For me they do: I swam a Short Course Meters swim meet today at the Stephen E. Schofield pool at Pierce college. I swam four races and besides the fact that my times were so bad everybody was holding their nose when I exited the pool, the headline above is probably a phenomena that only applies to my flip-turn issues your version of reality may very.When a pool merges from the deep-end to a remarkably shallow bottom; (4-feet-deep or so), the space around the "+" or the cross on the wall distorts making the "+" appear closer than it really is. I feel I lost .25-of-a-second on each shallow-end turn just trying to work out this quasi-optical illusion.
In practice, I had to swim into the wall as if I wanted to purposely jam my turn just to get the right distance or "spring" off the wall. As I approached the wall the line got "wider" since it was suddenly close and the "+" seem bigger or closer, hence, I was flipping to early at first.
I hope I am making sense. In the deep end you have all this volume of space surrounding the "+" but in the shallow-end, the "+" looks bigger and the line on the bottom much wider when the surface and the bottom of the pool are so compressed making a wall look way closer than it really is!
Below is a video Rob D. shot of me in the 50-free; I am first in the water and it goes downhill from there. I am very grateful he took the time to do that.. Rob of Robaquatics has been very good to me and this blog and I recommend that you bookmark his site. He has a whole writeup on the meet and lots of photos of the new pool. BTW, the weather was in the middle 70's! :-P
5 comments:
Tony, I had *the same experience* last night trying new goggles and it COMPLETELY freaked me out!!! I know that pool like the back of my hand, but kept missing the wall -- and that led to a feeling of total discomfort.
Ok, so it is not just me. :-)
Get ready... Long Beach has weird walls too!
Need to practice them at full speed in warmups- A LOT!
Looking forward to a big tech-suit celebration Tony!
Tony,
I know it doesn't matter, but I swam badly also on Sunday. I'm not sure if I'm just slow these days, or if it's the time of year. I don't think it was the pool: I swam events that don't require visual bearings underwater for a turn (back and fly). Part of the problem is that I wasn't in the mood to hurt.
One of my age group competitors - well, he beat me badly, so I use the term loosely - said that he tries to keep in mind why he swims (hint: it's not to hurt). The problem that many of us face (and, for me, it was a problem in college just as it is today) is that you can be in great competitie shape but still not feel great while doing "regular" stuff of everyday living. For me and many others, I'm talking about having pain in the back. Thus:
There's a great book that I would suggest for masters' swimmers who are passing into the ages that are associated with sore lower backs:
http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/11295.htm
Though kids may benefit from this book, older swimmers will find at least 10 exercises that can help strengthen the core. When I was a kid, no one thought of this. But, in a couple of months, those exercises have helped turn the tide of the deterioration of my lower back (last summer, I wasn't able to stand up from my desk at the office without a bit of extra and very visible work - including help from my arms). The book is:
Complete Conditioning for Swimming
By Dave Salo and Scott Reiwald
Shallow pools have a number of issues:
- additional waves coming off the wall
- more turbolence overall
- you tend to look up a lot more while approaching the wall and swimming in general
- deep and shallow end (what you describe)
Long Beach will be better
Post a Comment