Streaming at WCSN: 2008 FINA Short Course Swimming World Championships

I have said this before and now it is more relevant than ever especially since there has been a power struggle in the blogging community for swim content: WCSN and Swimming World have done more for competitive swimming than any other swim website.

WCSN has the rights to 2008 FINA Short Course Swimming World Championships., a meet that is being held in Manchester, England from April 9th -13th. WCSN is providing daily news and photos and some free videos too. If you want to watch the races like I do, the cost for a month's worth of WCSN programming is just $4.95. For the whole year it's $49.95.

WCSN is streaming the event FREE! [Link]

Above, Dutch swimmers: Inge Dekker, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Marleen Veldhuis and Femke Heemskerk celebrate after the 4x200 relay. (Caption copy/pasted from WCSN. I can do that, copy-and-paste and even yank photos from WCSN without having to worry about them sending ninjas after me. Support that network.)

Both Eamon Sullivan and Stefan Nystrand use a straight arm recovery when sprinting and both have set world records

A straight arm recovery certainly violates the [...] as well as the Eddie Reese on Freestyle DVD; though Eddie Reese to his credit is certainly a bit more flexible about it.

Note Eamon Sullivan's straight arm recovery and then compare it to the frantic windmill of Stefan Nystrand. Very similar styles here on the recovery.

I am wondering if a straight arm recovery; if you have a fast turnover to go along with it, creates better body rotation than a bent elbow?

Posted with permission from WCSN. Ask you cable provider for WCSN or click the link below to see WCSN events streaming live, baby!

www.wcsn.com

State Finals in Indiana streaming live right now: I just saw Chelsea Hall swim a 23.1 for the 50 free!

Though the quality is not as good as WCSN it certainly is better than SwimNetwork's version of Nationals. Also, those swimmers that made the finals get a podium spot. Very nice presentation. [Link]

A great view of a backstroke start and note how fast Randall Bal's turn over is!

Description from You Tube: "... The United States' Randall Bal kept on rolling in the backstroke events at the World Cup as he went 19-for-19 in the stroke with a win in the 100 back. ..."

I personally am just digging the start!

Posted with permission from WCSN. Ask you cable provider for WCSN or click the link below to see WCSN events streaming live, baby!

www.wcsn.com

Ian Thorpe is doubtful that Michael Phelps will break Mark Spitz's record of 7 gold medals in one Olympics

From WCSN: "... I wish him all the very best. I don't think he will do it, but I'd love to see it," the 25-year-old told reporters in Beijing on Monday.

"There's a thing called competition. It won't just be one athlete that will be competing, and in a lot of events he has a lot of strong competition," Thorpe said. ..."

Also in the article is Thorpe on the meek possibility of him getting back in the pool someday: [Link]

WCSN has granted me permission to post swim videos to the blog - Here is Nystrand setting a world record in Berlin

WCSN has been very good to swimming. So far they have provided the best swim coverage to date of any other sports network around. I would venture to say that their coverage has even surpassed NBC Olympic coverage in that they make their product instantly accessible at their website for an insignificant fee or they provide it to the public weeks later on You Tube for free.

Consequently, conversations now are taking place all over creation at such places as message boards, blogs, and at the swimming pools regarding technique, accomplishments, and every other nuance about our sport. This is the organization that USA Swimming could have used to market the sport of Swimming rather than practically invisible Sportsnet. Money talks I suppose.

The key factor in allowing this to occur is that I won't run any advertising or secretly "pimp" a product in exchange for favor, cash or merchandise. (I have been offered!)

For superb and dynamic media coverage of the sport of swimming, visit the swim coverage WCSN website: [Link]

Above is Stefan Nystrand setting a world record in Berlin with his unconventional windmill stroke. What pulls it off for him is his insanely fast turnover. I wonder what his shoulder MRI looks like? Probably just titanium cogs and gears.

www.wcsn.com

An animated fire/water effect I made in 'Adobe After Effects'

I took some 3D stock footage of a drop of water setting off a ripple effect and combined it therein with a fire explosion. This is also a test to see how well I can upload movies directly to blogger without having to embed them from You Tube or other file sharing services. If All goes well I want to do this with WCSN videos. Of course I will ask for permission first. This way they can still keep the embed tags option turned off at their You Tube site yet still allow me to embed them directly once I obtain permission. (So far the upload and processing are going really slow. I am going to hit publish button and hopefully I don't break "innernets.")

Is 'Timed Finals' up for sale?

From Lane 9 News: "... PHOENIX, Arizona, December 24. IN what appears to be financial concerns that could affect a landmark venture between the Wasserman Group (WMG) and three of United States Olympic Committees' national governing bodies (USA Swimming, USA Track and Field, and USA Gymnastics), WMG is shopping its Online Sports Network in lieu of an expected eight-figure loss for 2007. ..." [Lane 9 quotes the Sports Business Journal as their reference.]

Consequently, they want to sell Sportnet.com for 50-million-dollars to obviously cover some losses. [Link]

That figure is mind boggling for I don't see 50-million dollars of product there. Heck, even my site has more swim content than Sportnet and Floswimming has a 100 times more content as well. Therefore, I have to assume that their primary assets are the contracts they have with those that produce content but in relation to other content providers, it is still anemic.

For instance, take Movielink.com as an example as a content provider. Movielink.com was founded as a joint venture between Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros., who were responding to consumers' adoption of high-speed Internet access well before iTunes came to market. Movielink.com had far more contracts with several major movie studios and foreign distributors. They sold and rented 100's upon 100's of movies per month. This includes documentaries, animation, shorts, extreme sports, etc. In August of 2007 movie rental giant Blockbuster acquired Movielink.com for a mere 6.6-million-dollars. Sportnet has nowhere near the content nor the contracts that Movielink had access to nor such an advanced e-commerce infrastructure. Hence, where is the equity in Sportnet? [CNN article on the Movielink.com sale Link]

Timed Finals, along with Sportnet.com is owned by The Wasserman Media Group as well. I am assuming that the site was purchased for the sole purpose of augmenting the USA Swimming deal. Will Timed Finals be sold if Sportnet.com is sold since it is seemingly one it's properties?

USA Swimming should have cut a deal with WCSN and Swimming World instead.

Alshammar cuts $100,000 check with 50 meter fly win

From the video description: "Sweden's Therese Alshammar completed her own World Cup standings victory to cut a huge check of $100,000 when she clocked a time of 25.69 in the women's sprint fly. ..."

WCSN won't let me embed this You Tube video but here is the You Tube link: [Link]

I am actually quite cross about this too. This is not like WCSN and it is summarily illogical for them to do it this way. The more you let people embed your videos, the bigger your brand becomes. If they keep it up then I can't endorse them and I won't link to them anymore.

I will only link this one time to a WCSN video that disallows You Tube embedding. I hope all swim bloggers follow suit.

Ryan Lochte used a dolphin kick during his breaststroke portion of the 200 IM at Nationals. He should have been DQed

The person who wrote the following post on The Race Club message board is an Olympic medalist:

"... k -- before responding, go to the US swimming website and check out the webcast from day 1 of Nationals for the 200 IM -- about 1 hour and 10 minutes into the webcast. [Link]

Check out Lochte's Breaststroke swim (not the turn) -- they show a good underwater of his 2nd 25 -- he is clearly doing a Fly kick after completing his breaststroke kick -- you can even see the bubbles moving down after his kick.

A lot of Breaststrokers move their feet a little bit up or down when the legs are extended (for example Phelps does that - but it is usually more of a balancing or getting the feet in the right spot before the next Breaststroke kick) But you are not allowed to get propulsion out of this and Lochte is for sure getting quite a bit of that out of his extra fly kicks, just look at the bubbles moving down and out. ..." [Link]

I can't post Lochte's breaststroke due to the Wasserman Media Group refusal to let anybody view it unless you go to their site and notice the Speedo Banner ad at the top of the page. Ironically enough, the banner links you to You Tube of all places, the same site that the Wasserman Media Group has pulled fan videos from. (See this post [Link]) DO NOT CLICK ON THE BANNER - SHOW IT NO LOVE!

The breaststroke is now becoming a confusing embarrassment. Anything related to butterfly should be removed from the stroke. Below is an example of more line crossing by Romanos Alyfantis:

You can watch the 'FINA World Cup' series liv at the FINA website

These times are central European times: [Link]

Australia	November 2-3	10:00*
Russia	November 9-10	15:30*
Sweden	November 13-14	19:00*
Germany	November 17-18	15:30*
Brazil	November 24-25	13:00*

The feed is provided by WCSN who has proven to be quite generous to the swimming public at large by providing streaming content at either a very low price or by providing it a day or two later on You Tube or at their very own site. I wish USA Swimming would have signed a marketing deal with WCSN rather than the Wasserman Media Group.

You can also see these races as well as other high profile sports at the WCSN website as well: [Link]

WCSN has been very good to swimming and swimmers at large

WCSN has cut a deal with FOX Sports to provide content for them through MSN. Business Wire [Link], Lane 9 News [Link]

Unlike the Wasserman Media Group that wants to tie up the video rights to such swim events as the ConocoPhillips 2007 Swim Nationals even going as far as sending out copyright notices to You Tube and Google to pull down fan videos from the stands, WCSN has been a very charitable neighbor posting swim videos as soon as 24-48 hours after a competition. This cable network along with Rowdy Gaines have done more for swimming than any for profit organization I know.

Here is a link to a about 100-million cubic feet of water and some great races swam therein. All posted by WCSN. I want this cable station; I may even get satellite dish to get it. [Link]

Here are all of Michael Phelps' 2007 Fina World Championship of Swimming gold medal races

Speedo and WCSN have collected all of Phelps' gold medal swims onto one page at Speedo.com. The only downside is that they are not Quicktime files but rather Windows media slop: [Link]

FINA Videos : WCSN YouTube page

Here is a link to a You Tube page with all of the FINA videos from WSCN. Click on this link and see dozens of clips from the 2007 Fina World Championship of Swimming: [Link]

2007 FINA World Swimming Championship announcers

The announcers for the swim portion of the 2007 FINA World Swimming Championship are quite good; especially the female. The male voice has nicknamed Michael Phelps "Superman" which she summarily ignores and usually shifts the conversation to talking about what Phelps is doing well. (Though I write in a language called "extreme hyperbole," I prefer my announcers to speak informatively. Superman and Wonder Woman expletives; sheesh, that's my job. )

She would make a heck of a coach but WCSN never mentions who these people are in their web snippets. Does anybody know?

I would like to see Rowdy Gaines and her do the NBC Olympics together and then you would hear some terrific insights.

Amanda Weir's kick viewed from above

I was at WCSN.com watching the heart wrenching silver the US got in the women's 4x100 relay and they showed the race briefly from overhead. Amanda Weir's kick is so symmetrical that the wake behind her looked like a DNA helix.

Online video of the 2007 FINA World Swimming Championship

WCSN.com is streaming video, "Live and On-Demand," of the 2007 World Swimming Championship for a small fee of just $4.95 for the month. How cool is that! So, I am signing up and you should too so as to make swimming a profit center for those that televise it.

You will be able to watch some really innovative swimming at you work or at home. sign up here: [Link]

The lovely picture up above comes from the Sydney Morning Herald. Here is article about how well the opening ceremonies went as well as a visit from Ian Thorpe who gave the event his blessings: [link]