This one was pretty close, because British Swimming requires swimmers to make the Olympic A cut to compete. Mark Foster, my favorite swimmer, has qualified to swim the 50 free at the Olympics this summer. He'll be 38 years old.
Here's an interview with Foster where he talks about things like limited training volume, the importance of lifting weights, and staying physically fit for life.
Foster also has a unique way of sprinting. In this video, he dominates a field of sprinters with the slowest stroke rate in the pool.
I find a lot of things to admire about Mark Foster, and I think it's great news that he'll get to swim at the Olympics. Hopefully, when he retires from professional swimming, he'll continue to compete in masters.
An example of this is Ed Moses. From what I've heard he didn't really swim seriously until high school.
That's because he ran......but I get your point. He took it up very late and was a natural.
I am no expert on this, but I don't believe heavy weightlifting should be done before the body matures fully
Good point. I don't think Phelps started lifting until a few years ago.
Great job by Mark. Are his achievements so much different than Dara Torres'? OK, he's a few years younger and never really left the pool for extended periods as far as I know, but like Dara he is still capable of swimming close to or faster than his personal bests.
I just noticed in the interview you linked that Foster is exactly one day younger than I am!
he mades some great points
I totally agree:
Mike Rowbottom asked:
You have the reputation of being a maverick within the sport – for instance, doing a lot less volume of work in the pool than other swimmers.
What's your take on it?
Mark Foster said:
I think in general swimmers train too much. The events I do take around 21, 22 seconds – 18 if you take away the dive. If I have a two-hour training session, why would I just want to go up and down the pool in that time? You have got to get your body ready for what you are going to ask it to do, which means lots of short, sharp work. I think swimmers need to do more cross-training, such as working in the gym."
A foundation for what?
Wouldn't the foundation to be built be an efficient technical stroke?
A kid won't have that first time in the pool.
There would have be some "swimming up and down the pool".
This doesn't imply mindless, boring or tough long distance workouts though (at any age!).
This is nothing more than evidence that British (men's) swimming is in decline. The good old days of Jameson, Morehouse, Gillingham, Wilkie, etc are long gone...:cane:
We're having this same debate with our junior squad. That group is about 15 kids 14-17 with one 18 yr old. They have 6 swimming sessions a week and swim about 7-10k m each time. With in the group, there are 5 distance free swimmers, two breatstrokers and the rest are all around, not really better at one distance or stroke than the others.
But the coach gives them all the same work outs 90% of the time. last saturday they had to options 10x1000 medley or 8x1500 fri.
one of the other master swimmer and I have tried to convice the coach that that kind of practice does no good for the 14 yr old who only wants to race the 50 and 100 ***.
the coach has actually started pushing kids out...we now have two 19 yr old girls swimming with us, because we only swim 3500-5500 3 times a week. both of them have had better seasons this year than last year. and both qualified for the Swedish Junior nationals. (under 20) but the coach still refuses to acknowledge them since one only swim *** and the other only trains for back.
I don't believe Mark Foster can swim a 100m free the way Dara can.
Yeah, I was going to mention that. I don't even think Foster swam the 100 at British Trials, but I couldn't find the results to see for sure. If so, that would be a big difference.
There are some similarities between Mark Foster and Dara Torres. Mark just made his 5th Olympic team and would have made a 6th but he didn't meet the expectations of Bill Sweetham. I have linked a discussion we had a few years ago about this.
forums.usms.org/showthread.php
Originally posted by alexknibbs
... and, on a similar topic, what about the 'nearlymen' (and women)?
From the UK, the one swimmer that always stands out in my mind in Mark Foster. One time fastest man in the world over 50 metres .. but he never got a single Olympic medal - despite competing at several Olympics.
Other notable examples???
We will never know if Mark Foster would have gotten a medal in 2004 in the 50 Free, because he did not meet the expectations of National Team Director Bill Sweetenham. He was .007 off the qualifing standard of the Top Ten in the World. Even though he won the British trials and was the silver medalist in the 50 Free at the 2003 World Championships in Spain with a time of :22.20 and narrowly losing to Popov did not matter.
I cannot believe that they would do this to a person like Foster, who is argueably one of the best and most consistent swimmers Britian has ever had thru the years. How many people have a chance to make 5 Olympic teams? Not many. Even without an Olympic medal he had a great career.
