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?
Since no one can seem to stop themselves from chiming in, I might as well join the party.
I do not believe swimming is any different from any other sport in regards to this whole late blooming point of view. Any sport you take up as a kid and practice for years on end you will probably, almost certainly, be better at as an adult. By the time I graduated college I had been in and around the pool for my whole life. But, I had also been playing basketball, baseball, skiing, etc. So, if I get hustled into one of those games now, while rusty, the basic sports skills and mindset are still there.
Here's where I might dovetail. If you are good enough to swim in college, at any level, you obviously have the drive and skills beyond non athletes and know what it takes to excel. Whereas I may think I'm working my tail off in the pool, someone who did it in college probably has a whole different mindset and training knowledge for pushing to get to the elite level/Top 10. For example, the other day we did 8 X 200 @ 2:45. I thought I was Capt Shark by leading my lane of 5. We have a swimmer who swam at a top 5 college program but is well into his 30s now. He did those 200s all *** on the same interval. So much for me being Capt. Shark, more like PFC Guppy.
For those who potentially lurk on this forum, please note that I do not, nor will I ever, agree that because you started late it is somehow unfair to judge you against other swimmers of the same age group, bloomin' or not.
I somewhat agree with Geek and Gull but it purely depends on the age group. In the Women, I find a big drop in times in the 45-49 age group and for sure in the 40-44 age groups. My take on this is that if you were to survey the women in those age groups you would find that more of them competed in collegiate swimming than the older groups above them. Say you did a study with the 4 age groups (55-59, 50-54, 45-49, and 40-44) I would bet that you would see more active participation in swimming in college and even at the club level when they were younger as you go down in the age groups. Title 9 changed a lot of this.
I am not sure if this would be true for the men but maybe a bigger % of men that swam in college swim in the younger age groups. Gull might be in the most populated age group competiting and thus his statement could be true.
For both Men and Women, I believe there is a trend in the younger age groups of swimming activity that has always taken place in more of there lifes. Another words, the older you go in Masters age groups the more there was a time break from swimming competition in your younger years. It could be as much as 30 years and for some it could be 0 years. More people in the younger age groups never became inactive because they could go right from High School/College/Club to competiting in USMS.
When masters swimming started it was for people 25 and up. Plus it didn't start to take off until 1972 so all of the people that could have swam in the 1950's and 1960's could not. I believe that if you were to do a survey, you would find more years of inactivity in competitve swimming as you moved up to the older age groups.
The result of all of this is to say that aging up has no real significance any more for the age groups of 25-29 and 30-34. Has you go up in age groups, aging up becomes more important. One only needs to study the Top Ten to see that this is an accurate statement.
I am a 50 yr old woman who only swam summer country club meets as a kid. I didn't swim in high school or college and began masters as a 40 year old. I regularly make top ten in my age group for SCM and LCM, and have made it in SCY a few times. I even won the 200 IM in Mission Viejo this year. But making top ten only started about 5 years ago when I started working with a great coach who redid all my strokes. Now I train 5 days a week and lift weights 3 days a week. However, my times are no where near as fast as the really elite women, most of whom swam high school and/or college. My point is, those of us who are late bloomers can enjoy much success, but probably will never beat those who have been competing their whole lives. But, success is not just making top ten- it's swimming faster this year than last year or attempting new strokes or distances.( or still being able to fit into last year's suit).
I am not sure about this part, but I think there are probably more women with stories like mine. Most of the men I know who are really fast have been at it their whole lives.
BillS (who started the thread) and I are in the 45-49 age group, which I believe is the largest and arguably among the most competitive. Again, I do not believe it is possible to make the top ten in our age group without a strong college swimming background.
