Names. There are no names.
No outside influences as such.
Just influences that create a mood of a time.
An isolated old run-down open-air swimming pool.
Here, somehow, time stands still.
Boxing like swimming is a battle of wills rather than skills.
Only when both men show equal will does a fight boil down to skill.
When suggestions are made for an award system for skill and speed the subject of terminology for evaluating masters’ swimmers comes up
In writing this series I have endeavoured to both organise my thoughts to a point where I believe they are meaningful but also to entertain Masters swimmers – whoever they are, wherever they may be.
Enjoy.
In the 1970's the sport of competitive swimming changed forever the way swimming in this country redefined its culture. It evolved from the U.S. Anything that comes from the U.S goes East. It was called Masters Swimming.
It is the beginning of the 1980’s. The beginning of the Thatcher era. Masters swimming in the UK is still in its infancy. Spencer Swim Team Masters have not long been in existence since their founding in the late 1970’s.
Swimming history seems to have been dominated by the aptly described “Golden Era of Australian Swimming” But Which One? At the Sydney 2000, Olympic Games Australia was supreme.
Mission Viejo is a world class Masters swim team, voted U.S. Masters Swimming Club of the Year in 2009. We arrived during their short course season and the 50 metre pool was divided into 20 x 25 yards lanes
If you want to create a successful swimming club, it is my firm belief that the first element required is, no, not the pool, no, believe it or not, not even the swimmers: it’s the coach.
Masters swimming is not a fashion, it’s a feeling. It’s where the soul drives the body. This means opening the mind to the fact that sport, like music, influences society