I'm a 21 year old male, 5'8, around 155 lbs, with 7-8% body fat. I've been swimming now for about 1 year total. My background is in cross country, basketball, and track. I've dropped my times quite a bit in a year;
50 free from 28 high to 26.69
100 free from 1:10 to 1:00.89
200 free from 2:24 to 2:16
500 free from 7:00 to 6:19
I'm from Missouri and I've got one more semester at a community college to get my associates degree, then I plan on transferring to Drury Univesity or Missouri State. I really want to walk on to one of their teams and I figure my best choice is to go the distance route, the 500 and up to have a chance at making one of these teams. Right now I'm swimming 30,000yds/m a week and doing dryland work (weights) 3x a week. My stroke is very solid, keeping me injury free (knock on wood), and I figure I can get up to around 50,000+ yds a week by the start of summer and train like a madman this summer before fall semester. I can swim with a masters team once a week without having to pay a monthly fee and the rest of my training is solo. My test meet will be the end of July, Show-me-State games in Columbia. Any words of advice?
50 free from 28 high to 26.69
100 free from 1:10 to 1:00.89
200 free from 2:24 to 2:16
500 free from 7:00 to 6:19
I'm assuming those times are yards. If so, they are decent but not in the realm of what you would expect in NCAA comps even Div III. Even for Div III, your goal times should be in the following areas:
50 free - 22.00
100 Free - 48.00
200 Free - 1:50.00
500 Free - 4:35.00
That is not to say that you can't get there but you're not going to get there by banging out 50,000yds a week. What kind of stroke analysis are you getting? As George said, drilling poor technique with high yardage is not a good thing.
Look around for a coach in your area, ask around at the local age group teams, try to find one who does lessons on the side (I've found about half do) and have them work with you. Now, one thing is if you do not feel comfortable with that coach after 2-3 sessions, then find another one. Being comfortable with your coach is a major aspect to enabling positive learning.
Paul
50 free from 28 high to 26.69
100 free from 1:10 to 1:00.89
200 free from 2:24 to 2:16
500 free from 7:00 to 6:19
I'm assuming those times are yards. If so, they are decent but not in the realm of what you would expect in NCAA comps even Div III. Even for Div III, your goal times should be in the following areas:
50 free - 22.00
100 Free - 48.00
200 Free - 1:50.00
500 Free - 4:35.00
That is not to say that you can't get there but you're not going to get there by banging out 50,000yds a week. What kind of stroke analysis are you getting? As George said, drilling poor technique with high yardage is not a good thing.
Look around for a coach in your area, ask around at the local age group teams, try to find one who does lessons on the side (I've found about half do) and have them work with you. Now, one thing is if you do not feel comfortable with that coach after 2-3 sessions, then find another one. Being comfortable with your coach is a major aspect to enabling positive learning.
Paul
