I was just wondering if anyone out there knows of masters swimmers who don’t compete and that have achieved Top Ten Times, American Records, World Records, etc. in practice. I know that stories have circulated around about swimmers like Mark Spitz who have done this (although I think he did compete :)). I was just wondering if there are similar stories in the masters ranks. It seems to me that it would be highly probable in masters swimming because so many of its members do not actually swim at meets. Therefore, I would think there are people out there who achieve these (unofficial) times during a practice session and are relatively unknown. If you’ve got a story to share, please do.
the real question is why dont they compete???
Mostly it is becuase they still view swim meets as those endless ordeals that we all went through as age groupers or as the high pressure world of big time college/national swimming. Either way it left a bad taste and they walked away.
Nah, not the most likely reason. Taking 10-20 years off gets rid of this burnout problem usually. What art z said is right. It's a huge headache just planning meet logistics with life/family etc. I've experienced the same frustration as art. My training always gets thrown off. That's why I don't taper too much or go to too many meets.
I'm sure there are many swimmers who could dominate, but don't compete. There are others who do compete, but not much. There are others who only swim a few events and could be ranked in others. Definitely better not to get too obsessed with rankings, as Kurt observes.
the real question is why dont they compete???
Mostly it is becuase they still view swim meets as those endless ordeals that we all went through as age groupers or as the high pressure world of big time college/national swimming. Either way it left a bad taste and they walked away.
Nah, not the most likely reason. Taking 10-20 years off gets rid of this burnout problem usually. What art z said is right. It's a huge headache just planning meet logistics with life/family etc. I've experienced the same frustration as art. My training always gets thrown off. That's why I don't taper too much or go to too many meets.
I'm sure there are many swimmers who could dominate, but don't compete. There are others who do compete, but not much. There are others who only swim a few events and could be ranked in others. Definitely better not to get too obsessed with rankings, as Kurt observes.
