practicing with age group team?

Justin, I moved across the country and found that I wasn't getting enough time in the pool with the local masters team so I asked the age group coach if I could join them. It has been a year now and I love it. I practice with their senior program for 90 min a practice on weekdays and 2 hours on Sat. They have a higher level practice but it's invite only and I haven't been invited. Those kids do 3 hours a day and 3 hours on Sat. I love the kids I swim with. They keep me young feeling (I'm 36). The parents don't seem to mind and some welcome it since I can be a "friendly" influence on their kids. The coaches have been super in supporting me and my goals. They let me taper when I need to and work harder on certain days when needed, too. The team has been so good that I went to their ack to swim picnic this weekend. I'm a part of them! I highly recommend getting in with an age group team if you need more than what you are getting. Good luck. Alison

Thanks for replies. I'm glad to hear that it's working well for other swimmers. How did you guys find your teams and get invited? Does it just happen to be the local team? As for swimming so much yeah it does sound crazy, I'm not so sure about it myself. But it's closer to what we used to do in college. And as good as my masters workouts are an hour a day doing 3000-4000 is probably not enough for the results I'm looking for in those events. Although I really wonder if there's something wrong in my head. 200 *** and 400 IM? Yep, I think there is. Maybe this is why the 50s seem to be so popular in usms.

10K, 2.5 hour workouts!? Good luck with that. From what I hear, Santa Clara has a pretty intense team, perhaps they could accomodate your borderline insane workout requirements! As for swimming with the team, I have an open invitation to swim with our senior age groupers whenever I want, and when I have things go quite well. There are kids who are faster than you and some that are slower.

My daughter swims on the novice team so I just started getting in during that time period and basically became the first person on their Masters team. Shortly thereafter the head coach invited me to swim with her senior group. The rest is history...albeit rather boring history.

Justin, I too have recently switched from the masters group to the age group club for many of the same reasons. My masters group do alot of yardage but most of it is distance freestyle and I want to get my sprints better. Now I am doing doubles with the age groupers and I do some days distance, some sprints, some recovery and some stoke work. Today was recovery(AM)/fly-sprint(PM) day for a total of 8750. It was great. Good luck with your decision, if you want to improve it is really the best way to do it.

I've only had very positive responses from all the age group/ senior coaches and swimmers. I sorta get the best of both worlds - I swim with both masters and senior/ age group. I'm swimming mornings with the masters group (1.5 hours and we do anywhere up to 5500 yards) and then I'll do doubles twice a week with the senior team (1.5 hours although I'm working on building up to 2 hours and 5 to 6K during afternoon sessions). I find both groups challenging and equally fun and entertaining - while being completely different. I'm going to give it a year and see if it all pays off at the meets. Even if it doesn't, I feel like I'm getting in the best shape of my life in the meantime. Age group swimming now places a lot of emphasis on SDK, kicking, core body position/ strength and breath control - all things that I am in serious need of! Also, there's an emphasis on the well rounded swimmer, so there's lots of IM going on. When I swam as a kid, we did not even have the term SDK (at least that I was aware of!) :rofl: Since you are in your 30s (like me), you may look like some of the seniors and even get asked what grade you are in. If you are looking to swim 10K, most likely, you'll shoot for Senior I or the Nat group. Depending on the club and from my experience, I would expect you need to be able to easily hold 1:10 intervals for 100 yard free repeats. But ask your coach what the kids hold so you can gauge if you can hang or not. I found that emailing the coaches worked well as an intro and then I met them in person. Was easy as pie. Best of luck and let us know how it goes!

Thanks for all the advice. I'm happy to hear that others have had success with age group teams. Now I just need to find one and hope that my body can keep up.

Thanks for replies. I'm glad to hear that it's working well for other swimmers. How did you guys find your teams and get invited? Does it just happen to be the local team? . 200 *** and 400 IM? Yep, I think there is. Maybe this is why the 50s seem to be so popular in usms. For me it was just the local age group team. With family and time issues I couldn't have looked for another team really. As for your events, join the club. I've been a 200 ***-er since I was 11. I added the 400 IM this past year. With age group, we do a lot of fly so it's good practice (3x200 is typical). Alison

Just avoid the team I tried working out with this summer - workouts that started with a 1500yd *** stroke as the warm up. Had there been a sane coach with achievable workouts, it would have been a great experience.

I am wanting to start swimming with the age group team again. I swam this summer with them and registered with USA-S because I did a couple meets with the kids. I am not planning on doing any USA-S meets this fall or winter. So my question is... Does my USMS card cover me to practice with an age group team or do I still need to sign up with USA-S? I am trying to save as much money as possible.