I am new to swimming just started swimming seriously last year (I'm 33). I have never competed. I decided to join USMS and try a meet this year just to give myself something to work towards. I find the rules a bit overwhelming and I'm not fast at all. I just got my front crawl lap under 1 minute. I practice 1 hour 3 times per week. I have taken a few classes including a TI based class which really helped me.
My question is, at my age and with my experience how should I prepare to go to my first meet? Not just skill wise but to learn the rules and not make a total fool out of myself. :) Also, how friendly are the local or regional meets? Will my team be upset if I come in last? How competitive is it really?
Thank you!
Parents
Former Member
My "meet experience" is limited to 3 whole meets, but the first one I ever went to was 2 years ago. I was real nervous about starts because I had only ever dove off the side, never off a block. So the Masters coach had me practicing a lot of starts the Friday before. I did a lot of smacking the water mostly hitting my upper quads hard because I was not getting the angle right. The blocks at our old Y are very high and akward, so the next day I woke up and had huge bruises all over my upper legs. I had to go to the meet Sunday just covered with bruises. I looked like a newbie, that's for sure. I also made sure my goggles fit, but even so, sometimes they slip on the start. My 50 free race was done with water filled goggles!
Things I wished I had brought that first meet was something to read. I went to a meet a long way away, and did not know anyone. Most people had things to do, so I just sat there and watched the swims. Bring water, and light things to eat, and don't be surprised if you are real, real hungry afterwards. Give yourself allowance to eat a good meal afterwards. Also, I got there right at the start of warm-ups and made sure I was the first in. A lot of people come a little later, so I had a lane to myself for a good 20 minutes, which was nice to get the feel of the pool. I did open turns because I had just learned flip turns, and it felt wierd to do an open turn in a different pool than my own.
I also missed one of my events because I got mixed up on the order of events. Since I run my kid's age group meets on computer, I knew that there would probably be an empty lane to slip me in, so I immediately went to the computer person and asked if I could get in to an empty lane, and then got to swim.
I had the advantage of being to many, many of my kids meets, so knew how swim meets run. However, there is a big, big difference between the kids meets and Masters. Masters meets have an extremely relaxed feeling about them. People are there to swim their best and socialize. There are all kinds of shapes, sizes and speeds at a Masters meet, people who did their starts in the water, very overweight people, and very slim trim fast people. Mostly people just do there swims, get out and read, talk, eat, or sleep.
Good luck.
My "meet experience" is limited to 3 whole meets, but the first one I ever went to was 2 years ago. I was real nervous about starts because I had only ever dove off the side, never off a block. So the Masters coach had me practicing a lot of starts the Friday before. I did a lot of smacking the water mostly hitting my upper quads hard because I was not getting the angle right. The blocks at our old Y are very high and akward, so the next day I woke up and had huge bruises all over my upper legs. I had to go to the meet Sunday just covered with bruises. I looked like a newbie, that's for sure. I also made sure my goggles fit, but even so, sometimes they slip on the start. My 50 free race was done with water filled goggles!
Things I wished I had brought that first meet was something to read. I went to a meet a long way away, and did not know anyone. Most people had things to do, so I just sat there and watched the swims. Bring water, and light things to eat, and don't be surprised if you are real, real hungry afterwards. Give yourself allowance to eat a good meal afterwards. Also, I got there right at the start of warm-ups and made sure I was the first in. A lot of people come a little later, so I had a lane to myself for a good 20 minutes, which was nice to get the feel of the pool. I did open turns because I had just learned flip turns, and it felt wierd to do an open turn in a different pool than my own.
I also missed one of my events because I got mixed up on the order of events. Since I run my kid's age group meets on computer, I knew that there would probably be an empty lane to slip me in, so I immediately went to the computer person and asked if I could get in to an empty lane, and then got to swim.
I had the advantage of being to many, many of my kids meets, so knew how swim meets run. However, there is a big, big difference between the kids meets and Masters. Masters meets have an extremely relaxed feeling about them. People are there to swim their best and socialize. There are all kinds of shapes, sizes and speeds at a Masters meet, people who did their starts in the water, very overweight people, and very slim trim fast people. Mostly people just do there swims, get out and read, talk, eat, or sleep.
Good luck.
