Some elite masters swimmers appear to be almost quasi "professional" in terms of the time and energy they devote to the sport and my impression is that there are more and more of such swimmers competing in masters now. At least in my two masters age groups to date, women's 40-44 and 45-49, there is a true professional swimmer (KPN), past Olympians swimming amazing times, professional triathletes and professional engine builders. (My spies tell me about their yardage.) Times across the board in my age group were much faster this year than last year. Not sure about the men's times or other women's times. Is it similar?
It seems like a massive amount of time is involved to put in all the yardage, weights, drylands, stretching, RC exercises, cross-training necessary and to go to all the PT, ART, orthopod and massage appointments. Their dedication is admirable. But I have difficulty fitting this all in. :violin: I'm sure most others must too. Life and kids definitely interfere with even getting to practice, wholly apart from a total devotion to swimming. So I can't out-train anyone.
Am I only imagining that masters swimming is getting more competitive? The phenoms are all just genetically talented swimmers? Thoughts anyone?
JUST TO BE PERFECTLY CLEAR, I AM NOT CRITICIZING ANYONE, JUST ASKING QUESTIONS.
Nice observation Fort. I have thought about this subject more than once and each time I come to the same conclusion. I could put more time into swimming but it would mean a sacrafice of something else. In my life, that would mean less time with my wife and kids, less time to take care of things around the house, less time to enjoy my photog addiction, etc. There are only so many hours in the day and we all need to make decisions about how much time USMS is allowed to consume. I suspect as my kids get older and become more independent there will be more time to swim but I don't ever want to look back after they have graduated from high school and think ..."Man, I wish I would have spent more time enjoying the days of their youth rather than preparing for that Masters Meet that nobody even remembers".
Well, that's pretty much what I think as well; it's a sliding scale and most of us need to sleep some. Not going to put the kids up for adoption so that I can swim more either. I'm sure most of us feel that life-swim "tension" whether we have kids or not.
But, still, it seems like masters swimming is getting more and more competitive in general, hence the apparent rise of the quasi-professional. What accounts for that?
Nice observation Fort. I have thought about this subject more than once and each time I come to the same conclusion. I could put more time into swimming but it would mean a sacrafice of something else. In my life, that would mean less time with my wife and kids, less time to take care of things around the house, less time to enjoy my photog addiction, etc. There are only so many hours in the day and we all need to make decisions about how much time USMS is allowed to consume. I suspect as my kids get older and become more independent there will be more time to swim but I don't ever want to look back after they have graduated from high school and think ..."Man, I wish I would have spent more time enjoying the days of their youth rather than preparing for that Masters Meet that nobody even remembers".
Well, that's pretty much what I think as well; it's a sliding scale and most of us need to sleep some. Not going to put the kids up for adoption so that I can swim more either. I'm sure most of us feel that life-swim "tension" whether we have kids or not.
But, still, it seems like masters swimming is getting more and more competitive in general, hence the apparent rise of the quasi-professional. What accounts for that?
