From AFP: "...Developed by Omega, the Swiss watchmaker responsible for time-keeping at world competitions, the innovation won the backing earlier this year of FINA, global swimming's governing body.The "adjustable slanted footrest allows swimmers to use a crouch start with the rear-positioned leg at a 90-degree angle at the knee, generating an optimal starting profile," the company said at the time...." [Link]
FINA is allowing all sorts of "swim aids" as some swim purists would call them from speedsuits to starting blocks. There is obviously a motive in here somewhere. Perhaps it is to make swimming more popular?
13 comments:
Improved starting blocks do not equal new speedsuits. Better blocks are no different than better lane lines or a deeper pool and give the same result to everyone. The new speedsuits, on the other hand, go with you into the pool and modify body position and purportedly oxygen consumption. Their effects vary depending on the individual wearing them. Not to mention the new starting blocks won't cost a dime to use. That's a far cry from the suits.
Great new block. I remember blocks in the 70s where you could not grab. We had to use the windmill wind up.
The block should work well with the new touch pads coming out by Colorado and Omega. Swim meet hosts can add more filling layers to the back side of the touch pad. That will allow the pool to become shorter and the host to therefore have more WRs broken in their facility at their meet.
WR’s bring notoriety and popularity to swimming and FINA. Soon it will be pro wrestling. Where do you stop? Where do you draw the line? Will we stop when lane lines, blocks, pools need ten times the money to bring up to racing par? How about swim suits that keep getting more and more scientific and soon are hitting over five figures?
All the WRs broken in 2008 are great for our sport, but what about in 2009? 2010?
Clay Evans
SCAQ Head Coach
Canada 72 & 76
If Scott sees this comment, he is so going to tear into me! >.<
Well, if you haven't priced starting blocks lately, you will be surprised to find how much they cost a piece.
Oh..and by the way, you will have to buy new ones, because with equipment like that, if you alter the top of any starting block, it voids the warranty and the liability.
If I'm going to see Clay's comment??? His comment is only what an intelligent, informed person would expect to come from a knowledgeable expert on the sport - why should I want to pile on after such a stinging blow? ;>)
You have a point Anonymous, though I was very careful to say they wouldn't cost anything for a swimmer to use, rather than mention how much they would cost the pool to install. I tried to find out how much one of these beauties would cost and failed miserably. But judging from the reluctance to mention any price; and the fact that the platforms utilize a patented, five position adjustable slanted footrest along with false start detection systems and acoustic start devices which assure that each competitor hears the start signal at the exact same moment, I'm confident they're going to cost plenty. My concern over their pricing is muted, however, by considerable odds against them showing up at a pool near me.
Every sport has allowed technological innovation to make that discipline faster.
Track and field: spiked shoes, adjustable starting blocks and aerodynamic clothing.
What spiked shoes are to running, the speedsuit and goggles are to swimming. (though I consider goggles a safety issue since chlorine is both a carcinogen and a biocide).
There I win, you crazy Canadians are wrong. :-P
Only if you Americans keep trying to create your own reality [smile]. Spikes and adjustable starting blocks (in one form or another) have been around from the beginning in athletics. Spikes (better grip on the ground) is track's equivalent of swimming's low drag coefficient swimsuits - and those suits have been around for a couple of decades now without any controversy. The new swimsuits represent an attempt to improve the wearer's performance by modifying the swimmer himself (i.e. body position). The closest thing track has to that is the new reactive shoes which save some of the foot strike energy for the return. Those are banned by IAAF - just as we argue the new swimsuits should be. Score: Canada 2 USA 0
I actually wear 'Spira' - incredible floating feeling when you walk.
Dear Scott:
You are very eloquent with your words, however new expensive starting blocks will cost swimmers plenty. For example...Diving programs all over the US, and especially in high schools were discontinued when Duraflex diving boards were introduced. Now the ceilings at many pools were to low, and the depth of the bottom of the pool was to shallow. Diving boards removed . . .divers disappeared....
If all of you haven't figured this out by now, all of these companies have taken the "technology" model and will be “redesigning” everything to produce a new product, because they really haven’t been taken to task to produce any evidence their product really does what they say. New lane ropes are on the way with drag reducing "wings" and the list will go on forever. And if you don't have the resources to keep replacing these new blocks, lane ropes, etc., at your school, university or club, sooner or later some administrator will declare that you are at a competitive disadvantage, and just like the divers, you will disappear....
Clay Evans told me recently that diving is also diminishing in the United States because insurance companies are charging outrageously high insurance premiums
my HS removed the high dive because it was too much of a liability and insurance was charging too much.
the blocks cost a couple around £2000 a piece but you can get discounts if you buy bulk. alot of the old omega blocks can be retrofitted to fit the slide block onto the back too. think that our pool at edinburgh university may be the only place in britain to have the blocks without the retrofit. difficult to get used to the difference at 1st, with an increased propulsion generated from the backfoot. plus there is probably too much of difference in all the slats with only 5 different settings. what if you use a grab start. left in the lurch really, do you change........
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