Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Mon, 29 May 2006 10:55:33 GMT

I found this site this evening as I was looking for a beginner type workout, I have been out of the water for 20 years. I swam age group from age 5 through 18 in N. California. Looking forward to diving into the pool tomorrow for a workout.

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Mon, 29 May 2006 05:00:48 GMT

I swam in neighborhood leagues until age 10, then joined a nearby AAU team (1971). The training kicked in, things went well, but burned out at the start of my senior year of high school (1977) and I dropped out. Swam intramurals at college with a very "relaxed" training regimen but my 100 yd free time improved anyway. Stopped again after college until 1989 or so when a project I designed (hotel fitness center, with lap pool) enticed me to start splashing around a bit again. Found a masters team near my home and joined it because swimming alone was dull and unmotivating. Others on this team and I got into the triathlon gig and had a blast. First child came (1992) and dropped out again. Joined again, but did major construction work on my old house, plus a second child, and dropped out again. And so forth. Finally had to quit running due to bad joints. Being a gym rat didn't do it, needed that friendly competitive spirit and challenge for improvement that masters can bring. Mid-life crisis hits (2005), bought a sports car but pledged to start swimming again as part of the solution (or pact with the devil?). I swim with several groups, keeps it fresh. Been going reasonably strong ever since, I plan to continue many years. Masters has so much to offer, highly recommended. DV

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Sun, 28 May 2006 05:59:22 GMT

I swamAAU from 8-12 in San Diego in the 60s. Swam with a Rec Leauge from 12-18 in Northern California . Swam in High School. Then just swam laps for fitness for the last 30 years. Signed up for USMS so I could do the postal events and am looking for a team now. I am enjoying my swimming now more than ever and am really working on technique. Trying to get faster at 50 than at 18. We'll see, at least its a goal and something to work for. Paul

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Thu, 25 May 2006 16:13:56 GMT

I had to take a year of college off from competitive swimming because there was no way I could work out and take all the lab classes I needed. At UT-Knoxville the women's team had awful practice hours (middle of the afternoon). I kept swimming during that year, just not competitively, and not as much as I would have if I'd been on the team. Once I got to grad school I started with Masters, and have been struggling ever since.

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Michael Heather — Wed, 24 May 2006 01:10:44 GMT

I swam in HS, Junior College and Division 1 on scholarship. Started Masters right away, no break since 1976. Didn't think I would be in such a minority. Not in swimmming experience, but the quick transition. Maybe living in an area (Southern California) with an active Masters swimming presence helped.

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Mon, 22 May 2006 05:41:57 GMT

Swam through high school, then intramurals in college. Did other exercise - weights, cycling, racquetball, water skiing, then finally started swimming at 45 after essentially 23 years of no swimming as exercise. That was two years ago. I needed some kind of organized exercise to keep me active. I race now and a big help has been an excellent coach. Weird thing is that I'm a better breastroker now than anything else. I do not remember ever racing breastroke in high school. One thing that is the same - I still hate distance swimming.

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Fri, 19 May 2006 08:44:07 GMT

Swam summer club until I was 16 or 17, no high school or college. Started agan last spring at 50, teaching my 6 year old to swim (13 year old twins had been swimming age group for 2 years). Remembered how much I liked swimming, knew I needed to keep in shape (*hated* the treadmill!), so I signed up for USMS to give myself the 'carrot' of the occasional competition to keep myself working out. I've attended 4 meets since then with some improvement (even if small) each meet. (And, while my 'shape' is still somewhat round, my stamina has gotten much better!)

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

salgut — Fri, 19 May 2006 01:19:47 GMT

Grew up in CA in the early 60's, swam in an old AAU swim club from 10 until 13. Transplanted from CA to North Carolina in '79 (HUGE culture shock...but achieved a rather nice accent for awhile)....then to DC area....next to Michigan (MEE-shi-gin)... started swimming in Ann Arbor with masters at 50. I LOVE it....it keeps me sane...although some people might argue that....

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

aquageek — Thu, 18 May 2006 04:06:27 GMT

Originally posted by Matt S Let's face it. There are some programs that are easy to dislike. The South Florida Penal League All-Stars...er, University of Miami; U(niversity of) S(poiled) C(hildren); most any SEC team after their fans get all liquored-up Let's face it, jealousy breeds contempt. Football and liquor are like swimming and chlorine. GO DAWGS. Speaking of Terps, when is Ralph Friedgen going to explode? PSU needs to dump that relic of a coach and that relic of an offense. Happy Valley has turned into the JoPa Mausoleum of Mediocrity. The one good thing about the BCS, maybe the only good thing, is that those of us who love good football aren't forced year after year to watch some subpar Big Ten 5-and-a-cloud-of-dust team on New Year's Day in the Rose Bowl anymore.

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Wed, 17 May 2006 15:20:14 GMT

Originally posted by swimmieAvsFan not to mention my boyfriend is a lifelong terrapin (poor misguided soul!) Your poor parents - they must be distraught. ("We gave her everything and this is how she repays us.") You can console them with the fact that he's not from UWV or Pitt, at least. My in-laws went through the roof with my wife because I was from - gasp - New Jersey. They get over it, although it takes years from their lives. -LBJ

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Wed, 17 May 2006 15:15:11 GMT

Originally posted by swimmieAvsFan LBJ, they're so thankful he's not from ... Michigan that they're more than willing to overlook the Terp factor. ... :D As a Michigan alum whose sister graduated from Penn State, I take exception to that remark! Seriously, I went to high school 40 miles from Happy Valley, and I remember posters of Joe Pa being on the bulletin boards of my Jr (!) High School. I have the deepest respect for the Nittany Lions, and 51 weeks out of the year, they are tied for my favorite football team. My friends who are Penn State fans start talking trash that one other week out of the year, and I don't know what to do with myself. If I smack back, I feel like I'm punching myself in the face with my follow through. Let's face it. There are some programs that are easy to dislike. The South Florida Penal League All-Stars...er, University of Miami; U(niversity of) S(poiled) C(hildren); most any SEC team after their fans get all liquored-up; Nebraska, but only when they are whining their way to a National Championship (they're OK the rest of the time). For the most part, if you are not cheering for your favorite team's key rivals, well gosh, that must mean you don't really understand how they pick the teams going to the BCS Bowls. I've even learned how to say nice things about Ohio freakin' State, which is a whole lot easier with a class act like Jim Tressel in charge of the program. (Now if only their xenophobic, embittered fans would get the memo...) Matt

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

swimmieAvsFan — Wed, 17 May 2006 12:29:57 GMT

LBJ, they're so thankful he's not from Pitt, WVU, Notre Dame, or Michigan that they're more than willing to overlook the Terp factor. besides, my mom was nearly a Terp before she came to her senses and followed the family footsteps to happy valley. we've got no beef with the Terps, i mean, they've beaten us, what, twice in the history of the our schools' football programs? :D

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

dorothyrde — Wed, 17 May 2006 06:44:59 GMT

Originally posted by scyfreestyler I am surprised at how many other people there are on here besides myself with no prior swimming background. That speaks well for the organization and the sport that it can draw in members and competitors with no prior experience. I don't give that credit to USMS, never heard of it. I give the credit to the woman who was coaching the little Y time at the time. She was also my kids coach(still is), and she kept telling me I should join Masters. I kept telling her I could not swim, and she did not believe me since my kids swam so well. So after pestering me for a year, I decided I would take lessons. My daughter was 7 and I thought I would be able to swim laps while she swam summer rec club. I took 10 weeks of adult lessons at the Y, and swam on my own during the summer, and joined Masters in the fall. The coach was funny, she told me later, after I was swimming much better, that she had not believed I could not swim.....until she saw me swim for the first time!:D

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Tue, 16 May 2006 16:49:17 GMT

The short answer is "16 years off". As a kid I always wanted to be on a swim team and loved the water. My folks were against it due to the family time commitments and because they thought it was not a worthwhile pursuit compared to music lessons, etc. So I had to achieve a certain level of independence where I could get myself signed up on a team and to practices on my own. So I started swimming competitively very late as a 15-year-old on the Y team my junior year in HS and on the HS team my senior year (that was the first year they had an organized girl's team). Did AAU in the summer, no swim team available March through end of school. Our HS season was only September through first of November, then I continued with the Y team. Seems like there were probably a lot of people making it possible for me to swim -- the families that would give me rides, the coach and whoever else had to deal with my parents including for the bills (I guess that it was mailed to them.) I can tell a few stories of how I would get up to ride my bike to summer early morning workouts only to find that my parents had padlocked it, hidden it in the neighbor's garage, etc. Then I was a walk-on for my college women's team for 2 years. While I was dropping my times rapidly, we didn't do much yardage (3,000/workout, 5x/week) and my best events were the longer distances -- not the 50's and 100's my teammates trained for. My 2nd year there were some scholarship opportunities and women's swimming started getting a lot faster. I had big time drops up to my last meet but still had not scored a single point in dual or championship meets all season, so I quit as I felt like dead weight using up our limited pool space and budget. It pretty much broke my heart as I didn't think I had achieved what I was capable of. At my last meet I had finally learned how to use my lats and to accellerate my pull, had a 7-second drop in my 200 free, etc. After the college season was over in February there was no year-round team to train with so most of my conditioning gains were soon lost. After I quit the college team I took 16 years off from structured swim workouts. There were no Masters opportunities that I knew about, and the first two years post-college I "grew up" and tried to be an adult instead of playing. I went to a lot of happy hours, keg parties, extravagant dining evenings. Then I got back into lap swimming at a health club on and off, riding my bike, and then spent several years playing adult rec sports - bowling (?), racketball, volleyball, downhill skiing, softball, soccer. The adult rec sports were mostly playing for 30 minutes (tops) then going out for huge amounts of pizza and beer. They were also the "injury years" with lots of doctor visits -- jammed fingers, broken toe, knee problems, muscle pulls, sprained ankles, a dislocated/deranged shoulder, and finally a total knee blowout. With the knee blowout and big surgery my orthopedist medically retired me from all weight-bearing activities. Suddenly I had 6 days a week freed up. 9 weeks after the injury I was off crutches and I started swimming laps at the health club; as soon as I got out of rehab (6 months later) I joined a USMS team. The first 6 months with USMS I had to wear a high-tech knee brace 24x7 including in the pool and I had another knee surgery to reconstruct repairs that failed. It was a great experience at age 35 gunning to beat my college lifetime best times. I came close. My USMS team did more yardage than I had ever done before. Met some wonderful people on my team and at meets. As I came to grips with my talent level, I decided that I could make more of a contribution with my swim volunteering and that started to take priority at the expense of my own swimming. That started a 10-year quick slide in attendance and my physical condition. I am trying to get that back into balance now, although I still do what I can to give a little back to the sport.

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Tue, 16 May 2006 16:12:38 GMT

Swam from 7-14, quit to play football (big mistake), came to masters at age 34. My best stroke as a masters swimmer has been breastroke, which I had never swum as an age grouper. Go figure.

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Tue, 16 May 2006 16:08:49 GMT

Originally posted by fanstone And yet the quality of swimming in Brazil is so low that I actually win plenty of meets in my age group. Take care, billy fanstone Fanstone: Although in Latinamerica we do not have a World quality level, Brazil has actually the highest level of the region, I remember that when I have participated in Latinamerican Masters Championships and I find Brazilians in my heats, they are always in the four or five line (fastest lines). Regarding olympic games, it is not rare to find Brazilians at the finals. Ragarding Mexicans, I understand that we have only one swimming medal in the history of olympic games. In my case as in the case of many of the Master swimmers in Mexico, I stated to swim as a Master 12 years ago, with no other training nor swimming lesson before that, I knew how to swim free style because my father taugh us (my brothers and I) when children, but I remember it was a big challange for me to end a 500 meter training, now I am swimming around 5,000 meters five days a week, and even when my times are very far away from top 10 World times or even top 10 Mexican times, I am ready to participate at the Worlds at Standford and appear in every result sheet of my five events, I guess every one has its own goals.

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Tue, 16 May 2006 16:05:15 GMT

Took some swim lessons when I was about 7 or 8 years old but it never went any further than that. When I turned 30 I determined that I needed to become more active to maintain my health into the future and swimming seemed to fit the bill. I have never been overweight but I was still concerned about the condition of my heart, coronary arteries, cholesterol levels, etc.. As it turned out, my 30th more or less fell into the Athens Olympics so I suspect that had a certain influence on my choice as well. I started swimming by myself and somehow decided that it might be fun to compete. Here I am.

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Tue, 16 May 2006 15:11:55 GMT

I swam at DePauw University (div III) for two years and then quit competitive swimming in 1962. Once I became aware of USMS in about 1990 I started competing again. In the interim, I trained on my own in convenient recreation center pools - always constant speed swimming and NEVER any intervals. -- mel

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Tue, 16 May 2006 14:29:02 GMT

Originally posted by aquageek Why didn't Paul Smith...cry foul when Cruise swam in our nats? Who allowed that foreigner in? It won't happen again--the National Guard will stop him at the border.

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Tue, 16 May 2006 13:34:38 GMT

I joined in 2003 after a 25 year "break" (over the years I had been in the pool intermittently, at most 1500 yards 2-3x/wk). Wish I joined sooner--great organization and great people (noodles notwithstanding).

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

knelson — Tue, 16 May 2006 12:26:48 GMT

I swam through college. Finished that in March 1992. Started back in Masters in September 2002. Not sure what took me so long!

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

A.K. — Tue, 16 May 2006 10:26:27 GMT

Had major Asthma when born-Drs said I should rest - Dad thought I should build my lungs and got me into competitive swimming when I was 5-6 yr old. Swam hard/competitively until I was 20-21. Took a 20/21 year break and did not swim workouts or exercise. Looked at my bulging stomach/shirt after wheezing up a flight of stairs and made a plan- 1/05 when I started dryland then started gradually back in swimming end of July/August 2005. Lost 29 LBs and increased calorie intake- life is good!

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

aquageek — Tue, 16 May 2006 10:20:32 GMT

I quit swimming at 14 or so, although I was mostly just a summer leaguer anyway, to pursue wine, women and song full time for the next 13 years. I guess I finally decided swimming was gonna be an important part of my life again about 5 or 6 years ago, although I have been swimming with Masters teams for about 10 years now. The best thing about Masters is COMPETITION. There, I said it. I enjoy competing at practice, being pushed at practice and even goofing around at practice. Gull doesn't like it when I use the term practice. Oh yeah, and in the past three years I've come to love open water. Such a nice break from the pool, everyone should give it a try, unless you live in Florida with the gators. Why didn't Paul Smith, his most highness of USMS, cry foul when Cruise swam in our nats? Who allowed that foreigner in?

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

swimmieAvsFan — Tue, 16 May 2006 09:27:24 GMT

started swimming at age 8. swam up through the fall of sophomore year in college then switched to water polo when i got into my major (biochemistry- lots of labs that conflicted with swim practice). discovered our masters team at penn state the summer before my last semester of college and have been doing masters swimming ever since (working on year #4). and loving every second of it. :)

RE: Did you go straight into Masters Swimming or did you take time off.

Former Member — Tue, 16 May 2006 09:20:23 GMT

I am surprised at how many other people there are on here besides myself with no prior swimming background. That speaks well for the organization and the sport that it can draw in members and competitors with no prior experience.