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 - 22.00
100 Free - 48.00
200 Free - 1:50.00
500 Free - 4:35.00
Did you mean to say 1:40 for the 200 free? 1:50 isn't in-line with the other times. Actually, these times would be very quick for Division III. Most of these would probably get close to being able to place at NCAA's for Division III.
Yes, the Division III cuts are very competitive, not too far from Division I cuts. There is a huge gap, however, in depth at the Division III level.
As an example, since it was mentioned, lets look at the 500 at 2007's conference championships. In D1, very few swimmers in the men's 500 who are slower than 5:00 at the conference meets. In the ACC, for example, not known for its swimming, had 20 people make B cuts. 42/43 people were under 4:55 (slowest guy was 5:01). The Colonial Athletic Conference (GMU, UMBC, etc.) featured a few B cuts, and their absolute slowest guy was 5:18.
However in D3, I found one conference where only one heat was UNDER 5:00, and someone finished in 7:00. The North Coast Athletic Conference (with Kenyon and Dennison), probably the nation's fastest d3 conerence, has only two heats under 5:00, and their slowest guy at 5:46.
Swimming D3 gives him the best chance at making the team. But he's still got a long way to go and a lot of hard work.
Not having ever swum competitively in college, those times are decent, but...you need to beef them up. When I was 15 and stopped swimming USA Swimming (2001), I was swimming times in that territory (27 low/59 high/2:20/6:20). But the only people I was beating were 13 year old guys, if I was lucky. I'm quite impressed though you've done most of this one your own, with the amount of swimming experience you have. Certainly your growth curve looks to be greater than mine was, even with my sucky practice regimen (3/week generally).
Certainly make sure you're working on your technique. Only been swimming for a year? There's certainly gains to be made from improved techniques, and serious gains from my experience. But getting someone else to coach you is a must; there's only so much you can see yourself from inside the pool. It might not be cheap (cheap in the student-sense!), but if this is what you want to do, it's a worthwhile investment. (Some teams have a student rate, or might be cajoled into giving one).
One thing I might also advise, especially given the short period of time, is to take a look at your other strokes too. It may be that your freestyle is your fastest stroke, but you may also be assuming that given that the barrier to acquisition of freestyle versus other strokes is lower. It might be a gamble of sorts, but an experienced coach may be able to pick up that you might be better at another stroke. Granted, developing alternative strokes takes time, but I wouldn't ignore it (even though it takes time--it took me seven years to get a legal breaststroke kick!). My coaches were big believers in not specializing too early.
Make sure you aren't training at the consequence of your schooling. I knew a female gymnist at my D1 school who walked-on, but more or less walked-on because her GPA was great and helped out the team's GPA (of course, she was a decent gymnast too!). Any bonus you can tack on to help seal the deal is always helpful. I'm not really sure what kinds of numbers would be good here, but certainly a GPA > 3.0 wouldn't hurt, and > 3.5 would be fantastic. And make sure you don't just go somewhere just because of swimming. You want to get an education too, right?
But let's say you improve your times, but not insanely so. There are likely D3 schools that would take you with sub-optimal times because a) they want swimmers (some of the programs are tiny), and b) they'd love someone with a great attitude and work ethic, despite how fast they are currently.
Example: As I alluded to above, I had a coach who did the intermediate level 13&U's at my club, before departing to head coach in D3 (he's at his second post, on the West Coast). Had I continued to swim through high school (this schooling thing interfered), even with times moving up the growth curve as they were but certainly not phenomenal, I think he would have taken me (his program is very small, 6-12 swimmers I think). He knew (trying not to be boastful here) that I was fairly mature and had a great work ethic.
Now certainly, those kinds of places aren't the best of programs in the world. But they exist if you're willing to look for them, and I think someone would be willing to take you.
If this is what you want to do, then I wish you the best of luck with it. It certainly is something well worth working towards.
Patrick King
Training with a team trumps training alone IMO.
As someone said, you don't want to pound tons of yardage with the wrong technique.
Having a coach and teammates will give you new ideas and perspective and push you beyond what you think is possible. I swim much faster with teams as compared to swimming alone.
Is there a reason that you are planning on training alone and then 1x/ week w/ masters? Without a doubt, I'd swim with your community college (just talk to the coach), high school team, OR preferably with a USAS team. This would give you the best shot at getting up to speed. Many coaches are very accommodating and would let you try out a few practices.
Good luck!
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:
Thanks, I don't know though... My life is pretty much on track at this point... I'd probably finish University just to participate in the intellectual discussions, and hopefully contribute something of value. Maybe when I'm retired, that would be a good way to spend the time.
Division III has some very fast swimmers.
The top qualify for the Division I dance.
I don't know if Junior Colleges are included in DIII anymore, however, when I was a younger man the JC championships in California were a very competitive meet.
Wow, I didn't think I'd get so many replies. I really appreciate all the advice.
1) I only go swim once a week with a team because of tight financial issues, I asked if I could come in once a week for help with my strokes and so far the coach has been very helpful.
2) I know that I've got a really long way to go but I believe in my heart that I can make it and contribute greatly to either of the teams. (got a 3.2 GPA, will work my ass off, and I'm always positive, was captain of cross country team my senior year of high school).
3) I absolutely love the sport, the way I feel after completing a good workout is amazing, plus I like the way it has transformed my body from the skinnier runners physique.
Other than the obvious here are some things I need to work on:
1) To stop drinking/partying as much, keep in under better control.
2) Increase my pain tolerance, there is a time when I'm swimming a longer workout that I start to puss out and this is definantly a time that training with a team would be beneficial.
I don't know if this will be allowed but I'd like to start a little blog here, it'll help keep me honest.
1/24/08
Afternoon workout---SCM pool, Southside YMCA
Warmup---600 straight swim (100 fr + 50 bk)x4 + 4x25 fly w/25 bk recovery + 200 flutter kck w/board
Main---4x(400 free rest 25s + 300 pull r 20s + 200 kck w/board r 20s + 100 IM) r 30s between sets
400 frees in 6:00, 5:58, 6:00, 6:11 (pussed out)
300 pulls in 4:24, 4:21, 4:20, 4:18
200 kcks don't remember times
100 IMs 1:39, 1:38, 1:37, 1:38----breaststroke is so weak
R 1 minute 30s
600 straight swim (100 bk + 50 free)
Sprint set---4x25 no breathers (18.1, 17.8, 17.2, 16.9)
Total---5700m, felt really good.
After swim I did a pretty intense core workout and 100 pushups
what matters most in your training is how fast you go on hard swims
your only chance is to push your limits day after day
you need to attempt to beat your best times in each training session
