Once when a guy was riding his bike in Transition.

Only if asked specifically.

I think an Olympic Weightlifter probably has a fairly good idea how to lift properly - and, yeah, i think there is a consensus on how to do squats/dead lifts, etc, correctly; maybe a little less sass in the future?

Someone told my husband his wetsuit was on inside-out five minutes before the race was supposed to start.

I still wonder if my husband would have drowned if that guy hadn't said something...

I meant that seriously. No sass intended. The few people i know at my gym can't agree on how to squat perfectly. do you stop your legs at quads parallel to floor ? or is it ok to do a deep squad. A few people i know think deep squad (which olymic lifters have to do for competition purposes) are really bad for your body.

Some people think that olympic lifters are destroying their body with the way they squat. Squat and dead lifts always spawn serious debates in my opinion.

Again, this is my observation. I don't know the answer and I don't know any better. I don't have a clue how to lift...

I try not to, but I have chatted up a few people in the pool with obvious stroke issues and if done gently and respectfully, it can go over well.

The thread reminds of my favorite correction however - which was from a bike ride.

I was out on a training ride on the road between two towns - probably an 8-10 mile stretch. About midway, I spot a classic bike trail denizen - department store bike mountain bike with the seat resting almost on the top tube and bowlegged knees pumping at a cadence that indicated this road was being tackled in the granny gear while straining the seams of her jeans. So far, I'm still not going to say anything... but as I passed I heard the unmistakable sound of dragging rim brakes and I could not stand idly by.

I braked hard to let her come up by me and offered to look at her bike. She thought that sounded OK and that's when I realized she had the front wheel spun 180' giving her ape-hanger bars and pulling the brake cable taught enough to clamp the wheel so it wouldn't even make a full rotation when I spun it in the air. I flipped the bars around, showed her how the shifters worked and set her off down the road. She looked at me like I was a spaceman come down to share our galactic wisdom an set off down the road.

I think of her often when I read stories about bikes being intimidating to novices...we all love them and ride & wrench on them so much it's mostly second nature, but how many people have a miserable experience due to poor initial setup and just think 'this sucks'.

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" I take my gear out of my car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafes. Non-racers. The emptiness of of their lives shocks me. "
(opening lines from Tim Krabbe's The Rider , 1978

I apologize then as i thought you were being sarcastic - i would only say that the way Olympic style lifters lift and Power lifters lift is fairly similar, but most likely dissimilar to Crossfit or just fly by night gym goers - so i think there is a consensus as to how to squat and deadlift, but that doesn't mean all squats have to be deep nor should one try to deadlift a barn. Moderation in lifting goes a long way, especially if you are just doing it for health and not competition.

I was and I should apologize, too. I didn't mean that at you but lifters. At least where I used to live, people have strong opinions of what the right way to lift is, and they never seem to agree. And a squat form debate seem to be our equivalent of a disc brake vs rim brake debate. Maybe my experience is skewed.

If something is a safety issue I'll speak up to a stranger, otherwise unsolicited advise is looked down upon typically. If it's a friend I will happily berate them with my opinion on how they can be better.

I would happily accept unsolicited advice from someone better than me in whatever discipline since my goal is to get faster. But if you're slower gtfo.

aaahh group hug.

Lol, what about our favorite unsolicited advice given by strangers? My favorite is that I need to raise my handlebar if I want to have children.

I have "helped" by offering unsolicited advice in the pool a couple of times in the past. Then this one obnoxious woman that started swimming in one particular pool I visit thought I needed some help and offered me some bits of advice. No doubt she a much better swimmer than I am, but now I know how it feels. I'll never give it out again unless asked.

That’s a fantastic story and I hope most people would offer some friendly advice in that scenario.

I like the quote in your signature. Slightly related to this topic in a way. Currently chasing down a second-hand copy on Amazon!

While that other person did your husband a favour, no doubt, I don’t think he would have drowned! As long as the suit was zipped to the top he would have been pretty tired but still breathing after the swim!

I think you’ve summed up the general conseus here nicely. Gold star!

Stranger danger! Stranger danger!

Actually, I had a stranger once give me a very useful bit of advice: "YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!" As I proceeded to ride my bike the wrong way on a one-way bike path (though I had just previously thought it odd that I was the only one going upstream). That seemed legit.

Other than that... don't talk to me. Don't even look at me. You're freaking me out!

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Hillary Trout
San Luis Obispo, CA

Your trip is short. Make the most of it.
https://www.slogoing.net/

Wait. I take it back. If my watch strap isn't fully secured just prior to the swim start you better tell me! I don't want $500 on the bottom of the ocean. I'm not SCUBA certified. Anything to protect the Garmin. I won't even care if you have ulterior motives.

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Hillary Trout
San Luis Obispo, CA

Your trip is short. Make the most of it.
https://www.slogoing.net/

Hah! What a movie!

I think we are approaching a consensus

I’m sorry where’s the pink? I draw the line at $100 with watches. I’d watch your Garmin sinking out of sight with utter glee if it came to pass

There are two older (than me) women who can't help themselves but intrude on anyone and everyone in the pool to offer their observations and tips. In my way of thinking, it's incredibly rude to intrude on the workout of another adult. I count intrusion in this setting as any communication with another person outside the coach-athlete relationship or outside of a normal friendship during someone's workout.

First swimmer: adult-onset swimmer who I myself coached in masters and taught from her first day in the water. She's been in the water for about 5.5 years now, quitting swimming with the masters team I coached about 4 years ago. In that time, she has "become a certified masters coach" when she completed a one-day stroke clinic put on by USMS. She told ME once, after watching me swim, that I needed to cup my hands "like holding a brandy glass" when I swam freestyle. She proudly boasts of her "national" and "international" medals. While it's true she has won these medals, and she hasn't cheated like some marathon runners do just to get a finisher medal, her medals are won at obscure events that have "national" and "international" in the title, but in fact have as much in common with top swimming competitions and swimmers as a medium-sized 10k has with the Boston or London Marathons. In races with fewer than 10, and often as few as 1-3 others in the same age group, it's easy to win medals. She references those medals as bona-fides when giving uninvited (and plainly incorrect) stroke tips to strangers.

Second swimmer: has openly told people and reputable news organizations that she swam at the 1960 Olympics. She has not one, but two (recently-inked) Olympics rings tattoos on her back (the second one bc her tech suit covers the first one). She has a vanity license plate with the Olympic logo and "SWMMER." A midwestern newspaper published a picture of her at a meet in Ohio, with the caption "XY, a 1960 Olympian, raced in the PDQ meet last weekend..." Clearly, the journalist didn't do adequate research. I recently baited her into stating her claim again on social media, and when she took the bait and doubled down, and doubled down again, I called her on it. Interesting, her choice to lie, bc in recent meets with an actual Olympian from 1960 on deck, she has avoided the guy like the plague. Also interesting, bc of the INTERWEBS. She uses the fake bone-fides of her Olympic participation to intrude on anyone and everyone around her with swim tips.

So, an AOS, who flies all over (New Zealand; St George, Utah; Greensboro, NC) to small meets just to win medals while avoiding legitimate strong competition at all costs, and a woman who lies about being in the Olympics, give unsolicited tips to other swimmers.

There are just so many things wrong with this, and I just don't have a reference for it. Do they do all this to feel important?

Yeah, but there's a difference between telling people facts like this: "Road is closed up ahead." "Your helmet is on backwards" etc and telling them what they should be doing in terms of their general practice.

The latter is obnoxious if unsolicited. Of course there are gray ares - improperly used quick releases are an example. But a riders "form"? Now way do I offer unsolicited advice.

I want to add that the first image in this whole thread, of the guy on the bike in a tank top, illustrates something that annoys me. The OP thinks there is something wrong with that, and frankly I don't agree. The guy is out riding a bike in street clothes himself. I completely disagree that his saddle "should" be a certain way due to what triathletes or bike racers think. It's just not relevant to him unless he wants it to be different or is complaining or problems. And we don't know that.

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http://www.jt10000.com/

No but, I had a guy in a truck pull up to me at a stoplight and give me some unsolicited advise on my riding form a couple months ago. I'm not new to this sport and the guy was spot on. What's strange is I think about what he said often when I'm riding and it really helps. Especially on the TT bike.

If you feel the need just make sure you know what you're talking about and the delivery is probably as important as what's being delivered.

Help is giving part of yourself to somebody who comes to accept it willingly and needs it badly. So it is that we seldom help anybody. Either we don't know what part to give or maybe we don't like to give any part of ourselves. Then more often than not the part that is needed is not wanted. And even more often we do not have the part that is needed. From A River runs through it by Norman McLean

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

No, you're correct. I'm stuck in this now. I have a cycling coach, and I do crossfit for fun. The cycling coach has strong ideas about lifting. And so do a few of the crossfit guys.

Despite crossfit reputation, the crossfit instructors are slowly winning me over on technique. Just picking one thing, the cycling coach says when squatting, look up at the top of the wall in front of you. The crossfit instructors' approach is to keep a "neutral" head position. The cycling guy's instructions seem to be rooted in an 80's version of technique, while the crossfit crew seems very up-to-date. Not that "up-to-date" is always right, and there are certainly fads. But they're gaining my trust just with their sheer attention to detail.

I would love advice in the pool if someone saw the need to correct what I’m doing! I’m slow, I learned to swim as a kid, but have taken lessons to improve. My endurance is improving. But if you are going to offer advice, don’t come across as a superior know it all. Be nice and helpful.