This new thread occurred to me while reading posts comparing Spitz to Phelps, as well as reflecting upon mortality considering heart attacks etc. In swimming we immortalize individuals or teams for various feats or contributions, but do little to preserve a feeling for subsequent generations of enthusiasts about what it was like to train and compete 'back in the day'. Just what day am I talking about? Exactly: there have been many 'days' or more properly 'eras' that can be narrowly characterized by differences in equipment, distances swum and trained, coaching methods or more widely by larger factors: world war, global depression, racial segregation, inequality of the sexes. All of these can contribute to very different experiences than what are common today to the younger swimmer; hence, 'what was it like'. I visualize a thread that continues to be added to as new people read it and remember their own experiences. As well, experience can vary with national origin, not just era. There have already been posts on this topic scattered in various threads, please feel free to copy or quote material from them to here.
Please remember that this is not about how fast a particular swimmer was, but about the conditions that defined competitive swimming of that day.
We also have a priceless resource out there: aging swimmers in their 80's or 90's who may be less likely to read or hear of this thread; why not ask them for some of their memories or impressions and pass them on to us, while we still can?
Parents
Former Member
Don't forget about mounting the starting blocks in the shallow end. Doing starts into 3 1/2 foot deep water was commonplace until probably the early '90s. That's just how it was done.
My high school pool was a four lane, 25 yard pool. It was a little cramped with over 20 kids on the team. The divers practiced at the same time. The lane line was removed between lanes two and three and the divers just dove when there was an opening between swimmers. We also used giant wood planks for kickboards and used tubes for pull sets.
Some major-modern pools still put the starting blocks in the shallow end, Bentley U. for instance. A girl on my team last year at an invitational there hit the bottom on her start and broke 2 teeth, she's lucky thats all she did.
My highschool pool had 6 lanes, but my 7th grade year we had 65 girls on varsity so we also had to swim in the diving lanes when they were practicing. They just shoved us little middle schoolers in those lanes and wished us good luck!
Don't forget about mounting the starting blocks in the shallow end. Doing starts into 3 1/2 foot deep water was commonplace until probably the early '90s. That's just how it was done.
My high school pool was a four lane, 25 yard pool. It was a little cramped with over 20 kids on the team. The divers practiced at the same time. The lane line was removed between lanes two and three and the divers just dove when there was an opening between swimmers. We also used giant wood planks for kickboards and used tubes for pull sets.
Some major-modern pools still put the starting blocks in the shallow end, Bentley U. for instance. A girl on my team last year at an invitational there hit the bottom on her start and broke 2 teeth, she's lucky thats all she did.
My highschool pool had 6 lanes, but my 7th grade year we had 65 girls on varsity so we also had to swim in the diving lanes when they were practicing. They just shoved us little middle schoolers in those lanes and wished us good luck!
