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:
When our group did alot of sprinting workouts last summer, I scived at the thought of it but manned up and did it. I was also thinking, "Man, I would die if I had to sprint everyday!"
Is this an actual word? Maybe it's a Philly thing! :)
What am I missing here? Because all these statements that you made seem to indicate that there are no 50s of non-free for swimmers over the age of 12. Please enlighten me as to where my reading comprehension issues appear?
OK. Perhaps there are swim meets where 13+ year olds swim 50s. Fine. I haven't seen any of those meets where I live. And I have scowered the USA Swimming web site and can find no indication that anyone over 12 swims 50s other than freestyle. But that doesn't mean that there aren't meets where those races are swum.
See attachement. As far as I can tell, in USA Swimming there are no 50s other than freestyle for 13+ year olds. I understand that does not mean that those races aren't held at some swim meets. I was at a college meet where an event was a 50 x 50 freestyle relay. But that doesn't mean that the 50 x 50 realy is an NCAA event.
My favorite races to watch at any swim meet is THE SPRINTS! I am amazed at the technical precision, power, and confidence a great sprinter must have, and that's why I've never been a good sprinter.
If you take sprinting out of swim meets you'll lose the razzle-dazzle and meets will be ho-hum and boring!!
Is this an actual word? Maybe it's a Philly thing! :)
I was spelling it wrong, it is actually skeeve. I think that it migt be a New York slang. Can't remember where I first heard it from.
Its funny but the 50s (and the 1500/1650) are the events that enable me to entice new masters swimmers to join their team-mates at masters swim meets.
For most of these new swimmers it has nothing to do with speed, but all to do with fun and participation.
Usually the triathletes think the 50 is a waste of time, but will swim it along with the mile if it happens to fall on the same day. They're often surprised at how much they like it - and how fast they can actually sprint.
"summer league" events, .
Could you be a little more disrespectful to people that like to swim and are good at 50's and the 100 im? Training for sprint events requires just as much thought and effort put into their training as distances swimmers do(hate to break that too you)
They may not log thousands of yards of continous slow swimming each practice but when it is time to get up and go, they race at full speeds, very intensely. A distance swimmer that tried to honestly do a good sprint workout would see that speedsters train just has hard as distance swimmers, just without the long, slow yardage
While it is a known fact that people who swim 50s require a lot of coddling and endless adoration, the 50 is an exciting event to watch and is a unique part of Masters. An example is the upcoming 50 free this weekend featuring Fort and Stud in the same heat.
Not to mention my verboten trash talking! :angel:
I'm 2 massages short for this weekend. I could also use more coddling, but I suspect Jimby will arrive wanting coddling and fussing over soon enough. He is very high maintenance for a mid-D type.
Age groupers only swim one distance of the strokes because the meets already last forever.I think it is terrible that age groupers can't swim 100s at most meets after age 15.If Masters didn't have sprints maybe Dara Torres wouldn't have gone to Palo Alto and maybe she wouldn't have decided she could still swim fast.That certainly wouldn't have helped swimming.
