I’m an adult onset swimmer and amuse myself trying to guess the story of other swimmers at my pool. The guy next to me yesterday was a strong swimmer, swimming with both speed and endurance, but clearly a triathlete who has never been on a swim team. His complete lack of streamline/underwaters was bothering me.
The giveaways:
-no flip turns (obvious)
-minimal or no streamline off the wall, straight into stroking before the flags
-wearing a watch and doing everything off the watch
-laminated swim workout or perhaps in a zip lock bag
-bring a lot of shit to the deck (guilty)
-emanating intensity and OCD anal vibe
The swimmers who have logged countless hours in the pool on a team:
-Frequently and surprisingly not that fit looking…maybe a little pudgy or soft
-Never use the watch and go off the pool clock
-Working hard and swimming really fast but somehow with laid back vibe
-So clean, long and smooth off the wall…awesome streamline
-Goggles and cap, borrow whatever else from whatever is available on the pool deck: pull buoys, kickboard
-They seem to really just get on with it….no resting on the wall, fidgeting with stuff, looking at charts, etc.
-Way the hell faster than me with half the effort
Swimmers aren’t coordinated enough to put on a watch, so we don’t use them. I own a watch, it’s in a drawer somewhere. I wore it for my wedding and my job interview.
We would bring our own kick board and pullbouy, but that shits expensive and we can borrow them for free on deck. Plus, that’ll mean that there’s more to carry. Hard enough carrying a cap goggles suit and drag suit.
We’ve seen too many workouts. They’re burned into our retinas, no need to look at another one.
Depends n the group. At masters it’s about 50/ 50 whether a male wears a cap. In college, none of the guys did and a few of the girls went cap-free too.
I’m an adult onset swimmer and amuse myself trying to guess the story of other swimmers at my pool. The guy next to me yesterday was a strong swimmer, swimming with both speed and endurance, but clearly a triathlete who has never been on a swim team. His complete lack of streamline/underwaters was bothering me.
The giveaways:
-no flip turns (obvious)
-minimal or no streamline off the wall, straight into stroking before the flags
-wearing a watch and doing everything off the watch
-laminated swim workout or perhaps in a zip lock bag
-bring a lot of shit to the deck (guilty)
-emanating intensity and OCD anal vibe
The swimmers who have logged countless hours in the pool on a team:
-Frequently and surprisingly not that fit looking…maybe a little pudgy or soft **I RESEMBLE THIS REMARK! **
-Never use the watch and go off the pool clock
-Working hard and swimming really fast but somehow with laid back vibe
-So clean, long and smooth off the wall…awesome streamline
-Goggles and cap, borrow whatever else from whatever is available on the pool deck: pull buoys, kickboard
-They seem to really just get on with it….no resting on the wall, fidgeting with stuff, looking at charts, etc.
-Way the hell faster than me with half the effort
I never wore a watch coming up (or cap in practice). Pace clock is good enough. As I got a coach and she wanted to see some data, damn if that thing doesn’t help me keep track of distance at times. Was that 450 meters or 500 meters? Oh, the watch will tell me. I am only good to about 200 then I just zone out. I use a zip lock bag now as well. I can’t remember anything.
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-Frequently and surprisingly not that fit looking…maybe a little pudgy or soft
I certainly do not look fit in any way shape or form: giant fat hips and teeny bony upper body. It always amuses me to see perfectly sculpted upper bodies that barely make any forward progress in the water.
Top this: shoulder width 13", chest circumference 28", biceps circumference: 9 1/2". Maybe I should lift some weights to get faster? Meh.
I admit to some of the triathlete characteristics…however I will often do open turns and try to get back to strok as soon as I can off the wall…seems to mimic race situation more.
I admit to some of the triathlete characteristics…however I will often do open turns and try to get back to strok as soon as I can off the wall…seems to mimic race situation more.
How do you figure that open turns mimic race situations better?
The new style one piece buoys don’t seem to have the same problem but those old ones that were two round white cylinders with rope between them would get chewed up on deck tile were terrible. I may not have physical scars anymore but I sure have some mental ones from the pain the team ones caused.
Besides it is just good policy to know where anything rubbing up against my junk has been!
I can tell the tri people at my pool by all the things described above, I don’t talk to any of them though because I’m anti social… that is also why I do this.
I admit to some of the triathlete characteristics…however I will often do open turns and try to get back to strok as soon as I can off the wall…seems to mimic race situation more.
How do you figure that open turns mimic race situations better?
In my mind, at least, I think I am having less rest and more strokes per length…flip turns and long hard push off the wall give the arms a biof a break…this doesn’t happen in an open water race.
You aren’t getting less rest with an open turn, you’re getting more.
I just looked at my video of my 400free at worlds. I take relatively long turns compared to others I race against, in the 400 I was taking, usually, 2 dolphin kicks off each turn. From the initiation of the turn to the time I started my first stroke was a bit over 2 seconds, call it 2.5. If I didn’t do the dolphin kicks and pushed off shallower, first stroke could have been 1.5 seconds from the initiation of the turn. I highly doubt you can consistently open turn in less time than that.
Swimmers: “Working hard and swimming really fast but somehow with laid back vibe.”
I think the laid-back vibe is b/c most swimmers, excepting those very, very few in the Phelps/Ledecky class, know that no matter how hard they work they’ll never make the oly team, which just a tad bit harder than KQ-ing:)
I have managed to be mistaken for an actual fish quite a few times the last few months. I have embraced the fishyness deep within myself since like last new years and really started to work on my IM, underwaters, turns etc and since then new actual fish accept me as one of them and get really suprised when I tell them I have only been swimming for just over 2 years.
I have managed to be mistaken for an actual fish quite a few times the last few months. I have embraced the fishyness deep within myself since like last new years and really started to work on my IM, underwaters, turns etc and since then new actual fish accept me as one of them and get really suprised when I tell them I have only been swimming for just over 2 years.
If actual fish are accepting you as one of them, you might want to stop wearing this
This post is meaningless until you say how fast that ‘triathlete’ next you to was swimming.
If it’s anything slower than 1:20/100yds for distance (like 3000 yd workout), that does not at all qualify for a strong swimmer with speed and endurance, and you might as well be comparing apples to oranges when you compare them to big-volume swimmers.
This post is meaningless until you say how fast that ‘triathlete’ next you to was swimming.
If it’s anything slower than 1:20/100yds for distance (like 3000 yd workout), that does not at all qualify for a strong swimmer with speed and endurance, and you might as well be comparing apples to oranges when you compare them to big-volume swimmers.
Lighten up Francis. This is not a phd dissertation that I’m trying to defend. Just lighthearted and humorous observations/generalizations/stereotypes.
The dude next to me was what I would characterize as a solid/strong/legit swimmer who was doing 50s on the clock (his watch, actually). He was getting it done, but seemed to be “powering” through the water. I see that, and all of the other things, and I think triathlete, not a hs or college swim team alumnus. Nothing against him, I just like to observe and, like i said, try to guess their history.
I swim at my local suburban rec center, not the Olympic training facility. Many of the “swimmers” at my pool would qualify for the “Strange Denizens” thread. Many of the people swimming laps are extremely slow with crazy strokes. Just everyday folks, usually older, getting their exercise done in the water. I’m not counting those people.
