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.
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Former Member
Good article Isobel. I'm glad to see that there are a variety of different swimming programs out there. I think that the times that the swimmers posted at the Y program are in line with their training.
Keep in mind that YMCA swimming is different from USA Swimming. While a 2:12 in the 200 free for an 11-12 year old girl may hold up well at a Y meet, it would place the same girl anywhere from 27th to 30th place out of 30 swimmers at the Georgia State Championship meet. It's all relative.
There is also a comparison between his swimmers and high school swimmers (their times are comparable to high school swimmers which I'm sure is true). However, a 2:12 is not the state qualifying cut here for GA High School swimming. (The cut is a 2:08.00 for one to be eligible to just enter the GA High School State meet.)
Good article Isobel. I'm glad to see that there are a variety of different swimming programs out there. I think that the times that the swimmers posted at the Y program are in line with their training.
Keep in mind that YMCA swimming is different from USA Swimming. While a 2:12 in the 200 free for an 11-12 year old girl may hold up well at a Y meet, it would place the same girl anywhere from 27th to 30th place out of 30 swimmers at the Georgia State Championship meet. It's all relative.
There is also a comparison between his swimmers and high school swimmers (their times are comparable to high school swimmers which I'm sure is true). However, a 2:12 is not the state qualifying cut here for GA High School swimming. (The cut is a 2:08.00 for one to be eligible to just enter the GA High School State meet.)
