This is a motivation question, not a reprise of an old debate.
I'm wondering if there are any swimmers posting Top 10's in the ultra-competitive middle age ranges who did NOT swim in college, or were not standout HS or age group swimmers.
I swam age group as a kid, then took a break for HS because we had no pool until my senior year. I swam my senior year, and was supposed to swim at my Div. III college, but bailed because I thought it would take too much time away from my chosen major of beer drinking, guitar playing, and chasing (invariably unsuccessfully) women.
After swimming off and on over the years, I joined masters in September, and swam my first meet in November. I'm in the 45-49 age group.
So I'm currently in those heady early days when my times are dropping, I've lost some weight, and I'm feeling stronger. My meet times suck, but at least they are all PB's because I can't even remember what strokes I swam in HS, much less any times (it was the 70's. Hmm)
I understand setting personal, achievable goals. I have those and am working toward them.
But like any red-blooded competitor, I look at the Top 10's and records to see just how high the bar is set. Pretty damn high is the answer. "Who are these guys," I wonder, and so I read the bios. "Former NCAA record holder" or "standout swimmer for Texas/Stanford/fill in blank here" jump out at me.
So are there any swimmers at the elite levels who are certified late bloomers? Or are we latecomers to the game doomed to be mid-level cannon fodder for the fast crowd?
I think it has a lot to do with learning to swim when you are young and have good muscle memory, which you did. But the HS and college swimming gives you a base for knowing how to train.
As someone who started in my late 30's, as a somewhat overweight, but fairly fit person, what I struggle with is technique. Something that people who learn as children just "know" how to do. I am not giving up though, and hope to outlive all the fast ones, and be in the top ten when I am 95!
:D
I did no formal swimming ever until I was 29 and joined the USMS team in Tucson. I swam my first meet (LCM) that year, and wasn't close at all in my free, but was in 100 ***. The 25 to 29 age group was not very competitive then. I was pretty fit at that point, had done a few triathlons the year before, had been in the Army for 4 years.
I'm now in the 35-39 age group, and I don't come anywhere near top 10 times for any of my freestyle. However, for some strange reason, the *** times aren't far off, especially the 200 ***. Maybe it is just that not as many people do those events, or maybe I was strong when I learned it as a kid and it somehow stuck with me.
Sure there are lots of late bloomers. I won't mention names, but in Kentucky we have a swimmer that just keeps winning and setting records and he didn't start swimming until his early 50's. I'm not sure if that's the age range you are talking about, but he impresses me everytime he swims.
I had never even looked at the top ten times before reading this thread. I found it very interesting.
It appears that I have top ten times in four of the six events in which I competed last year, including the top time in one event. That was in the 25-29 age group. I've been swimming forever, and I did swim in college, but I was not a stand-out swimmer. I was only a walk-on at a Div. I school. My coaches have always appreciated me for my work ethic, but I've never been the one that they're going to put on an "A" relay.
My training partner, a 45 year-old male, placed in the top ten in one event, the 100 ***. He did not swim in college, but was an age group swimmer. He only started training seriously again when I recruited him out of a lap lane three years ago. He is very close to the top ten in several of the shorter freestyle events, and the way he's training now, I would be surprised if he doesn't get in there this year.
We have a great coach, and I think that makes all the difference.
I truly believe that it all comes dwon to accessiblity, good coaches, and experience. I swam sometimes as a child, a lot in high school and then for a while at both small colleges I went to. However, I never had a really good coach. In high school my coach retried my senior year. He had never coached swimming until my sophmore year. His name was Fish. In high school I learned a lot from the girls' coach who also taught the swimming classes. The first college I went to the coach was right out of grad school and was far more interested in picking up girls. Then I went to a very small college (there were only 967 students there) with a terrible pool. I don't remember this coache's name even. Wen I was in high school this college had a pretty good team. That team's coach left. Small colleges tend to have either coaches that have been there forever and not always any good or coaches who are trying to make it either to a big high school or just starting their career.
Jim:
All American selections are not final until the 2005 year is over. That means all of the 3 courses (SCY, LCM, SCM). The 2005 SCM Top Ten has not been released yet and that is the final course for the selection of the 2005 USMS Pool All Americans. Any day now you will see the preliminary listing on this website and when it becomes final the 2005 season will be final. USMS notifys swimmers with a congratulations letter and a signed USMS Certificate from the President of USMS. At least that is what I know of the past since I received some. The USMS All American and USMS All Star lists are usually published in the USMS swim publication in the May/June issue of the following year. For some sort of reason, the 2004 USMS All American/All Star list for Pool and Open Water was extremly late getting into the USMS publication but made it in toward the end of last year.
One this process is done you can order your patches for USMS Top Ten and Relay patches. Check the Top Ten page to send for the correct patches because it sometimes changes from year to year.
Jim,
Thanks for the congrats. I was pretty pleased to see my results. I had no idea that having a top time makes me an All American -- pretty cool! I've aged up to the next group for this year, so I'll have to see if my times hold up.
First of all congrats on all the top ten times last year!....especially your first place time. Its kinda wierd though that you didn't know about your first place time though?....I would have thought that you would have been notified about that by USMS since that makes you an All American in that event. Do the swimmers themselves have to notify USMS in order to receive thier All American patches etc...?....or top ten patches for that matter?...I guess I just assumed the swimmers were contacted by mail or something....but since I didn't make the top ten last year in any events, I wouldn't know?
Newmastersswimmer
