Hi, I am somewhat new to Masters Swimming. I swam competitively ( somewhat!) when I was younger but for the last 30 years have been a fitness lap swimmer ( 1650yds @ 24: 30 ) I have done a few postal challenges and have been thinking about competing in a meet, it has been 30 years since I have started off a block or dove at all because I have a bad shoulder. Long story already but do they allow in water starts? Is this to geeky to even show up at a meet? Do I just have to figure out how to dive without dislocating my shoulder? I train alone so don't have access to blocks. Any help would be GREAT! I have really been enjoying my swimming and trying to get faster, fun after 30 years of just fitness swimming. Thanks, Paul
I'm a masters' swimming newbie--and really NO competitive experience from my (wild and misspent) youth. Did my FIRST swim meet last year, and so my coach talked me through a couple of practice dives off the block... but I still felt uneasy, so on my first event, I went off the side of the pool... and my goggles came off. Now, swimming a 50 w/out goggles isn't the disaster that swimming a 400 without goggles might be (can you say "red-eye"). But still, it doesn't make the task any easier. So the next event I started in the pool. And wasn't any faster, but at least I could see.
Went to my second meet and took my dive off the side of the pool which seemed to be fine, since I chose an old pair of goggles that I'd abandoned because they gave me a headache... but they DID STAY ON. And I achieved the small measure of respectability that diving into rather than starting from in the pool allowed... and I repeat... small. But the key, I decided, was survival, not making it look pretty.
And if I looked dorky b/c of my choices, I figure, no big deal, since as a newcomer, you're allowed a certain amount of dorkiness. ;)
I'm a masters' swimming newbie--and really NO competitive experience from my (wild and misspent) youth. Did my FIRST swim meet last year, and so my coach talked me through a couple of practice dives off the block... but I still felt uneasy, so on my first event, I went off the side of the pool... and my goggles came off. Now, swimming a 50 w/out goggles isn't the disaster that swimming a 400 without goggles might be (can you say "red-eye"). But still, it doesn't make the task any easier. So the next event I started in the pool. And wasn't any faster, but at least I could see.
Went to my second meet and took my dive off the side of the pool which seemed to be fine, since I chose an old pair of goggles that I'd abandoned because they gave me a headache... but they DID STAY ON. And I achieved the small measure of respectability that diving into rather than starting from in the pool allowed... and I repeat... small. But the key, I decided, was survival, not making it look pretty.
And if I looked dorky b/c of my choices, I figure, no big deal, since as a newcomer, you're allowed a certain amount of dorkiness. ;)
