Triathletes

Michael, I accept your previous criticism of TI advocates who think reading the book makes them more knowledgable than coaches with years of experience (guilty). Humorous and on the mark. But hang on there, big fella. Confusing aerobocop, endorfiends, "don't talk to me about technique, just gimme yards, man, more yards," triathletes with we effete, double-ginsing-mocha-expresso swilling, yoga posing total immersion fans who drill to the exclusion of any conditioning, is a bit like confusing Communists and Fascists. Please, we both have our flaming eccentricities, but they are not the same thing! Flip turns: yes it is a cool skill to have, and you definitely want good flip turns for pool races. But, someone please esplain to me why a triathlete who only does open water swimming has any use for them? For an individual like that, I would much rather have them learn how to do a sound, quick, streamlined open turn (that will avoid problems with their lane mates) and spend their mental energy learning the strokes well, instead of spending time and mental effort correcting a lousy flip turn, which they will only use in practice. You can make the same argument about the other strokes; I would argue back that swimming the other strokes well will do more to improve your freestyle that simply swimming free all the time. I've heard this from numerous people after they put more stroke yardage in their workouts. In the words of the world-famous Rodney King, can't we all (swimmers, tri-guys, skateboarders, corpulent lap swimmers, nice little ole ladies with perfectly coiffed blue hair they don't want to get wet during water aerobics) just get along? Memo to the field: poking fun at other people goes down a lot easier if you poke fun at yourself at the same time. Matt

Michael, I accept your previous criticism of TI advocates who think reading the book makes them more knowledgable than coaches with years of experience (guilty). Humorous and on the mark. But hang on there, big fella. Confusing aerobocop, endorfiends, "don't talk to me about technique, just gimme yards, man, more yards," triathletes with we effete, double-ginsing-mocha-expresso swilling, yoga posing total immersion fans who drill to the exclusion of any conditioning, is a bit like confusing Communists and Fascists. Please, we both have our flaming eccentricities, but they are not the same thing! Flip turns: yes it is a cool skill to have, and you definitely want good flip turns for pool races. But, someone please esplain to me why a triathlete who only does open water swimming has any use for them? For an individual like that, I would much rather have them learn how to do a sound, quick, streamlined open turn (that will avoid problems with their lane mates) and spend their mental energy learning the strokes well, instead of spending time and mental effort correcting a lousy flip turn, which they will only use in practice. You can make the same argument about the other strokes; I would argue back that swimming the other strokes well will do more to improve your freestyle that simply swimming free all the time. I've heard this from numerous people after they put more stroke yardage in their workouts. In the words of the world-famous Rodney King, can't we all (swimmers, tri-guys, skateboarders, corpulent lap swimmers, nice little ole ladies with perfectly coiffed blue hair they don't want to get wet during water aerobics) just get along? Memo to the field: poking fun at other people goes down a lot easier if you poke fun at yourself at the same time. Matt