Hey everybody, I'm Alex and this is my first post.
That being said I have a few questions regarding getting colleage schorlaships and some other newbie questions as well.
I'm a sophomore in highschool and I just finished up my first season (12 weeks) of swimming at my school.
Swimming in the ocean has always been a passion of mine (I SCUBA dive as well), but I never thought I would fall in love with swimming in a pool.
I would like to take swimming a little more seriously because I want a colleage scholarship, but I don't know where to start or what a colleage scholarship requires.
I remember asking the my swim captin if he has any offers to any swim colleages and he said he only went to one. He is a great swimmer with a best time of 21.7 second 50m freestyle. I don't know if I have to surpass his time, but I'm sure it would help in getting a colleage scholarship.
If any of you who have received full or partial rides to a colleage of choice would like to share how you did it I would very much appreciate that.
Time for NOOB Questions!!!
My coach says my 2 best events are breststroke and freestyle.
Last I checked (at leagues last friday) I got a time of 1:20 on my 100m *** stroke:eek: (I know its slow for my age, but this is my first year of swimming)
And my 50m freestyle is 27.88.
I believe that my 100m freestyle is 1min 4 sec (I have crappy flip turns)
Since I'm on offseason, my biggest question is- How often should I swim to make gains?
Some people tell my as often as possible, but then again I feel that you aren't giving your body time to recover after the workout.
I'm not really sure if that can be said for swimming, but it can be said for kung fu.
At most I feel that I will commit 3 days a week at 24 hour fitness and see a great swim coach (at the Y) for 1 hour once a month. ( I don't know if that is enough time with the coach, but thats what my dad said).
There are 2 programs I would like to start soon and I fear that one might interfere with my swimming.
The first is a gymnastic strength training regimine that builds on maximal strength with a 3x3 or 3x5 set/rep scheme. I will be going Fundamental Bodyweight exercises (core, legs, pressing and pulling) for 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). I am planning to operate on 8-12 week cycles of constant load and increase my load only after I have finished a cycle.
My question about this is: Am I building the right kind of strength needed for swimming?
My strength training uses no heavy weights, but covers the whole body each training day.
Do you guys agree that this will help me become a better swimmer or do you believe something else about strength training and swimming?
My second program is a flexibility program.
I just got Tom Kurz's "Secrets of Stretching" DVD.
I want to achieve a hanging (legs elevated, like on chairs) side+ front splits.
I can already do a decent front splits from both sides on the ground and I am working on my side split.
My question about this is: Will this flexibility hurt my swimming?
Tom is all about reaching high levels of strength in a stretched position so I believe that the perceived overflexibility can be controlled because I would have reached high levels of strength in my legs for that increased rang of motion.
If you think otherwise please tell.
I probably have more questions, but I have to watch the Grammy's.
With kind regards,
-kombat
...
If you really want a college scholarship,
go for academic scholarships
there's much more academic scholarship money out there
...
Alex -
Ande has hit the nail on the head with the above comment.
I swam for a Div I school, but never saw any scholarship money. One guy on our team came in with a swimming scholarship, did something stupid on a weekend and hurt himself, and ended up dropping out.
My daughter went to a private Division III school with an academic scholarship that picked up half her tuition, while she studied coursework she loved. She swam for a great coach on a very competitive team, and went to conference meets with them every year she swam.
Find coursework you love, hit the books and make your academics count.
Best Regards
High school national record 50SCY 19.49.
Which is roughly 21.75 in SCM. so if the captain of you swimteam swims 22 SCM then there would most likely be more than one college/univeristy looking at him.
other record times
50 free scm
world 20.48
American 21.18
50 free SCY
american 18.87
USA Swimming has Kevin Munsch's times for USAS club meets. He does have some SCM times but his best 50y free is :21.59 and 50m LC free is :26.09. He doesn't have a 50m SC time but has 100m SC :55.00
So there are SCM pools in the area. Kevin's posted best times are Dec 2007 and prior. Decide for yourself if Kevin's gotten that much faster in the past year.
About financial reward - I've heard that a college scholarship turns swimming into working your way through college except you're in the pool instead of selling burgers and fries. The best reason to swim in college is because you love it.
don't think Kevin Munsch went 22 in the 50 SCM free but it looks like he's a good breastroker / IMer
www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../14764.asp
What does LCM stand for?
long course meters = 50 meter pool
Will long distances during practices help me as a sprinter
(assuming that I am one) or will it only serve to better my conditioning?
possibly, but I don't consider 200's to be long distance
How does muscles recovery work in swimming?
not really sure what you're asking,
swimmers become great with talent, great coaching and hard work
can't think of any outstanding swimmers who trained on their own in their early years
if you want to be the best swimmer you can be you need to train often
swim 6 - 9 times a week
weights 3 times a week
dry land 2 - 3 times a week
instead of reading about swimming just train hard often
Thanks Ande.
I want to do swimming for fun, after reading some posts, but my true passion lies in Kung Fu (Thats why I was aiming for the splits+strength training). Although a previous swim captin of my team, Kevin Munch, won state a few times (washington) and got a full ride to a lot of colleages, but I don't think I can put in the time to be that good lol.
A few more quesitons before I go:
What does LCM stand for?
Will long distances during practices help me as a sprinter (assuming that I am one) or will it only serve to better my conditioning?
How does muscles recovery work in swimming?
I ask this because 6-9 days of training a week seems hardcore and I am wondering when your body gets adequate time to recover.
(Although I am comming from a bodybuilding perspective where you should train on nonconsecutive days to give your muscles time to recover, so feel free to enlighten me on the process of recovery in swimming)
What swimming books (educational rather than a novel or inspirational) do you reccomend?
I already have Swim to Win by Ed Nessel, but I kind of bought that on impulse at Barnes and Nobles.
Last question,
My swim captin who sims the 22 50m free always had his butt out of the water. A mom pointed it out and said he is the only one in the meet who has his butt out of the water.
How does that translate to speed?
Thank you for your patience in answering my questions.
-kombat
Thanks guys,
I do love swimming very much and will probably swim in collage.
Hey Ande,
What I meant about recovery in swimming is:
When does the swimmer's body get to take a break and recover from training if the swimmer is swimming 6-9 times a week coupled with weights and dry lands?
By recovery I meant muscular recovery.
You swim yards, not meters. Twenty-two flat SCM is not something high schoolers do.
Forget the scholarship and just train. Work on speed, strength, and technique. You absolutely need a good coach to help you with your technique. One-on-one instruction, join a club, whatever. Just make sure someone who seriously knows swimming is watching you swim every day and telling you how to do it better.
Thanks Ande.
I want to do swimming for fun, after reading some posts, but my true passion lies in Kung Fu (Thats why I was aiming for the splits+strength training). Although a previous swim captin of my team, Kevin Munch, won state a few times (washington) and got a full ride to a lot of colleages, but I don't think I can put in the time to be that good lol.
A few more quesitons before I go:
What does LCM stand for?
Will long distances during practices help me as a sprinter (assuming that I am one) or will it only serve to better my conditioning?
How does muscles recovery work in swimming?
I ask this because 6-9 days of training a week seems hardcore and I am wondering when your body gets adequate time to recover.
(Although I am comming from a bodybuilding perspective where you should train on nonconsecutive days to give your muscles time to recover, so feel free to enlighten me on the process of recovery in swimming)
What swimming books (educational rather than a novel or inspirational) do you reccomend?
I already have Swim to Win by Ed Nessel, but I kind of bought that on impulse at Barnes and Nobles.
Last question,
My swim captin who sims the 22 50m free always had his butt out of the water. A mom pointed it out and said he is the only one in the meet who has his butt out of the water.
How does that translate to speed?
Thank you for your patience in answering my questions.
-kombat
Okay, I see.
So a swimmer doesn't actually take a day off from swimming to recover the tears (micro tears) in the muscles received from practice.
Instead their muscles recover via "active recovery".
Although even in these taper phases your muscles are still being broken down (just not as much) and if they are still being broken down, how are they recovering?
But at some point, wouldn't that cause overreaching (or overtraining) if a swimmer never takes a day off?
Most swimmers not named Phelps do take a day off. It might be Sunday and/or Saturday.
Microtears probably occur when you are walking up the stairs so healing from them is a normal process that occurs everyday. The human body is constantly recovering.
I am willing to bet that most swimmers that make it on the roster of a college team trained more than 5 times a week during their high school years.
I didn't swim in college but I definitely trained more than 5 times a week during my high school years. And many here DID swim in college and can confirm what their training was like.
FWIW my high school son (a junior) swims every weekday morning with his high school team and MTThFr and Saturday morning with his club team. Other kids his age probably are close to overtrained (different club programs that pound the yardage) but my son is not.
