Hey all, I know this has come up before but my searches didn't really return anything.
I've been swimming with a masters team for a couple years now after a long break from swimming, I quit sophomore year of college after 10 years in the pool. I'm finally starting to get some speed back but feel that I need some more intense workouts to take it to the next step. The next step being to achieve some SCY top ten times and to place better at Nats. I think what I need is mainly more time in the pool and swimmers who are significantly faster than me to motivate me. The main event that I'd like to concentrate on is the 200 *** but on the side I'd like to improve my 100 and the 500+ Frees. I could probably have a decent 400 IM too. But all of these require some significant time in the pool as compared to 50s and 100s.
I love my masters team and will continue to swim and compete with them but am hoping to practice with an age group team a few times a week to augment this. Has anyone done specifically this before? How have you found the coaches, kids, and parents to be with a 30-something swimming with a bunch of teenagers? And how do most elite age group teams train these days? I'm hoping for 2 1/2 hour workouts in the 10k range (yeah, I know).
I'm going to email a few coaches and see what they say. And I'm bugging some of my coach friends but I wanted to get some opinions from other masters swimmers too.
Thanks for any tips.
Parents
Former Member
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!
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!
