Unfinished business in the pool??

No unfinished business here. I was a D1 mid-major swimmer as well but I'm coming at this from the opposite direction. I need to exercise to stay healthy. I need motivation to exercise. Masters swimming provides motivation in various ways. (Meets are fun, racing is fun, gotta make the top ten, gotta break that record, gotta hit that next milestone in Go The Distance, etc) Smilies are unrelated: :dinner::duel::eeew::ohyeah::bouncing:

Hi everybody, I am a new contributor to the forum, though I have been reading the threads here for a long time. I am interested to hear stories from masters swimmers who are competing because of 'unfinished business' from their high school swimming days/college swimming days.etc I swam in college and graduated in 2006. The college was D1 but one of the slower conferences. I was not close to making NCAA's. I have swam a little bit of masters on and off since then. It's been on my mind for quite a while but recently I realized how much 'unresolved swimming regrets' I have. I have decided to up my training and see what I can do. So I guess my question is, for all of you who have returned feeling like you have some gas left in the tank, how has your experience been? Any words of advice or wisdom to share? And the ultimate question, have you managed to exorcise any of those swim demons by returning? Thanks in advance for reading this. Welcome to the forums! I swam D1 as well and my quick,short advice is separate the two (Masters and previous swimming) as far as times, expectations, etc UNLESS you can train like you did back then. Otherwise, I think you'll be frustrated. For me, Masters is about pushing myself for me, no other reason. Nothing to prove. With 17 years out of the pool between college and Masters its quite simple to separate my current and previous swimming lives as well. Its now about health, pushing myself from within (I train alone as well so that alone is a HUGE challenge), setting goals, making friends, competition. As you get older the health benefits will probably become a bigger factor and all the other stuff just added benefits.

Totally. I didn't start swimming until my senior year of high school. Of course the coaches didn't put too much development effort into me. I swam part of a season my first year in college. Had to quit due to health issues (lost too much weight w/o my mom's cooking). I have always wondered what I really would have been capable of...

:ohyeah: Hey, That Guy, I LOVE this Smilie! I think it's one of my new favorites! For me, I was just a decent high school swimmer who didn't continue swimming in college. I stayed in shape over the years, but didn't have convenient access to a pool, so swimming wasn't part of my routine. The home gym (kayak machine, treadmill, and recumbent bike) was a lot more convenient! After major shoulder surgery for work-related repetitive stress injury, my surgeon assured me I could go back to swimming. So, after moving to a community with an indoor pool 1 mile from my house, I decided to give it a try. After six months of swimming for fitness, I decided I needed and wanted something more, so I joined U.S.MS. Never did I think I would be able to compete again, but I'm back at it, 32 years after my high school competition ended. And, much to my surgeon's surprise, I'm even swimming fly again, pain free. The best part about competitive swimming, now, is having access to tools not available to me, in 1979: YouTube swim videos, digital video to check my own stroke flaws, and USMS forums to learn about all aspects of swimming. And, I get to choose my own events at swim meets! :banana: Also, it helps tremendously getting some part-time coaching from a good coach. My high school coach never taught me one thing about breaststroke; I had to figure it out for myself. My senior year, we learned why, when we threw Coach into the pool, after beating our rivals; she didn't know how to swim! She panicked and we had to pull her out of the pool. Then, she admitted she didn't know how to swim and wasn't really a swim coach; she was the only available PE teacher to take on the responsibility of "coaching" our team. :afraid:

...but recently I realized how much 'unresolved swimming regrets' I have. I have decided to up my training and see what I can do. So I guess my question is, for all of you who have returned feeling like you have some gas left in the tank, how has your experience been? Any words of advice or wisdom to share? And the ultimate question, have you managed to exorcise any of those swim demons by returning? Great question. I've thought about this type of thing for years. I know I gave it 100% in college, but I think it is pretty common to wonder what you could have done if you went to a different college, swam with a different club team (either before college or over the summer), and so on. There were goals I never reached, but I think it is human nature to always want to make it to that next level. So even though I would definitely say "yes, I have unfinished business," that's not why I swim. I swim because it's fun :)

Hey, That Guy, I LOVE this Smilie! I think it's one of my new favorites! I think the forum elves added it with Jazz Hands in mind. :) But it might be a while before we get to use it since he doesn't post often. The best part about competitive swimming, now, is having access to tools not available to me, in 1979: YouTube swim videos, digital video to check my own stroke flaws, and USMS forums to learn about all aspects of swimming. Youtube in particular has really changed things for the better. Recently I had the notion to switch from trying to emulate Soni's breaststroke to trying to emulate Hansen. (Specifically his wider pulling.) So right then, while that half-formed idea was still stewing in my head, I watched Hansen on Youtube and decided that the idea wasn't a bad one. Next practice I tried to imitate what he was doing, and I made immediate improvement! 20 years ago, how hard would it have been to find underwater video of Hansen's breaststroke? Or Soni's, for that matter? My high school coach never taught me one thing about breaststroke; I had to figure it out for myself. My senior year, we learned why, when we threw Coach into the pool, after beating our rivals; she didn't know how to swim! She panicked and we had to pull her out of the pool. Then, she admitted she didn't know how to swim and wasn't really a swim coach; she was the only available PE teacher to take on the responsibility of "coaching" our team. :afraid: Whoa, that's crazy! :drowning:

Whoa, that's crazy! :drowning:That is a classic story. And thank you, TG, for bringing the story to my attention- I just realized that I skip over the blue Justin Bieber font (subconsciously- path of least resistance thing), and saw it for the first time in your post.

That is a classic story. And thank you, TG, for bringing the story to my attention- I just realized that I skip over the blue Justin Bieber font (subconsciously- path of least resistance thing), and saw it for the first time in your post. On that subject, I didn't do anything to change Elaine's font. I guess the way that I multi-quoted her single post caused the second and third parts to return to the defaults. Not intended! :dunno:

I just realized that I skip over the blue Justin Bieber font :lmao:

No unfinished business here ... I'm coming at this from the opposite direction. I need to exercise to stay healthy. I need motivation to exercise. Masters swimming provides motivation in various ways. (Meets are fun, racing is fun, gotta make the top ten, gotta break that record, gotta hit that next milestone in Go The Distance, etc) Same here. I don't need motivation to exercise, but I do need motivation to swim. My 24 year break means I never look back at times from my youth and always look forward. Plenty of goals to set here in masters and plenty of competition and racing. Plus, I would never want to go back to the yardage drudgery from my youth that made me avoid the pool for decades. I've enjoyed reinventing myself as a drop dead sprinter. TG, Jazz would rather die than use a smilie. He barely uses punctuation and would be appalled by the Justin Bieber font.