I think it was Ande that said "it's not how fast you swim, it's how fast you slow down." I read that a few years ago and keep on coming back to it as I have watched my kids grow in their USA Swimming careers. When kids are around 8-10, many of the races are 50s. Lots of kids can swim relatively fast 50s compared to other kids even when their stroke technique is truly awful. But then once the clock strikes 11 (years old), all of the 50s go away (less one) - and magically many of the kids with bad technique who seemed fast start losing to kids in the 100s and 200s with superior strokes. My question is at what age are we masters swimmers when we start thinking 50 backstroke, 50 butterfly and 50 breaststroke are OK to race again? It is not OK. It brings our sport down to a level where people who train only 100s or less and focus on 25s are taking over our pools. No more I say!!! I think USMS rules should only allow these races for people in their 70s and older. Who is with me?!!!
:worms: :bolt:
Somebody should link this thread to Rowdy's most recent FB post.
Bah!
NBC doesn't cover it b/c Phelps/Lochte, etc. aren't in them. They can't really -- they compete in multiple strokes and can only swim so many events.
The stroke specialists or uber sprinters are swimming the 50s.
I'm not too sure about this. Let's say that the USMS Top 10 50 FR swimmers swim the 1,000, and the Top 10 1,000 FR swimmers swim the 50. I would wager that the sprinters will rank higher in the y/e 1,000 rankings than the distance swimmers will in the 50 rankings.
Generally speaking -- there can always be exceptions in specific age-groups or years, of course -- I think the TT rankings for the sprint events are more competitive than those of the distance events, particularly for events that are perceived as the most difficult/painful (eg, 400 IM, 200 fly, 1650 free).
I'm not too sure about this. Let's say that the USMS Top 10 50 FR swimmers swim the 1,000, and the Top 10 1,000 FR swimmers swim the 50. I would wager that the sprinters will rank higher in the y/e 1,000 rankings than the distance swimmers will in the 50 rankings.
Now this would be interesting to see for sure. It would probably be relatively easy to compare if the top 20 from each distance also swam the other distance.
Chris - go fire up your super computer and figure out how to quantify this hypothesis, might be very interesting, although I'll never swim a 50 to be part of the control group.
The way you're phrasing things is not fun, I think that is the problem. You have stirred things up a bit and I think that was the purpose, but you've done it by being insulting. I realize that is what some people construe as fun, but it is not a style which is cordial and some consider it unpleasant.
Please elaborate. How is any of this insulting? 50 breaststroke vs. 400 IM? It's like asking who is better? The Incredible Hulk or Mr. Incredible? Meaningless? You bettcha. Insulting? Nnnnnnno. There is nothing insulting.
If your legs are bowled and/or you suffer other monstrous limb deformities, you might even like breaststroke!
Those deformities are called muscles Jim. You get them from lifting weights...
Sadly, this is quite true. Still, occasionally we are boneheaded enough to enter them anyway.
I'm not too sure about this. Let's say that the USMS Top 10 50 FR swimmers swim the 1,000, and the Top 10 1,000 FR swimmers swim the 50. I would wager that the sprinters will rank higher in the y/e 1,000 rankings than the distance swimmers will in the 50 rankings.
I agree. I briefly forgot that this is a USMS swimming forum. In the elite world however, I still feel that distance swimmers are quite able to be to more sucessful in sprints than sprinters are sucessful in distance events.
IMers might even take the cake from all of them.
That is my very biased opinion which is not supported by any facts or inkling of research.
Generally speaking -- there can always be exceptions in specific age-groups or years, of course -- I think the TT rankings for the sprint events are more competitive than those of the distance events, particularly for events that are perceived as the most difficult/painful (eg, 400 IM, 200 fly, 1650 free).
My point exactly.
Although I think that Cielo could also swim a better 1,500 than Salnikov could a 50...
