The other day I was walking to my car when I noticed the car parked next to me had a vanity license plate "SWIMFLY". I walked up to the man driving the car and we started talking about swimming and competing.
He said he swam at Nationals in 2001 and he was waiting until he turned 60 to swim at another meet. I told him that he should go to more meets because they are really fun. This guy is a really great swimmer. He still holds the State record in all of the butterfly events and he won the majority of his races at nationals.
This got me thinking - what is it that is keeping swimmers from entering races? I realize there are a ton of fitness swimmers who don't want to compete and I understand that. But beyond that what is the reason?
For me personally, I waited to enter my first meet because I didn't think I was fast enough and I didn't want to be embarrassed. I am so sorry it took me so long to go to a race - I think they are really fun.
A number of those I swim with are burned out on swimming meets, yet others just make up excuses for not competing (I'm not ready yet, I'm too slow, I'm too heavy, etc).
Masters swimmers need to realize that we are starting new as swimmers, everything we did earlier does not matter. I like seeing improvement and in order to do that I needed to know where I was starting from so 4 weeks after getting in the pool I did my first meet. With a bad back and having difficulty bending over for a start let alone doing flip turns, couldn't pull myself out of the water and being 220 lbs I did my first meet.
Not every meet produces best times for me but I usually focus on one or two per season, the rest are just practice at racing (doing starts, experimenting with stroke, etc) and supporting the local meets so that there might be more meets available in the future. Lets support our sport!
After three years of going to meets by myself, this year I have been lucky enough to have found a few more people from my team to join me and they are actually finding meets to be fun and you meet lots of great people who share a common interest in swimming.
Donna
A number of those I swim with are burned out on swimming meets, yet others just make up excuses for not competing (I'm not ready yet, I'm too slow, I'm too heavy, etc).
Masters swimmers need to realize that we are starting new as swimmers, everything we did earlier does not matter. I like seeing improvement and in order to do that I needed to know where I was starting from so 4 weeks after getting in the pool I did my first meet. With a bad back and having difficulty bending over for a start let alone doing flip turns, couldn't pull myself out of the water and being 220 lbs I did my first meet.
Not every meet produces best times for me but I usually focus on one or two per season, the rest are just practice at racing (doing starts, experimenting with stroke, etc) and supporting the local meets so that there might be more meets available in the future. Lets support our sport!
After three years of going to meets by myself, this year I have been lucky enough to have found a few more people from my team to join me and they are actually finding meets to be fun and you meet lots of great people who share a common interest in swimming.
Donna
