Well, i am a student at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY that had the football team cut from the athletic program and instead had a swim team and a few other sports put in the program in its place. One day as i was working out in the gym this past september, the coach of the swim team saw me working out and asked me if i wanted to swim. He needed numbers more than anything since the collegiate competitive requirements are 11 participants a team. Mind you i am 5'7", 185 lbs, broad chest and shoulders with large legs. A running back figure. I have never swam before and i agreed to be on the swim team. The coach wants me to swim the 50 and 100 free and i like that for it is a fast twitch race more than slow twitch, and since i am a senior i don't really have time to increase my endurance and slow twitch. I was wondering if any of you had advice for me in my endeavour to become an excellent swimmer by february 2004, and hopefully win an event at the MAAC nationals. In my first meet on Oct. 11, i swam a 27.88 in the 50 free at Duquesne. If you couldn't tell by my hunting for a discussion ring and post, i am very intense and competitive, and am taking this very seriously. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you and hope to have some replies soon!
Originally posted by ArtShark
But 22 seconds in the fifty free is a number that only very elite athletes can achieve after many years of training.
Hogwash. I've seen many high school kids with very little swimming background prior to HS bust out a :22 in the 50 by the time they're seniors. Of course that's with three or four years of swimming under their belts. If Joey can do it in one year it's a remarkable achievement, but I still think it's doable.
I applaud you for wanting to improve your time and setting high goals. You have received a lot of good tips and encouragement in this forum. However I am not sure if you are coming to this with naivety or bold audacity.
Since everybody else has provided positive points allow me to come at this from the perspective of reality. Your time (27.88) in the 50 would not even rank in the top 25 fastest time for 10-year-old girls, nor would it make Top Ten in the men’s 65-69 Masters bracket. But in one short season you expect drop over 6 seconds and go a high 21 to mid 22? There are many hard working and talented swimmers who have trained years who have never gone that fast.
Let me turn this around. Say I am a swimmer and a senior in college. The swim team has been dropped and the coach wants me to come for the football team, even though I have never played on a team before. After the first game I am asking questions about the technique on how to carry the ball so I don’t fumble. How realistic is it I will average over a 100 yards a game?
Enjoy your experience, I hope you do well. Prove me wrong. But I am afraid going in the 21s is too much of a stretch goal from someone who has no previous swimming background and expects to do it in one short season. Consider it a major victory if you break 25.
As the only person besides Joe himself that has ever seen Joey swim I can say that this goal is reasonable. He definitely has the strength and endurance to swim a 50 in 23. He just has to learn to perfect the small things. His start is improving a whole lot. We've been working on turns as well. Joe is a quick learner, i've never seen someone with no swimming experience pick it up this fast. Basically all our coach has to do is shift his athletic talent from football to swimming. And to Art, our coach is definitely one that can get Joe down to 23 no time. He knows how to fix all the little things that people cant do. Joe just need experience, and he'll get it. I bet next week he'll go a 26. ROCK ON JOEY!
About the best thing you can do is to pay attention and listen to your coach.
Tell him what your goals are, and he can help you.
In swimming, proper and fine tuned technique counts a LOT.
Much more than in many other sports.
You'll notice as you go on that there is only so much you can do by powering through things. The winning edge is in the technique.
So if the coach asks the team to do 'stroke drills' and stuff like that., don't get frustrated that you're not sprinting enough.
Of course we all know that sprinting ability is somthing you're born with, so improving to 22 for the 50 free in this time frame may be feasible. Now if Joey wanted to swim the 500 in 4:45-4:50. . . well, as they say, when the going gets tough, the sprinters get out.
I think he'll do it.
Am I reading this right? I thought this was a forum for Helping swimmers and support. all this negitivity is bringing me down. Hey Joey, I have not swum an event in 13 years and decided just this month to start back up making a meet in Canadaigua, NY in Feburary to make my first meet. Good luck with your racing.
