I am thinking of participating a swim meet, just to experience it once in my life. I had a lot of reservations about signing up for a meet. But after reading some of the threads in the forums, my fears have subsided.
1. I can't do flip turns very well. It seems I can do open turns instead.
2. I fear my goggles will pop off during my dive. Looks like I can start in the water which I am more comfortable with anyways.
But there are a few things that I'm still wondering about.
1. I'm pretty slow. I've read somewhere that most meets have a "slow heat"? What does that mean really? So you could have multiple people being #1 for the same age group? And how can you tell if a meet has several heats?
2. Why is it when I view some of the past event results, some events have rankings for the top 3 swimmers and some have only 1? I am attaching a screenshot of what I am talking about. Does that mean there was only 1 person swimming in that event?
3. How does one finish off for freestyle? Do you have to press a buzzer?
I worry that my 12 minutes or so will hold up the whole show and tick people off.
As a newer swimmer having competed in only two meets myself so far, I can tell you this will simply not be the case. Masters events are full of people excited to swim and perform for themselves and their team. They are not judgmental, and in fact, if you are a first time swimmer getting involved in a longer, harder swim, then you should be getting nothing but kudos.
Here are my suggestions for you:
1. Absolutely go to a meet.
2. Enter times of "NT", or just something incredibly slow for your time. This will ensure you're with peers and not the Ledecky heat.
3. Enter every event you'd like to try. This is the critical thing to remember...for the next 18-24 months, every meet you enter is going to be practice. You shouldn't even worry about your times, because ya know wha? Every time you post at your first meet is a personal best. Those PBs will help you establish goals, and over time you'll understand what you want to swim more of.
4. Open turns are fine. At my first meet I swam open turns for all my events, and was really proud of what I put on the board in the end. Do learn flip turns after the meet, though. Don't feel pressured to do it at any time, but know that you'll get more satisfaction from competitive swimming if your physically capable of flip turns.
5. A double cap configuration can help you with goggle woes. Latex on head, then goggles, then silicon. Bada bing, bada boom. Snug as a bug in a rug.
6. Make sure to warm up and warm down, don't be nervous about either. Remember, you're already slow (me too)...doing a healthy, injury-preventing warm up isn't going to slow you down more. A warm down is necessary for the same reason.
7. Make sure to maintain your nutrition habits, don't change your diet for the meet and make sure you hydrate (you know this from running)
8. Have no fear.
9. Have no fear.
10. Just swim.
I worry that my 12 minutes or so will hold up the whole show and tick people off.
As a newer swimmer having competed in only two meets myself so far, I can tell you this will simply not be the case. Masters events are full of people excited to swim and perform for themselves and their team. They are not judgmental, and in fact, if you are a first time swimmer getting involved in a longer, harder swim, then you should be getting nothing but kudos.
Here are my suggestions for you:
1. Absolutely go to a meet.
2. Enter times of "NT", or just something incredibly slow for your time. This will ensure you're with peers and not the Ledecky heat.
3. Enter every event you'd like to try. This is the critical thing to remember...for the next 18-24 months, every meet you enter is going to be practice. You shouldn't even worry about your times, because ya know wha? Every time you post at your first meet is a personal best. Those PBs will help you establish goals, and over time you'll understand what you want to swim more of.
4. Open turns are fine. At my first meet I swam open turns for all my events, and was really proud of what I put on the board in the end. Do learn flip turns after the meet, though. Don't feel pressured to do it at any time, but know that you'll get more satisfaction from competitive swimming if your physically capable of flip turns.
5. A double cap configuration can help you with goggle woes. Latex on head, then goggles, then silicon. Bada bing, bada boom. Snug as a bug in a rug.
6. Make sure to warm up and warm down, don't be nervous about either. Remember, you're already slow (me too)...doing a healthy, injury-preventing warm up isn't going to slow you down more. A warm down is necessary for the same reason.
7. Make sure to maintain your nutrition habits, don't change your diet for the meet and make sure you hydrate (you know this from running)
8. Have no fear.
9. Have no fear.
10. Just swim.
