Is Swimming Still An Athletic Activity Or Is It Now A Mechanized Sport?

Somewhere, one of my siblings still has my fahter's football uniform from the late 1920-30's. It is wool, weighs a tone and has no protection. Look at today's football uniforms, especially lines-men and all of the protection they have. That is the only way men over 300pounds could even possibly ram into eachother. In the history of mankind, there has never been a techknowlogy invented that has not been used nor improved.

Originally posted by Dolphin 2 Actually, golf is more than a sport – it’s also a business activity too. I wonder how many corporate deals have been planned on the green. Now that I’ve thought of it, I wish swimming was such a financially lucrative playground for the CEOs as the courses are. Cheers :D Just that it's hard to make deals during sets of 50 or 100 free... or even while resting between sets, as you're just catching your breath for the next set. While golf strikes me as a waste of a perfectly good running surface, it seems for business purposes to have the advantage of not being anaerobic, thus allowing participants to distract themselves from the game by wheeling and dealing and maybe by bragging to one another about the innovative design of their clubs. ;)

Originally posted by Matt S Thanks because golf is not a sport; it's a psychiatric disorder. Actually, golf is more than a sport – it’s also a business activity too. I wonder how many corporate deals have been planned on the green. Now that I’ve thought of it, I wish swimming was such a financially lucrative playground for the CEOs as the courses are. Cheers :D

Matt! Your best post of all time is the shortest!

Originally posted by Dolphin 2 On the subject of sports and business venues, I’ve been told that in Japan, a lot of management strategies have been developed in the pool, and hot tub area of the gym. In the 1970’s, an acquaintance of mine took a tour of a large elevator manufacturing plant in Japan and it was quite common for both the factory managers and the rank-and-file workers to get together in a 30 person Jacuzzi and have conferences about how to improve productivity. The rational is that having everyone get together in the pool and the hot tub removes the “Wall Of Separation” between management and the workers. Considering the phenomenal growth of Japan’s industrial economy, it’s an interesting idea. :D Hmm? Cause and effect?

The cause and effect relationship is because Japan (and many other Asian countries) are quite well known for their very close-knit social structure. One of the socio-psychological processes to develop and maintain this structure is known as “Skinship” which promotes person-to-person bonding through swimming or communal bathing : en.wikipedia.org/.../Skinship It is quite well known that the crime rate in Japan is one of the lowest in the world and I am quite certain that this is related to some kind of bonding process –which unfortunately, we do not have here in the U.S. :D

Originally posted by FindingMyInnerFish Just that it's hard to make deals during sets of 50 or 100 free... or even while resting between sets, as you're just catching your breath for the next set. While golf strikes me as a waste of a perfectly good running surface, it seems for business purposes to have the advantage of not being anaerobic, thus allowing participants to distract themselves from the game by wheeling and dealing and maybe by bragging to one another about the innovative design of their clubs. ;) On the subject of sports and business venues, I’ve been told that in Japan, a lot of management strategies have been developed in the pool, and hot tub area of the gym. In the 1970’s, an acquaintance of mine took a tour of a large elevator manufacturing plant in Japan and it was quite common for both the factory managers and the rank-and-file workers to get together in a 30 person Jacuzzi and have conferences about how to improve productivity. The rational is that having everyone get together in the pool and the hot tub removes the “Wall Of Separation” between management and the workers. Considering the phenomenal growth of Japan’s industrial economy, it’s an interesting idea. :D

Originally posted by meldyck This line of questioning always intrigues me because it seems pretty much to be limited to swimming. To put it into context I wonder how many bikers would like to go back to 40 pound 3-speed bikes? My racing mountain bike weighs half that. Or, how many elite Nordic skiers would like to give up graphite technology for bamboo poles and wooden skiis? My racing skiis are way faster than those and I wouldn't want to change back. Vaulting poles are light weight, running shoes are 'engineered', and the list goes on... But, closer to the subject, most of us know that the earliest swimmers didn't even have access to Speedo briefs. I wouldn't want to compete in a wool suit. Your analogy is not a good one. In bike racing, it is the bikes that are doing the racing. In swim racing, it is supposed to be the swimmers who are doing the racing. Throughout most of the history of competitive swimming, the goal of swimsuit design was to minimize the effect that the suit had on a swimmer's performance. Unfortunately, some are now trying to make the suit into a performance aid and to maximize its effect on a swimmer's performance. Bob

Since I initiated this thread, I’ve been doing a lot of research on this subject and I doubt that a shark would experience any difference in swimming ability if its skin texture were like that of a human. Conversely, the human body form is not designed for rapid maneuvering in an aquatic environment and covering it with synthetic shark skin would not reduce drag any significant amount either. Accordingly, the conclusions given on the third paragraph of this page are what I’ve suspected the truth is all along: amos.indiana.edu/.../supersuits.html And on the concluding paragraph on this page also: www.coachesinfo.com/.../146 In my opinion, breaking a record by “1/100” of a second in an simple athletic event like swimming is pretty frivolous, however splitting a hair several ways is what makes the news when it comes to sports hyperbole. As I’ve thought all along, I believe this FastSkin II hype is really about adding a “futuristic and glamorous look” to swimming (which some Hollywood cinema people inappropriately think has been an unfashionable sport) and getting commercial publicity for the manufacturers of these suits at televised events. Of course, there’s the “Me Too” effect where even your Average Joe swimmer will go out and spend big $$$$ to keep up with the fad. Nothing against Speedo, Tyr, or Adidas, but what I’d really love to see is a few Olympic swimmers wearing “plain old vanilla” racer briefs win more medals than anyone with those high tech suits. I’d really be “LMAO” until my head aches! Happy Swimming :D

Originally posted by Dolphin 2 Since I initiated this thread, I’ve been doing a lot of research on this subject and I doubt that a shark would experience any difference in swimming ability if its skin texture were like that of a human. Conversely, the human body form is not designed for rapid maneuvering in an aquatic environment and covering it with synthetic shark skin would not reduce drag any significant amount either. Accordingly, the conclusions given on the third paragraph of this page are what I’ve suspected the truth is all along: amos.indiana.edu/.../supersuits.html And on the concluding paragraph on this page also: www.coachesinfo.com/.../146 In my opinion, breaking a record by “1/100” of a second in an simple athletic event like swimming is pretty frivolous, however splitting a hair several ways is what makes the news when it comes to sports hyperbole. As I’ve thought all along, I believe this FastSkin II hype is really about adding a “futuristic and glamorous look” to swimming (which some Hollywood cinema people inappropriately think has been an unfashionable sport) and getting commercial publicity for the manufacturers of these suits at televised events. Of course, there’s the “Me Too” effect where even your Average Joe swimmer will go out and spend big $$$$ to keep up with the fad. Nothing against Speedo, Tyr, or Adidas, but what I’d really love to see is a few Olympic swimmers wearing “plain old vanilla” racer briefs win more medals than anyone with those high tech suits. I’d really be “LMAO” until my head aches! Happy Swimming :D I suspect that some of the college short course records have been set in cheap Speedo briefs. It seems to me that when the Frenchman set the 50 SCY record last year he was not wearing anything special.