Masters Swimmers Acting Like Triathletes

By hyper-competitve I mean someone who exudes behaviors that extend beyond someone that is competitive. Like cheating, taking it too personally, or just exhibiting some general anti-social behavior in the context of competition. That's helpful. Could you give some specifics behaviors re: cheating; taking something too personally; anti-social behavior - in the context of swimming/ competing.

I swim for health. Ribbons don't carry the same weight now as they did when I was nine. Chase your dream. Masters has a pool for you.

Your response is EXACTLY the right response ! It's a great response ! You do it because of health,..... you're not trying to be a "Dara Torres" and you're having fun. That is what I thought Masters swimming was about. Big Sur is phenomenal. I agree. Big Sur is phenomenal. I don't swim Masters simply because of health--it is more complicated than that. And I can't say it is always fun, either. Call it an obsession. Or a sense of unfinished business. A way to fight the aging process. Or a sign of vanity. But at the end of the day, I really enjoy the journey: training with my teammates, setting goals, talking with other Masters swimmers. And I'd like to think that I am a better, more complete person because of it.

...... You should work on growing the social side of the organization, and I will work to grow the competitive side of the organization. In the end, we will have a larger organization with strong social and competitive aspects. Perhaps a liquor license is in order for all the venues at masters nationals and masters worlds? "Beer goggles" might give a few participants clearer vision.

I do not swim for health. I was perfectly healthy before I became a masters swimmer. I do not swim for vanity photos. Swimming makes me fat. I don't swim so I can drink beer; I've always done that and will continue to do so regardless of the existence of masters swimming. And I don't understand your narrow minded persistence in repeatedly telling us how to define masters swimming. It is whatever someone wants it to be. And, frankly, from what I've heard, you yourself are quite obsessive about your own training and swimming. I love you too.

I'm sometimes envious of those who don't have their faster and younger swimmer selves to compare themselves with now. It would be exciting to be doing best times ever in your best events. quote] Hey, I never thought of that. I quit swimming at age 12. I can't remember my exact times but I think I am in the ballpark now in my first year back. I think I can blow those times away within the next few years and won't hit my peak until at least later in my 40s. So I've got that going for me. You former "elite" high school and college swimmers better look out because I am going to be smoking your lazy butts in a few years. In all seriousness though, I mostly compete against myself, but I have been having a riot. "Gotta break a minute in the 100" "can't wait for my first open water race, I think I can do a 5k". I have become obsessed with swimming and Masters has already turned around my life - although I'm still doing just 3 times a week and pounding beers. But what I wonder is why more slower swimmers don't compete? I admit the satisfaction of my personal accomplishments are slightly tapered by the fact that my times suck so bad compared to others. I mean if I can break a minute in a 100 free I think that's pretty damn good, but that is not even in the top half of men in their 40s. I think the thought of getting on the starting blocks for the first time in a meet is really intimidating. Yet, I've found Masters swimmers nothing but friendly regardless of level. It got so boring trying to swim once or twice a week without a purpose, run on the treadmill etc.. that I can't do it any more without constant goals. I figured if I posted some times it would motivate me to improve. I'm so glad I finally did it. I must have been this high for all those years in my youth and not even known it.

Humans are a very social and hierarchical species. We may say that we do not crave status, but the overwhelming majority of us spend our lives trying to increase our status and climb the next rung on the ladder of success. We measure our success against our peers in many domains--keeping up with the Jones's at home in the suburbs, jockeying about for that coveted promotion at work, trying to beat our comrades in sports, etc. Some have argued that men are more competitive than women, but I am not sure this is the case. There may be some differences in the domains in which we compete, but that is beyond the scope of this comment. Not everybody can be the winner, and nobody wants to be a loser. The only people who want to be losers are those who have embraced Nietzsche's resentiment philosophy--if you want something but can't obtain it for yourself, you downgrade its value and adopt its opposite as truly noble aspiration. The early Jews wanted the power of the Romans but weren't able to get it, so they devalued power and made "blessed are the meek" and "turn the other cheek" into new virtues. Mr. Negative, by even the choice of your name, your seem to be riddled with resentiment. I will hand it to you, Mr. N: you are a very amusing fellow with your snide quips worthy of Oscar Wilde in full male *** mode! (CreamPuff, by the way, do you know what f'n beech means in Italian? It is not what you think. This was no insult but rather the world record holder's highest compliment. The "f'in" just means fin--Italians! how they love to add meaningless syllables!--as in the oars of fish; "beech" refers to what whales sometimes do after long disorienting swims of the sort your practice appears to have been. He was simply admiring your superbly designed swimmer's limbs (your "f'ins") and implying that he wanted you to beech with him (sit in pool chairs for a while) after practice. Back to Mr. N. As suggested elsewhere in these forums, I am not a psychoanalyst, but I do believe I could be a beloved fake psychoanalyst in parts of Appalachia where they still believe in things like penis envy. Permit me to do a brief, and I daresay frighteningly accurate, psychiatric vivisection of you that I think will help you better understand yourself and help you become a better person, maybe--given enough years--even a decent person. You are relatively young You either were, or wished you were, a very good sub-elite swimmer in your youth, and you swam up to college You derived a certain amount of status from this; it is quite possible that the gender of your choice actually admired your swimming, and you occasionally found your head spinning from the dizzy flattery of the girls or, possibly, boys alas, some times has passed since your swimming glory years; some time has gathered on your swimming times, too; suffice it to say, you have decided you can't go home again--that the glory you once got (or hoped you might get) from that particular well is gone You see people, Lilliputian people in your somewhat jaded eyes, who continue--even into their dotage! revolting! stuff their fat in rubber suits post haste!--scrambling to swim competitive times in their age groups, and--here comes the part you cannot in any way abide!--take some pleasure in their accomplishments It matters naught to you that most of us have numerous hierarchical domains in our lives--we are doing the best we can at our jobs (if we stil have jobs), we are doing our best in our families, we are doing our best to raise our kids to be decent and trying not to compare them to the super wunderkinds all around, we are, in short, trying to achieve some sense of status in our lives, not perhaps because we want to, not because we are vain, but because we are human beings, and human beings are designed this way! As swine seek truffles so are we driven creatures who root and snort and dig for status relentlessly! It matters naught to you that arguably the most pathetic of all humans are those of us who have few domains at all where there is even a chance to get fingernail up and out of the total absorbing mediocrity that is the fate of most people to endure. If swimming lets one such person say to themselves--in this one thing, I am slightly above average!--what is to you to deny them this pleasure, to point out the pathos of their happiness? There was one fellow who used to post here constantly, whose name is now simply refered to as "he who must not be mentioned", who perhaps fit your profile of self-absorbed swimming malefactor perfectly: an absolutely-obsessed-by-swimming kind of fellow who, with the exception of some of his more ludicrous claims to swimming glory based upon the age at which he took up the sport, appeared to have NOTHING AT ALL in his life. Such a fellow--a triathlete's triathlete by your description, albeit one who didn't run or bike, only swam, slowly, while desperately holding on to his illusions--is easy to lampoon, and in fact, the fellow was eventually hounded out of this forum. I say to you, Mr. Negative: see if you can rally support for the old recreation of taking your family to see the local insane asylum on weekends. You appear to take great delight in exposing human frailities and obsessions and vanities! How much fun it would be to see the most extreme examples of such: strutting King Ferdinands twitching from decades of Thorazine, their pomposity all the more risible because to them it seems almost a form of dignity! Ah, a bad end I spy for you, Mr. Negative! I know your kind! I am, you see, cut from the same cloth, one designed, evidently, not to slash but rather to maximize drag forces during life's bitter passage!

Hahaha. Since switching from running to swimming and starting lifting, I've gained weight and had to buy a new wardrobe. I'm just flat out slimmer as a runner, that's all. But I was really just exaggerating to dispute Mr. Negative's swim for health edict. Perhaps I should have switched to being a triathlete and I would have fit right in! Thanks, Splash, but I don't eat too much and I know that stuff. Speaking of flat, that's what I was when I used to run a lot. How many female distance runners are proud to admit their bra size? Male distance runners are a little on the thin side for my taste. I like the Adonis build you see in male swimmers.

:agree:

Speaking of flat, that's what I was when I used to run a lot. How many female distance runners are proud to admit their bra size? Male distance runners are a little on the thin side for my taste. I like the Adonis build you see in male swimmers. lol I must admit I like the male swimmer look best as well. But are you speaking of a fat flabby masters swimmer like Mr. Negative or the compulsive adonis who body surfs at Big Sur? I can't brag about my bra size as a swimmer either. But then I'm not really losing any sleep over it. Plus, unlike the B70 kayaks we stuff our corpulent bodies into, those flotation devices are not of much use in the pool!