The "real reason" why Manaudou left for Italy

Manaudou gave an interview to an Italian newspaper. Suddeny it is not about love; (Yeah right), and now it's about workout intensity:

• "...La Stampa quoted Manaudou as saying the training sessions had become too much for her.

• "Physically I could not take Lucas' training sessions anymore. I was about to explode," the Frenchwoman told the Italian newspaper.

• Manaudou, who is the reigning Olympic champion over 400m freestyle as well as world record holder in both the 200m and 400m freestyle, would swim between 15km and 17km a day under Lucas regime. ..." [Link]
  

Swimming that far each day is the aerobic equal to running a marathon every single day? I suspect that the heart can only get so strong and then swimming becomes superfluous and produces negative attitudes. I heard that Janet Evans "only" swam 10k a day.

Small pro bono piece for my swim club - I will edit the UCLA movie some more tomorrow

It will be a small ad the size of a business card placed in a parenting magazine called the Daisy Chain.

Cool Pool Artwork

I found Robert Vogland's work on Drawn.ca. The Finding Nemo characters were commissioned by the President of Pixar, Dr. Ed Catmull’s, for his very own pool. Here is a link to all of the Finding Nemo pool characters: [Link]

Scary headline out of Australia: "Everybody out of the pool, cricket has bowled us over"

Cricket is now the the favorite sport of Australia. Snippet:

• According to a nationwide survey, cricket has engaged the hearts of 59 per cent of the population, surpassing swimming at 57 per cent and Australian rules with 56 per cent.

• The latest edition of the Sweeney sports report revealed that for the first time in the survey's 21-year history, cricket eclipsed swimming, which has been rated as the most popular or equally most popular sport (with Australian rules) since 1991. [Link] [More] [Even more] [Still more]
  

The ice skating fan base has dissipated so much that world championship events can barely find sponsors to advertise or even venues to skate in. Contrast this to how well the sport was adored in the previous decades where champions like Dorothy Hamill, Oksana Baiul, Michelle Kwan, and Scott Hamilton were household names; the public has lost interest. This is even effecting such sports as tennis, hockey and even running. I would hate to see swimming go under the radar in Australia.

This planet needs a "Youth Olympics" to get kids intersted in sports, away from the TV and socializing in "real life" rather than 2nd Life. Here is a link to an article that states a Youth Olympics may take place in 2010: [Link]

More Manaudou drama: A private jet, a lawyer and a French coach who wants to talk

Here is a link to a Swim News article with a fast, gossipy, paragraph about it: [Link]

Here is a Eurosport article regarding her pledge of allegiance to France and her desire to swim for France and only France: [link]

Imagine how much trouble our swimmers, or our Olympic team for that matter, would get itself into if our athletes had the same media scrutiny that France and Australia put on their athletes? Tons of trouble.

Two hours ago Laure Manaudou said in a press conference that she is moving to Italy to train and be with her boyfriend thus leaving her coach as well. Looks like Kate Ziegler is the Olympic favorite in any event she swims. [Link]

Spent 1 hour on 5 seconds of footage

I am using Apple's iMovie to edit the UCLA Bruins Master Swim Meet video and I am really pushing the program father than it is suppose to go. I am going to have to take this film into Adobe After Effects or Final Cut Pro if I want to get the presentation the way I would like.

Though my hand was more steady this time than last time and that I filmed from better viewpoints, I am not satisfied yet with the product. Presentation is everything; I learned that 12 years ago, and I want this film to be leaps and bounds better than the first.

Two National records will be included and more SCAQ swimmers than last time though I did miss Steve but next time I will film him for sure.

"Amanda Beard Jumps the shark!" - Will pose for Playboy

The term, jump the shark is a metaphor that was originally coined after the character Fonzie, in the TV show Happy Days, jumped over a shark while water-skiing in a fresh water lake. When a TV show does something this ridiculous, it usually denotes that the show has lost it's way creatively and has now become a waste of time to view. The metaphor works for other endeavors as well.

And speak of the devil, here comes one of those endeavors now: Amanda Beard is going to pose in Playboy magazine and I doubt she is doing it for art's sake but rather for George Washington's sake.

With Nationals just a year or so away, it appears to my cynical eye that she is leveraging as many financial opportunities as she possibly can in the short term for if she can't make the US Olympic team in 2008, or fails to medal if she does, she will have a lot less equity with Speedo or whoever else she is signed with. Hence, "jump the shark", make the quick buck, and exit with a bang seems to me to be the motive.

I think this behavior; (putting sensational publicity and financial obligations in front of one's training), indicates that she may not make the Olympic team. However, if she does make it, the United States will have a Playboy Bunny representing us in the breaststroke. How apropos! [Link]

Breaststroke articles and explanations

Breaststroke Breakthrough - Terry Laughlin. This article is a bit dated; circa 1999. I believe breaststroke has gone through some more changes excluding the new dolphin kick turn. Lots of step-by-step photos here. [Link]

Here is the most in depth article I have ever seen on a particular stroke. It has several videos, illustrations, measurements, statistics, charts and a detailed bibliography. It's called: Diagnosing and Estimating the Best Breaststroke Style for each Swimmer Based on Physical Characteristics -- K.U.Leuven. [Link]

Here is a Science related article about the breaststroke, A new index of flat breaststroke propulsion: A comparison of elite men and women. Guess what? Men are faster in a sprint. [Link]

Manaudou soap opera continues: "Manaudou Wants Marin's Baby"

Now it's getting multinational in that Italy can't or won't train her unless... Snippet from Swim News:

• Marin's coach and Italian head coach Alberto Castagnetti, one of the world's leading swim mentors for many years, has already ruled out adding Manaudou to his charges and has called on common sense to prevail. "Our federation categorically wants to avoid any problems with the French federation and I am totally in agreement with that," he said. "If on the other hand Manaudou takes Italian nationality, that would be different." [Link]
  

Remember that Manadou is the French swimmer that broke Janet Evans' 400m record so she is considered a French national asset.

This "soap opera" is like Romeo and Juliet, The Hatfields' and the McCoys', and Tristan and Isolde all within a lane line.

"UCLA Bruins Masters Swim Meet" is now being edited

I imported the UCLA Bruins Masters Swim Meet footage into the computer tonight and I am happy to say that I successfully filmed 2 national records therein. Everybody's swims came out well. Dan Leonard filmed me swimming a 50 free and after seeing myself on a starting-block I will consequently start starving myself tomorrow. (I got even by filming his 100 fly.)

I picked a song for the video called Rapture by the band iio. It's off of their album Poetica. It works well and you can get the song on iTunes.

Swim music is a lot of fun to look for.

Tsunami time map

Hypothetical: You want to do an open water race in the Southern California area such as the Pier-to-Pier swim, the Play Del Run, maybe the La Jolla Rough Water Swim. Perhaps you live as far away as Australia and you too have a swim lined up.

However, a nasty earthquake occurred in Alaska 3 hours before your event and a subsequent tsunami is heading towards your town. So, you really want to do this race but how many hours of racing can you get in before you have to run to higher ground? Well, this Tsunami time map from Moon River will tell you: [link]

More historical tsunami time maps and explanations: [Link]

Manuadou drops coach, moves to Italy! Coach is pissed, insults her integrity in public

Laure Manaudou, perhaps the greatest female distance swimmer of all time if she can beat Ziegler, is in love with an Italian swimmer named Luca Marin. So much so that she has split with her coach and moved to Italy to be with him. That's Manaudou to thge right wearing her boyfriends Italian cap during the European Short Course Meters Championships. (She is French and sponsored by TYR whereas her boyfriend is sponsored by Arena. Needless to say there was some dram when she raced with it) From Eurosport:

• The 21-year-old, who won two golds, two silvers and a bronze at the World Championships in Melbourne last month as well as being named the outstanding female swimmer of the championships, is expected to make a statement about her future on Tuesday. [Link]

Swim News qoutes coach and swimmer:

• "She said goodbye to me," said Manaudou's friend and teammate Esther Baron. How long will that friendship last, one wonders: if Manaudou decides, the legendary best of Egerszegi will come under threat over 200m backstroke, let alone the high standard achieved by Baron, European champion for France last year. Assuming, of course, that Manaudou's march to the pantheon continues without Lucas.

• Lucas is reported to have said to Manaudou: "She has no head for swimming because of her personal problems". [Ass! You don't say that in public!- Tony] Link

Shakespeare's take on Manaudou: " Love goes toward love."

George Bernard Shaw's take on Manaudou: "Youth is wasted on the young."

Swim workout links

Swim.net Workout Archive: Link
Go Swim Practices: Link
Swim World find a workout: Link
Swim Workouts by Olympic Champions: Link
Swimming World - Swim Workouts and Technique: Link

Nicolas Sarkozy will allow Manaudou to swim in Beijing

Nicolas Sarkozy, dubbed "The American" by his critics, has been elected the President of France. France will send an Olympic team to Beijing and there will be no French Olympic boycott as meekly suggested by his opponent Segolene Royal.

I suppose calling a presidential candidate in France an "American" is a slur. I never got European insults. When they would call Ronald Reagan a "cowboy"; I am sure many people in this country took it as a sublime compliment.

Go jury duty! Go Directly to jury duty! Don't go to work! Don't collect $200

I have been summons by the City of Beverly Hills to report for jury duty on Monday, May 7th. I have a feeling this is going to be a terrible experience and knowing my luck I will probably get pick to sit on either a death penalty case or a tragic, tabloid, rape case. Like I don't have enough drama in my life. Monday will be a slow blog day for me.

Pier to pier swim went well

I wore a wetsuit this morning but Anthony didn't. I shiver more when I get out of an 80-degree-pool then he does when getting out of a 61 degree ocean. (Hermosa Beach stats for today: [Link])

We swam side-by-side and each of us thought we were holding the other back so we kept swimming like it was a descending interval. Ultimately, I personally swam pier-pier faster than I ever have; something like 45-50 minutes. (My surf skills got me to the beach first but I was in a wetsuit.)

We will be there next Sunday!

I am swimming from Hermosa Pier to Manhattan Pier this morning

I will be meeting another SCAQ swimmer there named Anthony. I am so sore from doing all those sprints yesterday at the meet too. I feel like the Marque de Sade gave me a Swedish massage with a KGB era truncheon.

To the right left is a picture of Hermosa Beach Pier and to the left right is the Manhattan Beach Pier taken this morning at around 6:30 this morning. I got the images at watchthewater.org which features web cams along with surf/water info including air temps for just about every beach in Los Angeles: [link] Now fill in 2 miles of water in between these pictures and that is my workout for today.

What a meet: Team Tyr stormed 2 national records and SCAQ did great!

UCLA Bruin Masters Meet short recap: Team TYR; (this blogs favorite brand), set two National records in both the 400-yard freestyle relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay. After I filmed the 400 relay, I turned to a girl with strawberry-blond hair sitting behind me and I ask if they broke the record, she relied, "Yes, by 8 seconds." I am deaf in my left ear so I asked her to repeat it and she said, "8 seconds." When your deaf you get yelled in an exasperated fashion if you ask people to repeat something too many times so I cheerfully acknowledged and walked away thinking I must have heard one-eighth-of-a-second since 8 seconds is HUGE!

When I bumped into Dan Leonard I asked him if they broke the record by an eighth-of-a-second, he said, "No!, it was 8 seconds." ...That's HUGE!

Michael Phelps, Amanda Beard, and Ian Crocker are signed with Team "Speedo." However, Michael Phelps swims in Michigan, Amanda Beard at USC, and Ian Crocker in Texas with Eddie Reese. There is no Team Speedo pool where they all get Speedo coaching and swim inside Speedo water. The same goes with Team TYR.

I can say with certainty that these Team TYR members: Dan, Erik, and Scott, swim, and/or coach at my swimming club, Southern California Aquatics. I appreciate their accomplishments, their advice and it was thrilling watching them do it.

I didn't get to meet "the 17th man" but I did see his 100 fly time and his 100 fly beat my 100 free time by a second. Go look at his blog for details including his insane workouts. Support swim blogs by visiting their sponsors too.

My personal times were slow today, I blame it on a lousy warm-up and a couple of silly mistakes. I still had fun though.

A UCLA Bruin Masters Meet movie is coming!!!

I am posting this again as a reminder how much fun swim meets are

2007 SPMA Regionals at Santa Clarita
Uploaded by groovydoo

Here are some swims from the 2007 SPMA Regionals swim meet. I am not happy with the compression quality of these "video sharing sites" so I am going to post a much cleaner, more clear version to one of my own sites in the next day or two. For now, this is a sample of how the day went. Enjoy. :-)

UCLA Meet Tomorrow! Just go and be there before 10:00!

Directions & Parking: UCLA Student Activity Center (formerly The Men’s Gym Pool) on the UCLA campus, is an outdoor, 8-lane competition pool with a warm-up area. Take the 405 Freeway to Sunset Blvd. east. Take Sunset approx. one mile to Westwood Plaza . Turn right into the campus to parking kiosk and inquire about parking. Ask for best lot to park in for Men's Gym. The pool is located across from the campus food court and bookstore. NOTE: Parking enforcement does ticket on weekends! [Link]

Triathlons are biased towards runners and biased against swimmers

I did the the Ironman in 1983 in Kona, Hawaii; (Thank you Julie Moss). After the race, Valerie Silk, the official Ironman race founder, told me that the first ever Ironman was a race between friends to settle a bet as to which athlete was the most superior: The swimmer, the cyclist or runner? (the swimmer won.) With that concept in mind or keeping with the spirit of the race, the distances in a triathlon should be calculated in terms of time/distance for fairness.

A fair triathlon would have the following distances or distances determined by using these proportions: 1.5 kilometer swim (1 mile), 25 Kilometer bike (15 miles), 5 Kilometer run (3.2 miles)

An elite athlete in any of these events could finish in a time of around 15 minutes. Ergo the race would require all around athletes rather than running and biking specialists. This to me would improve the sport of triathlon greatly. It would be a fair race and make the finishes much more exciting with racers much closer together throughout a competition. It would also determine which sport produces the greater athlete. But readers of this blog all ready know the answer to that: The swimmer would win.

Sigh! Our sport, among many others, is awash in dope

WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) to target drug suppliers. From Sports Illustrated:

• ... Howman praised Operation Gear Grinder, in which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2005 shut down eight companies illegally producing anabolic steroids in Mexico. The DEA has since been working with WADA and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Howman said. [Link]

From a link I found on, Timed Finals, to The Daily Telegraph which mentioned that Australian swimmers have be warned about some "fishy" levels of testosterone in their bodies:

• In a significant development in the Ian Thorpe drug investigation, The Saturday Daily Telegraph has learned the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency issued warnings to star athletes over high testosterone levels. [Link]

This article breaks down how the Conte/BALCO steroid ring was broken up with a reference to, Matt Biondi, who NEVER doped, but endorsed BALCO in the 1980's after taking their magnesium supplements only. His endorsement brought early fame to the group who later used his endorsement for credibility concerns.

In the 1990's BALCO morphed into a de facto steroid ring hiring a chemist back east to create a steroid called the "The Clear" which was undetectable till a syringe was found and sent to WADA so the chemical therein could be cataloged and deciphered.

• Moriarity traces the beginning of the end for BALCO to August 2002 when cyclist Tammy Thomas was busted with so much extra testosterone racing around in her system that she had a 5 o'clock shadow, a hint of an Adam's apple and chest hair.

• But what was really surprising was the presence in her test of a steroid called norbolethone, which was not then being marketed by legitimate commercial labs. [Link]

An article about Ian Thorpe controversy from FOX News Australia and a direct quote from Dick Pound, President of the World Anti-Doping Agency regarding Chinese testing:

• Thorpe has been asked for a "please explain" by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority on abnormal levels of testosterone after a sample taken 12 months ago. ...

• "In Australia, which has 20 million inhabitants, they did 8000 tests during 2005 and China did about the same number," Pound said. "Proportionately, our view was that was not adequate on the part of the Chinese." [Link]

*The pictue above is a model of a testosterone molecule

Swimming Students Learn Strokes From Machine Teacher (Nov, 1931)

Didn't the first Frankenstein movie come out in 1931? This "thingy" looks like a prop from the movie Saw! [Link]

Scott Hubbard Sprint Workout

Dimitriy asked me not to post any of his "secret sauce" workouts anymore when I swim at VNSO or Santa Monica City College. So, these workouts are taken from the the SCAQ library. I am swimming with bronze medalist, Erik H. on Saturdays afternoons after this upcoming meet and I will post his workouts and advice.

Sprint 3,600 LC Meters
Designed by Scott Hubbard
4/27/07 Culver City

Warm Up (900):

• 300 free
• 300 (100k/100stroke/100free)
• 300 (100 easy/50 fast),

Main Set (2700)

• 6 x 200 @ 3:00/2:50/2:40/2:40/2:50/3:00
• 6 x (50 fly @ :40/100 free @ 1:40)
• 6x100 @ 2:00 "rabbit races"

• On the last 6 100's, the lane reverses order and the last person goes first every time. The goal is to catch the person in front of you!

Psyche Sheets for 2007 Short Course National Championships have been posted

Yes, the psyche sheets depressed me too. Above is where the meet will take place.

• Psych Sheets are available below for all individual events. All events except for the 400 IM and the 500, 1000 and 1650 Freestyle will be pre-seeded and heat sheets will be available here by May 7 for pre-seeded events. The heat sheets for the deck-seeded events will be available at the pool deck for swimmers after the check-in deadlines. [Link]

UCLA Bruin Masters Meet May 5th.

UPDATE: Erik noted that "... There is a second Warm-up after the 500 Free (which is the first event). The deck entries close at 10:00 AM - so anybody arriving at 9:30 will still be able to sign up and warm up for the meet. ..." Be there and I will video you if you would like.

Warm up 8:00 AM (Ouch!) - Meet starts at 9:00 a.m. Deck entries okay.

Directions & Parking: UCLA Student Activity Center (formerly The Men’s Gym Pool) on the UCLA campus, is an outdoor, 8-lane competition pool with a warm-up area. Take the 405 Freeway to Sunset Blvd. east. Take Sunset approx. one mile to Westwood Plaza . Turn right into the campus to parking kiosk and inquire about parking. Ask for best lot to park in for Men's Gym. The pool is located across from the campus food court and bookstore. NOTE: Parking enforcement does ticket on weekends!

My events:
50 SCY Free: 26.8
50 SCY Fly: 35.99 - (I need a lap counter, a bell ringer, a compass and some directions, please?)
100 SCY Free: 59.8
100 SCY IM: 1:19.34 - ( I need a Tom Tom GPS system, a canoe and water wings, please?)

Details at SPMA: [Link]

Ian Crocker keeps his elbows high and leads with his head

Mark Spitz's muse

Jerry Heidenreich won 2 golds, a silver and a bronze at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals but Mark Spitz also feared Jerry Heidenreich and credited Heidenreich for making him the best swimmer in the world . From the article:

• After winning his fifth gold medal in Munich, Mark Spitz considered withdrawing from his final individual race. One reason was that he felt he needed rest for the 400-meter medley relay. Another was that Spitz – whose father, Arnold, often said, "Swimming isn't everything; winning is" – didn't believe he could beat U.S. teammate Jerry Heidenreich in the 100 freestyle."Six gold medals is better than six golds and a silver," Spitz said. But Spitz's coach, Sherm Chavoor, called him a chicken and warned that he might be left off the relay if he didn't swim the 100. Spitz swam, setting a world record in 51.22 seconds. Heidenreich was second in 51.65. [Link]

Post Olympics Heidenreich had a bad second act due familial tragedies and issues with alcohol, among other vices, ultimately leading to stroke and then suicide. Besides his Olympic accomplishments he left behind his personal swimming creed called the: 21 Top Laws of Swimming. [Link]

I found these articles at About.com [Link]

Avoiding shoulder pain

Every now and then I develop some shoulder pain in my right shoulder. I breath to the left side mostly and shoulder pain is usually due to a technique deficit like crossing over in front of your head or other circumstances.

I had Clay Evans; founder of SCAQ, watch me swim and he said that when I get tired I put undue leverage on my right shoulder by pushing water down instead of back. He said I am pushing the water down like a fulcrum to facilitate a breath rather than to facilitate moving forward.

I told him I am going to put this on the blog and he said he would look at anyone's stroke if they come to one of his workouts. This includes non-SCAQ swimmers as well. (310) 390-5700

Will Manaudou swim at the Olympics?

The French election is this weekend I believe. In France they have one guy on the right; (Nicolas Sarkozy), who his critics have dubbed "the American"; which I suppose is considered to be a nasty insult in France. Then you have Segolene Royal, who is easy to look at but actually praised the efficiency of the Chinese legal system and said it with a straight face. [Link]

As of now, Segolene is still considering a boycott of the Olympics and she is gaining in the polls. [Link]

Update: This from the debate coverage, "I don't think the French choose a president on the lone impression that they'll have after a two-hour debate," Hollande told France-Inter radio Wednesday before the television appearance.

[Tony's take: Americans do it the "American Way"! We take 2 minutes if it is a really good TV commercial.]

Swim News - World Rankings

Swim News is a site I go to at least a couple times a week. I am trying to get a news feed from them to put into this blog.

If you go to this page, just click a button in your favorite event and see who is king or queen. I clicked the men's 50m LCM and Wildman Tobriner is rated number one followed by Cullen Jones. Now, isn't Wildman a great name for a 50 free swimmer? [Link]

I did a sprint workout last sunday and I learned a cool start drill

I have fast reflexes but when I dive into the water my body resembles a starfish more so than a tight streamline. (That is me to the right.)

Bonnie Adair, the head coach of LMU Women's swimming, had me do a start drill so as to improve my streamline. She had me dive into the water with a pull buoy between my legs and the object was not to let it fall out. If you do it right you will maintain a tight streamline with your legs, pressed together and hydrodynamic. If you do it wrong, and you are a man... Well; I will phrase it this way, it could bump into your $1.50 if it flies out. Ultimately you are rewarded if you streamline and unrewarded if you are not.

I love serendipity: Look what I found

When looking for an image of Ian Thorpe for the post below, I found this deconstruction of Ian Thorpe's stroke. [Link]

Article: "How to Swim With Your Body - Not With Your Arms" by Terry Laughlin

"Whoops-a daisy": edits ahead in the fifth paragraph!

I am convinced that swimming is both an art and a science and what is ironic is that I have a; er..., "sketchy" stroke and I am about to give an opinion regarding freestyle.

Over at Timed Finals there is an article on Freestyle by Terry Laughlin discussing how to swim with your core. Snippet:

• Consider this… as the core is rotating so that the right shoulder is rising, it is pulling the upper arm along with it. The upper arm is pulling the forearm and hand through the catch. It is NOT the hand that initiates the pull or the propulsion, it is the CORE. If that is the case, should not the kick be timed to assist the core rather than the hand? When the timing is right, not only does the core drive the extensions called arms… it drives the extensions called legs. ALL of the body becomes involved in the stroke if it comes from the core. [Link]
  

After reading this article and then Erik Hochstein's comment, I remembered in one of my art anatomy books; (Art Anatomy by William Rimmer 1877), there is a page where 12 different body types, all of them male, were illustrated. Each body type varied from longer torsos and curved spines to more linear figures that you would see in a ballet rather than a 100 meter dash.

Also noted is that women have proportionately longer legs than men but proportionately shorter arms. That females also have less elongated torsos because they have one less rib. [Boy is my face red. Both men and women have the save amount of ribs but the floating ribs on a woman are much smaller and placed closer together. The extension a man has is what frames the male torso.] (That floating rib that men have truly frames their core strength.) Refference: [Link]

With all that in mind, if you compare Janet Evans', Laure Manaudou's, or Kate Ziegler's, stroke to that of Grant Hackett or Ian Thorpe you will notice that there is no Glide phase in these women's strokes but rather constant motion. You will see that they swim with a windmill or kayak stroke whereas Grant or Ian use their longer arms and perhaps core strength to glide.

Subsequently I am convinced that each body type swims in a different way and that no "official technique" can be imposed but rather modified to that person's needs and abilities.

Jazz is a perfect example. Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz and John Coltrane all played the tenor sax. All played with perfect pitch but all have a different sound.

"Blogger Trevr" on stage with the Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble

Trevor Algatt is both a SCAQ swimmer and an actor. This past weekend I saw him in a very powerful play and I was going to write a review, but the pros say it better than I can...

"... This impressive Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble project, drawn from interviews with Iraq war veterans and their families, depicts the personal toll of wartime with visceral intensity, and director Tom Burmester's stalwart ensemble displays an imposing commitment that generally offsets theater-by-committee inequities of tone and structure. ..." Los Angeles Times: [Link]

"... The play manages to convey the tragedy of war without being outright anti-war; it does not try to convince the audience what is right or wrong about the war in Iraq. There is even debate between a few of the characters in which they all have very different opinions about the United States’ involvement in the war. the Daily Bruin: [Link]

"... Developed from the true stories of four severely wounded American soldiers beginning their rehabilitations in the recently maligned Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Wounded does an able job of depicting the awesome burden the soldiers face in assimilating with family and society, but more importantly, with themselves. ..." From Splash: [Link]

The numerous split scenes with overlapping dialogue in the piece are handled effectively by director Tom Burmester, and Francois-Pierre Couture’s scenic design is minimalist, emphasizing the characters’ physicality and their psychological struggles. The entire ensemble delivers strong performances that remind us it’s a “long road to healing.” The L.A. Weekly Calender: [Link]

Theater info with days and times - also a trailer: [link]

Here is a great sprint workout

Sprint 3,350 Yards - Designed by Jamie Magin -4/26/07 Santa Monica. I got this workout from the SCAQ website: [Link]

Warm Up (900 yards total yards)

• 300 free

This part of the warm-up is repeated four-times through:

• 50 kick @ 1:00
• 50 stroke @ :50
• 50 free @ :40

Transition (450 yards):

This part of the transition is repeated six-times through:

• 25 dolphin on back @ :35 seconds / 50 free @ :35 seconds

Main Set (2000 yards):

This part of the transition is repeated five-times through:

• 3 x 50 free @ :40/:45/:50
• 2 x 75 free @ :55/1:00
• 1 x 100 free @ 1:05

Cynthia "Sippy" Woodhead

I watched Sippy Woodhead swim yesterday at workout. She swims similar to Laure Manaudou and she makes swimming look effortless. She utilized no glide-phase to her stroke unlike what you see in a Grant Hackett or Ian Thorpe. Instead her arms paddled "kayak-style" like Janet Evans, or my favorite swimmer, Laure Manaudou .

But who is Sippy Woodhead? Here is an article about her and how the 1980 boycott effected her swimming career. French politicians should read this article too. [Link]

"Hello Mr. Pot, my name is Mr. Kettle and I think your bottom is black"

The International Swimming Hall of Fame has announced its 2007 group of inductees and Amy Van Dyken is going to be an honoree. (She is the first American woman to garner four gold medals at a single Olympics.)

I posted this blog-post about Amy Van Dyken and Inge de Bruijn about a month or so ago. With this sort of rhetoric and behavior I am bewildered as to why she is an honoree at this time:

From Swim info: “… Amy Van Dyken gracelessly evoked the question; [of Inge de Bruijn taking steroids], when she spit [a mouthful of water] into De Bruijn’s lane before the semifinals of the 50 free and commented after Inky set a world record: 'If I were a man, I could swim that fast.' …” [Whoa, how crass, huh?]

Inge or Inky had no steroid bulk whatsoever and she never tested positive at any Olympics including Athens 2004 where testing was both thorough and extensive.

How ironic that it was Barry Bonds and Amy Van Dyken who testified before the grand jury in the Victor Conte/Balco steroid distribution scandal but Inky has never been summons or penalized.

From SFGate.com: “…Through Romanowski, Conte also gained access to athletes from other sports, such as six-time Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken, who once described herself as “the Bill Romanowski of the swimming world,” and 1996 Olympic gold-medal-winning sprinter Chryste Gaines of San Leandro, a Stanford graduate who last year was charged by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency with a BALCO- related doping offense. …"

French Presidential Candidate Nicolas Sarkozy opposes a French Boycott - He is leading in the polls

The French have a human rights argument with the Sudan. In fact everybody has an argument with the Sudan except China which has invested 10 billion dollars in their oil wells. They are also selling them weapons.

Though Sarkozy's campaign posters lack the artistic merit one would usually associate with sublime French poster art, Nicolas Sarkozy is leading the polls so far as the next French President.

If Sarkozy wins, Manaudou swims! (That should be his slogan or in French it should be, "Victoires de Nicolas Sarkozy, bains de Laure Manaudou." (I hope I said that right?) If Sarkozy does lose and Segolene Royal wins I hope, Maly, our French friend who visits us now and then is right in that France will swim anyway. [Link]

SCAQ and blog friends casting call

I will be at the the UCLA Short Course Yards Meet this weekend; (see the meet link for details), and I would like to do another video because I had so much fun doing the last one. I will film as many races as I can in between my own races and warm-ups and it would be great if you all could bring your own cameras, still or video, as well so I can post them to this blog.

It is to late to send in an entry form but they will allow deck entries. Now doesn't this pool look yummy?

Is Janet Evans roaring like a lion or just taking a deep breath?

I wish I could ask her. I have never seen somebody do that during a start dive. The worst start-dive I ever did was at a fund raising meet at LMU. Right when I jumped off the block I wondered in mid-air if I had taken a breath before the bell went off. I got these images from the IOC website: [Link]

2007 SPMA Regionals Movie

2007 SPMA Regionals at Santa Clarita
Uploaded by groovydoo

Here are some swims from the 2007 SPMA Regionals swim meet. I am not happy with the compression quality of these "video sharing sites" so I am going to post a much cleaner, more clear version to one of my own sites in the next day or two. For now, this is a sample of how the day went. Enjoy. :-)

Ithe IOC website has a multimedia gallery

Michael Gross from Germany in the 100m butterfly at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad. (That one was in Seoul, Korea.) The photography at the gallery is impressive. They claim they have films but I can't get them to work. [Link]

The IOC is considering a "Youth Olympic Games"

The executive board of the International Olympic Committee agreed in principle to consider ratifying a new Youth Olympic Games so as to impress on the younger generation how important sports are to character, discipline and values. I am surprised that obesity, diabetes, video games, collapsing sports revenue in such sports as tennis and ice skating were not mentioned.

• The Format The Summer and Winter Youth Games would alternate every four years, the Summer events would be staged in the years of the Olympic Winter Games and vice versa. The first edition of Summer YOG is envisaged for 2010. Estimates around participant numbers range from 3,000 for the Summer YOG and 1,000 for the winter counterpart. The organisational effort for a city to host the YOG would be significantly lower for the Olympic Games. However the details of the concept still need to be defined in close cooperation with the members of the Olympic Movement. Experience can be gathered from events like the European and Australian Youth Olympic Festivals.

Michael Phelps interviewed on the Tonight Show last week

He swims 2-5 hours a day and lifts weights. His lightest day is the equivalent of my hardest day.

Quotes from great swimmers

Dawn Fraser was the only female swimmer I could find. There were no quotes from Janet Evans, Natalie Coughlin et al. What a shame too.

These quotes don't offer much in the way of wisdom but it gives you a sense about how they view themselves and competition.

Michael Phelps quotations page: Link
Ian Thorpe quotations page: Link
Mark Spitz quotations page: Link
Dawn Fraser quotations page: Link

Here is my favorite quote from Johnny Weissmuller, the first person to break a minute in the 100 meter free and later made a fortune playing Tarzan in the movies:

"Throughout my career I swam for form. Speed came as a result of it."
Johnny Weissmuller

Social networks are betting on French Presidental candidate Nicolas Sarkozy

Social networking sites in England; (Read as Gambling sites), are betting that Nicolas Sarkozy will be the next President of France. [Link]

I mention politics here because France had a Presidential candidate named Bayou who discussed boycotting the Beijing Olympics over China's involvement in the Sudan crisis. (China is selling weapons in the region and drilling for oil there as well.)

The final two candidates are Nicolas Sarkozy on the right and current President, Segolene Royal, on the left. Though Bayou didn't make the final cut as a candidate, he has thrown his support behind Socialist candidate, Segolene Royal, who has not ruled out an Olympic boycott. Her opponent Nicolas Sarkozy has. [Link]

Here is hoping that whoever is voted President of France a boycott of the Olympics will not take place and we will see Laure Manaudou race both Natalie Coughlin and Kate Ziegler in Beijing.

The SPMA Regionals movie is on still schedule for Saturday morning

I finished the title for the SPMA video tonight in After Effects. The title gets rippled by droplets that splash down upon it before fading out. All that which is left to do is the "bumper," or ending panel, and this video is DONE! The sound track will be the song Such Great Heights by the Postal Service and it really works well with the swimming therein.

I have learned so much about taking hand-held footage shot by idiots like me and making it watchable. The trick in filming swimming is varied viewpoints, establishing shots, and of course using a tripod. Right now I am looking for the best video sharing site to host it rather than what will get the blog the most hits. Obviously You Tube is the biggest but at times it is compression makes the videos unwatchable. I want the clarity to be as best as it can be so I am trolling sites like Guba, Revver, Bolt, and a site called Daily Motion which looks really promising. (Some of these services don't work with this blog. I will post which ones don't.)

Phelps inspired by Beijing's 'Water Cube"

I really do not like the architectural design for this aquatics facility. It's called the Water Cube and this will be the venue for all things aquatic for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Phelps and Katie Hoff gush:

• We went and saw it yesterday and it's definitely pretty cool," Phelps said during a visit to Shanghai on Thursday. "I think it's going to paint a picture for Katie and me in our my minds too, to really help us prepare for next year and get us more and more excited," he said. Covered in futuristic bubble wrap, the box-like National Aquatics Center, or "Water Cube," is one of the most striking of the venues going up for the Summer Games, at which Phelps is expected to dominate the swimming competition. [Link]
  

What mystifies me is that Katie Hoff is there, Michael Phelps, and Grant Hackett too with all of the above talent "pimping" the Water Cube, and Chinese swimmers. Why are they doing this? Why is there such a marketing effort as part of this aquatics facility build?

Here is a article that I feel might explain why. This paper is written in India; a country some believe has a national rivalry with China, so the article could be biased. [Link]

Here is an article that touts how marvelous the transparent plastic used to build this aquatics facility is. [Link]

Is it me or do sirens go off in your head about this pool when you read words like: semi-transparent plastic, chlorine, and direct sunlight. It sounds to me like it could become a mold and petrochemical nightmare.

Here is a link to the pool they should have emulated: The Munich Olympic Pool [Link]

FINA will not ratify Libby Lenton's world record in the 100 free

Libby Lenton's world record in the 100 free set while racing against Michael Phelps in the Mutual of Omaha's Duel in the Pool meet; (Featured above), won't be ratified because a mixed relay is not sanctioned by FINA. Snippet from Swimming World:

• MELBOURNE, Australia, April 26. ACCORDING to reports from Swimming Australia, FINA has decided that Libby Lenton's 52.99 clocked as the lead leg of Australia's mixed 400 meter freestyle relay at the Duel in the Pool earlier this month will not be ratified. Therefore, the 53.30 set by Germany's Britta Steffen last summer still stands as the top mark.
• According to the Swimming Australia release FINA Executive Director Cornel Marculescu contacted Swimming Australia Limited CEO Glenn Tasker with the news and quoted FINA rules GR 9.6.1.2. [Link]
  

Doug Kajiwara

Erratum: SCAQer Doug Kajiwara won every event he was in; he ribboned in none, and I spelled his name wrong in a post below. Doh! I realized it this morning when I was going over the SPMA Regionals results. (He was to polite enough not to tell me this at workout yesterday but I am glad I discovered it.) It is corrected now.

Spma Regionals results have been posted online

My worst event is the only one I ribboned in; how ironic. What I am pleased about is that in the 50 free I went out in a 28.48 and came back in a 59.83. That is only a 2.87 seconds difference considering the second 50 had no dive. [Link]

The SPMA Regionals movie with SCAQ swimmers goes live on Saturday

I am almost done. I am going to make a title graphic in After Effects to open it and a bumper for the end. The running time will be around 4 minutes or so. Filming this meet was primarily done on a whim but now I am inspired.

The next meet I film will be done differently. I saw a tutorial at the the Make Magazine blog on how to make an underwater housing for a movie camera for under $70. It does not look to hard since the materials are primarily "weapons grade" PVC, blast resistant acrylic, rubber gaskets and industrial strength clamps. The problem making something like this is that the price is cheap if your time is cheap. [Link]

The Canuck Swimmer has entered the building

Look how he approaches not just the wall but what he is thinking about about once he leaves the wall. Snippet:

• At last night’s practice Brad gave me some more coaching on my turns and we saw my time from flag-to-flag (the five meters before and after the turn) drop from 6.1 seconds to a more palatable 5.6 seconds merely by better form in commencing the turn. Of course there are still lots of problems to work on.

The Canuckswimmer has a [link] now in the right hand side of this page.

NIH Study: Bone density/growth and swimming

Swimming produces more bone growth than running. The study was conducted by the National Institute of Health using rats as the testing subjects. More evidence that gravity is not necessarily your friend for prolonged workouts. Snippet:

• Exercise had a minimal effect on bone growth in the run-trained animals but did stimulate development in the swim-trained animals. The humerus of the SWIM was significantly heavier, wider and had a greater BMC when compared with those of the RUN and CON rats. The results of this study indicate that the muscular forces applied by the swim training protocol produced greater bone adaptations than the forces applied by a running protocol of equal duration and intensity. [Link]

The SPMA Regionals video with Team SCAQ is coming along nicely!

It seems like for every minute of footage I shoot I seem to spend an hour-and-a-half or so on obsessing about each minute of the final presentation. I have learned a lot about filming swimming from this video; you either want to be filming the race from under water or from about six-feet above the water while at a 3/4 viewpoint.

Additionally, use as many cameras as possible and film everything. It turns out that the even the most boring things can be the most interesting things to watch. Like a swimmer putting on their goggles or viewing a pleasant conversation you can't hear.

Obviously a tripod is vital but; like a snail-brain, I didn't use the one had despite having brought it! Nonetheless, this video is really going to be a lot of fun to watch and I am having a lot of fun making it.

The 17th Man has reentered the building

I like Joel's blog because he posts aggressive swim workouts he did the night before along with his interval times. (His warm up intervals are my main set goals.) He also posts amazing photos of pools and swimmers. I lost his link when I updated Blogger to this new template but the 17th Man is in the building his site is back now in the links list so please go visit: [Link]

Trailer: Michael Phelps' Personal Best - Butterfly

Another example of how swimming should be photographed.

The New York Times did an article on Parry O'Brien

Here is a snippet from the NYT listing just some of his accomplishments:

"... O’Brien’s success with his new style was stunning. In 1954, two days after Roger Bannister was the first to run the mile in less than four minutes, O’Brien became the first to put the shot 60 feet. That came in the middle of a victory streak of 116 meets.

From 1953 to 1966, he broke the world record 17 times, starting with 59 feet ¾ inch and raising it to 63-3. He won 17 American titles in the shot-put and one in the discus.

In the Olympics, he won gold medals in 1952 and 1956 and a silver medal in 1960. In 1964, after he carried the American flag in the opening ceremony, he finished fourth.

In 1959, he won the Sullivan Award as the United States’ outstanding amateur athlete. He was elected to the United States Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974 and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 1984. ..."

From the New York times: [Link]
From Swimming World Magazine: [Link]
From NPR from August 2004: [Link]

This girl can swim faster than you!

I can't believe that Australian Olympian, Leisel Jones, dressed up like this. I mean if you are going to dress like a mermaid, don't have Paris Hilton as your stylist. Pick somebody like Sally Sharpe who designed the mermaid suit in movie Aquamarine