In our winter YMCA league, there are about a dozen meets from September to April. Some of the swimmers come to these meets and more or less go through the motions--i.e., they swim almost as if the meet were a leisurely Sunday workout. For one friend of mine, it's almost as if he doesn't want to try too hard because if his time isn't as good as he thinks it should be, he's disappointed and de-inspired.
Other swimmers try their hardest in every event they enter, regardless if this nets them a personal record or not.
It's a difference of philosophy, I guess, but I am curious to see where others out there come down on this duality.
Someone mentioned on another thread somewhere that Popov planned to race the 50 a hundred times a season, and that these races were part of his conditioning strategy. This makes a lot of sense to me--it's hard to do a truly maximal sprint in practice, and even if you can do this, you don't have the same adrenalizing, etc. that meet conditions can induce. By attending lots of meets and sprinting all out there everytime, you get a form of practice that's virtually impossible to get anywhere else. Partly for this reason I guess I am a believer in trying your hardest in meets throughout the season. I also don't see the point in coming and swimming with less effort than you are capable of summoning.
But maybe I'm missing something. What do others out there think?
Parents
Former Member
It has been a while since I went to a meet, quite a while LOL, but I do have a couple of theories.
I have been extensively involved in one Masters group as an adult swimmer, and briefly with another.
In both groups however, I have noticed that many of the people that are there consider Masters more of a social and fitness program than a competitive one.
And this carries over into the competitions as well. At my main group when I was in college, there was a well known local triathalon every year and many of the people who went just did it for fun, and others were out for blood LOL. But the point was that a lot of our group competed in it, and so many others just tagged along.
This difference is easily seen in the practice pool too. We had a fast lane, a "medium lane" and a slow lane. The fast lane people were just out of sight- all very highly competitive and in tremendous shape. I resided in the medium lane most of the time. But interestingly there were quite a few medium people who could keep pace with the fast ones. Yet they chose not to do so.
And there was one lady who would spend the whole year in the slow lane- driving them all nuts too I might add- but then for a few weeks before her big "race" of the year (that triathalon I mentioned above), she would move over to medium or fast lane and really step it up. She did other competitions throughout the year too, so I would imagine that she fits the profile you describe above.
Others were sort of the same, although less obvious than this lady. They would do a regular circuit of meets and things, but the frequency of their appearance in practice at various times of the year sent a clear message which events really mattered to them.
I am in the opposite camp myself- in all aspects of my life, not just swimming. I only participate when I know I am prepared enough that whatever the result I can know I did my best, and then I go out there to kick some ***. I have not gone near a contest lately since I know I would be ticked at the results due to my lack of practice since I have been traveling so much this past year.
But I can see the other side of it too. At 25, I was the youngest person in that Masters group and still in grad school. The others all had children- some grandchildren- full time jobs etc. And now that I am in that position myself, I can understand why people would want to go to all the events to be part of the fun- to have that escape from work and family, yet also have to be selective about when they had the time to really train for a serious run at first place and have the mental build up necessary to go all out during race time.
Anyway, just my theory :)
Tom.
It has been a while since I went to a meet, quite a while LOL, but I do have a couple of theories.
I have been extensively involved in one Masters group as an adult swimmer, and briefly with another.
In both groups however, I have noticed that many of the people that are there consider Masters more of a social and fitness program than a competitive one.
And this carries over into the competitions as well. At my main group when I was in college, there was a well known local triathalon every year and many of the people who went just did it for fun, and others were out for blood LOL. But the point was that a lot of our group competed in it, and so many others just tagged along.
This difference is easily seen in the practice pool too. We had a fast lane, a "medium lane" and a slow lane. The fast lane people were just out of sight- all very highly competitive and in tremendous shape. I resided in the medium lane most of the time. But interestingly there were quite a few medium people who could keep pace with the fast ones. Yet they chose not to do so.
And there was one lady who would spend the whole year in the slow lane- driving them all nuts too I might add- but then for a few weeks before her big "race" of the year (that triathalon I mentioned above), she would move over to medium or fast lane and really step it up. She did other competitions throughout the year too, so I would imagine that she fits the profile you describe above.
Others were sort of the same, although less obvious than this lady. They would do a regular circuit of meets and things, but the frequency of their appearance in practice at various times of the year sent a clear message which events really mattered to them.
I am in the opposite camp myself- in all aspects of my life, not just swimming. I only participate when I know I am prepared enough that whatever the result I can know I did my best, and then I go out there to kick some ***. I have not gone near a contest lately since I know I would be ticked at the results due to my lack of practice since I have been traveling so much this past year.
But I can see the other side of it too. At 25, I was the youngest person in that Masters group and still in grad school. The others all had children- some grandchildren- full time jobs etc. And now that I am in that position myself, I can understand why people would want to go to all the events to be part of the fun- to have that escape from work and family, yet also have to be selective about when they had the time to really train for a serious run at first place and have the mental build up necessary to go all out during race time.
Anyway, just my theory :)
Tom.
