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
Rich and Mel,
Very, very good posts. I've heard some of these ideas before (from one of the guys I trained w/ in the past who is a world record holder in his age group in the breaststrokes.)
I'm still working on the learning when to go fast vs. slow. This is SO true in masters. I am very guilty of that. I've improved some and have noticed that I can sprint better at the end of practice when we do sprint sets.
Second, I like Leslie, had to actually swim by myself and do kick sets solo in order to gain a kick. It was not very fun, but it got the job done (or at least got me started). What I found is that there was SOOOO much "noise" in the masters practices. Meaning - you got a lot of swimmers (and I was one of these swimmers) who would get in the fastest interval lanes and do whatever it takes to make that "fast" interval without regards to working on stroke flaws. OH BROTHER! So you would see some interesting things going on to say the least. Over the course of months and years, their strokes would never change for the better (there are a few exceptions fortunately!). So month after month and year after year, you would have the non-kickers (me!); the windmillers; the lift head to breathe people and no rotation people; the slappers; the snakers (swim like a snake and wiggle through the water); the finners (sorry!); the wall hangers to only then push off on your feet, and so on. I got out of that situation as it felt like a bit of a circus and I was one of the dancing bears!
Anyhoo - great, great tips. Need to chew on that more. I'm starting to see what people are talking about.
Rich and Mel,
Very, very good posts. I've heard some of these ideas before (from one of the guys I trained w/ in the past who is a world record holder in his age group in the breaststrokes.)
I'm still working on the learning when to go fast vs. slow. This is SO true in masters. I am very guilty of that. I've improved some and have noticed that I can sprint better at the end of practice when we do sprint sets.
Second, I like Leslie, had to actually swim by myself and do kick sets solo in order to gain a kick. It was not very fun, but it got the job done (or at least got me started). What I found is that there was SOOOO much "noise" in the masters practices. Meaning - you got a lot of swimmers (and I was one of these swimmers) who would get in the fastest interval lanes and do whatever it takes to make that "fast" interval without regards to working on stroke flaws. OH BROTHER! So you would see some interesting things going on to say the least. Over the course of months and years, their strokes would never change for the better (there are a few exceptions fortunately!). So month after month and year after year, you would have the non-kickers (me!); the windmillers; the lift head to breathe people and no rotation people; the slappers; the snakers (swim like a snake and wiggle through the water); the finners (sorry!); the wall hangers to only then push off on your feet, and so on. I got out of that situation as it felt like a bit of a circus and I was one of the dancing bears!
Anyhoo - great, great tips. Need to chew on that more. I'm starting to see what people are talking about.
