The Fastest Age

Originally posted by Tarzan The only thing that potentially seperates the elderly and youth is training time. If you put in 10,000yd. a day no matter who you are your going to be in great shape :p but that is still attributed to the training quantity and technique, not as much to the age alone. To have the fair comparison, you need to compare peoplewioth a same training regimen, and different age, to really know how much the age factor really enters in. What you guys are talking about as "age" is that for most people in their late 20's, 30, 40's and so on the lifestyle doesn't allow the training regimen tha a college swimmer might be able to keep up with. If we could compare a 20 year old with a 40 year old having the same training regimen, only then you would be able to get the true example of just how much the body is affected by age alone. (perhaps needing longer recovery time, loss of flexibility and what else may enter the equation). That's the only way you can see how age really factors into performance, you need separate it out from the lifestile that typically comes with certain age. That's why i'm saying we're comparing apples and oranges. Or maybe we could find a 20-year old who already had couple of kids, and only manages to swim 1500 yards a day, and see how her times compare to a 40-year old with the same lifestyle and training regimen. I's theorize that their compettetive sucess would be very comparable. Not because of the age, but because of lifestyle.

Originally posted by Tarzan The only thing that potentially seperates the elderly and youth is training time. If you put in 10,000yd. a day no matter who you are your going to be in great shape :p but that is still attributed to the training quantity and technique, not as much to the age alone. To have the fair comparison, you need to compare peoplewioth a same training regimen, and different age, to really know how much the age factor really enters in. What you guys are talking about as "age" is that for most people in their late 20's, 30, 40's and so on the lifestyle doesn't allow the training regimen tha a college swimmer might be able to keep up with. If we could compare a 20 year old with a 40 year old having the same training regimen, only then you would be able to get the true example of just how much the body is affected by age alone. (perhaps needing longer recovery time, loss of flexibility and what else may enter the equation). That's the only way you can see how age really factors into performance, you need separate it out from the lifestile that typically comes with certain age. That's why i'm saying we're comparing apples and oranges. Or maybe we could find a 20-year old who already had couple of kids, and only manages to swim 1500 yards a day, and see how her times compare to a 40-year old with the same lifestyle and training regimen. I's theorize that their compettetive sucess would be very comparable. Not because of the age, but because of lifestyle.