Can we really go back in time??

Sometimes. This year I turned 40 and last weekend I swam a 5:11 500 free. My best time in high school/college was a 5:32. Granted I seldom swam the 500 back then as I was a sprinter. What I've found is my distance seems to be getting faster and my sprints slower but then again I swam a 49.85 100 free last weekend and thats my fastest since 2000. So, who really knows!

Is it possible to now - 30 years later - to do times that you were doing in HS or maybe even better? In HS I was doing: .26 sec in 50 free .32 sec. 50 back 1:00 in 100 free Currently: 30 in 50 free 35 in 50 back 1:08 in 100 free I'd say (and many more I would bet) that it's all relative. An Ian Thorpe or a Michael Phelps at 60 would never be able to achieve their times as World-Class swimmers. However a mediocre HS swimmer could certainly, at 30 or 40 or 50 learn proper technique and with practice be so much better than his past Check out this site for a comparison table http://n3times.com/swimtimes/ For example: My time this year (2007) in a 50 LCM free was 35.16. According to the formula I would have been doing 28.50 at age 20. However at age 20, my PB was 27.20 (which in turn, means that I should be doing 33.56 at 64, now). Therefore I can attribute that loss of 1.2 seconds to 40+ years of non-swimming (I stopped at 21-ish) and 45 years of heavy smoking (but I quit on 02/02/2002) (Strangely enough, it looks as if Finns are (like I was for a time) couch potatoes and smokers. Why? you ask. According to the Finnish formula, 27.20 at age 20 translates to 35.16 at 64; my exact time to the 1/100th of a second Saturday 24th of February. And I'm not a Finn).

I started swimming at 12 on a summer league when we moved to California. I was really good for the league by the time I was 14. I swam in highschool and on summer leagues until I was 18. I was a mediocre high school swimmer (competing against kids who swam year-round). I did however place ninth in state in the 100 breaststroke in New Mexico (all the girls who beat me swam year round) (that and our first place medly relay that year were my claim to high school fame:rofl: ). Speed forward 25 years and I start swimming again (October 2006). Instead of a bunch of summer league and high school swimmers crammed into a 6 or 8 lane 25 yard pool with me and with one coach for all of us, I now have a coach that I only have to share with two to five other swimmers (we each get our own lane). There are days when I am the only one at practice (like today) and boy do I get coached!!!!! He worked me really hard this morning (endorphines lasted until noon:groovy: )(we are engine building for LC nationals in August). Anyway, despite the fact that I only swim 3 days a week with the coach and maybe one weekend day by myself, I feel that I am getting exceptional technique instruction as well as conditioning. I am very tall with a muscular build and despite my telling him that I am a breaststroker and the fact that he could see that I could not swim butterfly if my life depended on it, at the end of January, he told me I was a butterflyer :laugh2: . Since then, he has worked with me doing drills and practicing, and though I always detested butterfly, I can now do a decent 50 meters of it without my stroke falling apart:applaud:. I have a meet June 10th to try to get qualifying times for nationals, and will enter my first ever butterfly event (50 meter) then :banana: . Long story short, I think we can go back in time and maybe be even better than we were if conditions change (for the better). Great Coach (1980 Olympic Team (the year the US did not play)), Coach focusing on me and maybe a few other swimmers, not a pool full of swimmers, adult focus and desire to improve. I won't really know my times or if I have improved since high school until June, but I am optimistic, mostly from the encouragement I am getting from him. I am the only swimmer from my team swimming in the meet, but the coach is preparing me with the meet in mind (the rest of the team gets to do my workout and taper) :) .

For me - yes! I'm very close to my times as an adult. Although, as one poster said it's relative. I loafed lots of practices as a kid and I work harder as an adult (a little bit.) Second, our state (GA) now has an ADULT SUMMER LEAGUE TEAM! How cool is that!! 4 dual meets and one Championship meet. Age groups are under 40 and 40 and over!! Time to turn 14 again!! If you are in GA - sign up and go to atlantaswimming.com for more info!

No, not even close now.

Is it possible to now - 30 years later - to do times that you were doing in HS or maybe even better? In HS I was doing: .26 sec in 50 free .32 sec. 50 back 1:00 in 100 free Currently: 30 in 50 free 35 in 50 back 1:08 in 100 free I misread the post originally but it is possilble!

I am sure I cannot. When I was 64 I thought it may be possible now at 74 I know it is not.

I can't in running, but I been doing it in swimming for 18 months now!!:groovy:

Sort of. Earlier this year, at age 48, I equaled times in the 500 and the 1000 that I did at 18. Of course at 18 I swam those times unshaved, untapered, and without a Fastskin. And I was faster at 19 and 20.

Is it possible to now - 30 years later - to do times that you were doing in HS or maybe even better? In HS I was doing: .26 sec in 50 free .32 sec. 50 back 1:00 in 100 free Currently: 30 in 50 free 35 in 50 back 1:08 in 100 free I would say it depends on what level one was back then. Somebody could have been a mediocre young swimmer, laid off for 10 or 20 years, got back in and learned to do it properly and worked hard. But I don't think a World-Class swimmer could be better at 50 or 60 than he was at 19-24 It's all relative.