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.
If you have been really serious for 5 years now, it could be tough. Over the course of the next 5 years or so, maybe you can get there. You are young, so you can get much better before age starts to slow you down. I started at 40 with zero youth swimming and got down to a 57 SCY in about 4 years or so and a 1:05 ish 100 SCM. I think I could have done it if I really wanted. I’m 53 now and my feel for the water has gotten so much better. Maybe I could get close now, but I don’t have the time.
A hint to do this is to get proficient in all the strokes. It will help your freestyle.
If you have been really serious for 5 years now, it could be tough. Over the course of the next 5 years or so, maybe you can get there. You are young, so you can get much better before age starts to slow you down. I started at 40 with zero youth swimming and got down to a 57 SCY in about 4 years or so and a 1:05 ish 100 SCM. I think I could have done it if I really wanted. I’m 53 now and my feel for the water has gotten so much better. Maybe I could get close now, but I don’t have the time.
A hint to do this is to get proficient in all the strokes. It will help your freestyle.
