Help New Swimmer

That is a very good point Rob! I'm an assistant coach for a large high school team. Overcrowding is definitely a problem at times! I guess I was just remembering my high school days and how much fun it was to have all those guys that were like big brothers to me and "friendboys". From a swimming point of view, it would be better to seperate the boys and girls.

I agree with what everyone says here. Follow what you think is best. The only thing I would have done differently in high school is that I would have joined the swim team when someone suggested it. Adam

OK, so what if it is a girlie sport (which it isn't btw)? You pals might be making fun of you but, trust me, spending 2-4 hours a day with in shape girls you own age beats all other HS sports and they are jealous. Plus, come summer, when you are at the beach or pool and not in a speedo, the young ladies will laugh at your doogie paddle pals and revel in your smoothness in the H20.

Originally posted by aquageek How in the world do you have separate sex swim seasons? I have never heard of this. So, the boys do SCY in the fall and the girls in the spring or some other oddity. How do year round teams do this if prepping for different meets? I've been in and around swim teams my whole life and never seen this but I'm sure it's done if you say so. Yes, it's done. Infact in NH, a town called Nashua swims in the MA league while the NH league swims coed. The Nahsua High School team swims girls in fall and boys in winter. It may have something to do with pool space being a preimum in town. The Nashua swimmers don't participate in the state championships, but rather the Mass confrences.

Originally posted by aquageek How in the world do you have separate sex swim seasons? I have never heard of this. So, the boys do SCY in the fall and the girls in the spring or some other oddity. How do year round teams do this if prepping for different meets? I've been in and around swim teams my whole life and never seen this but I'm sure it's done if you say so. In Colorado, high school girls swimming is a winter sport, and boys swimming is a spring sport. Just FYI.

In a woman's opinion, male swimmers have the best bods.....so you can be a chick magnate. Nothin girlie about that!!

I agree with everyone else 1) go for it, and hopefully your family will see that you are serious and won't tease you about it being a girlie sport. Maybe you can invite them to watch a pratice and talk to the coach so they can see exactly how difficult it is. Maybe you could hunt up the recent thread where a distance runner and weight lifter got in the pool and could only do 50 yards before he had to stop, and show it to them. That says something about how difficult a sport it is, and how much training in technique and endurance is necessary to be successful. Search the net for information about swimming as a sport, what it takes to be a swimmer etc, and print it out for your family to read. Find articles on famous swimmers and how much they train. How can anyone view swimming as a girlie sport when they realize that some swimmers swim 5,000 to 10,000 meters A DAY. Point out that swimming is a relatively injury free sport. If all else fails, send them here to ask us about the sport! We will set them straight. 2) not only will you be hanging out with physically fit young women your age, you will be hanging out with physically fit young women who are in bathing suits (LOL I wanted to say half naked, but since you are a kid...) 3) yes women think male swimmer's bodies are sexy, the sexiest of all sports. Lainey

"girly sport." Ha!!!! It is TOUGH, TOUGH, TOUGH!! I can't imagine why anyone would think it was "girly", and frankly, I'm kind of offended by the term anyway, because it implies that girls can't do tough sports. Here's a little historical data about one of my heros, Debbie Meyer: DEBBIE MEYER (B:8/14/52- ) Was the first woman to win three individual gold medals in a single Olympics. Despite her handicap of having a stomach infection at the 1968 Games in Mexico City, she went on to win the 200m, 400m and 800m free. In her career, she held 24 American records and 15 world records. She was named the 1967, ‘68 and ‘69 World Swimmer of the Year and received the Sullivan Award for top amateur athlete in 1968. She was the first woman to swim the 1500m free under 18 minutes, the 400m free under 4:30, the 500y free under five minutes and the 1650y free under 17 minutes. ************ What was also interesting is that she was (reportedly) either the first or one of the first females to prove that girls can train just as long and as hard as boys. She put in 30,000 miles of training before the 1968 Olympics!! Anyway - I agree with the other posts - and I will add that all sports are hard in their own way; some are harder than others, but show me a football player who can last out an intense 2 hour swim practice and I'll eat my hat! So put those Speedos on and get in the pool!! :cool:

First off, howdy, and welcome! Your story sounds pretty similar to mine, with a few obvious exceptions (I'm a girl, so a girly sport would be okay for me). However.......I was a high school swimmer, in a tiny Southern Ohio town ruled by a religion we call high school football. There were a record-breaking 7 people on my team my sophomore year, and we were teased endlessly by the other jocks in the school....until we invited them to a practice. You won't always earn their respect, but you're not swimming for them. You're also not swimming for your family, and the same theory applies. Invite them to some practices, and let them see the work you're doing. My dad played high school and college football, basketball, and baseball. All of my athletic talent comes from him, and he was so disappointed that I never got into softball or basketball that he has attended one (1!) of my swim meets in my entire career, and I've swum in hundreds of meets. Your coach, and your teammates will help you with suits, traditions, shaving advice, drag, taper, everything. All I can offer you is the advice of a high schooler who's been exactly where you are, and I can tell you that when you're doing a sport that you love, nothing else really matters, and the people you're worried about won't matter when you're in the water. You gotta do this for you, sugar, and enjoy finding a common oddity among your teammates. It takes extraordinary discipline and mentality to be a competitive swimmer, and those that got it, got it. Those that don't, don't get it. Good Luck!

I swam for my HS team and the other team sports considered swimming a "weak" sport. After my freshman year the new football coach had water training for the team. It is unbelievable how much respect they had for the swimmers after their new workouts. They would say that they had to swim 4 to 6 laps and asked how many we do in a practice. After telling them that on the 3 a day winter break days we would do about 10,000 yards they started to defend the sport greatly. I say if anyone wants to call it a "girlie" sport tell them to get in the water a couple of times and then make their decisions. Swim On!!!!!