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.
Parents
Former Member
I am back in the pool after 35 years and agree that those who were fast when they were young are fast when they are old. The growth of Masters and Masters coaches who use the modern training techniques now gives us an opportunity that did not exist 10-15 years ago.
I went to my first meet last month. It had a compete mix of abilities with some fast swimmers in each age group. I did notice that the slower swimmers from my team did not show. It was only those who had a swimming background. So, I would say that it was tilted towards those who were more into the art of racing than the pure joy of swimming.
That being said, the overall on deck attitude was very supportive. Sure, there were those really intense swimmers with the full body Speedos who acted as if they were in the Olympics, but I have no problem with that approach.
If you are in your 40s, 50s, 60s etc and train hard, why not set some goals and try to excel if that is your thing? Lord knows that there are waaay too many unhealthy obsessions out there. I do not count swimming as one of them.
I enjoy being back in shape and felling that water slide by. I could care less about my times. I was never an elite swimmer and I simply like to learn by watching their technique. My focus is more on making the harder sets that I could not even attempt a few months ago. That rings my bell.
I will say that after racing, I was able to swim faster in practice. Racing does help those mental barriers fall in unexpected ways.
I'll leave the fast swimming to my daughter. I get more pleasure watching her swim fast than I do trying to better my times anyway.
Rob
I am back in the pool after 35 years and agree that those who were fast when they were young are fast when they are old. The growth of Masters and Masters coaches who use the modern training techniques now gives us an opportunity that did not exist 10-15 years ago.
I went to my first meet last month. It had a compete mix of abilities with some fast swimmers in each age group. I did notice that the slower swimmers from my team did not show. It was only those who had a swimming background. So, I would say that it was tilted towards those who were more into the art of racing than the pure joy of swimming.
That being said, the overall on deck attitude was very supportive. Sure, there were those really intense swimmers with the full body Speedos who acted as if they were in the Olympics, but I have no problem with that approach.
If you are in your 40s, 50s, 60s etc and train hard, why not set some goals and try to excel if that is your thing? Lord knows that there are waaay too many unhealthy obsessions out there. I do not count swimming as one of them.
I enjoy being back in shape and felling that water slide by. I could care less about my times. I was never an elite swimmer and I simply like to learn by watching their technique. My focus is more on making the harder sets that I could not even attempt a few months ago. That rings my bell.
I will say that after racing, I was able to swim faster in practice. Racing does help those mental barriers fall in unexpected ways.
I'll leave the fast swimming to my daughter. I get more pleasure watching her swim fast than I do trying to better my times anyway.
Rob
