General Tips for Making it to State (High School Swimming)

You would not reach the State meet in Texas in either 4A or 5A with your times. I don't think Razor suggested his times are state cuts, rather making state cuts are his goal and that's why he's seeking advice.

It is easy to say that it is good to join the winningist team than to take private lesson. In our case, we want to support our swimming program with new coach - we are starting from ground up; I believe that we will make a big difference in a few years from now. While we wait, we can drive one hour and half to a good team for private lessons. I simply cannot drive that much each way everyday when I have other things to do. Thus, private lessons along with working out with your team is an ideal combination. :shrugs shoulders:

You might let us know what times you are shooting for. Each state has different qualifying times. Our state does not have 50 back and fly at state. It also depends on whether you are a boy or girl as well, how much more you can drop. Boys have continuing growth on their side through high school, girls do not.

Hey, Im a junior in high school, and this is my second year swimming on an official swim team. I joined the swim team as a joke my sophomore year, but I now love the sport and want to take it very seriously. I moved up to JV last year and I'm now looking to move up to varsity this year and do very well in the 200 I.M. My stroke techniques need lot of work. My *** is by far my best followed by the freestyle. The backstroke and butterfly are pretty much the same. My *** is pretty decent and my coaches have said I'm doing it right. However with my back and freestyle, my hips are swinging out and I'm fishtailing. My coach tried telling me how to do it, but I'm still doing it. How do I fix this? With my butterfly, I feel like it's a little strained and it doesn't really flow like I feel it should. Also my kicking is very very weak. After a 50 freestyle/Back/Fly and i start burning out (especially fly since I don't really know how to do it) *** kick is cake. My sophomore year I swam the 100 *** at 1:17.21 My times as of now are: 50 Freestyle: 27.3 Seconds 100 ***: 1:26.54 50 Back: 38 Seconds 50 Fly: 32 Seconds Right now I'm training primarily through weight lifting (Working on all areas of the body,) and some swimming. I am really looking to go from being a decent swimmer to someone who can place 1st in state (ideally : D) Any advice would be appreciated. I'm not convinced this post is for real. Please tell us more - like what state you live in and whether you are male or female. I assume male because of your weightlifting comment. How can you be serious about swimming if you are primarily training through weight lifting? You would not reach the State meet in Texas in either 4A or 5A with your times. Last year 3rd place in 4A State Boys was a 1:58.2 and 1st was a 1:53. 14th place was a 2:09. 16th place in 50 free was 22.68. 16th place in 100 *** was 1:04.75. 5A times were even faster. Texas times are fast but many other large states have similar times. Perhaps high school swimming is much slower in your state. You say you have coaches. They can actually see you swim so you should seek help from them. If you are serious - the best advice is to get much more time in the water with the best coaching possible. Usually that means a USA-S team. Adding power via weight lifting is probably a waste of time for you right now. Your greatest time improvements will occur with both a technique (stroke) and aerobic fitness improvement. Sorry if this comes across as rude.

Illinois girls times: 200 Yard Freestyle 1:57.14 200 Yard Individual Medley 2:12.69 50 Yard Freestyle 24.84 100 Yard Butterfly 1:00.14 100 Yard Freestyle 53.99 500 Yard Freestyle 5:13.93 100 Yard Backstroke 1:00.82 100 Yard Breaststroke 1:08.59 Illinois boys times 200 Yard Freestyle 1:47.26 200 Yard Individual Medley 2:01.57 50 Yard Freestyle 22.26 100 Yard Butterfly 53.93 100 Yard Freestyle 48.73 500 Yard Freestyle 4:52.13 100 Yard Backstroke 55.47 100 Yard Breaststroke 1:02.46 These are in yards.

In Texas, when I swam high school, we had to finish in the top two in our region to qualify for State - there were no qualifying times. This complicates things because different regions had different achievement levels depending on the year and who moved in/out. From this experience, I'd add that learning how to compete in meets at your very best performance level is something to strive for and takes a lot of practice. Go to meets regularly. Perfect technique, great training and desire need to translate into a singular performance to qualify and again to swim well at State. Unfortunately, a good workout swimmer is not necessarily a great championship competitor, and I've seen some pretty questionable form move awful fast when the gun sounded. dV

In most states, I would expect that swimmers who are likely to qualify for and place at the statewide HS swim meet swim year-round. They work closely with their coaches on form and conditioning. Lifting is helpful for developing power; and cross-training in running, cycling, or rowing can be great for your heart and endurance; but the most important practice for swimming is swimming. As a teenager with very little swimming experience, your most important step to achieving your best swimming is to involve yourself in a solid age-group program with a coach and teammates that you trust. I disagree that you should hunt for the coach from the "winningest" team and ask for private lessons. Hunt for that team and then join it, because the coach isn't the only reason that team wins. I would also suggest that you work with your coach and your teammates to set some intermediate goals. Maybe you will turn out to be that unusually talented person who can go from "joke" to "champion" in three years, but maybe you won't. You can develop solid swimming skills that enable you to love and enjoy this sport for the rest of your life even if you don't win an event at a big meet, or qualify for state, or pay for college through swimming. Intermediate goals will help you figure out whether or not your ultimate goal is realistic, and they will also help you learn to love swimming and to achieve your best even if your best turns out to be statistically average.

I don't know if you are male or female but those are good times for someone who has only been swimming as long as you have and you should feel good about that! Swimming is nearly all physics. You could try as hard as you like and be super strong but with poor form you are not going to go fast. And vice versa--even if you aren't the strongest person or trying your hardest if you have good form you will go faster than someone with poor form (and of course, being strong and trying hard while swimming with good form would be best of all.) What I would recommend is see if you can find a good stroke coach and get some stroke work done. I agree that often times this is with a year round team. My high school coach was a great guy (I'm sure still is) but he did not do stroke work with us almost at all. I got that from swim camps and a bit from my year round team. Olympic swimmers generally do stroke work all the time. It is super important because over time we can forget proper form and start to get sloppy so all swimmers can benefit from it, no matter how good. I think weights are great and will help but they should not be your primary source of training. Swimming comes first and if you can also do weights 3 times a week that's a bonus. You can also just do crunches and push ups daily at home. :) Keep it up! You sound like you have a natural talent if you are going that fast already. :)

and I've seen some pretty questionable form move awful fast when the gun sounded. Yes, that is so very true. I think that they'd move faster if they'd use technique to help them swiim more effortlessly and efficiently. Perhaps, you can hunt for a coach from winningist team and ask for private lessons? A coach from there can see why you are doing what you are doing and help you from there? I plan on taking my girls to one pool where there is a coach who swam in the Olympics. :applaud: It will be so nice if all of our swimmers are like you and my daughter!

Here's my advice: join a year-round USA Swimming Club. To find a club in your area, go to: www.usaswimming.org/.../DesktopDefault.aspx Ot, just find out where the fastest swimmers in your area are training, and go there.