May/June cover of USMS Swimmer

Bill, Thanks for giving us a peak into the content of the next issue. Sounds like the point of one of the articles is don't knock water aerobic exercises as serious training aides until you've tried them. I seem to remember making critical comments about Gary Hall mentioning The Race Club reef dives for lobsters as part of their training regime. Seems to me he proved my criticisms were misplaced, what with winning a gold medal and defending his co-Olympic Championship and all. The authors of the article might have a point worth considering. And yes, to be fair to everyone, I understand that Gull and Geek are NOT talking about serious athletes who use water aerobics as part of serious training. Got it. Their complaint is about people who kid themselves about getting a workout with faux water aerobics "exercises" while exhibiting in every other way imaginable that they don't even understand what exercise is. Roger. I also wanted to point out one thing that appears to be a habit in these discussion groups. To give the articles about water aerobic exercises greater heft and credibility, Bill felt compelled to point out that the authors of these articles have themselves set USMS records and performed at the highest levels in USMS. Why is it necessary for someone to be an elite athlete for me to take him/her seriously as a coach or an author? I understand that some of the most successful and highly regarded coaches in U.S. Swimming are themselves very poor swimmers and/or personally afraid of the water. When discussions in this forum devolve down to the "did not! did too!" level, one of the most common brickbracks that starts flying is "how can you criticize the ideas of someone who is 30 seconds faster than you in the..." Yes, at some level, proving your methods work for you is more impressive than simply spouting off your ideas. However, I've seen people with perfectly valid points get shouted down because they are slower than some of the other participants. Where'd we get that idea? Just asking? Matt

Bill, Thanks for giving us a peak into the content of the next issue. Sounds like the point of one of the articles is don't knock water aerobic exercises as serious training aides until you've tried them. I seem to remember making critical comments about Gary Hall mentioning The Race Club reef dives for lobsters as part of their training regime. Seems to me he proved my criticisms were misplaced, what with winning a gold medal and defending his co-Olympic Championship and all. The authors of the article might have a point worth considering. And yes, to be fair to everyone, I understand that Gull and Geek are NOT talking about serious athletes who use water aerobics as part of serious training. Got it. Their complaint is about people who kid themselves about getting a workout with faux water aerobics "exercises" while exhibiting in every other way imaginable that they don't even understand what exercise is. Roger. I also wanted to point out one thing that appears to be a habit in these discussion groups. To give the articles about water aerobic exercises greater heft and credibility, Bill felt compelled to point out that the authors of these articles have themselves set USMS records and performed at the highest levels in USMS. Why is it necessary for someone to be an elite athlete for me to take him/her seriously as a coach or an author? I understand that some of the most successful and highly regarded coaches in U.S. Swimming are themselves very poor swimmers and/or personally afraid of the water. When discussions in this forum devolve down to the "did not! did too!" level, one of the most common brickbracks that starts flying is "how can you criticize the ideas of someone who is 30 seconds faster than you in the..." Yes, at some level, proving your methods work for you is more impressive than simply spouting off your ideas. However, I've seen people with perfectly valid points get shouted down because they are slower than some of the other participants. Where'd we get that idea? Just asking? Matt