I was just wondering. At what point is ones swimming career while they realise that they have hit the wall, and then sur passed it and they cant possibly go faster??
The reason I ask is because Phelphs is "retiring" after the 2012 games.
But then I see athlets go out and compete that are well into their late 20's and early 30's.
What is the averge prime age for a male swimmer before times start becoming slower???
Former Member
I'm 50 and I just did best 1RM on the deadlift today. I haven't noticed muscle loss yet, though I'm sure it'll be along in the not so distant future.
Sorry Im new to all these acronyms.
What does 1RM mean????
Based on the analysis I did of the 2011 1-Hour Postal Swim results, there's a pretty substantial drop after age 49. It's pretty level from age 25-49.
www.watergirl.co/.../triathletes-your-swim-doesnt-have-slow-down-you-age
Interestingly, triathletes experience a dramatic decline in swimming performance, starting at age 25, and continuing for the rest of their life.
I think the difference between swimmers and triathletes is technique--improvements in technique can make for loss of strength (and amount of time available for training).
Another possible reason for the difference between swimmers and triathletes is that swimming is an "older" sport. We haven't really seen triathletes age through the entire spectrum of ages from kids to octogenarians yet as we have with swimmers. Your data presumably compares today's retirees with today's 20-somethings, but today's retiree triathletes did not grow up doing triathlons, which didn't exist much before about 1980. Many of today's retiree swimmers did grow up in age-group swimming. I expect that an individual may hold speed quite well over the years, but without the same background training, today's retiree triathletes look relatively weaker in comparison to their younger counterparts. How do the swimming times of today's 60+ triathletes compare to their own times from 30 years ago? How does this look in comparison to swimmers? (Rhetorical questions mostly, I understand that the data may not be available for such an analysis.)
Rich Abrahams is amazing and he needs to write a book for the rest of us.
Katiek's data is interesting - check out her blog too. Could it be that it's harder to keep your swimming training and conditioning going as you get older than it is for running or biking? Does swimming require a greater degree of dedication?? Finding the time, getting to the pool, swimming 1-2 hours, and getting back into the flow could be limiting factors. Running and biking can be maintained almost any where and time.
Swimming may require more training to maitain or improve. The hectic pace many people adopt after age 25 could be limiting to all but those just dedicated to swimming. also, Could it be that the major muscles required for swimming in the shoulders are much harder to maintain than those required for running and biking in the legs?? Swimming clearly requires proper timing, breathing, body position, storke mechanics, kick and host of other things to think about and work on. Swimming technique being a huge differentiator, it's easily the most difficult of the three to maintain or improve as you age. Seems somewhat logical it would fall off at the earliest age.
I'm 50 and I just did best 1RM on the deadlift today. I haven't noticed muscle loss yet, though I'm sure it'll be along in the not so distant future.
Your capacity might ultimately reduce, but you might not have yet explored the full entent of that capacity - so keep going!
Two words............Rich Abrahams.
I may not have the dates exactly right, but close:
2nd at NCAA Swimming Championships 1965 (ish) 50 free 21.5
1st Masters Nationals Georgia Tech 2010 50 free 22.10 (age 65)
Can't find his time from college, but he went 100 free at Georgia Tech in 2010, 49.42, again, AGE 65
Based on the analysis I did of the 2011 1-Hour Postal Swim results, there's a pretty substantial drop after age 49. It's pretty level from age 25-49.
www.watergirl.co/.../triathletes-your-swim-doesnt-have-slow-down-you-age
Interestingly, triathletes experience a dramatic decline in swimming performance, starting at age 25, and continuing for the rest of their life.
I think the difference between swimmers and triathletes is technique--improvements in technique can make for loss of strength (and amount of time available for training).
I was just wondering. At what point is ones swimming career while they realise that they have hit the wall, and then surpassed it and they cant possibly go faster??
The reason I ask is because Phelps is "retiring" after the 2012 games.
But then I see athletes go out and compete that are well into their late 20's and early 30's.
What is the average prime age for a male swimmer before times start becoming slower?
If swimmers continue training at an elite level they probably peak in their late 30's to early 40's. It really depends on the swimmer's training, breaks, injuries and attitude.
Many Masters swimmers shared their times over time in life time best times and best times in each age group
Since it's old I'd love it if swimmers updated their times.
Many over 40 masters & have gone faster in particular events from one year to the next. It gets tougher to improve everything across the board.
Full body tech suits gave swimmers a bit of a bump.
Once swimmers are over 40 aging through each 5 year age group can take a greater toll each time.
Maybe Phelps is close to feeling burned out, maybe he wants to go out on top, and I'm sure he might want to do something different with his life. Over the years he'll probably discover there's nothing he'll ever do as well as swim. He'll probably retire after 2012, but I wouldn't be surprised if he came out of retirment for 2016, 20, 24, or 28.
Time will tell and times will tell
