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?
2) Polyester suits.
I bought an ugly Speedo Endurance suit off a clearance rack last summer. I had not bought a swimming suit in 20 years, had not heard of Endurance, and had no clue what I was getting. And the suit will. not. die!
:applaud: to Speedo Endurance suits! I, too, bought an ugly one on clearance, because it was only $28. Mine lasted from June 2009 until October 2010, swimming on average 5x wk, 1:15 per session. It finally died while I was in an overly chlorinated cruise ship pool and the stitching came undone. (Little did I know, I was mooning the other passengers when I got out of the pool and bent over to pick up my stuff off the ground... :blush: ). When I got back to my cabin, I noticed the stitching coming undone EVERYWHERE. But, the fabric never faded and never wore out; only the stitching. And, I'm convinced it's because of the huge amount of chlorine that was in that pool! It was the final blow to my suit... I have another one now and I love it just the same! :agree:
Had they even invented any color/flavor other than Orange Tang?
If you think about our parents and coaches pushing Jello and Tang on us, they were, in effect, looking for a performance enhancing drug ... on 10 & unders!
I have a vague memory of one kid at our club eating instant coffee granules :anim_coffee:
Tang and glucose powder, Calcium Casinate, Caffeine powder, Benzedrien, Dexadrien, Dexamile, all the good stuff that lots of swimmers used. We suspected some of the fast swimmers of using the last three.
2) Polyester suits.
I bought an ugly Speedo Endurance suit off a clearance rack last summer. I had not bought a swimming suit in 20 years, had not heard of Endurance, and had no clue what I was getting. And the suit will. not. die!
You might want to try Tyr Durafast suits. They are polyester but don't have the scratchiness quality of some of the other polyester products. They last forever--the stitching in the seams wears out long before the fabric. And they don't have the tendency that Lycra has to become form-fitting and shrink-wrapping, which is either obscene or delightful, depending on the form-fitted and shrink-wrapped. Ask your teammates which category you fall into.
Oh, I'm quite happy with the Speedo Endurance. But had I known that it would last forever, I would have bought a pretty one.
And, couldbebetterfly, go ahead and laugh. It is funny.
I swam in high school in the fall of 1988 (and part of the season my first year of college).
It's not so much the things I remember, but the things that have surprised me now that I've started swimming again.
1) Goggles that don't leak.
Yay! I can wear my contacts.
2) Polyester suits.
I bought an ugly Speedo Endurance suit off a clearance rack last summer. I had not bought a swimming suit in 20 years, had not heard of Endurance, and had no clue what I was getting. And the suit will. not. die!
3) Backstroke flip turns.
I am absolutely fascinated by these! I swear we had to stay on our back and spin in place, but a co-worker only a few years younger than I am says he was doing backstroke flip turns in high school. When did they come about? I must know.
4) They moved the starting blocks.
My 10-year-old daughter had a meet at my old h.s. The blocks are now at the same end as the diving boards. I swear they used to be at the 3.5" end by the locker rooms.
Who else remembers the raw-jello eating thing?
During the '70s when I was an age-group swimmer, it seems like eating powdered jello mix straight from the box was the thing to do at swim meets. I thought it was totally yucky and didn't do it myself, but I was seemingly in a small minority.
In the early 60's we didn't even do flavors. We would hoard sugar packets from restaurants and just down those during meets! When I started Masters in 72 - 73, OJ and Hershey Bars were popular on the East Coast. In fact, that's what my wife remembers most about the day we met at a meet: this strange guy eating Hershey Bars and guzzling OJ out of a canteen.
Watching kid sucking on the honey bottle used to gross me out.
I hadn't thought of those trolls in ages.
Playing cards was a huge passtime. Hearts, spit, strip poker (it never ended the way I would have liked), and some card game (forgot the name)where the loser had to do what the others decided. Explaining to my parents why I was leaping around, using my towel as a cape while singing, "Here I come to save the day", was difficult.
I have very fond memories of those big meets.
