Lainey....sorry to see that your so offended.
Although these threads are injected with very high levels of sarcasm they also pose some important questions which I think are getting addressed at least on some levels.
What I'm curious is wether you actually have an opinion about either of the two topics?
Originally posted by Sydney
By contrast, swimming requires skill. Usually years and years of it. And coaching on a consistent basis helps a lot too. Picking it up as an adult is difficult and embarassing because you look like an idiot doing it and you know it. And you can work at it for years and still never be as good as someone who did it as a kid. The same cannot be said for biking or running.
i.e. VO2 Max development. But I digress, just thought I'd make this discussion a little more annoying. By the way, I feel like I am watching a train wreck reading these posts. I know I am not suppsed to look, but it is "interesting" to say the least. By the way, Geek and Gull I don't think you are bigots.
I think this thread has been hilarious. I usually practice with a team that is exclusively swimmers doing an organized workout while we have the pool. So I don't have a lot of experience with the "noodlers." However, I sometimes swim on Sunday mornings at a city pool that has a workout going on and a water aerobics group in the shallow end on the other side of the bulkhead. Yesterday was the first time I noticed the noodles! So thanks to gull and geek for corrupting me :)
Anyway, they don't bother us, and we don't bother them (I presume), but I do think the term "noodlers" is funny.
Since this is the public face of USMS (the discussion forum, not the acutal website after all), I would like to list some of the good things about USMS.
1 - friendships, I have met through USMS many fine people. Some of them even claim me as a friend, but only if/when I buy them beer.
2 - competition. I'm not ashamed to admit I like to compete.
3 - a good magazine, despite recent controversy
4 - teams and clubs nationwide. This cannot be discounted if travelling. It's nice to always be welcomed if you are swimming in a city other than your own.
I realize that comparing fitness/competitive swimmers to noodlers is like comparing apples to oranges. But, you know what they say, when given apples, make lemonade.
I've run out of apple cliches. Wait, no I haven't, an apple a day keeps Dr. Gull80 away!
Before I joined my group, I was printing workouts off the workout section of this site and reading posts for advice. I joined USMS before I joined my group, or had any intention of competing, because I was taking something of value from USMS and this site ain't free to maintain. I thought what I was getting out of it was well worth $30.
Lanieybug,
Its very easy to pass judgement on individuals or groups when you have had little if any oppurtunity to meet in person. Message boards such as this are sadly the only basis for some folks such as yourself to base your opinions......so I would ask you to consider something.
Regardless of your interest in competing yourself please try and attend a masters meet sometime. I think you'll find the intangible bond that keeps many of us going back and abusing ourselves at these events is not just the competition but the friendships (although it is VERY hard at times when you've got gulls and geeks in thir man bikinis!).
I'm as competitive as a human can get......but the fun for me is what happens before/after th swims.....abusing Mark Gill, finding who geek really is and preparing a group to tp his house next week, drinking beers with people I maybe see once a year but banter with daily on this forum, etc.
Originally posted by Paul Smith
What I'm curious is whether you actually have an opinion about either of the two topics?
Or for that matter did she ever actually join USMS?
SCY,
OK I grant you that triathlons are more photogenic. You get to see the competitors' faces, you get to see the changing course, etc.
Soo...how about we wise up to what has made swimming popular in Australia and get a lot more serious about open water events? Changing scenery, check. See the competitors' faces, not so much, but over the course of a race lasting an hour or two you are more likely to see people surge, tail off, i.e. distinguish themselves in a more visible way that an 0.3 difference in split time for a 100 in the middle of the race. I think we are in agreement that one race with everyone more or less competing at the same time that starts and finishes, and that's it, is much more compelling than watching 6 or 7 heats of the same 5-10 minute swim and then tabulate the results, and voila, a timing system tells us who won.
However, we are chewing on the end of a bone we have already picked over in these discussion fora. We're still thinking too small, like people who are into competition and think that the key to popularity is a better race that more people will want to watch, and maybe try themselves.
Bigger thinking, please. Lainey, what draws you and your friends to the pool? I think maybe before we offer up suggestions from the "fitness" swimmers, us neanderthal competitive types might need to be educated why you want to swim laps, etc., when you have no intention competing in a race. Your suggestions sound to us like they are coming from left field, but perhaps we don't understand that from your point of view, you're hanging out in a garden.
Put it another way, we competitive swimmers are answering the question "what is art" like we're asking Michael Phelps. What does Pablo Picasso think?
I'll tell you one thing that jazzes me. Teaching new swimmers that they can learn how to swim fly without rupturing themselves. I think that is maybe why I like that stroke. Regardless of time or whether you finish first or last, just completing a fly race is SOOO satisfying.
Matt
I was going to let this go because I don't want to publically 'rail' against USMS, but now I think I need to make it clear as to why I have not joined USMS. As Geek pointed out to me in a private email, I don't know what USMS is about because I am not a member of a club. And he is exactly right, I don't know what it is like to be a member of a USMS club. His perrspective of USMS is associated with club membership and all that affords its swimmers. I on the other hand do not have access to a club. I have not joined because USMS does not do very much for its members who do not have access to clubs, and what they do for non club members, in my opinion, is not worth 30.00. USMS need to realize that there is a huge population of swimmers who do not have access to clubs. There are two realities. The have clubs and the have not clubs.
According to the FAQs on this site
Benefits can be measured in many ways. When you join you're automatically covered by the group's insurance which provides accident and liability insurance during all sanctioned events and organized workouts. (No help here, because I already have insurance that covers me 24/7 and since I wouldn't be swimming any 'sanctioned events or workouts with a club, it wouldn't matter anyway. What other benefits are there?)
You receive USMS SWIMMER magazine which keeps you informed of the organization's programs and happenings. (I know of very few magazines worth 30.00/year)
One of the greatest benefits is the pool access you get by being a part of a structured group. (I have complete access to a beautiful pool from the time it opens to the time it closes so no help again)
Not mentioned in the FAQs, but pointed out as a benefit by some, is the fact that you can swim at USMS competitions. (Nope, not interested in competiting.)
I have, over the past year or so, become to feel very unwelcome on this board because 1) of the suggestion that I am mooching off the paying membership 2) I don't wish to compete 3) I do enjoy water aerobis and am highly insulted by the sarcastic attitude of many USMS members concerning individuals, who are mostly middle aged or elderly women, that participate in those type of activities.
I tried several months ago to start a USMS Club at our Y. It just didn't workout because the interest in the club was for organized, coached practices. We management of the Y was not willing to pay a coach and we can not find an individual willing to coach for a free membership in the Y. But, now, even if we managed to get a club started I'm not sure I would support the club becoming part of USMS.
Lainey
One really shouldn't judge an entire organization of 42,000 members because of a few bad apples on this forum. USMS welcomes and embraces noodlers--I mean water aerobics enthusiasts--hence the cover photo of this month's magazine.
