You are the Rules Dictator

Lindsey, I didn't see your question until now. Skip seems to have given you more than you probably realized possible but then again Skip has been doing that for a long time. I just have to add that I was priviledged to have know Coach Silvia. I attended the Pine Knoll Swim School in Springfield MA for a number of years in the mid 60's. (My mother first sent my brother and I so she could get some rest in the summer.) Coach was truly and extraordinary man and coach. The school was at his home where he had built a 6 lane 25 yard pool, a diving tank, a softball field, a soccer field, tennis courts and the like. Several hundred kids would come each day. There were some boarders there also. Most were not in the competitive program. The teachers were mainly college and high school coaches from around the northeast that were once affiliated with the Springfield College swim program. The morning and afternoon sessions were each broken into three, one-hour parts: lecture, swimming and some other sport (rotated through softball, tennis, etc.) The amazing thing was that Coach Silvia would lecture the campers (split into groups of 9 and unders and 10 and overs) about biomechanics every day. He had a huge library of films from international competitions and really concentrated on the very things that some of the other threads have spent a long time talking about. I still remember him putting up on the blackboard (me at age 10), the force diagram for a bent arm and mathmatically proving that you needed to bend the arm by showing the equation: F x FA = R x RA (F=force, FA = force arm, R = Resistance and RA = Resistance arm). All the while Doc Councilman was arguing S curves and the rest, Coach Silvia was working on efficient application of force. He was proud of the accomplishments of Bill Yorsk and we did see that film every couple of weeks as part of the stroke analysis. I could go on about Coach Silvia but I will leave that for another thread.

Lindsey, I didn't see your question until now. Skip seems to have given you more than you probably realized possible but then again Skip has been doing that for a long time. I just have to add that I was priviledged to have know Coach Silvia. I attended the Pine Knoll Swim School in Springfield MA for a number of years in the mid 60's. (My mother first sent my brother and I so she could get some rest in the summer.) Coach was truly and extraordinary man and coach. The school was at his home where he had built a 6 lane 25 yard pool, a diving tank, a softball field, a soccer field, tennis courts and the like. Several hundred kids would come each day. There were some boarders there also. Most were not in the competitive program. The teachers were mainly college and high school coaches from around the northeast that were once affiliated with the Springfield College swim program. The morning and afternoon sessions were each broken into three, one-hour parts: lecture, swimming and some other sport (rotated through softball, tennis, etc.) The amazing thing was that Coach Silvia would lecture the campers (split into groups of 9 and unders and 10 and overs) about biomechanics every day. He had a huge library of films from international competitions and really concentrated on the very things that some of the other threads have spent a long time talking about. I still remember him putting up on the blackboard (me at age 10), the force diagram for a bent arm and mathmatically proving that you needed to bend the arm by showing the equation: F x FA = R x RA (F=force, FA = force arm, R = Resistance and RA = Resistance arm). All the while Doc Councilman was arguing S curves and the rest, Coach Silvia was working on efficient application of force. He was proud of the accomplishments of Bill Yorsk and we did see that film every couple of weeks as part of the stroke analysis. I could go on about Coach Silvia but I will leave that for another thread.