I often ask myself this question, especially since I feel like I started swimming at a relatively late stage in life. Sometimes I really struggle to find motivation when I don’t know why I’m even training. I doubt I’ll qualify for regionals or join a varsity team at my current level, and no one really expects me to be great. Yet, I genuinely enjoy training and spending time with my team and the coaches. I want to be a competitive swimmer, but a lot of the time, I think it might be too late for me to be good enough.
Since this forum is so diverse, I’d love to hear why you all wake up at 5 am every day to train
To stay motivated, I focus on being consistent, beating my past personal bests, and improving my average pace. I swam 45 meters in a small town club as a teenager, doing it more as a hobby. I picked it up again about two and a half years ago. I call it my healthy midlife crisis obsession
I started swimming 1.5 years ago, and last year I began learning the butterfly stroke. My goal for this year is to swim 100 meters of butterfly with good technique. I love it because it’s a multi-layered challenge: there’s the pool, gym workouts, gathering feedback from here , nutrition, and improving my technique by applying advice from other swimmers. I also try to apply that long-term planning mentality to my career in regular life
Vic said: @Brogan
I started this week at 33, mostly freestyle, with some backstroke. How do you learn new techniques? Is it silly to say I’m using YouTube
Taking inspiration from YouTube is completely normal! Once you learn some techniques, you keep refining them. That includes watching more videos, filming yourself to analyze your strokes, and getting a coach
Kyrie said:
I want to swim under a minute for 100 meters freestyle. Plus, I want to look amazing and enjoy the challenge
I just did my first hard 100 sprint a few days ago, after 30 years. My goal is to swim longer, but I figure I’ll sprint 100 meters every now and then just to see. Nope not close, like 1:13, not close enough to be excited Lol
I started at 27, I’m 31 now. I train to improve my overall health and to be the best person I can be. My times might never match those of younger swimmers, but that doesn’t mean I can’t compete against myself
, nutrition, and improving my technique by applying advice from other swimmers. I also try to apply that long-term planning mentality to my career in regular life