Wave Talk
Timeless Stuff
Lots to report!! On the
international front:
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The Chicks from NT took Brazil by a storm! Janet with 5 All American Records: 50 Free - 27.14 & 100 Free - 59.62 (That's right boy's and these results are Long Course), 100 Breast - 1:22.42, 50 Fly - 30.74, 200 IM - 2:34.13 and 2nd in the 3K Open Water - 44.35. Kathy 1st in the 800 Free - 10:33.39 & 3K Open Water - 44.40 (Kathy's hard work over the summer pays off in spades!). Third in the 50, 100, 200, Back - 38.95, 1:23.40, 2:58.77 respectively. Katie 1st in the 100 & 200 Free - 1:08.98 & 2:37.16, 2nd in the 50 Free - 30.42 & 50 Fly - 33.75 and a very respectable 4th in the 3 K Open Water - 51.26. Good Swimming Ladies. For a little Brazilian atmosphere find the hidden link!
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A letter from Michael H.
I thought you should know if I ever get back to Toronto I promise I would never ever moan or whinge about 7:30 am saturday morning practice. At the club I joined here by 7:30 practice has been finished for half an hour. No slipping in the water late either, it starts and I mean starts at 5:30 sharp. It's a 50m pool, there's nine lanes and I'm back in lane 5. You have no idea how slow lane 9 is.
4000m is a pretty standard workout, for my lane, god knows how far the fast people go. The only good thing is turns are not quite so important, there's a truckload of Tri guys and they can't do a flip turn either.
They aren't so hot on the socializing either, it's basically "get in, get going, get out!" no names no pack drill. Not to much fun (and no slide either)
Oh well
Merry Christmas
Michael H
ps As I was walking along a chilled seawall early this morning admiring the snowcapped mountains marching to the distance out toward Vancouver Island I noticed a harbour seal frolicking in the water a couple of hundred yards out to sea, I thought, how wonderful, it could only happen here. Then as the "seal" got closer I realized it was some nutcase doing the butterfly, and I realized I was right, it could only happen here!
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It is now official - 'Swim or Die' is now a Canadian Trademark!
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2004 FINA World Top 10 Masters Rankings are out: Janet M: 1st - 100 Fr, 200 Fr, 200 IM, 2nd - 100 IM, 3rd - 50 Fr, 4th - 50 Bk, 50 Br, 200 Bk, 5th - 100 Fly, 7th - 50 Fly, 9th - 100 Br, 100 Bk, 10th - 200 Br. Judy G: 1st - 50 Br, Derek M: 10th - 50 Bk. Coach Doug: 4th - 200 Br, 8th - 50 Br, 9th - 100 Br. RELAYS: Mixed 200 Medley Relay 160+: 1st and a new World Record: Derek, Judy, John, Katie. Women's Medley 160+: 1st - Christina, Judy, Katie, Genevieve, Women's 200 Free Relay 160+: 2nd - Judy, Genevieve, Christina, Katie. Women's 200 Medley Relay 120+: 4th - Janet, Jana, M.J, Genevieve. Men's 200 Medley Relay 160+: 5th - Derek, Coach Doug, John, Chris T. Way to Swim to some World Class Swims!
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Check out Katie's, Michael's & Doug's trip to Israel......
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Why does NT produce such good Breaststrokers - Click on the King of Strokes to find out:
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Check out this brief History of Time...
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Rob's swim in Shanghai
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Hey Guys,
I just got back from the Shanghai Pudong Natatorium. It was an interesting experience that I though I would share with you - just in case you ever find yourself looking for a place to swim in Shanghai. Also I have some time to kill before going out this afternoon.
The Pudong Natatorium is a 50m facility in the "Pudong" side of Shanghai and a short taxi ride from my hotel in "new" Shanghai.
Cost to enter is 25 RMB equivalent to $4 CDN - not bad by Canadian standards but pretty pricey for China, I guess it means that it screens out a lot of people, but you wouldn't know it by the numbers in the pool.
However after I paid my 25RMB she asked if I had a swimming card - Not an easy question as no one in the facility spoke english and my Chinese is not that good (understatement). Apparently you have to have a swimming card (additional 5RMB) to enter - kind of like a membership with an exception, you need to have your card stamped by the doctor on site to approve you for swimming. So I go to see the doctor, he listens to my heart for 10seconds, without getting up from his seat, and then stamps my card. I'm not sure what exactly the point of that was but maybe it's liability related - he is not checking for SARS conditions just health for swimming.
After that there is a bit of a maze the leads downstairs to the second desk where you get your locker key, and if you haven't filled out your swimming card you can expect to be held up - you need to fill in your name and your phone number. Of course the form is entirely in Chinese. After that a nice women zapped me with one of those "thermometer" guns, I guess to ensure that I don't have SARS?
After that comes a very difficult choice if you don't know your characters for male and female, fortunately I followed another patron into the changeroom. I also refreshed my memory on those very important Chinese characters.
Now the fun begins - the pool is 50M long 25M wide, no bulkhead, there are 2 lane ropes running across the width of the pool about 5m from each end separating the pool into 3 sections. The rest of the pool is open. Lanes are only painted along the length, not the width which I chose to swim. There is probably 200 people in the pool, which I understand from one patron who spoke english was not busy. He likes this pool because it is one of the biggest and never busy.
Everyone is there to swim, except they swim wherever they want. However after several minutes of study a realized there were some patterns to the chaos.
I identified 4 different patterns:
1 - both ends between the lane ropes and the wall were for splashing around, mostly kids and non-swimmers in those 2 sections (One shallow one deep)
2- In the large center section many people were swimming in a large circle/square along the walls and lane ropes - always an arms reach from the wall and mostly they swam a version of breast-stroke, and in a counterclockwise rotation.
3- the largest group of people were swimming widths - this is the pattern I joined so I could swim roughly 25m depending on my path and how many "circle" swimmers I had to dodge coming into the wall. I also tried to hold a straight line but that was highly dependent on the width swimmers beside me.
4- There was some random swimming on an angle across the pool - the most dangerous swimmers but fortunately the least in number.
So now try to imagine all these patterns operating at once and you have, one of the least crowded, biggest pools and better places to swim in Shanghai.
I shouldn't really have been surprised because those patterns also describe the traffic/motorcycle/bicycle/pedestrian interaction at any intersection in China.
I managed a decent workout with only minor collisions. Most of the patrons were very friendly and overall it was an enjoyable experience I would recommend.
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NT's new
advance training workouts:
World Record on the NTMSC Waterslide: Trevor W - 5.74 seconds!
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