Debating doing College Swimming... Never Swam Competitively

Would the regret of not persuing outweigh the time spent trying and not achieving your goal? You would know before long if it's really worth the shot for you. Good luck

If you can drop your 500 fr time from 7:48 to anything close to 5:00 in one year, I would expect a lot of coaches would like to have you on their team, even if you wouldn't be scoring points. Not a top D1 school, but that kind of time drop shows a level work ethic and athleticism that can make a valuable addition to a team. Is it possible??? It sure would be fun (and a lot of very hard work) to try. I did nearly this as a freshman in HS. 7:46 my freshman year when i knew nothing and couldn't do a flip turn. Then 5:43 about 14 months later. I think this was more representative of normal development of a 14 year old than it was impressive training and technique though, plus I am a sprinter. Certainly is in the realm of doable but definitely the exception rather than the norm. Like I said... OP will need to be like Rudy for a year to even have a shot at times like 5 flat... I don't really agree with the thought of "forget about swimming for now and just go to school."

Me either. The odds may be long, but I think it's cool he's giving it a shot. So if you've used up a few years of elligibility in ncaa on one sport, can you still go 4 more in another? I was unsure of this part...

Alright so I'm a junior in college now, and I just started swimming with a local club team since my school doesn't have a team and I'm under 18 You were a junior in college and still under 18? Wow!

Forget about the haters, if you're motivated and willing to work at it go for it! The worst thing that might happen is that you don't drop as much time as you like but I guarantee you'll improve and be a better swimmer. Like some have already said, if you can find a club, a coach, or just some ex-swimmers to train with and help you with your technique this would be the best way to start. Most novice swimmers improve immensely just by becoming more efficient with their stroke, turns, learning to streamline, and kicking off the walls. As an athlete, you're probably already aware that you don't need to train by just swimming a bunch of long distance but do a lot of interval training. In order to achieve your goal, you not only need to develop technique but also work on your speed and you can do this through shorter distances and higher intensity swims. Good luck to you!

You are a Sophomore at a division 1 university. you are on the cross country and indoor/outdoor track teams you never swam on a team before but you want to you have gone mad. off 2 swims a week (500yards) you swam 500 yards free in 7:48 (which is 46.80 per 50) you're not afraid to work hard willing to swim 2+ hours a day you want to try! you asked: can anyone tell me what I need to do to see if i can get to around 5 flat in the 500 yard free? just good enough to walk on the team. 1) get your times for 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 400 & 500 free swim a very fast 50, 100, 200, & 500 for time once or twice a week. 2) train on your own (which is difficult) or with a masters team or a USA Swimming team 7 days a week, Improve your swimming technique, conditioning and speed. swim at least 5,000 to 10,000 per day but not straight and slow, break it up with sets. You gotta get to where you can hold way faster intervals and swim way faster times 3) Don't even bother the coach at this point, there's no point till your times are much faster. Improving from 7:48 to 5:00 in a year would be massive and honestly very difficult improbable if not impossible. Who's to say what you are capable of? 4) Read and apply ideas from Swim Faster Faster 5) improve your Kick do Help my kick is Horrible Runners tend to have stiff ankles and try to over kick 6) read Ask Ande 7) I wrote some good ideas for improving your 500 in Last 150 of my 500 falls off that swimmer made some excellent improvements 8) Lift weights and get stronger 9) get one on one help with technique stroke, turns, & streamlines make videos of you swimming above and underwater POV put them on youtube study videos of great swimmers 10) race in meets get your 50 splits for your 500 11) Beware of burn out 12) Have fun If you train hard far fast and often, it might happen if you don't, it won't. (after reading everyone elses replies) you're highly likely to be way better off in life if you redirected your time enthusiasm and energy away from swimming towards your studies to lay down an awesome foundation to thrive in your chosen career. Most division 1 swimmers started swimming when they were 6 to 10 years of age then with good genetics, talent, hard work, and great coaching they worked their way to becoming one of the best swimmers in the country and at worst maybe top 5%. Occasionally a Div 1 will accept a swimmer with potential, but 7:48 is far from their minimum standards. When I was in college I was a walk on, our team had walk on try outs, swimmers had a 1 or 2 week window to prove themselves and if they didn't measure up they were cut. What about running? Beware of things that are new and different, they are shiny and can draw your attention. We're afraid you'll bust your butt for 1, 2 or a few years only to wind up at the end of a dead end street. quix·ot·ic (kwk-stk) adj. 1. Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality.

you use your considerable energy, enthusiasm, and apparent surplus of spare time, to devote yourself instead to your studies, graduate at the top of your class, enroll in an excellent post-graduate program, and join us here, some years hence, in the considerably less pressure-packed world of Masters Swimming. Alright so I'm a junior in college now, and I just started swimming with a local club team since my school doesn't have a team and I'm under 18 so I can't do the Masters thing for another year or two. I'm the type of person who started out in college by focusing almost entirely on my work, and it definitely payed off in terms of grades and career opportunities. But one thing that resulted was a feeling of burnout and suffocation from my studies. I swam a little as a very young child, but we had some family stuff and I basically didn't do any serious swimming for 10-12 years. I returned to it as a way to work out stress, and I rediscovered my love for it. Then my voracious appetite for competition kicked in so I joined this team which is easily ONE OF THE BEST CHOICES I'VE MADE IN YEARS! I've improved tremendously and I've only been swimming with them for three weeks. Anyway my point in telling this whole long story is that if you think you're going to benefit from doing something then DON'T WAIT UNTIL COLLEGE IS OVER!! I lived my life this way for years and it just made me depressed. Seize the day and all. If you're serious about swimming then start by taking lessons to improve your technique and commit to swimming at least 6x a week. Then see if there's a more casual intramural team at your school or a USA swimming club team that can take you on. Swimming well takes an incredible amount of time and dedication and you really have to want it to get there.

If you can drop your 500 fr time from 7:48 to anything close to 5:00 in one year, I would expect a lot of coaches would like to have you on their team, even if you wouldn't be scoring points. Not a top D1 school, but that kind of time drop shows a level work ethic and athleticism that can make a valuable addition to a team. Is it possible??? It sure would be fun (and a lot of very hard work) to try.

You were a junior in college and still under 18? Wow! Haha thanks. I'm 17 now, so I'll be almost 19 when I graduate. Started college a little early, so that's why there's the awkward age gap.

Hi, xcrunswimmer. I started swimming for fitness and for competition when I was twenty years old (almost four years ago), so that roughly fits your status as a sophomore in college. I competed for a community college swim team during the winter months. In my first 500 yard freestyle race, just 3 months into my competitive experience, I clocked in at 7:59. I remember being really happy I got it under 8 minutes. In another couple of weeks, I managed to bring that time down to 7:29 for another race. After finishing that first season, I trained with a USAS team for several months in time for my second and last season with the swim team. In my first race of the season, I clocked in at 6:35. By the end of the season, when I nabbed the last spot in the consolation final of the 500, I got that time down to 6:08.85. That was a year and four months that I had been swimming when I made that time. In another year and four months, for a USAS meet in July of last year, I made my current PB of 5:32. That came after 2.5 years of swimming. I wish I could provide a more recent 500 time, but unfortunately, I contracted pneumonia right dead-smack at the same time that I was tapering and had my season-ending meet. I should note that I am not a 500 specialist. I swim everything, basically, just because I want to and I think it's fun. Who knows what you can do by specializing on the 500, focusing in on just that event like a laser, with all your aerobic base just waiting to be converted from those several years of cross country. When I started swimming, I had not been in a sport for 6.5 years and I was also overweight, so that probably extended the amount of time it took me to get to 5:32. Good luck. :)