high school system emphasis sprints more, so non-year round boys can swim better at meets.
While it is certainly true that being an average sprinter is easier than being an average distance swimmer. But being an elite sprinter is in no way easier than being an elite distance swimmer.
Consider this: 20 years ago, if you could go under 50 in the 100-meter free, you had a shot at winning the Olympics (obviously talking about men). I do not know how many men can go under 50 seconds now, but my guess is something like 50 worldwide.
By comparison the standard 20 years ago for the 1500 was going something like 15:05. Today, a 15:05 STILL puts you in medal contention (though not gold).
Why has sprinting improved so much compared to distance swimming? Because the importance of strength training has finally reached the world of swimming. Twenty years ago, it was probably true that a sprinter had it easy. But that notion is antiquated! If you want to say that being a distance swimmer is harder, be my guest. But unless you have ripped off 10x3x200lbs on the bench press, mixed in enough curls to make your arms explode, and THEN gone to swim - until you have done that - your posturing is without merit!
PS: I do not really take this subject that seriously. Just trying to have fun!
