Chris DeSantis
What Most People Get Wrong About Body Image

I’ve struggled with “body image” for the greater part of my life. I’m going to qualify all the statements I’ve made in this post so far. Before that- let me make one more. I think many people that struggle like I do try to “solve” that problem backwards, so I want to share how I went on that journey. The process is one that you can replicate for anything, not just that niggling sensation you get when you pass a mirror.

Chris DeSantis
Empathy vs Permissiveness

In part two of this series, I discussed what I perceived as the lack of empathy for men generally. One of the things that I think that is often misunderstood is how we acknowledge the “privileged” nature of being a man. I won’t attempt to broach that giant subject here, but I do want to distinguish between what I think a lot of people substitute for “empathy” and why many people may think that there is already too much empathy for men in the world.

Chris DeSantis
Swim Brief Bonus 7/16

I’ve been on a hot streak of podcasting recently. It’s been over a year since I changed the podcast format and committed to at least trying to put up an interview podcast every week. I think I’ve done that about 95% of the past year, and I’ve seen benefits well beyond what I’ve expected.

Chris DeSantis
Practical Advice for Husbands

I’ve often joked that at some point in my career I’m going to host a men’s seminar. In this joke scenario, I walk into the room with some tall boys of beer and crack one before holding forth on my secrets to being a happy man, husband and dad.

Chris DeSantis
Empathy and Victimhood Contests

Today I want to focus on something different. As consistent readers will also have noted, I am on a bit of a “masculinity” or male identity jam right now. One of the things I’m arguing for passionately is more empathy for men, writ large, in the world. I want to talk about a barrier that I am running into and suggest that the barrier is in everyone’s best interest to remove.

efficiency

, ,

Stop Doing General Warmup

, ,

Today, I'm swimming in my first swim meet for four years (more on that in another post after the weekend). I will not be attending the general warmup sessions. This is something I haven't been doing for the entirety of my post-college career, and a practice that trickled into the college and club swimmers that I coached.

General warmup is just one of a large group of things that "we do" in swimming that don't make a lot of sense. What is the purpose of a general warmup? To get you ready to race in the subsequent events, right?

Let me use my own meet this weekend for an example. General warmup is taking place as we speak, from 8:00-9:00 AM. My race is due to jump in the water at 2:57 PM this afternoon. There is no way on earth that a warmup from 9:00 in the morning will carry forward six hours to my race.

"But wait!" you say. What about getting accustomed to the blocks at a new place, learning to sight the walls, etc. I happen to be swimming at a pool (Harvard University) where I have swam so many times I've lost count.

Chances are, many swimmers that you bring to a particular meet will be familiar with the facilities. If not, consider organizing some way for them to familiarize themselves with the pool well in advance of an early morning warmup that will not actually warm them up for their race. After all, you wouldn't be trying to teach them a whole knew technique the day of the meet, right?

Lastly, don't even get me started on the "wake-up swim" people. There are plenty of ways to get somebody fully awake well in advance of their race that don't include some useless laps. Oh, and please, please do not swim timed sprint or pace 25s in the warmup. I'll have to write an entire different post on that subject.

The real reason to skip general warmup is not what I've written above, dismissing some of the common reasons people do it. People who choose to do general warmup often see only the benefits without realizing the great costs that general warmup inflict on swimmers. Let me summarize

  1. These warmups are often early, and interrupt the natural sleep cycles of athletes, therefore interfering with recovery. The longer the meet, the bigger the impact. Seriously, try no general warmup at your next three or four day meet and see how much fresher everyone is by the last day.
  2. Time spent on the pool deck is not healthy, particularly at crowded meets where there is often poor air quality. 
  3. With anxious athletes, general warmups can often build tension for them, as they spend hours at the competition site waiting to compete. Bringing them to a competition site without a clear progression leading directly to the race can cause problems.
  4. Most swim meets are way too long. This causes cascading problems for us, as parents and swimmers start to weigh the cost of endless hours on the pool deck versus other things they could be spending their time on. Finding a more efficient way to do a swim meet can be a welcome boost.

All that said, there are some situations where you might find it best to have a particular swimmer or set of swimmers at a general warmup. I think those situations are fewer and farther between than what I witness at most swim meets.