What about the future?

Okay, every competitive swimmer wants to swim faster, but do we really want to go faster through technology or through technique, stamina, power, strategy, and psychology?

Records used to be meaningful. Then, they became laughable (at least to most outside the sport and confusing to those inside the sport who were breaking or attempting to break them) as attributed to technologically advanced equipment. They were broken too fast, too often, and by too many. Hey, tether me to a jet ski and even I’ll smash every world record.

Now here we go again. (See my last post.)

Agree with me or not, but please join me in taking a look at the direction we’re going and thinking about the future of the sport. (Better yet, do something about it).

What will it mean to swimming (read: “assisted swimming”), if we continue to produce speed with more and better equipment? At what point will swimming no longer be swimming, but be more like speed boat racing, in which the “swimmer” will no longer be swimming (“SWIM intransitive verb
1 a : to propel oneself in water by natural means [as movements of the limbs, fins, or tail]“), but driving the boat, so to speak.

Yes, records can be exciting (except perhaps those set in the period before the sort of ban on tech suits). But long-standing records created much excitement as well. And, we’ve seen many great, fast, exciting competitions that set no records.

What if the human race reverses the trend and people start getting shorter and weaker? Do we really want, even then, to get people going through the water faster while riding in boats instead of them propelling themselves through the water by natural means, just so they can go (notice I said go, not swim) faster and [pretend to] break records?

Here we go again.

And some of you thought swimming could go back to being swimming.

Now, Speedo has introduced a package, made up of their products, which they claim when worn together (read: you have to buy all three to get the desired effect) will/may produce faster swims than did the now-banned tech suits. And, of course, Fina approves.

Once again with apologies to Mr. Rogers, “Can you say $$$?”.

Colored feet abroad

What do they call flippers in Helsinki?

That’s got to be confusing to the swimmers there.

Cooling down

The water temperature at the surface near Mansfield Dam was measured at 80 degrees yesterday and 79 today. The water is extremely clear. All of which should make for a great Lake Travis Relay on Saturday.

The only downside is not getting to swim

The ASA Open Water Swimming Collegiate National Championships on Saturday was a good one. The course was beautiful, the water crystal clear, and we had the main basin of Lake Travis to ourselves.

Here are the results:
MEN

TEAM
1st Place — Trinity University 128 pts
2nd Place — Savannah College of Art and Design 31 pts
3rd Place — Ohio Wesleyan University 18 pts

INDIVIDUAL
1st Place — Alexander Grandins, SCAD, 58:48.4
2nd Place — Taylor Smith, OWU, 1:03:12.4
3rd Place — Alex Miranda, Trinity, 1:04:30.8

Alexander Grandins on his way to the National Championship

WOMEN

TEAM
1st Place — Trinity University 216 pts
2nd Place — Texas A&M 145 pts
3rd Place — Savannah College of Art and Design 74 pts

INDIVIDUAL
1st Place — Cammile Adams, A&M, 1:02:46.5
2nd Place — Maureen Mclaine, A&M, 1:02:46.7
3rd Place — Alison Godbe, Rice, 1:04:04.8

It’s 103 degrees in Austin right now!

At our Deep Eddy practice this morning, a couple of swimmers expressed some concern about whether it will be too cold for our October practices.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

Old friends are the best friends

I was cruising along, about 2200 into a 4,000 yd swim, not going particularly fast. Then, I remembered something I had been working on in my stroke.

I made the adjustment and didn’t really feel any faster. The effort was about the same as well. But, checking my splits, I was about 3 seconds faster per every 66 2/3. (Guess where I was swimming.) Great feedback on the stroke adjustment.

Ah yes, I said it before, but the clock is a swimmer’s best friend.

Visual evidence

Day 1 of the Tex Robertson Highland Lakes Challenge takes place in Lake Buchanan. There is water in Lake Buchanan. And it is beautiful.

Here is a littoral view of where the course will be set in Lake Buchanan:

Our start venue for Stage 1, Lake Buchanan, is Willow Point Resort. It’s a wonderful place to stay. And, as you can see, there is plenty of water:

Oh yeah. These pictures were taken yesterday.

You’re not allowed to push off of the bottom anyway

We’ve been getting calls and emails asking if our events (ASA Open Water Swimming Collegiate National Championsships, Lake Travis Relay, Tex Robertson Highland Lakes Challenge, and Dam 5k) are on. It seems in the midst of our record drought, people are worried whether we have enough water to swim in.

Well (no pun intended), all of our events are on. The water is plenty deep.

Sure we’re worried about the drought, but we’re not worried about whether we have enough water in which to swim. At present, there is a combined 806,000 acre feet of water in Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan. In the channel in the main basin of Lake Travis, I’m guessing we should be swimming in more than 200 ft deep water for much of the race.

Water quality and clarity is good to excellent right now. For up-to-date information on water quality in Lake Travis and the other Highland Lakes go here: http://www.lcra.org/water/quality/state.html

The devil made me do it

If the lakes aren’t an option, one would think that Barton Springs would be a decent place to train for open water races. No lanes to guide you. The 1/8 mile course that ends/begins within the pool and the funky bars at the dam essentially take away the turns. And, of course, unless you have the pool to yourself, which is rare this time of year, or unless you are one of those people who seem to believe the world revolves around you and think others should watch out for you while you swim backstroke or you go to sleep in your snorkels, you have to sight.

The problem is, the sighting you do at Barton Springs is in no way homogeneous with sighting in the open water. While many swimmers are doing some resemblance to laps; some others are doing laps perpendicular to the 1/8 mile course, some people are just playing around, diving for the bottom, going off the diving board, standing still, jogging, or chasing the wildlife. You can’t just sight where you are going, even when you aren’t blinded by the sun. You need to constantly look around in all directions in order to avoid collisions: not good for your stroke or for your neck.

I mention this because my neck is sore this evening. It must be from swimming like Linda Blair.