FF Oct 1996 – No 52

The Faulty FlipperBOK Masters’ Newsletter October 1996 – No 52  World Championships Ponds Forge June 1996I have to apologise to one or two swimmers whose heads had been adversely affected by their success at the ‘worlds’, and whose success was not properly reflected in the Flipper. Sorry. The results were a long time coming and arrived only a day or two before my hols. I got the Flipper ready, but then ended up unable to get down to swim because of work.  So first. Simon. For those who do not know him he is what used to be called ‘built like a sh*t house door’ This means he is broad and rippling with muscle. Quite how this compares to the aforementioned door I have never quite understood. Anyway, Simon got two individual medals in the 50m back and 50m free, and his times are still getting faster. I suspect that beating Pop Larkins in the free-style may have been even more of a triumph, but that would be ungracious.
Wendy swam well against a background of some disturbance at home after her son was injured. In the circumstances she did well to swim at all. In any event there is now a neat little competition lined up between her, Lisa and Stephanie in the 50m backstroke.
Watch this space.Stephanie got missed off the team photograph – as did several others. It was perhaps unavoidable, but still a shame. In celebration of our Steph, I include a photograph of her from the event. She has earned the glory
Noreen proved once and for all that she speaks with a forked tongue. Please, please, please. Noreen – say after me, saying the words very clearly and with full and clear enunciation ‘I am a GOOD swimmer. I may be knacked, but I would be even worse as glue. I should be allowed to go at the front of the lane without having to ask first’ Noreen had two good individual swims, and would no doubt have got a squad record in the 400IM had she not missed the latest time to get her entry noted, and therefore missing the event. I have to say that if it had been me missing the delights of a 400IM, I would have been slightly more chipper
About Stephanie, I have said almost enough, but just in case you missed it last time; ‘Phew!’ Similarly for Lisa. Most of us come to Masters and the worst we are recovering from is an excess of lassitude and waistline. Lisa’s background is some unspecified (to me) illness event, from which she feels grateful to have recovered and apparently amazed to have got this far. I do not like to ask, so I haven’t, but well done in any event
Tony Ruddiman is another who has returned to swimming from an excess of lassitude – indeed he appears to have returned after the Worlds, because we haven’t seen him (Or Pop) since.
Among the world records at the meets were
Women200m back 75-79 Judith Drake-Brockman (Aus) 3m 57.14s (beating her own previous record of 4m 0.44s 1995)50m Breast 75-79 Betty Christian (USA) 52.06s (previous Emmi Paul (Ger) 52.90 1989)50m Breast 40-44 Dagmar Drese (Ger) 35.88s (Previous A Wright-Belknap) USA 37.02s 1992)100m Fly 70-74 June Krauser (USA) 1m 40.85s (Previous Lois Nochman (USA) 1m 75.17s 1995)100m Fly 30-34 Pascale Verbauven (Bel) 1m 4.80s (Previous Susan Halfacre (USA) 1m 5.39s 1988)100m Fly 60-64 Haike Holer (GER) 1m 30.17s (previous Judi Oliver CAN 1m 31.52s 1992)100m Fly 55-59 Claire O’Dwyer (IRL) 1m 23.30s (Previous Yoshiko Osaki (JPN) 1m 26.38s 1995)Men200m Back 50-54 John Calvert USA 2m 30.37s (previous Richard Burns USA 2m 32.81s 1993)
FluidsBeing fairly new to the Masters Squad and swimming training in general, I have become increasingly concerned about the intake of fluid or the lack of it.
As all my previous types of training have been on dry land, it is easy to see the fluid leaving your body. With swimming, of course, it is hard to appreciate how much we perspire. I have always tried to keep fit in different ways and I know that swimming (mainly because of my technique) takes the most effort. The amount of fluid I lose must be enormous as normally (unless I call at the Spinks) it can be well over 12 hours before I pass water again – or is that just my age.
During my basic training in the army, I spent three weeks intensive training on the Brecon Beacons on the red hot summer of ’76. Although my only concern at the time was to complete the course, this was only made possible by maintaining a regular intake of fluid. More than half of my platoon failed due to dehydration. Although this was in the extreme, I should have learned that lost fluid must be replaced.
The ideal way is to drink a little and often through out a session. Home-made diluted squash with a pinch of salt is suitable. So I believe we should be seeing more drinks bottles at the edge of the pool, but then I do not know, perhaps the Spinks’ Nest is a better idea after all.Peter Laycock
The Stress of TrainingIn swimming training, whatever the effort or the distance, the body is experiencing stress, stress is a word which has unfortunate connotations because of its association with high blood pressure, ulcers, heart attacks etc. These are all the result of too much stress, all people, all of the time experience some form of stress in greater or lesser amounts whether it is caused by cold, heat, anxiety, fear, physical or psychological causes we all experience stress of some kind. Exercise, masters swimming in our case, is one form of stress.
The response of the body to the stress of training are both short and long term, the point is that the body adapts to meet the demands of the stress, for example say Monday night 10 x 100s, the muscles involved quickly use their immediate stored supplies of oxygen, therefore the body tries to correct this situation by increasing the supply of oxygenated blood to these muscles. So this is achieved through increased heart and breathing volumes, the pace and rest of the swimmer in this swim and if he feels good through the set says the body has adapted to meet the immediate stress, this is the short term response to training.
However it is the long term response to exercise, known as the training effect, which is very important and more difficult to determine, the changes in the body to cope with the stress for the next time is called adaptation for example if week won we do – 8 x 100 on 90/95 and then after several weeks are swimming 8 x 100 on 75/80, this means the body as adapted to the extra work load and is coping with the stress. Swimming fast in training makes a person tired. Swimming is a tiring sport but if fit we get a quick recovery. But what about the swimmer who cannot handle the stress, he might start the swims too fast or he or she is not technically good enough to do the hard sets every week in training – then the response is simple. The body says stop or slow down, the worst that can happen is losing or gaining weight, heart rate increase, insomnia, or waking up very irritable and tired, and in the worst of cases swearing at the coach.
These few words are my opinions on stress when training swimmers of all ages, I also try to look for the signs of stress in a person, so my last word is do not overload and over-train a swimmer.
ALL THE BEST George Worthington”COACH – MASTERS”
BarbecueI am pleased to report that the barbecue was a delight. Lisa’s organisation of her husband was wonderful. Somehow burnt vege-bangers taste just that little better when nicely crisped in style by a Frenchman, especially one who has just hidden away the bottle of wine you brought with you so you can take it back afterwards! A true gentleman. Thanks also to Lisa’s lad without whose posters and help many would not have found the house, and to Wendy for helping out in that quiet way Wendy does – doesn’t appear to be doing anything but everything just seems to move forward successfully – just like her backstroke really.Above all les grands remercies to Lisa for thinking of it in the first place, have the oomph to get it together, having the patience to put up with a lot of unruly swimmers, for not allowing anyone to get upset or bored and lastly, no doubt, for cleaning up after us all.
Swimmers’ NewsAngela Sykes has to be first in our thoughts. I am not sure quite when, but at the beginning of August, Angela had first a liver failure, and then within a very few hours had a liver transplant. As I write this she is recovering but still has several weeks to go in hospital. It is too early to talk of her coming back, I guess she may just be glad at this stage to be alive.
Whatever else she is Angela has strength and determination, and if anyone might recover from such a set back she will.
Ol’ Pop Larkins sends his best wishes. He has finally given us up, and retired to a life of sex and golf. Cruel rumour suggests he isn’t quite sure which is better, and even more cruel chatter says his wife shares his doubts. In any event, for those who need to be told, David has been one of our fastest and most successful swimmers over about five years. He has been famous for oozing adrenaline before a race with as much discomfort as most of us have with a severe bout of diarrhoea. He has been equally famous for emerging from a successful race with the same sort of grin others have when, with diarrhoea, they emerge form the loo. His loss seemed to inspire the following tribute a la Thribb (Private Eye readers will understand)
Goodbye DaveWe’re sad you’re gone.But no doubt youWill go on and on.As will we,But let us wait and see.
ResultsI have prints of nearly all the results of masters competitions in which BOK swimmers have been involved since (or almost) the year dot – when Simon was still in group A! Bit by bit these results are being put back onto a computer database, and these may be of interest and or amusement to our swimmers.There are some things you can do. First, I will be getting a list of those I have missing. If you have any results sheets, hold onto them please, we may need them yet.
Next, if you are about to swim in a competition, perhaps for the first time for along time, and want to know what sorts of times you might expect to face, ask for a list. A list can be based in any one of several ways which can be of help.If you want to enter a competition and have forgotten your times, we can easily print off a set for you.
Popov StabbedAlexander Popov was stabbed in a Moscow Street when he returned to Russia on 24th August. He was described as being in critical condition after suffering injuries to his chest and lungs as well as the principal wound to his stomach. Popov, a clear candidate for the nicest and most intelligent and fastest free-style swimmer was the first to repeat Johnny Weismuller’s achievement of retaining his 100m Free gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, and at the same time going one better by taking the 50m Gold as well. He has been unbeaten in a 50m pool since 1990.Latterly Popov had moved to Australia and was to take up Australian citizenship. One of the primary reasons for this was his awareness that he was unsafe in his homeland Russia, where the status of sports superstar is assumed to carry untold wealth, and therefore also carries substantial unsought envy.It was later reported that he had left hospital. The police have been unable to trace the attacker.
Hungarian Reps
Older Flipper readers will remember that after the last (Barcelona) Olympics the Hungarian Swimming coach caused a bit of a stir by departing the country with a bag stuffed full of the team’s sponsors tenners. A million quid’s worth at least. He went to ground, and presumably having spent it and seeing the need for him in his team, re-emerged from hiding just in time to watch the 1996 Olympics from a TV in his cell.
This would be enough shenanigans for most national teams. Not the Hungarians.
It now appears that the team had not been doing so well without their svengali, and only a few swimmers were going to make the qualifying times for the Olympics. Bright idea time. They held a phantom meet. That’s right. They simply pretended to have had a swimming meet at which lo and behold, another eleven swimmers (out of the eventual twenty two) achieved the necessary times. Adding verisimilitude to injury, they even DQ’d a couple of swimmers to make it look good. Tamas Gyarfas, head of the Hungarian Swimming federation has resigned – as perhaps he ought – but little else will happen.
It is said that no medals were won or lost because of the deceit, but perhaps many of the ‘also rans’ at Atlanta (most of the UK team?) may have cause to be unhappy if for example they failed to make a ‘B’ Final.
It take’s a strange mind.
Recent requests in the gents’ changing room for help with pythagorean type calculations met with determined denials.
On a recent Tuesday, Cos turned up without her costume. Though she usually has no objection at all to being noticed by those around her she took the unfortunate and unnecessary turn of giving up and going home. ‘Why unnecessary?’, you ask, ‘Surely you wouldn’t ask a young lady to swim up and down in the buff save only for a pair of dark goggles?’
There can, as they say, be only one answer to that …
A quick poking of the head around the door of the gents’ changing room could have resolved all her problems fairly quickly. We chaps always have a spare pair (or two) of swimming trunks. All Corinne need have done was to borrow three pairs of trunks.
Overheard recently:’Oh, THAT’s why they call you Dangerous.’And it only took him eighteen months to work it out.
One could have been worn as per usual. As to the other two, it seems to me, using a chap’s inherent spatial awareness, that two pairs could have been worn with the head through one leg, and one arm (and for those with little imagination) one arm – a different arm in each case – through the other leg hole. The strings (ladies – we have strings) could then be used to secure the arrangement to ensure that there should be no escapes of feminine protuberances from this otherwise ramshackle arrangement. I say ramshackle, but in fact the structure would be relatively stable she would be fine unless she started swimming feet first.
‘Ok so far’, you say, ‘but why Pythagoras?’ It seems to me that a moment’s calculation by the mathematical amongst us (where are these bank managers when you need them?) would have assisted in establishing what size trunks would be up to the job. Assuming the ‘demands’ upon such an arrangement are roughly equivalent, the resulting shape is a right isosceles triangle. The waistband of the trunks could be treated as the circumference of a circular arrangement, leaving the size of the ‘adjacent sides’ as the radius (waistband over 2 pi), less a little for the neck. The hypotenuse would then have to be something along the similar lines substituting the chest size for the waistband. The result would then allow a chorus of ‘The squares on the hypotenuse of Cos’s right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the two adjacent sides.’
Masters DevelopmentWanted. In order to make progress on this idea of Masters development, I want to suggest that individual squad members offer to take on particular tasks or areasThis time out we need someone with a bit of time available to restore the past squad results database. I recently had a request for the times for one swimmer and had to say that I do not have them all on computer. I have done about half of them, but it needs someone with a database program or indeed access to just about any computer to type the rest in.
Another volunteer is wanted to create a program to read through all the results in the database and extracting from it standard lists of, for example, squad records or an individual’s PBs etc. The more elderly Flipper readers will remember I was able to fill half of each issue with assorted statistics and tables of this and that. I miss them.Second I think we should be able to develop our own ‘swimmer’s log’ I have had a stab, but welcome any help or suggestions. My view is that we should have possibly two sheets working together. One an annual (and continuing) sheet to help set an overall plan for the year, and a second for each month to plan
Flipper misses the spotI was publicly attacked after the last Flipper … (been here before). Noreen recently thrust into my hands another copy of the results from Oldham demanding a public apology. I give in, I give in. I grovel and squirm. I apologise for whatever it was I may have got wrong. No doubt it was something exceptionally horrible and or unfair. Just not quite sure now what it was …
Training SessionsThe current location and times for training:-Monday 8:30 pm – 9:45 pm – Cambridge RoadMonday 10:00 pm – 11:00 pm, in the Spink’s Nest (aka the Sphincture’s Rest) – Blacker Road. For directions ask Barry.Tuesday 8:30 pm – 9:45 pm – Cambridge Road Wednesday 8:15 pm – 9:30 pm in the small pool at Cambridge RoadSaturday 8:00 am – 9:00 am at the Sports centreSaturday 09:15 am – 9:45 am ish. Chat/meet Coffee Bar at the Sports Centre Training Fees are now £16.00 per month, payable monthly at the start of the month. The first month’s training is no longer free. There may be reductions for students or unemployed. Get what you can.
Ah … The Sweet Smell of Success. Why does it taste so often of sweat?Please pay your fees. BOK do put up with us. Really, it is kind of them, and as time goes by and decisions about our future are made, the regularity with which we pay our fees might just make the difference if and when push comes to shove. That time may not be too far away.
WantedI have copies of every Flipper bar one. I do not have a copy of issue number two. I know it isn’t important to you, but it is to me. If anyone has a copy (and I ask you to check through and have a look), please let me have it. I will photocopy it and return it to you instanter.
Paralympics / MastersWriting as the Paralympics are taking place in Atlanta I have been struck by the vehemence of the demands that the athletes should be given parity with the usual Olympics and indeed should be included with the main Olympics. At first I had some sympathy with the claim, but as time has past and the old brain filtered the arguments (stuck in the traffic again), I was persuaded that there is little difference between our position as Masters and that of the disabled athletes.
There are competitions where the only condition of entry is that the fastest wins. Those competitions can be described best as ‘open’. All others add to the entry form some form of categorisation which cuts out some range of competitors – they become ‘limited’. Within those limited classes it is perfectly true that, as against anyone else, their technique may be perfect, and they may be very exceptionally fit and strong. Masters swimming is devoted to the idea that it is entirely valid to ask a 75 year old how fast he can swim 200m butterfly. If he achieves it at all, his achievement may as a matter of fact possibly equate to the achievement of someone swimming the same event in an Olympic final – it may truly be an exceptional swim and one worthy of our utmost admiration. The fact is however that most of the world is not going to pay to watch him do it. The exact same considerations apply to disabled (or age group) athletes.
If the seventy five year old is happy to line up against a current champion, or a chap with one arm does similarly, then fine. They will get all the recognition and support their performance signifies. Until they do, they will not, and all the moaning will make no difference.
The difference of course with disabled athletes is our ambivalence. Many people are indifferent to or disturbed by the presence or achievements of the disabled. An equal number are condescending or patronising. Disabled advocacy groups rightly insist that such attitudes are incorrect. But if parity is demanded, then parity must be what they get, and parity is open competition. No more, but certainly no less. Sport has a tremendous role in the advocacy of the disabled. It has a similar role in advocacy for the elderly and for the youngsters. What we have to resist is the loss of the arguments about sport in the politics of disablement.
When the disabled can spread the popularity of wheelchair basketball or wheelchair racing to the point where it becomes a major participation sport, then a place in the list of Olympic sports can be struggled for along with all the others. If they succeed, fine. Until then, I reject the idea that the two events, the paralympics and the Olympics should be joined ever more closely together.
Having said all that of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Though it may be circular the argument that a sport gets the coverage it deserves, and deserves the coverage it gets does when applied to disabled sports events -particularly the paralympics and its coverage by the BBC, suggest they are more deserving of the coverage than are for example Masters events. I couldn’t argue with that.
Calendar
1996
October
Short Course Nationals. This year it has been moved from Ponds Forge – they need the rest. They are instead to be held at Barnet Copthall in North London. This is conveniently set at the foot of the M1. Anyone wanting to swim is encouraged – strongly encouraged, to liaise with others going down. Wendy is trying to sort out the Mixed relay teams (all relays are on Sunday) Sadly, they are limiting the relay entries to one per club per event. This seems a little miserly, but no doubt they know best.
NovemberStrive for excellence – not perfection. If you demand excellence of yourself then be willing to pay the price of it.
Oldham again. Having spoken to them it is clear that they are indeed wanting to run two Masters events a year. Just when hasn’t been set yet – details will follow soon. Three cheers (if they can why can’t we?) The Oldham events have always been friendly events with plenty of squad records to go for because it is a 33m pool. It isn’t too far away, and, being in the heart of parsimonious Lancashire, they don’t give out medals, so you have a ready made excuse for coming back without any.
Leeds Marathon, 9th to 16th November. £6.00 to enter. 5000metres of pure joy. Since I last did it they have tightened up on the definition of an ‘elite’ swimmer, and I would no longer qualify, but anyone imagining they could finish under 1hr 20m will do best to swim on the Thursday evening. For the rest you have a selection of days to swim on. Some people I know have even done it twice in the same week – just for the hell of it.I have an entry form, and others can be obtained (George has some spares). Some people see marathon swimming as a perversion only slightly more acceptable than fidgeting hopefully outside the gent’s loo in the park on a warm summer’s evening. They are of course wrong. Not that it is less acceptable, but quite the opposite. It is a sterling test of character, technique, stamina and above all of the ability to swim free style viciously
Other Possibilities Sheffield – South Yorkshire OpenDarwen Friendly meet.Leeds Swim Marathon Publisher – Back IssuesBack issues of the Flipper may be obtained easily by a simple request. If you see me on the pool side before a session, just ask. I am always looking to give away excess copies of the back issues – and I am too tight, or vain, to throw them away. For those who merely desire a quiet chat in the editor’s ear – offers of corruption always considered kindly, I can be contacted in the following ways:- At work on 01484 722531 (Fax 716617), at home on 01484 717380, and by e-mail at dswarb@gmail.com. For those easily excited I now have my own web page at http://www.law-services.org/swarbrick. Take a look!
The Flipper is produced with the patient disdain, of Julie McDonald at work (the last Flipper, Number 51 should have acknowledged the contribution of one Tania Smith – another ‘retired’ BOK swimmer).The Flipper is entirely my responsibility. Neither BOK Swimming Club nor training scheme nor Kirklees MC exercise any editorial control. I carry and rattle this empty can myself.
This web-site, and its contents, are the work of David Swarbrick. I speak not on behalf of BOK, nor BOK Masters, indeed for anyone. All compliments and complaints to David Swarbrick. Contact David by e-mail at dswarb@gmail.com. Created: 22 October 2001 Updates: 2 Nov 2001, 13 Jan 2010