Hello all! I've browsed the forums a bit but this is my first real post. I guess I should start with my background. I am a 21 year old personal trainer who recently fell in love with swimming. Before I started swimming I was a competitive weight lifter. I started training about 4 months ago and I swim about 20 hours a week and I'm still in the process of trimming my weight down. I was really inspired to start trying to get competitive but because of my age and height (5'9) i got kinda turned off. Is there any hope of me competing at a moderately high level at my height and age? I know I only have 3 years till I move up a bracket in nationals so I was curious on others opinions if I was just wasting my time.
"Old is always 10 years older than when you say it" I remember this from a gentleman that was on deck for our state meet years ago. I just turned 69 and am 6 ft and 214 lbs. So you have a long way to go before your concept of old. Welcome to Masters , enjoy the next few decades before you start to slow down!!!
You're never too old or too short or even too slow. However if you're interested in competing at nationals and you're swimming 20 hours a week you're probably wasting your time. Even if you want to swim the 1650, that's an outrageous amount of time in the pool. What do you want to race?
I think you just need to go to a masters meet and observe. You'll see all ages and all shapes and sizes. You'll definitely be able to compete. However, if your definition of compete is at a Michael Phelps level then I'd have to say you may be "wasting your time". Most people don't take up swimming at 21 and become an Olympian. However, a lifetime of fitness and competition await you in USMS.
There's a story in the news this week about a 100 year old woman who just set a World Record in her age group in the 1500 free,
edition.cnn.com/.../index.html
As for me, I'm 70 million years old, and I still compete.
I'm 6'4", just turned 48 and there are any number of people younger, older, shorter, taller, fatter, fitter, and of the same or a different gender who can beat me. The beauty of Masters swimming is you can compete at any age and at any shape. The only thing that matters is getting on the blocks to race!
I'm 6'4", just turned 48 and there are any number of people younger, older, shorter, taller, fatter, fitter, and of the same or a different gender who can beat me. The beauty of Masters swimming is you can compete at any age and at any shape. The only thing that matters is getting on the blocks to race!
Starting Blocks are optional.
