I'm 35 years old 175cm 64kg male self taught swimmer starting from zero 5 years ago. I swam laps for a while, but soon developed interest and passion in swimming fast over short distances and relentless daily practice.
I have times in all strokes, but use freestyle as main benchmark. First time I tried to swim short course 100m freestyle I timed around 1:40. Over time this improved to 1:35, 1:27, 1:17 and reached a plateau there.
So I went through a year or so of the Starting Strength program, deadlifted 100kg in sets of 5 and squatted 80kg. I began to feel like my body line, explosiveness, starts and push offs improved. Freestyle time didn't improve dramatically, only down to 1:15.
At that point I felt I knew plenty about training of energy systems from Olbrecht, so I decided to only focus on improving my pure speed. I take 17 seconds for a push 25 in 18 strokes at 90-100 spm.
I followed Boomer's Freestyle Reimagined and took my stroke apart 4 weeks ago. A stroke change is clearly going to take 4 months or years to happen, not 4 weeks, but I am beginning to lose the enjoyment. I am hugely motivated to see myself break the 15sec 25m and ultimately the freestyle minute, and have no idea whether it is possible with no youth swimming background.
I posted on the UK Swimming Forum, but had no reply and thought I would post here too in search for tips or similar experiences. Would appreciate any comments!
I've seen an adult successfully join an age group program, and haven't tried that myself. I swam with a masters club for 2 years, which was a lot of fun, but these seem to be geared towards fitness and training rather than focused development of speed. Moreover, I am not quite so fast and fit to join some of the higher profile clubs. I've been to see a number of coaches/swimmers for advice, including Swim Smooth, who all had valuable input, but nothing seemed to really point me towards some a big area of improvement. I feel like I might be missing an obvious one. There are definitely areas like "feel for water" and "stroke efficicency" that remain mystical to me despite having read volumes.
I am in no position to give advice on how to get faster. I too am trying to do just that. My PB is 1:16 and it is still the case for the last 6 months. When I first met my masters coach, he asked me what my goals were. I told him, it's purely for fitness only. I wasn't really interested in being faster. But I got more interested in getting faster and better after my first swim meet. I told him that my goals have changed and since then, he would give sets that help improve my speed and also he would tell me whats wrong with my technique.
I'm not sure if your masters club has a coach, but if they do, perhaps you should tell them your goals.
Btw, my coach did warn me that I was going to see major improvements and then plateau. So I am taking this 6 months as a plateau and eventually (hopefully soon), I will break out of it and have a new PB. Your subject though, made me stop and think. Looking at my masters club, the fastest lane definitely breaks the minute. But they were all previous competitive swimmers or swam in high school/college.
I am in no position to give advice on how to get faster. I too am trying to do just that. My PB is 1:16 and it is still the case for the last 6 months. When I first met my masters coach, he asked me what my goals were. I told him, it's purely for fitness only. I wasn't really interested in being faster. But I got more interested in getting faster and better after my first swim meet. I told him that my goals have changed and since then, he would give sets that help improve my speed and also he would tell me whats wrong with my technique.
I'm not sure if your masters club has a coach, but if they do, perhaps you should tell them your goals.
Btw, my coach did warn me that I was going to see major improvements and then plateau. So I am taking this 6 months as a plateau and eventually (hopefully soon), I will break out of it and have a new PB. Your subject though, made me stop and think. Looking at my masters club, the fastest lane definitely breaks the minute. But they were all previous competitive swimmers or swam in high school/college.
