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?
Remember when:
1. An EXPENSIVE racing suit was $70?
2. Kids had their patches from swim meets sewn onto their warm-up jackets?
3. Kids ate packages of jello at meets?
4. Arena sold suits in the U.S?
5. You got one free false start?
6. Clubs had mini-meets for 8 and unders?
7. The cutting-edge sports drink was Nutrament?
8. Going to lift weights meant lifting on Nautilus equipment?
9. The swivel backstroke turn was used?
10. Your head was not allowed to go all the way under in breaststroke?
Great thread! I don't know if this has already been mentioned but I remember when backstrokers used to spray a sticky substance on the bottom of their feet so they wouldn't slip on the start. Don't remember what it was called.
1) $70 - how about $40?
2) I still have a picture of me in my jacket when I was 10. Ugh, what a dork :doh:
3) Red fingers, yum!!!!
4) Best suits
5) I used to go off intentionally
6) Still do. It's a great thing as the older swimmers pair up with a younger one as thier 'coach'
7) Hmm, how about you had one type of gatorade - green
8) Blech
9) BUCKET TURN!!!!!!!
10) I still swim that way :doh:
11) Having to have people stand on the step of the wooden block or you would cause it too shoot backwards
12) Nylon rope burns from lane lines
13) Times only measured to tenths.
14) Starter guns
15) recall ropes - and people diving in to stop swimmers
16) Dive starts in less than 4 feet of water :shakeshead:
17) Sharks and minnows on fridays :bliss:
18) getting tossed into the well as an 8&U and later tossing 8&Us in as a 'big' kid
19) parents versus kids relays
20) Clothes swims - nothing like swimming in jeans and a sweatshirt
21) Water polo on fridays
22) having to touch with both hands.......on the same level in Fly/Br
23) Wall pushups
24) Chair races - relays while dragging a small deck chair behind you
25) Racing without goggles (for me it was more an eyesight thing, mostly blury versus totally blury really wasn't worth goggles)
17) Sharks and minnows on fridays :bliss:
21) Water polo on fridays
I loved playing sharks and minnows as a kid. We'd play in our 12 foot deep, 12.5 yard wide diving well. It was great fun. Sometimes there'd be like 20 or so kids playing. It got really tough to make it across when you had 5-10 kids trying to pull you up! Also, water polo days in lieu of practice were like dreams come true. We never played "legit" water polo, though. It was more like "kill the kid with the ball". But it was great fun!
No goggles and looking at the world through a white haze.
getting sun burned because there was no such thing as sunblock.
putting your hand in an imaginary tin can on center line when learning 'australian crawl'
black lane lines extending from the bottom of the pool, up side of the pool and onto the wooden starting blocks.
if you weren't careful you could catch your foot in the space between the slats of the starting blocks and the bulkhead.
1,000 or so 'bobs' were considered a warm down. I might be stretching the truth about the number, but bobs were the warm down of choice.
Running on the beach as a warm up, or as a 'punishment' when we ticked the coach off.
Fly wasn't taught to kids.
girls didn't owned a race suits because we were there to have fun.
The girls and boys practiced at different times. The girls practiced for an hour two days a week with an assistant coach. The boys practiced every day, no set time just until the head coach let them go.
Lainey
I remember the Jello boxes!!!!!! That was a staple for food at just about every meet growing up!!!! That and Pixie Stix.....pure suger!!!!! YAY!!!! Just about as good as Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs!!!! This was at AAU meets in So Cal back in the day. Anybody else from So Cal? Inland Empire Swimming mean anything to anyone? I swam for the Glendora Ducks under Coach Peterson!!!!!
I am from So Cal. Ventura County. I swam for Oxnard Swim Club. I think the furthest we went for an AAU meet was Simi Valley (I loved that pool).I do recall Inland Empire Swimming but not much other than the name. You see, it was a lonnnng time ago. :laugh2:
Yep. One of my fondest memories is somebody having to dive in to stop a swimmer on a false start. Seems like it was always somebody with clothes on.
Another thing - remember when meets, even the big serious ones had fun names? Some of my favorite meets:
Halloween Meet - always over at Bowie
Thanksgiving Meet - I recall GWU
Sleighbell Meet - RMSC
Valentine's Meet
Cherry Blossom Meet - always at Bowie
Thanks for the poke in the memory. I remember all those.
Did anyone have to wear jogging pants in high school gym class after a shave meet? People had to know that I shaved but they weren't going to say anything in the locker room. It must have sucked for the girls that had really hairy legs and couldn't shave.
I remember one year when a butch of girls on my team shaved lower part of the back of their hair. Did anyone else do this in the early 90s or still do that.
