Hi all, I am joining a masters swim program as a beginner (I know how to swim, just not experienced or good at it yet). I don't know how to go about setting goals and I am hoping that some of you might be willing to offer suggestions. I know that fitness is #1, but if I don't have goals I'll get bored. The trouble is, I have no frame of reference for what my improvement should look like.
For time availability, I can swim up to 5 times per week, 1-2 hours each time (although one hour is more reasonable, I can commit up to two if necessary). I'm tall and skinny and not naturally athletic. Right now I swim a 50 yard free in a minute, which means I'm in great shape for an 85 year old man. I am a 35 year old man though so that's not good. I can only swim at the end of a pretty exhausting day so that will probably negatively impact my abilities.
Assuming working with a talented coach, what are reasonable and appropriate goals? Should I have a goal by the week, month, 3 months, or some other timeframe? For those who have gone through this before (going from non-swimmer to swimmer as an adult, no history), any tips? Approximately how long of dedicated training did it take to reach a good swim time?
Thank you everyone who helps me out in setting some reasonable goals for myself.
...I know that fitness is #1...
For overall health this is true, but if your goal is to swim faster, I would say that technique is #1, by a wide margin. If you are a generally healthy 35 y.o. male and swim 60s/50yds, it is essentially certain that there is a lot speed to find with stroke improvement. I know a guy who decided to start doing triathlons in mid-life. He told me that when he started he was swimming at about 2:00/100 yds, then he went to a swim clinic and very shortly thereafter was going 1:40/100 yds. Will this happen for you? How long will it take to become "good"? I'm not sure anyone can tell you.
...For time availability, I can swim up to 5 times per week, 1-2 hours each time (although one hour is more reasonable, I can commit up to two if necessary). I'm tall and skinny and not naturally athletic. ...Assuming working with a talented coach, what are reasonable and appropriate goals? Should I have a goal by the week, month, 3 months, or some other timeframe? For those who have gone through this before (going from non-swimmer to swimmer as an adult, no history), any tips? Approximately how long of dedicated training did it take to reach a good swim time?...
I try to have "goals" for almost every practice. Not a goal to swim a personal best time, but something or things I want to accomplish. This might be to swim a set on a tighter interval than ever before, or hit fewer strokes per length than ever before, or hit fewer SPL while making a specific time, or swim more total yards than any day in the past month, or execute some new drill I read about, or simply work out some stiff muscle in my back or whatever. The point is, I try to never do "garbage yardage". I try to make sure every yard I swim has a specific purpose. I swam competitively as a kid so I don't have first-hand experience with what you are about to go through, but I do know that after a 26 year break during which I swam a lot but did no racing, I started trying to go faster again and improved substantially over the ensuing several years. With the kind of time commitment you mention and good coaching, you should improve a lot. Enjoy the journey!
...I know that fitness is #1...
For overall health this is true, but if your goal is to swim faster, I would say that technique is #1, by a wide margin. If you are a generally healthy 35 y.o. male and swim 60s/50yds, it is essentially certain that there is a lot speed to find with stroke improvement. I know a guy who decided to start doing triathlons in mid-life. He told me that when he started he was swimming at about 2:00/100 yds, then he went to a swim clinic and very shortly thereafter was going 1:40/100 yds. Will this happen for you? How long will it take to become "good"? I'm not sure anyone can tell you.
...For time availability, I can swim up to 5 times per week, 1-2 hours each time (although one hour is more reasonable, I can commit up to two if necessary). I'm tall and skinny and not naturally athletic. ...Assuming working with a talented coach, what are reasonable and appropriate goals? Should I have a goal by the week, month, 3 months, or some other timeframe? For those who have gone through this before (going from non-swimmer to swimmer as an adult, no history), any tips? Approximately how long of dedicated training did it take to reach a good swim time?...
I try to have "goals" for almost every practice. Not a goal to swim a personal best time, but something or things I want to accomplish. This might be to swim a set on a tighter interval than ever before, or hit fewer strokes per length than ever before, or hit fewer SPL while making a specific time, or swim more total yards than any day in the past month, or execute some new drill I read about, or simply work out some stiff muscle in my back or whatever. The point is, I try to never do "garbage yardage". I try to make sure every yard I swim has a specific purpose. I swam competitively as a kid so I don't have first-hand experience with what you are about to go through, but I do know that after a 26 year break during which I swam a lot but did no racing, I started trying to go faster again and improved substantially over the ensuing several years. With the kind of time commitment you mention and good coaching, you should improve a lot. Enjoy the journey!
