It's been cool for me over the last few years seeing and competing against a number of guys from both my age group and collegiate days. However, when I think back to my college team, in particular, I'm struck by how many guys are NOT back swimming and competing in Masters. I realize this is probably the wrong audience to ask (since we're back in the pool), but, since for me swimming & competing go hand in hand and I love swimming, I'm still puzzled why more people don't come back to the sport and to racing?
I never liked swimming much as an age-grouper (I did like being good at something). I enjoy it now as I can do however much I want. I get more satisfaction out of triathlons but suck at them so as someone with no self-esteem, I return to what I'm good at...sort of gives my life meaning. :bighug: Talk to my (rotund) brothers who swam for Berkeley and Texas and they will say it will be a cold day in hell when they return to the pool. Burnout or too busy making money I guess.
for me it had to do with lack of knowledge of masters swimming.
I graduated in 99, moved to dallas for nearly 2 yrs before moving to sweden, and it was not until 2006 I learned about masters and that there was a team in the area.
only 3-4 of my former teammates are swimming today.
what I notice at our nationals is the age groups with the most and least number of participants and it reflects the qualifying times not just for Worlds, but I think for USMS as well.
nearly no one under 29,
30-39 people starting to come back, but not many because they are still spending time creating a family or carrier.
40-54 is the largest group mostly because they have their family, have been working for a while
55-64 not as large but almost alway 3 in each event
65+ starts to get smaller, either people are dying young, or retire and their spouse wants to travel, or they medically can't swim.
It also seems to me the majority of swimmers in USMS who did compete when they were younger were sort of middle of the road talentwise. Yes, there are some swimmers in USMS who were and are very talented and made it to the top levels of the sport, but these seem to be the exceptions. Also this could just be a perception thing. There are a lot more "middle of the roads" than elites so it might stand to reason there are more of them swimming masters.
I have to agree with that. I haven't seen alot of "very talented" swimmers that I knew growing up with on the Masters swimming scene.
For me it was this:
"Still seems like work."
In my mid 20's i came back to the sport. But I started asking myself... why go pound out yards on a crappy schedule with a pool full of youngsters that just get in my way when I could be home playing video games or working on my cars? :) So that's what i did.
Recently in my early 30's I've discovered a new drive for the sport again after realizing i like training alone better than I ever liked doing it on a team. Hopefully this time around swim practice will remain interesting.
For me it was burnout. I went to college without a swim team on purpose. It took my sister going to Nationals to get me back in to it in 2000.
For my coach, it's too much time at the pool now. He doesn't want to spend his "spare" time training when he's already at the pool about 7 hours a day. He's a former Olympian who last competed in 2006.
It also seems to me that there are a (sizeable?) number of "hidden" masters swimmers who are very fast. They train fairly regularly but rarely compete.
Every once in awhile they'll come out of the woodwork for a big meet near them, swim some very fast times, and then disappear.
Or they might swim in meets every five years after they age up, get a few national/world records, and then go back into hibernation.
I think very famous swimmers like Mary T or Tracy Caulkins face an added barrier: if they entered a meet, they would swim under (real or imagined) fairly large expectations, even in a masters meet. Who would want that? Maybe better to participate in a sport where they are relatively unknown.
For me, "finding" time and feeling out of shape have been serious obstacles to joining organized swimming, and not always in that order.
This year I joined U.S. Masters Swimming and am very glad I did, getting strong and very slowly improving my speed and endurance, although there are days on which it is a struggle not to let work preempt swim practice.
I think very famous swimmers like Mary T or Tracy Caulkins face an added barrier: if they entered a meet, they would swim under (real or imagined) fairly large expectations, even in a masters meet. Who would want that? Maybe better to participate in a sport where they are relatively unknown.
In addition to what Wookie mentioned about my coach, he also doesn't compete due to what he calls the "large target on his back". We saw it towards former Olympic athletes at Atlanta's Nationals. My coach would get the same thing and what would people (or he) think if he didn't match his old times? Without being able to train like he used to (in addition to 14 more years), he would probably not be close to his former Olympic times now and doesn't want that target. But I'm working on him. His sister just got back in to competition. Now to work on him.
Yes, Wookie, go Vols :)
In addition to what Wookie mentioned about my coach, he also doesn't compete due to what he calls the "large target on his back". We saw it towards former Olympic athletes at Atlanta's Nationals.
Really? I got the different vibe as it was just fantastic to see any former Olympians still in the pool.
