How do I stack up, and how can I improve?

Try to get your coach to look at your stroke and find out what needs improvement. Starts and turns are also important, especially in a 50. Once you've got a good flip turn down, use it 100% of the time in practice. It will take a while to incorporate it completely, but if you stick with it it'll happen. Weights will help if you're not lifting. I'd also suggest incorporating chins, squat jumps, and jumping rope. The chins will build strength in your arms and back, the squat jumps and jumping rope will help prepare your legs for starts and turns. The number of reps and sets can be determined by what you can do initially, just keep a record (log book) of what you do, and try to improve the rep count each time. I'm of the opinion that one can improve by working out once or twice a week, and it's more important to have more days of recovery than lifting per week. If you can do 3-4 sets of 10-20 chins then you should be plenty strong for sprinting. Ditto with the squat jumps. Try to practice sprinting once or twice a week. Could be done during your warm-up or cool-down, just be sure you're adequately warmed up at the beginning, and not too worn out if you do it at the end. Work your flutter kick as much as possible. Your team should do some kick sets, put 100% effort into those when you do them. All the really good sprinters I've seen have a crazy monster kick, so I think this is a key element. It's not the only thing, but it does matter. Also, get used to kicking more during practice. You won't be able to kick 100% all the time, but the more you think about it the more kicking you will do. If you're able to dolphin kick effectively, try practicing that off the start and turns. Some people go faster with dolphin kicking, others do better flutter kicking. Experiment and see what works best for you. I've seen fast sprinters use 3-8 dolphin kicks and it's pretty cool to watch, but it needs to be faster than flutter kicking, otherwise you don't want to do it. Second to last thing I'd say is prepare your mind to race. To me, sprinting has a lot to do with attitude. Prepare yourself mentally to race fast and you will, prepare yourself to race slow and you will. A 50 is so short that you probably won't have time to think about it, other than right before the start and right at the end, everything else is a bit of a blur. Sometimes it helps me to set a tempo in my head for my stroke rate, but other than that I don't think about much during the race. Finally, I'd say that since you're a Sophomore, you've got a good two years to make some great improvements, and it can certainly be done. Decide that you want to drop 10-15 seconds by the same time next year, and work toward that goal. The fact that you're new to competitive swimming is in your favor, it's far easier to drop seconds when learning something new, than it is when you're fast and working on refinements to get slightly faster. Good luck. :banana:

Try to get your coach to look at your stroke and find out what needs improvement. Starts and turns are also important, especially in a 50. Once you've got a good flip turn down, use it 100% of the time in practice. It will take a while to incorporate it completely, but if you stick with it it'll happen. Weights will help if you're not lifting. I'd also suggest incorporating chins, squat jumps, and jumping rope. The chins will build strength in your arms and back, the squat jumps and jumping rope will help prepare your legs for starts and turns. The number of reps and sets can be determined by what you can do initially, just keep a record (log book) of what you do, and try to improve the rep count each time. I'm of the opinion that one can improve by working out once or twice a week, and it's more important to have more days of recovery than lifting per week. If you can do 3-4 sets of 10-20 chins then you should be plenty strong for sprinting. Ditto with the squat jumps. Try to practice sprinting once or twice a week. Could be done during your warm-up or cool-down, just be sure you're adequately warmed up at the beginning, and not too worn out if you do it at the end. Work your flutter kick as much as possible. Your team should do some kick sets, put 100% effort into those when you do them. All the really good sprinters I've seen have a crazy monster kick, so I think this is a key element. It's not the only thing, but it does matter. Also, get used to kicking more during practice. You won't be able to kick 100% all the time, but the more you think about it the more kicking you will do. If you're able to dolphin kick effectively, try practicing that off the start and turns. Some people go faster with dolphin kicking, others do better flutter kicking. Experiment and see what works best for you. I've seen fast sprinters use 3-8 dolphin kicks and it's pretty cool to watch, but it needs to be faster than flutter kicking, otherwise you don't want to do it. Second to last thing I'd say is prepare your mind to race. To me, sprinting has a lot to do with attitude. Prepare yourself mentally to race fast and you will, prepare yourself to race slow and you will. A 50 is so short that you probably won't have time to think about it, other than right before the start and right at the end, everything else is a bit of a blur. Sometimes it helps me to set a tempo in my head for my stroke rate, but other than that I don't think about much during the race. Finally, I'd say that since you're a Sophomore, you've got a good two years to make some great improvements, and it can certainly be done. Decide that you want to drop 10-15 seconds by the same time next year, and work toward that goal. The fact that you're new to competitive swimming is in your favor, it's far easier to drop seconds when learning something new, than it is when you're fast and working on refinements to get slightly faster. Good luck. :banana: