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.
Perhaps forum grudge matches such as this will spur increased competition in the men's ranks?
I think there's plenty of competition already, I just don't think the competition has necessarily gotten stiffer over the last few years on the men's side. Maybe some will disagree with me, but I think the women's side (especially from age 50 up) used to be a little soft and there were many more records "ripe for the picking" than on the men's side. Maybe one factor is Title IX and the first wave of women who benefitted from it are reaching this age bracket. I haven't looked at this statistically, but I bet you'll find the men's records in the older age group are closer to the American Records (i.e., the ones maintained by USA Swimming) on a percentage basis than the women's are.
Perhaps forum grudge matches such as this will spur increased competition in the men's ranks?
I think there's plenty of competition already, I just don't think the competition has necessarily gotten stiffer over the last few years on the men's side. Maybe some will disagree with me, but I think the women's side (especially from age 50 up) used to be a little soft and there were many more records "ripe for the picking" than on the men's side. Maybe one factor is Title IX and the first wave of women who benefitted from it are reaching this age bracket. I haven't looked at this statistically, but I bet you'll find the men's records in the older age group are closer to the American Records (i.e., the ones maintained by USA Swimming) on a percentage basis than the women's are.
