Help please

I'm new to masters' swimming myself and my swimming talent won't impress you, but I know what it is to miss old friends and also to sometimes feel you've lost the interest/desire for something you used to love. It may be that part of what you loved about swimming was bound up with your old team-mates, so it's very hard to relate to new team-mates and maybe different types of practices or coaching. Have you had a chance to talk with any of your new team-mates one on one? Maybe start with just one person in the group... invite him/her to join you for coffee or something low-key. (Some clubs have snack bars on premises or at least a coffee machine.) Just maybe get to know one person and it could help break the ice with the others. When I first started with a masters' group, I found that altho people were at first reserved (not unfriendly, really, just they didn't know me so well), they opened up more when I wrote an article for a local paper about the group and got some quotes from them for the article. I think what I learned from that is that if you're listening with interest to people, they are apt to open up... not always, but often. You don't have to write an article but I think simply listening and showing interest in a friendly way helps a lot. As a newbie I always welcome advice from people with more ability and if you're friendly about it, I think people enjoy sharing what's helped them. Also... you might ask yourself what about swimming you most enjoyed when you did enjoy it: was it the competition? the workouts? just swimming on your own? Maybe if you enter some event you haven't tried before, that could rekindle your excitement. Are there, maybe, some open water races you've always wanted to try? Don't get discouraged. It's hard to make a big move, just give it time. And keep checking in here. These folks are pretty friendly, even to a slow swimmer like me.

I'm new to masters' swimming myself and my swimming talent won't impress you, but I know what it is to miss old friends and also to sometimes feel you've lost the interest/desire for something you used to love. It may be that part of what you loved about swimming was bound up with your old team-mates, so it's very hard to relate to new team-mates and maybe different types of practices or coaching. Have you had a chance to talk with any of your new team-mates one on one? Maybe start with just one person in the group... invite him/her to join you for coffee or something low-key. (Some clubs have snack bars on premises or at least a coffee machine.) Just maybe get to know one person and it could help break the ice with the others. When I first started with a masters' group, I found that altho people were at first reserved (not unfriendly, really, just they didn't know me so well), they opened up more when I wrote an article for a local paper about the group and got some quotes from them for the article. I think what I learned from that is that if you're listening with interest to people, they are apt to open up... not always, but often. You don't have to write an article but I think simply listening and showing interest in a friendly way helps a lot. As a newbie I always welcome advice from people with more ability and if you're friendly about it, I think people enjoy sharing what's helped them. Also... you might ask yourself what about swimming you most enjoyed when you did enjoy it: was it the competition? the workouts? just swimming on your own? Maybe if you enter some event you haven't tried before, that could rekindle your excitement. Are there, maybe, some open water races you've always wanted to try? Don't get discouraged. It's hard to make a big move, just give it time. And keep checking in here. These folks are pretty friendly, even to a slow swimmer like me.