Swim Rant

So we've solved the van on the roof mystery... getting you a pool w/ compatible hours is our next step! :) That's a bummer--you could move to my neighborhood. There's a Y and a high school pool nearby whose hours are reasonably complementary. But it can be frustrating sometimes to find lap swimmers squeezed out of space and/or time for our pursuits. You'd think that with the weight management problems in our society, pools should encourage more adults to work out in serious ways. There wouldn't be any lakes or beaches near you that would give you some compatible swimming times?

Things can be dangerous when you train or compete. We should be careful, I have had people jump on top of me when swimming. Accidents do happen have a look at this. ca.news.yahoo.com/.../athletics_golden_ita_fra_accident

18 & older locker rooms. What a wonderful concept! My pool has a few "family-changing rooms" but they don't seem to get much use. Some of the older "kids" use them for "family creating" rooms. :banana:

Some of the older "kids" use them for "family creating" rooms. :banana: *boggles* Is *that* why the most popular form of recreational fitness seems to be showing up at the pool in a string bikini or board shorts, spending 20 minutes in the hot tub, and then vanishing? Or did I miss something very important?

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.

You leave that divine child alone! Overindulgnece is rife and out of countrol--end of story. We're all doing it to an extent but 8 year olds with Ipods, 9 year olds with cellphones, and asking for laptops...golly. Divine? The little she devil. But this is why I don't buy that Jeff Commings' BS. I am a backstroker who can't do evilstroke. Mini-Fort is an evilstroker who can't do backstroke. Although bless her little heart, her rotation is improving and she's trying to learn to SDK. As to the other crap, just say no. At least some of the time.

She even swam backstroke -- not always a pretty sight when done by an evilstroker. You leave that divine child alone! Overindulgnece is rife and out of control--end of story. We're all doing it to an extent but 8 year olds with Ipods, 9 year olds with cellphones, and asking for laptops...golly.

I am experiencing total disgust. I just attended a summer league swim meet. You know, the low key fun dual meets in the shallow outdoor pools. This was just a dual meet, not a divisional championship or any other sort of all star championship. Our team arrived in their polyester team suits, black and red attire and gaudy posters. The other team apparently had no team suit. Instead, 90% of the kids, even the 8 & unders, were wearing variously colored FS II suits. Blech. FS II at a run of the mill dual meet? Something wrong with this picture IMHO. Those suits should be saved for championship meets. And since when do 8 & unders routinely sport these suits? I'm sure it's because we were swimming in McLean VA, richest suburb in northern virginia, but please parents calm down and exercise restraint. I was disgusted. I forbid my kid to wear her FS II at these meets. Wholly apart from suit wear and tear, it's just inappropriate and not really consistent with the spirit of summer swim league. I cheered for all our kids racing and crushing the glammed up fastskin kids. :cheerleader: OK. I'll get off my soapbox now. It just really pissed me off.

I am experiencing total disgust. I just attended a summer league swim meet. You know, the low key fun dual meets in the shallow outdoor pools. This was just a dual meet, not a divisional championship or any other sort of all star championship. Our team arrived in their polyester team suits, black and red attire and gaudy posters. The other team apparently had no team suit. Instead, 90% of the kids, even the 8 & unders, were wearing variously colored FS II suits. Blech. FS II at a run of the mill dual meet? Something wrong with this picture IMHO. Those suits should be saved for championship meets. And since when do 8 & unders routinely sport these suits? I'm sure it's because we were swimming in McLean VA, richest suburb in northern virginia, but please parents calm down and exercise restraint. I was disgusted. I forbid my kid to wear her FS II at these meets. Wholly apart from suit wear and tear, it's just inappropriate and not really consistent with the spirit of summer swim league. I cheered for all our kids racing and crushing the glammed up fastskin kids. :cheerleader: OK. I'll get off my soapbox now. It just really pissed me 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....

Fort what difference time wise do you think they gain by wearing the high tech suits. I think they are just a fashion statement.