The Gift of Swimming

[user 246304]

Coming along. At about 1500 daily, aiming for 6 X/week with strength training 3X per week and stamina training on the SkiErg 2X week. Getting back in the water has been such a boon. My various health conditions, I think, have taken some ease in the cushion the water gives. I've so much to be grateful for, growing up living in the water hours daily. And when not in the pool, swimming, body surfing and diving the coasts and Channel Islands of Southern California. Not bad for a 63 year old dude.

 

[corkybstewart]

I was a competitive(barely) swimmer from age 6 until 16, but had no real success. But that was never the point. I went from being a quite chubby six year old to a lean and somewhat muscular kid by age 10. Our team in Mobile AL competed across the south-Birmingham, Atlanta, New Orleans, etc. For the parents each trip was a party trip but the kids worked our butts off. One team member competed in the Munich Olympics, getting 6th place in the 1500 meter. His pace for the 1500 was faster than my pace in a 100m sprint. He ended up as the swimming coach at the Air Force Academy and only recently died of cancer.
But as a perennial B team star swimming grew old and as soon as I got my driver's license I quit and didn't get in a pool for almost 3 years. To this day I can't relax in a pool, I invariably start swimming laps. Several times over the years I would go to the high school pool for the 5 AM lap sim program, but my work schedule would pretty quickly shut that down. It really is the best exercise, the least damaging to the aging body but unfortunately for us it's not a sustainable practice.

 

[Lampy]

I was a pretty good swimmer in high school, making it to the all state meet 3 times and medaling at it at least twice. I stopped swimming regularly in college and have essentially stopped swimming for exercise due to an ear problem.

 

[doug293cz]

Swimming was the only sport where I was somewhat competitive. Didn't have a pool in high school until my junior year, so only swam two seasons. In HS we had a fast and a slow 400 free relay line up, and I was on both - think about it. Never had much stamina at that age, so was only competitive in sprint events. Did get to go to the State Meet both seasons (relays only first year). Had my fastest 100 time in a relay after a relay start that was so close that the two start judges just looked at each other and shrugged. I knew I might have left early, so just swam as fast as I could.

Later in life I swam Masters for several years. Kept me in pretty good shape, and I was reasonably competitive. Was crazy enough to swim 400 IMs a few times, and even beat a rival on my own team who was 10 - 15 years younger than I (we were swimming in adjacent lanes.)

Haven't swum for a few years now due to shoulder problems. I had been doing mostly weight training when my shoulder started bothering me, so decided to try going back to swimming, but that made my shoulder hurt even more. Quit going to the gym when Covid hit, and bought an elliptical for home. Thinking about trying swimming again.

Brew on

 

[day_trippr]

This topic brought back one of my more entertaining childhood memories. I'm gonna share and there's nothing y'all can do about it

When I was testing for my Red Cross Water Safety Instructor certificate I was up against a rather well built man who was also the high school's football line coach (seriously, this guy was jacked - he had at least 100 pounds of muscle over my 16 year old bod more suited for tennis). And the most important of the tests - a pass/fail one - was a rescue of an aggressively panicking victim who in trying to save their own @ss is effectively drowning their savior.

So he's in the pool doing his thing and I jump in to do mine. Within seconds I'm in big trouble because he's locked arms and legs around me, and my face is at his sternum level - and underwater. No bueno. I wasn't going to last long like that.

Fortunately, I had been trained well - ironically, by the high school's AD, who not only was a swimming instructor, he had hired the football coach. He had told his students that if they were ever in a similar situation to understand it was serious life and death stuff, to not be shy - and to nail the "victim" square in the family jewels using whatever method was available.

Which I definitely did, bringing a knee up as fast as the water resistance allowed.
And suddenly he was going down like the Titanic.
So I saved his ass. And got my certificate.

Of course, I paid for that in the end. He beat me like a rented mule for the entire football season

 

[user 246304]

Guys, just to say thanks for the replies. Turning in now so will likely be coming back tomorrow but your stories give me an insight into another side of you and it's rewarding, really nice to get to know you just that bit better. Good on all of you.

 

[corkybstewart]

Haven't swum for a few years now due to shoulder problems. I had been doing mostly weight training when my shoulder started bothering me, so decided to try going back to swimming, but that made my shoulder hurt even more.

Brew on

I understand this. I've developed a problem with my hip and I thought swimming would help. I couldn't swim 15 minutes before the pain became unbearable

 

[user 246304]

I understand this. I've developed a problem with my hip and I thought swimming would help. I couldn't swim 15 minutes before the pain became unbearable

Have you tried just using a pull buoy and paddles?

 

[corkybstewart]

Have you tried just using a pull buoy and paddles?

Not yet but I really don't have access to a pool. Our municipal pool never reopened after Covid and my daughter's pool is 325 miles away

 

[user 246304]

I was a competitive(barely) swimmer from age 6 until 16, but had no real success. But that was never the point. I went from being a quite chubby six year old to a lean and somewhat muscular kid by age 10. Our team in Mobile AL competed across the south-Birmingham, Atlanta, New Orleans, etc. For the parents each trip was a party trip but the kids worked our butts off. One team member competed in the Munich Olympics, getting 6th place in the 1500 meter. His pace for the 1500 was faster than my pace in a 100m sprint. He ended up as the swimming coach at the Air Force Academy and only recently died of cancer.
But as a perennial B team star swimming grew old and as soon as I got my driver's license I quit and didn't get in a pool for almost 3 years. To this day I can't relax in a pool, I invariably start swimming laps. Several times over the years I would go to the high school pool for the 5 AM lap sim program, but my work schedule would pretty quickly shut that down. It really is the best exercise, the least damaging to the aging body but unfortunately for us it's not a sustainable practice.

Belated, but thanks for the story Corky. The tragedy of the Israeli athletes' murder at the '72 Munich games unfortunately will forever be seared in my memory, but so will the incredible feat of Mark Spitz. What an honor your teammate had - 6th at the Olympics, and in the 1500!!! Sad to hear of his recent passing. Thanks for sharing buddy.

To this day I can't relax in a pool, I invariably start swimming laps.

Even before my coming back to training, I so get this. I talked a long time with my brother, who got close to going in the '68 games. He's in bad medical health now, which really saddens me as he was a god to me from very young and to see him suffering so badly now - well, like all of us for the people we love. But he told me he only recently found out the dad of a good friend of his was himself a competitive swimmer in the day. Old guy now, but he joined my brother for the Paris swimming. And they had a great time. No one understands the connection to swimming like swimmers - one of the reasons I love that Rowdy Gaines is an announcer....seems the boy is probably having a hard time not jumping through the glass to get to the pool when a fierce race is on. My family knows me, but they don't get it ("man, her underwater efficiency is just crazy perfect") like I do and it's nice to share with a fellow competitor.

 

[user 246304]

I was a pretty good swimmer in high school, making it to the all state meet 3 times and medaling at it at least twice. I stopped swimming regularly in college and have essentially stopped swimming for exercise due to an ear problem.

Kudos, not everyone can say that Lampy. Sorry to hear about the ear issue - is it a tendency to infection, or a balance issue?

 

[user 246304]

Swimming was the only sport where I was somewhat competitive. Didn't have a pool in high school until my junior year, so only swam two seasons. In HS we had a fast and a slow 400 free relay line up, and I was on both - think about it. Never had much stamina at that age, so was only competitive in sprint events. Did get to go to the State Meet both seasons (relays only first year). Had my fastest 100 time in a relay after a relay start that was so close that the two start judges just looked at each other and shrugged. I knew I might have left early, so just swam as fast as I could.

Later in life I swam Masters for several years. Kept me in pretty good shape, and I was reasonably competitive. Was crazy enough to swim 400 IMs a few times, and even beat a rival on my own team who was 10 - 15 years younger than I (we were swimming in adjacent lanes.)

Haven't swum for a few years now due to shoulder problems. I had been doing mostly weight training when my shoulder started bothering me, so decided to try going back to swimming, but that made my shoulder hurt even more. Quit going to the gym when Covid hit, and bought an elliptical for home. Thinking about trying swimming again.

Brew on

Doug, sorry, too, man for the belated reply. That is quite a chronicle. That's also an awesome spread - from 100 sprinter to that damned torture chamber the 400 IM (fellow sufferer. That and the 400/500 free and the 1650/1500 M free were my events). Pretty rare buddy.

I'm too shy to get into Masters as of yet. Just tallied it up and this week have made 15,600 yards, 8.9 miles. I'm splitting about 0.32 on stuff like 10 x 50's with 15 seconds rest and my 100 rep series on 30 seconds rest aren't bad but I'm not anywhere near with holding it up with something like the 500. But I'm able to do a decent negative split on the 400 or 500 and feel stamina coming back. It is truly wonderful to be recapturing this.

I'm really sorry though to hear about your shoulder. Like all of us I hate injuries - your heart's there to train but our bodies just say no. I hope you can heal and get back at it. And would love to hear more if so.

 

[doug293cz]

Doug, sorry, too, man for the belated reply. That is quite a chronicle. That's also an awesome spread - from 100 sprinter to that damned torture chamber the 400 IM (fellow sufferer. That and the 400/500 free and the 1650/1500 M free were my events). Pretty rare buddy.

I'm too shy to get into Masters as of yet. Just tallied it up and this week have made 15,600 yards, 8.9 miles. I'm splitting about 0.32 on stuff like 10 x 50's with 15 seconds rest and my 100 rep series on 30 seconds rest aren't bad but I'm not anywhere near with holding it up with something like the 500. But I'm able to do a decent negative split on the 400 or 500 and feel stamina coming back. It is truly wonderful to be recapturing this.

I'm really sorry though to hear about your shoulder. Like all of us I hate injuries - your heart's there to train but our bodies just say no. I hope you can heal and get back at it. And would love to hear more if so.

Sounds like your are in pretty good shape. You could do quite well in Masters competition. Even when I was in pretty good shape at middle age, I could only handle 10x50's at about 0:35 on 1 minute intervals. And I never went sub 1:00 for a 100 after high school.

Brew on

 

[user 246304]

This topic brought back one of my more entertaining childhood memories. I'm gonna share and there's nothing y'all can do about it

When I was testing for my Red Cross Water Safety Instructor certificate I was up against a rather well built man who was also the high school's football line coach (seriously, this guy was jacked - he had at least 100 pounds of muscle over my 16 year old bod more suited for tennis). And the most important of the tests - a pass/fail one - was a rescue of an aggressively panicking victim who in trying to save their own @ss is effectively drowning their savior.

So he's in the pool doing his thing and I jump in to do mine. Within seconds I'm in big trouble because he's locked arms and legs around me, and my face is at his sternum level - and underwater. No bueno. I wasn't going to last long like that.

Fortunately, I had been trained well - ironically, by the high school's AD, who not only was a swimming instructor, he had hired the football coach. He had told his students that if they were ever in a similar situation to understand it was serious life and death stuff, to not be shy - and to nail the "victim" square in the family jewels using whatever method was available.

Which I definitely did, bringing a knee up as fast as the water resistance allowed.
And suddenly he was going down like the Titanic.
So I saved his ass. And got my certificate.

Of course, I paid for that in the end. He beat me like a rented mule for the entire football season

OK yes, this is the stuff of legends, LOL.

My football swimming story involves my marine biology teacher and football coach, Mack Uhl, and his kid.

Mack Uhl. 5'2" tall and 184.9" broad across the shoulders. With the name Mack. And Uhl. Ex-Marine.

During one practice, his son Kyle was pissed off because as a first year highschooler (for us that was sophomore, because we were a 3 year high school at the time), I was beating the snot out of the juniors and seniors of the squad in practice. Guess he'd finally had enough as he grabbed me on a turn and told me to "knock it off" and gave me a Houdini gut sucker punch. Ended up bursting a retroperitoneal bleed and almost bought it in the pool.

Poor kid. I know he never meant to do that but with a dad like Mack Uhl I was terrified for him. He came in sheepishly to the hospital and I told him all was good. Best thing: all the pretty young things came in to visit awash with emotion. Never so lucky then, never so lucky since.

Edit: (Just wanted to make clear "stuff of legends" - I meant your story, @day_trippr, not my following one. Just awesome.)

 

[user 246304]

Sounds like your are in pretty good shape. You could do quite well in Masters competition. Even when I was in pretty good shape at middle age, I could only handle 10x50's at about 0:35 on 1 minute intervals. And I never went sub 1:00 for a 100 after high school.

Brew on

Thanks Doug but if you're holding 0:35 on 1 minute intervals, you sound tough as nails too. I really, really hope you can get back to it buddy.

 

[doug293cz]

Thanks Doug but if you're holding 0:35 on 1 minute intervals, you sound tough as nails too. I really, really hope you can get back to it buddy.

Can't do that anymore (that was ~25 yrs ago.) And, 0:35 on 1:00 is a long way from 0:32 on 0:47!

Brew on

 

[mac_1103]

I've never been able to swim any better than well enough to fake my way through any tests I was forced to take (my undergraduate institution actually had a 100 yard swim as a requirement for any degree), so I made sure that my kids learned to swim well. They both wound up being competitive swimmers, at least to the extent of earning multiple HS varsity letters. Watching them develop in the sport not only made me a lifelong fan, but also made me wish that my own parents had put me on a recreational swim team when I was a kid. So anyway, in the "go figure" or maybe "sometimes the apple does roll far from the tree" department - my son actually was part of a state runner-up team, got to swim relays with a HS all-American, and was recruited by a couple of DIII schools. My daughter was a "just barely made the team" athlete in both swimming and track, but she once got to touch the wall first as the anchor (and by far weakest link) on a medley relay in a championship meet. Of course, they try to pretend that we forced them to do it and they hated every minute, but I have voluminous photographic evidence to the contrary.

 

[user 246304]

Can't do that anymore (that was ~25 yrs ago.) And, 0:35 on 1:00 is a long way from 0:32 on 0:47!

Brew on

Well, I still think that's commendable. Doing those 30 x 100's on some murderous interval still gives me cold sweats!

 

[user 246304]

I've never been able to swim any better than well enough to fake my way through any tests I was forced to take (my undergraduate institution actually had a 100 yard swim as a requirement for any degree), so I made sure that my kids learned to swim well. They both wound up being competitive swimmers, at least to the extent of earning multiple HS varsity letters. Watching them develop in the sport not only made me a lifelong fan, but also made me wish that my own parents had put me on a recreational swim team when I was a kid. So anyway, in the "go figure" or maybe "sometimes the apple does roll far from the tree" department - my son actually was part of a state runner-up team, got to swim relays with a HS all-American, and was recruited by a couple of DIII schools. My daughter was a "just barely made the team" athlete in both swimming and track, but she once got to touch the wall first as the anchor (and by far weakest link) on a medley relay in a championship meet. Of course, they try to pretend that we forced them to do it and they hated every minute, but I have voluminous photographic evidence to the contrary.

That's a wonderful story mac. Just found out my coach, who was my brother's coach as well, is now 94. They talk regularly, in fact they talked yesterday and my brother let him know what I'm up to. I'm writing a letter to him and sending it off. Lot of dark years for me, but returning now brings me to the greater lessons learned there and I want him to know it. Sounds like your kids benefitted from the same ones. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Lampy]

Kudos, not everyone can say that Lampy. Sorry to hear about the ear issue - is it a tendency to infection, or a balance issue?

Thanks!
It was an infection-related problem, and now I have a tube in one ear so I can't let water get into it. I have a custom plug, but even that can fail if I am swimming too vigorously.

 

[user 246304]

Thanks!
It was an infection-related problem, and now I have a tube in one ear so I can't let water get into it. I have a custom plug, but even that can fail if I am swimming too vigorously.

Aw, I'm sorry man. That's a tough one.

 

[user 246304]

Well, a huge piece of a very long and complex puzzle was put into place this week. I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, hypermobile variant, a genetic disorder. I've got issues across my musculoskeletal, neuro, cardiovascular, GI and psych systems and though some excellent caregivers have gotten close on many of them, it wasn't until this week that the puzzle as to why I deal with all these things probably has a root cause. Not much to be done about it but to be careful and wise going forward, and managed medical care.

Thank god I'm swimming and no longer lifting heavy, which I did in spite of the massive spike in total body pain. Swimming still really hurts, but at least I'm less likely to be causing more damage. Cool thing is - I share with Katie Ledecky certain similarities to her POTS (I have orthostatic hypotension - and my feet and lower legs turn somewhat cyanotic on standing, because my system thinks I'm in danger and shunts blood up to the "important stuff," brain and heart. Katie's POTS is similar - and swimming horizontally is her, and my, perfect exercise).

Michael Phelps is also hypermobile. Hypermobile people tend to have shorter legs comparably, longer torsos and arms. Phelps stands 6' 4" and has a wingspan of 6' 7" -3" wider than his height. Genetically engineered for swimming with lower leg drag and higher power and streamlining through the water. Ahem, my family and friends often describe me as "gorilla arms" with almost comically long torso and shorter legs. My son just measured - I stand 6' 1" tall, and my wingspan is 6' 5". 4" wider than my height. I am officially a genetic swimmer.