I've been swimming competitively since the age of 8, and I've had the same issue for nearly as long. I swim pretty fast in workouts and while training, but when I go to swim meets, my performance is pretty lackluster.
I avoided swimming in a meet until just recently, where the coach guess entry times, and thought mine would be faster than they would. The people who swim in my lane during practice all swim 5-10 seconds faster (in sprints & mid-distance) than I do in a swim meet.
This happens regardless of how in shape I am. And happens less often in distance events than sprints, which makes me wonder if I just have a switch turned off in my brain that should make me really "work it" when I'm in competition.
Any advice? :confused:
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Former Member
That's what I'm thinking, Ande. Maybe if I'm shooting to get a 1:05 in a 100m free, I should try swimming closer to 1:15 in practice.
Also, as someone mentioned earlier, perhaps my warmup should be close to the swim?
I cannot recall when I got a time that was fast enough to surprise me. It had to be the 500 freestyle in high school. That particular coach used to have us doing a lot of distance in workouts, and I was swimming 5 days a week, sometimes twice a day, and weight lifting.
Admittedly, my masters regimen is pretty lax compared to that!
That's what I'm thinking, Ande. Maybe if I'm shooting to get a 1:05 in a 100m free, I should try swimming closer to 1:15 in practice.
Also, as someone mentioned earlier, perhaps my warmup should be close to the swim?
I cannot recall when I got a time that was fast enough to surprise me. It had to be the 500 freestyle in high school. That particular coach used to have us doing a lot of distance in workouts, and I was swimming 5 days a week, sometimes twice a day, and weight lifting.
Admittedly, my masters regimen is pretty lax compared to that!
