Swim Rant

They obviously didn't have enough faith in their kids' ability to swim well without the fancy gear! Your team has the advantage because they're learning to believe in themselves before they depend on the gear to pull them through. Sometimes I actually feel sorry for kids showered with "advantages" b/c when will they recognize that they, not their belongings, will take them places? Hopefully they'll learn from the experience--if their parents don't come up with excuses for them.... Exactly! The showering with advantages thing is all to apparent where I live. Every kid thinks they're "entitled" to fastskins, entitled to go to all travel meets, etc. At a multi-day USA 14 & Under meet I'm attending, I saw kids with multiple fastskins changing into a new fastskin every time they swam a new event. Now, they have bodyskins, knee skins, recordbreakers -- whatever they're supposed to have for x stroke. A bit much for 14 & unders. George: Our summer swim league is a sprint league -- nothing but 25s for the 8 & unders and 50s for the older kids. Over that distance, a fastskin can only make a few tenths difference. In general, I think technical suits can make a difference and I like my own fastskin. But for these meets, not much of a difference and soooo not necessary. I'm not sure if it's a fashion statement, or a psychological thing. Kid A thinks they can beat Kid B if he/she wears the fastskin. Or, it could be more simple. The kids always wear fastskins to every meet no matter how big or small and the parents just continuously replace them because they want their kid to have every edge at every moment. The old days where you wore your drag suits to meets until the championship seem to be long gone. I'm old school. I have control over my 12 year old's fastskin. She only gets to wear it for the big meets and there are plenty of those anyway it seems. Plus, she won her events today, smoking the other team. :cheerleader: She even swam backstroke -- not always a pretty sight when done by an evilstroker. While I'm ranting, I will also note that I hate prelim/final meets for 12 & unders. I think they should be timed finals. I see kids that are absolutely fried at the night finals. My kid was last night. Rant off.

They obviously didn't have enough faith in their kids' ability to swim well without the fancy gear! Your team has the advantage because they're learning to believe in themselves before they depend on the gear to pull them through. Sometimes I actually feel sorry for kids showered with "advantages" b/c when will they recognize that they, not their belongings, will take them places? Hopefully they'll learn from the experience--if their parents don't come up with excuses for them.... Exactly! The showering with advantages thing is all to apparent where I live. Every kid thinks they're "entitled" to fastskins, entitled to go to all travel meets, etc. At a multi-day USA 14 & Under meet I'm attending, I saw kids with multiple fastskins changing into a new fastskin every time they swam a new event. Now, they have bodyskins, knee skins, recordbreakers -- whatever they're supposed to have for x stroke. A bit much for 14 & unders. George: Our summer swim league is a sprint league -- nothing but 25s for the 8 & unders and 50s for the older kids. Over that distance, a fastskin can only make a few tenths difference. In general, I think technical suits can make a difference and I like my own fastskin. But for these meets, not much of a difference and soooo not necessary. I'm not sure if it's a fashion statement, or a psychological thing. Kid A thinks they can beat Kid B if he/she wears the fastskin. Or, it could be more simple. The kids always wear fastskins to every meet no matter how big or small and the parents just continuously replace them because they want their kid to have every edge at every moment. The old days where you wore your drag suits to meets until the championship seem to be long gone. I'm old school. I have control over my 12 year old's fastskin. She only gets to wear it for the big meets and there are plenty of those anyway it seems. Plus, she won her events today, smoking the other team. :cheerleader: She even swam backstroke -- not always a pretty sight when done by an evilstroker. While I'm ranting, I will also note that I hate prelim/final meets for 12 & unders. I think they should be timed finals. I see kids that are absolutely fried at the night finals. My kid was last night. Rant off.