Training with Age Group Athlete

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. The teenaged boys in the workouts are just as "dirty" as any adult. LOL! I've had zero problems with the teenage boys I swim with on my USA-S team. Some of them even go out of their way to be courteous to me - both on the deck and during sets. I'm not complaining. Now. . . I can't say I have had zero problems with the masters men. . . :angel:

I have noticed that some (many?) of you swimmers have the opportunity to train with age-group swimmers. How did you manage to arrange that? I got to know the club, the coaches, the swimmers and the masters program (swam on it for a few years) prior to asking about swimming with the kids. By the time I asked about it, I was told that "they would love to have me." Some clubs and coaches are open to it and others are not. I'm fortunate in that the head coach in my area (along with the rest of the coaches on his team) welcome adults who want to swim with the kids (and in total honesty, very few adults can hang with these kids). I've actually witnessed 20 to 30 something year old ex- Senior National top 8 finalists try and do a couple of practices with the SRI/ National team and not be able to do it. They did not return. So, if you can hang, you can work out a schedule with the coach. If you can't, you won't want to practice with them anyway. So it all really works itself out. I would like to stress that I swam 6x/ week at 1.5 hours a pop for a few years (and mostly did distance sets coming in around 5,000 yds per practice) with masters prior to even thinking about swimming with the kids @ 2 hours a practice. Only when the masters practices felt EZ (and I could easily average 1:15 to 1:10 per hundred on free sets - and I would not be tired week after week), did I think about swimming with the kids. I think that as adults, we tend to think, oh what's another 30 minutes. But it is a HUGE difference b/c not only are you adding 30 more minutes, you need to remember that often the intervals are faster (it's more intense) and the kids don't die as easily as adults and they can really work the back half of sets/ races. PLUS, much of their 2 hours of swimming does not involve using equipment like paddles, buoys, and fins. Instead, there is more swim and more kick work. I also pay the full price b/c I don't want anyone thinking I'm getting special treatment. However, compared to other sports I was in (triathlons for a short time), the price seems very reasonable. And I look at it as an investment in my health. Can't comment on the dirty old man thing. I'd personally shop for another club if that's the kind of comments you've heard. Yuck. The problem is that, left to my own devices, my work-outs are all about the same. Same times, same strokes, same distance. I always go about 4000 to 4500 meters, one half swim, one quarter kick, one quarter pull. I do some sprints and tons of traditional short-rest interval training. Ho hummmmm... Same for me. Give me an inch and I'll take a mile. I needed/ wanted/ craved a more boot camp type workout. There is always something that not only challenges me but often shocks me during USA-S practices. :) It would be nice to periodically (or routinelly) swim with the age-group swimmers of my speed calibre, but I just cannot see how to arrange that without coming across as just plain kooky (and not in a good kooky way either) Maybe it is just the very traditional, old fashioned culture in this area that makes this difficult. I worried about being kooky for about 5 minutes. Change can be good. For the swimmers that have the opportunity to swim with age group teams: was this opportunity offered-up voluntarily by the club, or did you have to campaign the club to allow you to join as a master swimmer? I knew that a couple of the masters men swam with the kids on occasion. So, I made sure to get myself in the best shape possible; proved myself in the pool during masters practices and meets; and then asked if I could join in. Then the hard work began. Although I must give credit to my coach for reigning me in and not allowing me to overdo it. He's made it clear I just don't recover like the kids. Ain't that the truth!

I moved to my area 3 years ago and started working out pretty much on my own with an occasional "coach" in the water. Then one day I started talking to one of the age group coaches and he invited me to join him. I did so soon after that and really enjoyed working hard with kids who were a lot younger. I was prorated in my payments as well since I was not swimming as often as they were. Sadly when a new coach came in he told me that I was "taking up lane space" (due to not paying as much). I have now joined a new team and am enjoying getting to know a whole new group of kids. Rarely does my age (38) come in to play with the kids and I am usually treated like one of them. But, being a female I don't get the "dirty old man" issue. I am the only adult on the team that practices in my pool so I don't know how they would feel about a male being there. Oh and I am now no long prorated so no one can tell me I'm taking up lane space any more :applaud: As for doing it periodically, I don't know how many teams would go for that. I know my coach expects us to be there 4-5 mornings a week and the kids to do doubles (I have a 4 year old so he understand that I can't come in the afternoons). I'd ask the local team if you could join them but make sure you are ready to jump in fully, not half way.

I occasionally swim the the age-group teams that works out at the local health club I swim masters at too. They are allotted a certain amount of lanes but tend to spill over if the pool is not to crowded. Their coach is always encouraging me to swim with the team (especially if they are using lanes not under contract to use) and I am well received by young swimmers.

Good discussion. The USS coach here invited me to swim with the kids several times before I actually jumped in and swam with them. Their practices often coincide or come after our USMS practices and I guess I looked like I wanted to swim more. I declined for a while because I was unsure about a.) being perceived as the dirty old man and b.) getting my butt handed to me. Fortunately, there are a couple of dads that swim with the USS team sometimes. 1 guy, a master's swimmer, actually does their workouts a couple times a week and the other guy just swims on his own while his son is swimming, in a lane next to the kids' lanes. So that did a lot to alleviate fears related to (a.) above. I usually get in ~1 practice a week with them now. WRT dual-sanction meets: there are a couple of coaches around here who do set up dual-sanction meets in this area. I try to support those as much as I can because I think it is a great opportunity to open up some more meet options for USMS here. I've always had a great experience with these meets, the kids have been very nice, and I've never gotten any dirty looks from disapproving parents. Just some ribbing from my wife. But she calls me old man all of the time. If there is a team there that you're interested in practicing with, talk to the coach. If they work out at the same time, you might just start BS'ing with them about swimming and general and get to know them a bit before you broach the subject of practicing with the team. Or approach them about organizing a master's team.

After seeing me swim, the coach invited me to participate in their age-group workouts whenever I wished because he thought it would be inspiring to the kids. If I had a nickle every time this happened to me... I would be flat broke. My thought is to see if you can get some like minded swimmers together and start a masters team. As for more competition, joining USAS and participating in their meets sounds like a solid idea, and I am planning on doing so starting in the fall.

Same for me. Give me an inch and I'll take a mile. I needed/ wanted/ craved a more boot camp type workout. There is always something that not only challenges me but often shocks me during USA-S practices. :) Funny thing is that I am not terribly worried about keeping up with the kids training. I know which group I would fit into (not the National Quaifiers: they are slightly faster than I for the most part) but the Junior National Team I would keep up with and bury most of them. Swimming is a poor cousin sport around here: hockey is the real religion. This is Canada after all. Any kid that shows Olympic potential ends up either at the national training center in Vancouver or Calgary. I am terrified of trying to keep up with the kids doing kick. They do tons of kick around here and that is something I just cannot do. My feet move, so do my legs. Really fast. Its my body that stays in place. All I can say is thank God I have tremendously powerful arms and bullet-proof shoulders. I can just see me getting the nick-name "road-kill" after the first kick session. All the coaches know me around here; think small community, then get out the microscope so you can see my community. Swimming is tiny here: they cannot even hold a swim meet without every official from all the local cities and towns turning up. I am one of the perrenial "stroke and turn" guys that officiates at least one session at every meet. Furthermore, at 5:30 in the morning all the coaches notice the old grey fart doing 4500 meters of low rest reps over in the public lanes. One of my issues is that my daughter's departure from competitive swimming was nothing short of incendiary. There was a boy on her team, he was offended when she dumped him, violent threats were made and things went downhill from there. Most of the local swim families followed the spectacular soap opera that ensued and now just about all the swim community takes a wide berth to avoid dealing with my daughter and I. The silence was deafening back when my daughter would come and train with me in the early mornings when she thought she might still take a run at competing.

Funny thing is that I am not terribly worried about keeping up with the kids training. I know which group I would fit into (not the National Quaifiers: they are slightly faster than I for the most part) but the Junior National Team I would keep up with and bury most of them. Then no worries! The only additional thing I can add that I noticed for myself is that my beating certain kids in competition did not necessarily equate to my being able to do what they do in practices. . . Competing and training USA-S are two different animals IMO. I am terrified of trying to keep up with the kids doing kick. They do tons of kick around here and that is something I just cannot do. I'm happy to say this *was* my situation as well. For the first year I trained distance (did a 25K OW), so we did not do much kick. After that I switched to mid distance and became *road kill* for a while (we did LOTS of kicking) until I got sick of almost being lapped all the time. I fixed it and I now have a kick. Still working on making it better but I swim much faster now with a kick. I never learned how to kick as a kid but finally have added it in as an adult. It's awesome. Watch out for kick/ swim sets as well - things like 8x150 with 50 kick/ 100 swim free on fast intervals. Very tough because you must kick fast on the 50 kick and then the real test comes into play during the 100 FR swim (your heart rate is already higher from the kick part) b/c you must then do a 6 beat kick and fast pull on the swim to make that interval! You can really see who can and cannot kick during these test sets. At my USA-S practices, you MUST learn to kick. If ya can't kick. . . you'll want to quit. . . . . . the swim community takes a wide berth to avoid dealing with my daughter and I. The silence was deafening back when my daughter would come and train with me in the early mornings when she thought she might still take a run at competing. No one's perfect. I've seen people forgive and forget over time. Sorry that happened to you. Must have been hard on your daughter and you.

One of my issues is that my daughter's departure from competitive swimming was nothing short of incendiary. There was a boy on her team, he was offended when she dumped him, violent threats were made and things went downhill from there. Most of the local swim families followed the spectacular soap opera that ensued and now just about all the swim community takes a wide berth to avoid dealing with my daughter and I. The silence was deafening back when my daughter would come and train with me in the early mornings when she thought she might still take a run at competing. I'm sorry this happened. I would hope that those involved have moved on so you can train with those you need/want to. As for your kick.... I see training with age group as a good opportunity to work on your kick a lot. Two weeks ago I got a cortisone shot in my ankle from a year old injury. I'm lucky that my coach is understanding so when we do a kick set, I wear one fin (on the food foot) and I can keep up and pass some of them. I bet if you talk to the age group coach, he would let you start off with some light fins on and work up to staying with them. There are days when hanging with the kids is hard on my body but I know it will help me over all in my swimming. Today we did 50 LCM races at the end and I did 35.1 free from a push. That's not something I'd expect to do a few months or years ago. So, go for it with the kids team. I think you'll surprise yourself.

Personally, if you can train with appropriately aged kids, you should go for it. Puff and Chris are studs and can hang with the heavy hitters. Unfortunately for me, I max out at about our 13/14 year old teams and would be quite uncomfortable swimming with them. However, when the age groupers or college kids join us due to school or work conflicts they all comment, "Dang, you old guys/gals can bring it." But, we do about 1/4 the kicking they do and about half the yardage.