Hey guys, thread below on attaining a 24s 50m free got me wondering on time ranges for 50m freestyle.
Amongst masters swimmers, can you give me the rough ranges for what is considered beginner, decent/competitive, and top range? (Age is 30, if it helps). Broad ranges are fine.
Even though I'm not training for the clock, I realized I'm operating in a vacuum in this regard and it'd be very interesting to see.
Thanks!
I'd like to see a beginning swimmer -- someone who has never done anything beyond lap swimming -- who can go 31 in 50 m swim, any age. I am willing to bet that no such creature exists.
I'm sure there is. I wasn't far off personally. My first 50y free when i was 14 I went 29.9 after 3-4 weeks of swim practice. All i had done prior to that was swim in my backyard pool. I was a beginner, and could barely keep my head in the water. 29.9 doesn't convert too bad if you consider I could barely do a flip turn let alone a fast one. 33 even in lc meters maybe if I didn't have to stop and turn? I think its easy to arrive at that conversion. There's a counterexample for everything.
I'm just saying, asking for subjective opinion, you'll get responses like mine, and responses that are far from mine as far as how some people want to classify times. Note: I should've denoted my classifications was for men also. I don't want anyone to think that I feel "beginner" is a dig or negative opinion of someone. I am in competition and have been for 18 years. When i see people in my age group going 30+ in a 50free the first thing on my mind is that they haven't trained enough to step from beginner to average.
The list swimosaur posted is a very good objective classification of swimmers, but it would appear that it doesn't classify low enough to suit the needs of some.
I'd like to see a beginning swimmer -- someone who has never done anything beyond lap swimming -- who can go 31 in 50 m swim, any age. I am willing to bet that no such creature exists.
I'm sure there is. I wasn't far off personally. My first 50y free when i was 14 I went 29.9 after 3-4 weeks of swim practice. All i had done prior to that was swim in my backyard pool. I was a beginner, and could barely keep my head in the water. 29.9 doesn't convert too bad if you consider I could barely do a flip turn let alone a fast one. 33 even in lc meters maybe if I didn't have to stop and turn? I think its easy to arrive at that conversion. There's a counterexample for everything.
I'm just saying, asking for subjective opinion, you'll get responses like mine, and responses that are far from mine as far as how some people want to classify times. Note: I should've denoted my classifications was for men also. I don't want anyone to think that I feel "beginner" is a dig or negative opinion of someone. I am in competition and have been for 18 years. When i see people in my age group going 30+ in a 50free the first thing on my mind is that they haven't trained enough to step from beginner to average.
The list swimosaur posted is a very good objective classification of swimmers, but it would appear that it doesn't classify low enough to suit the needs of some.
