I was watching Desperate Housewives and they had a scene at Bree(Marcia Cross's)'s son high school swim meet. It was such a bad betrayal of swimming. There were no lane lines in the pool and no real timers. Plus, there were no bleachers, just chairs that you would see in a classroom. It would be nice if Hollywood got the accurate view of swimming.
Former Member
The lack of swimming movies is puzzling--I mean, what could be more exciting than a swim meet, especially if there are a lot of heats?
I also saw Swim Fan, and while not a good movie, the swimming portions were better than I expected. The times the main character and the coach talked about for college scholarships were very realistic, and the character did a very nice 'perfect stroke' drill. This last was probably a double, because the underwater shots, where you could see the actor's face, did not have nearly so good a stroke.
Where I swam in HS, not a center of swimming excellence, there were a few teams that had 1:26 freestylers as their best swimmers, and some areas have frosh-soph teams where these times are common.
I have never seen a preference to give scholarships to foreign swimmers. I have seen a preference to give scholarships to the best swimmers.
I am surprised that swimmers so quickly forget Weismuller and Buster Crabb; there are also several other swimmers that acted in Hollywood. My jock son (varsity soccer as a Frosh, but not swimming now) acts, plays the clarinet in the band, and his hip hop dancing is "hella savage."
Originally posted by Sam Perry
At least they aren't doing swimming for Viagra or Cialis commercials!
That should be one of the selling points for joining USMS. (We don't need no stinking drugs.) ;)
The commercials with swimming in them drive me crazy.
Where are your goggles people? The lady in the Bally's commercial doing the breastroke. The lady with the sumptuous long hair flowing behind her in the water?
No way pal, ladies with hair that long wear swim caps. And goggles for pete's sake, eyes open underwater, smiling.
But the absolute worst thing I have seen is the picture on the cover of Lynne Cox' book. She's ocean swimming, no cap, no goggles. For a stupid commercial, or a one page ad for somethgin unrelated I can take it. But her book is about open water swimming.
Originally posted by justforfun
Check out Man on Fire with Denzel Washington. I like the swimming scenes with the little girl and Denzel as her "coach." It's a small part of the movie, but I thought it was pretty well done.
That's a great film, though the camera angles can make you dizzy-a bit like The Bourne Supremacy (though both the Bourne Identity and the Bourne supremacy are favourites of mine and are highly recommended).
Dakota Fanning is the epitome of adorable children.
Originally posted by valhallan
He could star in a show all about ocean life guards where the women guards pose for skin magazines on their days off.
Alexandra Paul... Alexandra Paul... Alexandra Paul... Alexandra Paul...
The USA Swimming "B" time for 11-12 yr old boys in the 100 free is 1:13.29 (2005-2008 Top 16-based motivational times). For 15-16 yr old boys it's a 1:04.59. And that's not even close to A, AA or AAA. My daughter, age 13, swims the 100 free in 1:10, which is a B time for her age group, and she's not a great sprinter. Now when I was a freshman in high school (1972), I was probably the slowest on my team and swam the 100 in 1:15.
I remember the Swim Fan movie and hated it. I was hoping there would be more swimming. I do remember it thoug, at least the times, at the end the winner did a 1:33 for a 200 yard free. I remember looking it up and that's close to a converted WR time in LC. The only reason I remember it is because I was watching it the night before a swim meet and I'm a 200 swimmer. Wish I had skipped it though.
