Why do we proselytize?
Leonard_Jansen
Charter Member
For years I have wondered why people proselytize so hard for a given recreational activity. I've seen it in track, racewalking, ultrarunning, (shorter distance) OW swimming and now for marathon swimming. I am as "guilty" of this as anyone, if not more so, but have never really been able to ascribe a motovating reason for my "John the Baptist" activities.
So why do we push so hard to get people to embrace marathon swimming?
-LBJ
So why do we push so hard to get people to embrace marathon swimming?
-LBJ
“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde
Comments
loneswimmer.com
Hopefully I save someone a lookup:
pros·e·lyt·ize:
verb: convert or attempt to convert (someone) from one religion, belief, or opinion to another.
Whenever I see a swimmer who seeks a challenge... I proselytize about longer swims... I have a someone I coached this summer for an Alc swim, who has now trained for his first 10 k .... and I sent him the link for CS&PF.... nudge nudge.
When I coach, I proselytize about swimming with out a wetsuit and %95 of my students at least TRY a swim with out a wetsuit. When guests come to the DC, I proselytize about swimming with out a wetsuit and when the time is right about trying something longer.I proselytize about the health and social benefits of swimming. In fact.. I am a pretty boring conversationalist.... it's all about swimming.I bet you can start ANY conversation w me and it will end up being about swimming,( or food but that's another thread)
I constantly talk to people at the pools I swim at about trying open water swimming by going to low-key (shorter) races. So far I have 3 people that have promised to go to the "Beware of Barracuda" race in Hazleton, PA this August.
One of the women swimmers has a teenage daughter who is a very good swimmer (as is her mom), but won't compete because the atmosphere of pool meets is too intense. I have been trying to convince her that OW is totally different.
Etc, etc, etc.
I admit that one reason I do this is that, good ultra-liberal that I am, I want to get people invested in having clean water so that the next time a George W. Bush-type tries to cut the Clean Water Act regulations, there are more voices and voters to tell him to put it where the sun don't shine.
However, that is not the driving force - as I said, I haven't puzzled that out yet.
-LBJ
“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde
I try not to do it too much. I know that my interests are wierd (even triathletes think I'm nuts), and that not many people are likely to be interested in my x hour swim with just me and my kayaker around to watch. That said, if people ask my take on Diana Nyad, or if I wear a wetsuit when I swim, I'll give them my opinion. If someone is interested in swimming a 25k, I'll give them my opinion on how to work up to it. But, I'm not going to be that forward about how marathon swimming is a much bigger challenge than a triathlon, because it's an opinion I can't prove, and triathletes don't seem to be open to much advice, anyway.
I do, however, proselytize skin swimming to my triathletes I coach. I'm not nice to them about it either; I tend to call them names, or tell them instead of spending $500 on a wetsuit, spend it on your kids/wife/husband, etc. Or ice cream.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
If someone is a competitive triathlete, I can understand why they would want to race in a wetsuit. Given the free speed available, if you are entering a race to try and win your entry fee back, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage to not use a suit if everyone else you are competing against is also using a suit.
But, if you are just a scrub age grouper looking to finish, you look silly giving yourself a panic attack in 78 degree water because you felt the need to look cool.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
1) I think everyone around me is so stupid that they couldn't come to the conclusion on their own that marathon swimming is quite simply the most god-like activity a person could be engaged in.
2) I'm so stupid that I think people couldn't come to the conclusion on their own that marathon swimming is quite simply the most god-like activity a person could be engaged in.
Audience.....................Message
Non swimmer.................."Swim!"
Pool Swimmer.................."Swim in the Ocean!"
Open Water Swimmer......."Bodysurf, Surf, and/or Spearfish with me!"
Now why do I do it? Probably for a little bit of all the reasons mentioned above, but for the most part, its just damn fun to be in the water with your friends!
I share a tumblr with a bunch of like minded tri-nuts. Most of them are runners, some bikers but none are swimmers first and foremost. I think, to the tri masses and I used to be one of them. The swim leg is the ugly step child of the tri world. A necessary evil to endure but with the thought that, the relatively few minutes, I might lose on the swim can be made up for on the bike and/or definitely the run.
Fellow tri-ers, if they are allowed, all wear wetsuits for the imagined advantage. If you can not swim in the first place, having more buoyancy aint gonna help diddly squat. Get in that pool/lake/ocean!
In my group, I am the nutter banging the swimming drum, calling for longer swim legs to even things out. I am recently converted so, like a new ex-smoker, Im the most annoying proselytizer of them all.
I announced the completion of my first non-stop pool, 5K over the weekend to friends.
'Why would you do that?'
'For the same reason, you were out in 40F weather cycling 60 miles last weekend. Cos its a challenge and its there! And to my mind, more of a challenge!'