Swimming Pic of the Week - GRAND PRIX! - November 11, 2010

Posted by Glenn Mills on Nov 11, 2010 05:01PM (2,416 views)

If you're interested in following some fast swimming this weekend, tune in to the 2010 Minneapolis Grand Prix.

Here's a shot from the deck during pre-meet warm up.

Click image to view larger

racing, competition

Responses

Tomás	Responded Nov 12, 2010 02:13PM Really beautiful swimming installations.
sprinter	Responded Nov 14, 2010 08:23AM R you allowed double lane lines?! That's cheating :P ;)
Tomás	Responded Nov 14, 2010 04:02PM Hi Sprinter...hope everything is fine. Yes you are allowed double lane lines...but only if you make the pool wider.
Juliette	Responded Nov 15, 2010 08:22PM I can swim between them....hahahaha
Cesar	Responded Nov 17, 2010 10:04AM I love the flags for backstroke. Mine have not.
sprinter	Responded Nov 18, 2010 07:43AM Objection! The calmer the water the better the swim and two wave killer lane lines are defo an advantage. It is cheating! :P
Daniel	Responded Nov 18, 2010 09:06AM Sprinter, I totaly agree with you. Calmer water in the warmup pool is definitely an advantage, especially for backstrokers. Because they do not swallow so much water during the warmup. And that should improve their Body Position in the competitionpool tremendously. So double lines in the warmup pool are definitely cheating, but only for backstrokers. ^o^
Daniel	Responded Nov 18, 2010 09:16AM Ok, while I think about it, I mean, it could also be as same beneficial for breaststrokers. And when you think deeply, it is also advantageous for Butterfly. And I suppose also for freestyle, at least a bit. So I give up, it is beneficial to all. So you are defenitely right, it is CHEATING!!! But no wait, if it is beneficial to all, then it may well be no more cheating. As yet the conditions for all are the same. So now I'm confused. Sprinter please HELP me!!! ;-))
Glenn Mills	Responded Nov 18, 2010 01:02PM Hey Sprinter. Now... I'm not yelling... you know me better than that, but be careful throwing out the "cheating" word here. Cheating means the purposeful breaking of rules to gain an advantage over your competition. In the US, which is the ONLY country to swim short course yards, we're allowed to use dual lane lines... that's in the rules. I've been in races where they experimented with a couple other ideas as well. My freshman year in college, when only 6 people made finals, not 8 like today... lanes 3 and 6 were left empty. This meant that every swimmer had an empty space next to them so the water was extremely smooth. The problem was, you only saw one person when you were racing, and there a complete disconnect in the actual "racing". Another year, there was an experiment with THREE lane lines. Two like you see here, and the third held under the surface between the other two... doing exactly what you're saying... cutting ANY turbulence that crosses between the lanes. What are the means of these experiments? First... unless you've had the opportunity to be at an NCAA Championship meet, it would be tough to explain. It is the FASTEST meet in the world. Yes.. the FASTEST. There can be no arguments here simply because the swims are completed sooner than anywhere else in the world. Part of the design of these meets is to keep it that way... to make it the fastest, most exciting swim meet in the world. The team atmosphere, the quickness of the races, and the design of the environment to support that. (example... the 50 free last year was won at men's NCAA in less than 19 seconds. Imagine 8 guys swimming down and back all close to 19 seconds... it's VERY cool) The Olympics, Grand Prix meets, simply don't hold the same excitement for every race. The Olympics are more individual oriented while short course meets in the US at the top, are more team oriented. This means people have a vested interest in EVERY race... not just the ones they're in. Now... when there are a couple people racing very close, with the gold medal or world record on the line... it's the BEST... the crowd will get into it... but I've never heard anything like a similar situation at NCAA's when all the teams are also yelling. The dual lane lines are completely legal here, and everyone is allowed to use them. If the meet was set up short course meters, they wouldn't be allowed, because if a world record was set, it wouldn't count. Again... this is not cheating, it's the rules and within the "course"... it's been this way for as long as I can remember... which means a LONG time. :)
Juliette	Responded Nov 18, 2010 06:40PM Are you that old glenn?????...hahahaha but your right......this helps in the way mking swimming and competition faster...keep trying.....