Rise of the "Professional" Masters Swimmer?

LMAO! "I pace myself, and I win...every time!" I also liked the part where he said that if you swim marathon races....you know...races that are around 2 or 3 laps LOL!! That guy was hilarious! thanks for the video clip George!! NOW to be more SR and on topic: I want to train harder myself b/c one of my secret (but now not so secret thanks to Kirk) Nemesis dudes is a real hard professional like trainer......but can he swim a 200 fly?...huh....well can he??...Yeah I didn't think so...haha...Yaeh thats right!! Did I just say that out loud? LOL! :rofl: Bork

Besides the one year I took off after retiring from USA Swimming, I have been swimming for 28 years. I'm amazed that it's been that long, because it doesn't seem like it has been that long. But if you stretch out all your accomplishments over time, and factor in the many miles of garbage yardage you do, the years add up. So Jeff, I've been swimming longer than you've been alive. Don't worry; it makes ME feel old.

I feel very comfortable in writing this. Athletic greatness comes in many forms and waves of certain people and I am almost certain that their greatness is NOT just based on their training and their ability to train. Some people have something extra that allows them to gravitate toward greatness. On the other hand, many have a personal longing to be the best and will sacrifice, both good and bad, for it to achieve it. For some, greatness is their bottom line and if they have a propensity for swimming, they will go to any degree in their life to achieve it. But if their entire purpose is for the recognition, I sometimes wonder if their personal life suffers for the ability to say "this or that" of their achievements. It all depends on what is important for them and to them. Donna Having watched age group swimming for 12 years, I so agree with this. Last weekend as I ran the computers at our 3 day meet, I watched one young lady at 13 just kill the competition. She would often not be ahead, until the last 50 and there is just something in her that won't lose. There is a considerable amount of jealousy going on, because the other girls do not think she works hard enough in practice, but she is doing something right!

I just watched this video, Matt is a pro swimmer and coach and I try to use his technique whenever possible. Does this include the snack float?...for those long races. :D

How else can you do a long distance swim if you do not take food with you??? In Mexico I used to get my snacks at the swim up bar.

My friend Joey Gubbins a guy was a baton twirler when he was younger. I rescued him from a life of twirling and got him to come swimming with me when he was 12 years old.

How else can you do a long distance swim if you do not take food with you??? In Mexico I used to get my snacks at the swim up bar. And of course Matt defined "long dsitance" as 2 or 3 laps in the video...Which is an awful long distance to go without nourishment now LOL!!

In Mexico I used to get my snacks at the swim up bar. By the looks of your avatar...I see they like to super size the drinks down there too! Thanks for the humor today.

I have enjoyed everyone's thoughts on this thread. My observation is that those who are tops in their age groups are swimmers who were always fast and possess that talent and determination and even if they did take a few years off to establish careers or have families with a certain amount of training will be able to rise back to the top again. The Olympians among us, even the older ones, are just in another dimension. I have never been a particularly fast swimmer, my strength is in my love of the sport and the strong will to train - I like the challenge of testing myself. I know there are athletes my age who are more talented and have much more potential for improvement and achievement than I do no matter how hard I work at it. Am I inspired by these swimmers? Impressed? A little jealous? Yes to each question. Do I begrudge them their gifts? Absolutely not. We each walk our own paths and I wouldn't give back who I am in this world, any of the life I have lived or the place where I am now. I am also swimming a lot differently than I ever have, my strokes have changed greatly in the last three years. I spend a fair amount of time watching those great athletes of all ages and accomplishments, either live at worlds or nationals such as this weekend, or any video I can find (over and over and over, just ask my family) looking for what they do that I can adopt to help my swims get faster.

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.