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?
Parents
Former Member
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.
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.
