I assume that most of us believe that we could swim substantially faster, IF.
IF we won a huge lottery payout, or a IF some swim suit vendor decided that what they really needed was an ordinary masters swimmer to promote their product and paid us sufficient money to:
· Quit work.
· Hire an army of helpers to do yard work, clean the house, run the kids around, cook, do shopping, pay the bills, buy a reliable car etc.
· Hire a great coach.
· Hire a personal trainer.
· Buy access to our own lane at a great weather-proof pool to match our schedule - and that of a few great training partners.
· Hire a masseuse.
· Hire a dietician.
· ...
But that aint 'gonna happen, so I put forth this hypothetical:
Consider your best times in your two best events over the last two years.
Given the current constraints on your lifestyle, (training time, sleeping time, ...) if you did your best to improve in those two events, how much do you believe you could lower your times over the next year or so.
I just posted about this!! Now, bear in mind, I am in high school and was a very new swimmer when I started at 15 years of age, but I have definitely done the 20%!!!! Not sure where my thread went but go see it, lol.
Now I believe anything is possible!
Good, because it is. I dropped about 10 seconds in my 50 free from a 34 to a 25 in 2 and a half years, no kidding. Started swimming as a 15 year old, and just tapered for summer league as a 17 year old. Also went from 37 in 50 *** to 29 in 50 ***.
It's interesting that, so far, the most probable responses are: 0, 1, 5, 10 & 15. I wonder if that's just because these are "round" numbers so-to-speak. Clearly though, it's a broad multi-modal distribution. I wonder what basis folks have for believing that they could improve 10% or more. Are they new to swimming? Recovering from an injury or illness? Really lackadaisical about their current training? About to hit a growth spurt? I spent about 2.5 years knocking my 100 back time down by 1.5s. 10% is totally excellent.
I want to know more about how to do it.
If she could bottle it & sell it, she'd make a fortune.
Ask the hirsute Wookiee. They practice at the same time, in the same pool. Maybe there's something in the water ....
I used to believe something like this:
-- Speed loss due to normal aging and/or injury is inevitable.
Then I saw this:
W 65-69 LCM 50 Butterfly
Diann B Uustal
2013-06-05 (20130605panjunL)
67
GAJA
50 Fly
H4 / L4
34.56
<<<<<<<
To Whom It May Concern,
You wish you were this good! This is what the new FINA all-time Top Ten list is going to look like:
50 M. FLY
34.53 DIANN UUSTAL USA 2013
36.36 CHRISTEL SCHULZ GER 2005
36.66 JUDY WILSON FRA 2010
36.71 MICHIE DOI JPN 2009
36.79 YOSHIKO OSAKI JPN 2003
37.10 BRIGITTE MERTEN GER 2011
37.31 LYNETTE STEVENSON AUS 2011
37.58 KIRA MAKAROVA RUS 2012
38.06 JOY WARD USA 2007
38.09 HISAKO SATO JPN 2000
Jeepers! She's got nearly 2 seconds on #2. In a 50! That's what you call total dominance!
Anything is possible!:banana: :banana::banana:
