As I've said many times before, nothing gets my day started like a big ol' bowl of Mike Gustafson. Gus is like greek yogurt with granola mixed with bacon and pancakes. He is filling, healthy and savory all at once. Unfortunately, Gus doesn't do all his work for The Swim Brief, so you may miss him sometimes. Well fear no more!
Head on over to USAS's website for Mike's latest work. It's an interesting take on how meets could be run a little differently. Maybe we can do something to prevent parents and spectators from dying of boredom during a six hour session. Or at least have some sort of thing to look forward to at the end of the day besides driving home.
The only problem with Mike's take is that swimming is inherently not fun. Too continue with the food analogies we led off with, swimming is sort of like asparagus. You can dress it up as much as you want but it's still not fun to eat vegetables and it will definitely make your pee smell funny.
I think Mike is trying to take a Stand (capital 'S') for those of us spectators who run down our iphone/blackberry batteries trying to entertain ourselves. We spend a lot of money, it should be tons o' fun. Last meet I went to most parents either had an ipad or a bible, lots of religious reading material. (Not that there's anything wrong with that....just an observation.) To grow the sport we need more "community," I agree with Mike....campfires, songs, get-to-know-you games like, "If you were a tree what kind would you be and why?" Garrett Weber Gale organized a dinner for swimmers, fans and parents at the end of the Charlotte GP. More of that. Yeah.
ReplyDeleteYMCA Nationals does probably the best job of "the fun swim meet." It's a fan favorite, though I don't know how it will change now that the meet has been relocated.
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