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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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....