Swimming Myths

And the fallacy there is where exactly? LOL! :rofl: (only j/k now guys....or am I??) Newmastersswimmer :groovy: :banana: :groovy: :rofl:Very funny, Jimbo. People don't swim breastroke for two reasons: it feels too slow, and it is hard to do (lots of time underwater, ya know?) But the good news is there is no bilateral breathing :rofl:.

Yes, but good swimmers work out longer and therefore burn more calories. exactly. you can't escape the laws of physics. W=F*D www.tjhsst.edu/.../potent.htm work = force times distance. if you expend alot of force, over a short distance, you did the same amount of work as doing little force over alot of distance. you need to expand alot of force over a greater distance to increase the unit of work, which will thus have a great calories use. if my physics explanation sounds lousy, well, its been about 19 years since I took a class my :2cents:

Heres the best one: Black people can't learn to swim - its genetic, their bodies sink. My hubby heard this from his buddies at military school many years back and since he heard it from so many of them, he believed them. Until the day he met a black NAVY SEAL! Then this myth went out the window for my hubby. For a number of reasons that one should have died a long time ago. The first national record I ever saw was in high school when Drew Brown, an African American, tied the National Prep School record for the 50 free in, I believe, 20.8 in 1969 or 1970. I don't remember which school he swam for (I suspect Deerfield, Exeter or Andover) but he did it in the Mt Herman pool. Leo

Heres the best one: Black people can't learn to swim - its genetic, their bodies sink. My hubby heard this from his buddies at military school many years back and since he heard it from so many of them, he believed them. Until the day he met a black NAVY SEAL! Then this myth went out the window for my hubby.

For a number of reasons that one should have died a long time ago. The first national record I ever saw was in high school when Drew Brown, an African American, tied the National Prep School record for the 50 free in, I believe, 20.8 in 1969 or 1970. I don't remember which school he swam for (I suspect Deerfield, Exeter or Andover) but he did it in the Mt Herman pool. Leo That myth didn't die soon enough. Even though you knew swim champs in 1969 or 1970, my hubby was in military school in the mid seventies when he heard that little gem. His African American classmates where the ones telling him this and they obviously didn't follow swimming competitions, and they couldn't swim either!

I hate to say this but from my military training, there are issues with black swimmers. Blacks have a denser muscle structure which makes them (stereotipically) less bouyant. We know more bouyant is faster. That's not the issue. Its teaching to swim. Blacks have a harder time learning to swim because of this. Now let's add the other demographic issues: less access to swimming pools, no support for the sport, and probably parent that can't/don't swim. I now live in Atlanta, I recently went to a public pool. Everyone was having a great time, but almost every black child (up to and including teens) had swim aids! So, you take a harder than more entry to the sport, add a cultural differance, and no one to teach black children to swim; what outcome do you expect. Its sad, but its the outcome that drives the myth. The next time you think this is a myth, look around thepool deck and SEE who is there. This "myth" can be fixed.

I hate to say this but from my military training, there are issues with black swimmers. Blacks have a denser muscle structure which makes them (stereotipically) less bouyant. We know more bouyant is faster. That's not the issue. Its teaching to swim. Blacks have a harder time learning to swim because of this. Now let's add the other demographic issues: less access to swimming pools, no support for the sport, and probably parent that can't/don't swim. I now live in Atlanta, I recently went to a public pool. Everyone was having a great time, but almost every black child (up to and including teens) had swim aids! So, you take a harder than more entry to the sport, add a cultural differance, and no one to teach black children to swim; what outcome do you expect. Its sad, but its the outcome that drives the myth. The next time you think this is a myth, look around thepool deck and SEE who is there. This "myth" can be fixed. I happen to be a swim teacher in ATLANTA! I teach kids of all sizes, shapes and colors. (I teach a lot of *very* scared grown ups too) The African American kids do just fine! The "denser muscles is a myth. A lot of young people, particularly boys sink when they do a back float, but its across the board, not just African Americans.

Oh boy...here are some "myths"...: white men can't dunk. Whenever someone even infers that Africans from East Africa are better distance runners than the rest of the world, and that sprinters (okay, the first 10 best times ever in the 100 meter dash) that are Africans from West Africa, or descendants from the same are faster genetically, someone will rise up and raise hell. Of course, there are "freaks" within these statistics that will prove the statistics wrong, such as marathon record holder the white British girl, and a couple of americans and a brazilian african descent that are top swimmers. Yeah, and that guy from one of the Guyanas. BUT, this is a tricky and sensitive subject, I am out of here. And yet, show me the all star basketball team without Larry Bird and pot smoker what's his name (the movie guy) and how many non blacks do you have? I tried hard to make varsity at my high school, trained a lot, but I had was B-team material. That is my genetics...I was good here in the middle of Brazil, but mediocre in the middle of the Mid-South. Now I am back into the middle of Brazil and I am good again, because everyone else is so mediocre...billy fanstone.

The kind of people best suited for swimming are human beings, with red blood flowing in their veins.

Based on my experience I’d say truth. I believe it was earlier in this thread someone commented about their inner thighs not being all that developed. I think mine are pretty well developed and all I do is mostly swim (with some, but not a lot, of Yoga as well). It seems to me that when done correctly (ankles outside of knees) the whip kick uses a lot of inner thigh strength, but someone better versed on Kinesiology should know for sure. I do about as much breaststroke as the other three popular strokes. Now that I’ve given it some thought, it seems all the kicks use quite a bit of thigh power. In the past few years I’ve been doing a lot of dolphin kicks on my back too (to help with my fly practice), and in the last year or two I’ve noticed some rather amazing changes in my leg muscles (I’m seeing muscles in my legs now that I never knew I had!). As for those hot swimmer babes (broad shoulders and all), I like a healthy set of gams, so bring on the kick sets! :-D This is not enough to make me convert to breaststroke! Although I'm happy to keep dolphin kicking for the gams and glutes. I agree that, very generally, Michigan Husker's observation on breaststroker thighs seems to be true, although, as always, there are many exceptions. Mini-Fort has pretty buff thighs and she's, sigh, a breaststroker. Although I keep reminding her to call herself a "swimmer."