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?
First off, good luck in your pursuit.
Second, definitely start a dialog with the coaches of the teams. Many, many years ago a friend of mine swam at Drury and I got to visit for a few days (I went to a tech school that had no sports whatsoever). Their coach was gracious enough to let me do a practice with them. That was as close to college swimming as I ever got.
Third, make sure you haven't used up your eligibility (that might be the first thing, actually). I did grad school at Arizona State and thought I might be able to "walk on", since the undergrad schools I went to had no swim teams and I didn't participate in any sports. Long story short, I was told that your eligibility clock starts ticking once you start college full-time, regardless of whether you do sports or not. Also confirmed this through the NCAA website.
Good luck with your pursuit. :wiggle:
First off, good luck in your pursuit.
Second, definitely start a dialog with the coaches of the teams. Many, many years ago a friend of mine swam at Drury and I got to visit for a few days (I went to a tech school that had no sports whatsoever). Their coach was gracious enough to let me do a practice with them. That was as close to college swimming as I ever got.
Third, make sure you haven't used up your eligibility (that might be the first thing, actually). I did grad school at Arizona State and thought I might be able to "walk on", since the undergrad schools I went to had no swim teams and I didn't participate in any sports. Long story short, I was told that your eligibility clock starts ticking once you start college full-time, regardless of whether you do sports or not. Also confirmed this through the NCAA website.
Good luck with your pursuit. :wiggle:
