Looking at one-hour results, and just finishing New England Masters SCY Championships at Harvard, how is it that older swimmers are getting faster and faster, and pretty much everyone is getting faster and faster compared to a few years ago when there seemed to be more mortal swimmers?
What are older (45+ women; at this point 65+ men) swimmers doing that keeps them at such elite levels? Weights? Extensive training? How much of both? How do they have jobs and families and train? The field of fast swimmers is getting deeper and deeper. Anyone have idea as to why?
I want to know the secrets. Are the people who race now self-selecting more and more as elite swimmers? Has everyone swum all their lives? I know to swim hard you have to train hard, but I am baffled by sudden increase in amazing fast times and so many records getting broken.
Former Member
They must not have met their potential at an earlier age.
They must not have met their potential at an earlier age.
That seems fully explanatory.
For "isobel," in addition to technical and technological changes, massive cultural changes have taken place. People now in their fifties -- a nice midpoint in life and in your age range -- were making love not war, growing their own vegetable gardens, making tie-died clothing, protesting, making photo records of domestic activities, and so forth. Their mothers were going back to school in preparation for entering the workforce for the first time. Fathers and neighbors had been in the service. The running phenomenon, tri phenomenon, dirt biking, and the like were, in retrospect, just beginning to take shape on the horizon. :blah:
Regards, VB
We're all on steroids. :weightlifter: :roids:
In all seriousness..
We're learning more and more that back in the 70s and 80s we were doing far too many yards/meters. Techniques have changed. Technology has improved. Pools are faster. Swimming is now professional and as such is practiced at the elite level by older and older swimmers, which has inspired more and more masters swimmers to get back in the water. The growth of cable tv and the ability to watch elite competition more than once every 4 years. The internet. Tied to the professionalization of the sport, major investment in the promotion of the sport (and the consumer products).
That's just a short list.
How do they have jobs and families and train?.
Most of the elite level masters swimmers I know and a few that I train with do not have families. Some may be married and have jobs, but I can't think of anyone that I know that is consistently getting top 10 times that has kids. I'm not saying thats a universal truth, just an observation.
Most of the elite level masters swimmers I know and a few that I train with do not have families. Some may be married and have jobs, but I can't think of anyone that I know that is consistently getting top 10 times that has kids. I'm not saying thats a universal truth, just an observation.
Not even close to true in my experience (or for myself), I know lots of fast masters with families.
As an example: my wife will be out of town on a business trip during Zones -- which I am tapering for -- so I will have my son with me at the meet. I'm pretty sure Phelps & co don't have to worry about a 9-year-old boy complaining that he is bored while trying to prepare for their races! In that sense, a Game Boy is a PED (performance enhancing device).
But we only have one child, I'm sure having multiple is even more challenging. Let's just say one second per child per hundred and be done with it!
Most of the elite level masters swimmers I know and a few that I train with do not have families. Some may be married and have jobs, but I can't think of anyone that I know that is consistently getting top 10 times that has kids. I'm not saying thats a universal truth, just an observation.
Your observation doesn't match mine either. The very fastest swimmers I know don't seem any more or less likely to me than the average-speed swimmers to have children at home (which is what I will assume you mean by "families"), or to have demanding jobs. Some do; some don't. Also, "elite" masters may spend more time on training than people who don't really take swimming seriously, but I don't know that they spend more time on training (in or out of the pool) than other people who do take swimming seriously but whose personal best happens to be slower than top-ten range.
I think a cultural shift may have something to do with it. When I was a kid, sports were for kids. Grownups maybe played softball but that was about it. My hometown had a strong kids' swim program and no adult program at all; now I understand that it has a masters team. With more opportunities for people to continue participating and competing at a high level even long after they are kids, and with more people keeping up the good work, the overall level of achievement has got to increase.
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I think a cultural shift may have something to do with it. When I was a kid, sports were for kids. Grownups maybe played softball but that was about it. My hometown had a strong kids' swim program and no adult program at all; now I understand that it has a masters team. .
In my area, everybody swam, nobody "swam." No swimming program whatsoever for miles around. When Red Cross swimming program started, about 7 miles away, it cost money. And nobody was driving anybody to swimming lessons.
Ppl did develop water competency without lessons, and took canoes and kayaks out on big lakes fairly sure they could make it back to land just fine in the event of an overturn.
Same with skating, skiing, and so forth. Which means I've been in a lot of adult beginners' groups! :)
Regards, VB
Most of the elite level masters swimmers I know and a few that I train with do not have families. Some may be married and have jobs, but I can't think of anyone that I know that is consistently getting top 10 times that has kids. I'm not saying thats a universal truth, just an observation.
Do you mean that if you don't have kids, you don't have a family? Or are these swimmers truly without anyone?
And unless people are doing nothing but training, it's hard for me to understand how at so many meets new records are being set.
At 45+, you can't do "nothing but training." Most bodies just won't support it. I honestly don't think that most women who are older than I am but can lap me in the 500 are spending way more time than I am on working out (8-10h per week total, not counting travel time). Some may swim more and cross-train less, because their parents kindly gave them shoulders held together inside by something stronger than old rubber bands, but I don't think that most of them spend way more time overall on fitness.
Or maybe they do. But I bet that even if I arranged my life so that I had 20h per week to devote to swimming, I would never be as fast as they are. I could up my endurance that way, which could be valuable if I were aiming at a 25K or a Channel swim, but I wouldn't get a lot faster. And if they cut back to 8-10h per week or even less, they would still be faster in the pool than I am.
The people setting these new records, and maintaining wild speed into their 40s and 50s and 60s, have just always been faster than I am. They were faster at 15 than I was at 15, and faster at 35 than I was at 35, and they are faster at 50 than I will be. And they are staying in the sport, thanks to the opportunity to do so and to training techniques that allow them to maintain quality while recovering in the manner that bodies over 45 need. When I am 50 they will be 65 and they may still be lapping me.
