I took my daughter to a collegiate conference meet yesterday. I saw some things that I didn't quite understand, and my 6 year old asked me some questions I couldn't answer. I can guess at some of this, but would appreciate it if you would weigh in. Would you please help us out?
(1) I saw an incredible swimmer in the men's 100 free. His stroke count was so much lower than the other swimmers that he almost looked like he was swimming in slow motion and his kicking wasn't as frenetic as the others, yet he easily won by a body length. Was there something special to his technique? Does it have a name? He was poetry in motion.
(2) About shaving: I stayed off the recent shaving thread as it seemed to be a guys' discussion, but I am curious - does shaving off body hair (and in the case of some of these college swimmers, head hair) appreciatively cut down drag and increase speed or is it more of a psychological "feel for the water" type feeling? Or something in between or something else altogether?
(3) About suit choice: All suit types were represented: for women, tanks and fastskins: for men, tiny speedos, jammers and bottom half fastskins. If not at the elite (and I mean really elite) level, does suit choice really make a difference or is it again psychological? At this meet anyway, the majority of fastest times were swam by women in tanks and men in the tiny speedos.
(4) At the end of the morning prelims, we saw a time trial for two female swimmers in the 100 free. Was this because they had a dead tie in the prelims?
(5) In one of the races, it might have been a men's 200 ***, there were 3 heats. The first had 8 swimmers, the third had 8 swimmers, but the middle heat only had 3...any ideas?
Thanks much. It was great to be able to tell my daughter that I didn't know, but I knew who I could ask.
Barb
Parents
Former Member
2. a bit of both....I love the feeling of diving in after having shaved for the first time in months...however, removing that extra drag and dead skin also is a benefit.3.any athlete swimming the breaststroke/im will likely opt not to wear jammers and especially not legs because they limit your "feel for the water" and since feeling the water with your calves is important in the breaststroke kick they are actually not advisable.However, in the other events, I would reckon that many of those swimmers who won in a regular tank or speedo will wear a fast skin of some sort at NCAAs....if they were seeded first and were a definate NCAA canidate there would be little point in wearing their fastest suits, completly tapering, or shaving for this meet. 4. At my championships they had to run two time trials because the swimmers tied for 8th place...which is the last place to make it into the championship final. So they had a swim off for 8th and the loser had to bump down to 9th place and got stuck in the consolation heat A. It's likely that happened here too. They tend to run actual time finals for people who want to get a time in an event or try again for an NCAA cut on the Sunday morning of competition after the morning session before the 1650 starts. That's have the NCAA writes it out in the meet schedule
2. a bit of both....I love the feeling of diving in after having shaved for the first time in months...however, removing that extra drag and dead skin also is a benefit.3.any athlete swimming the breaststroke/im will likely opt not to wear jammers and especially not legs because they limit your "feel for the water" and since feeling the water with your calves is important in the breaststroke kick they are actually not advisable.However, in the other events, I would reckon that many of those swimmers who won in a regular tank or speedo will wear a fast skin of some sort at NCAAs....if they were seeded first and were a definate NCAA canidate there would be little point in wearing their fastest suits, completly tapering, or shaving for this meet. 4. At my championships they had to run two time trials because the swimmers tied for 8th place...which is the last place to make it into the championship final. So they had a swim off for 8th and the loser had to bump down to 9th place and got stuck in the consolation heat A. It's likely that happened here too. They tend to run actual time finals for people who want to get a time in an event or try again for an NCAA cut on the Sunday morning of competition after the morning session before the 1650 starts. That's have the NCAA writes it out in the meet schedule
