Swimming

Off Topic
1

Yooo,

So my mom wants me to do some extra curricular thing since I’m going to be a junior now and colleges like that sorta business…

I did cross country during freshman year and I’m thinking that I’m going to do either swimming or wrestling and probably water polo. Swimming and wrestling are during the same season, but water polo is later.

If the school had a powerlifting team or something, I’d love to join that, but all we have are “boys’ fitness” and “girls’ fitness” groups that go into the weight room and take up space talking on their phones and shit.

I hate this. I don’t want to do some gay club, the community can fuck itself, and I’d rather not spend 2 hours a day after school at sports practice, then have to go work, then get home at 9 and start homework.

I want to continue getting good grades, lifting, eating, and getting big. (my T-page won’t update for some reason btw…)

Sooo anyways, enough of my bitching. I have/had a very slight curve in my spine, but I’m working on fixing it and it’s gotten a lot better and may go away soon since I’m only 15 and my skeleton is still developing. I figure that swimming would be better for me than wrestling.

I’d have to go to a practice every day after school though, so finally, two things:

-How would swimming before a workout effect my workout? I’d go home first, eat, and down a shake and whatnot, but I’d go soon after.

-I’d probably burn a ton of calories swimming. Would taking in a lot more calories than I do even now make up for this? Eating clean that much is pretty expensive, too. I’d have to start downing bottles of Olive Oil… what about a weight gainer?

A bit of a rant, I know… What do you guys think?

2

Swimming could be your pre-workout cardio. You might be a bit tired though.

3

Lots of professional swimmers lift weights…not sure if they tone it down during the actual season though.

I bet pretty much everyone on here says stay away from cross country but I actually liked it in high school and wished I had done it for more than one year. Only time in my life that I actually enjoyed running outside of sports.

If you are doing this for the sole reason of having a good college application there are other things you could do that you might enjoy.

First off if you work over 20 hours a week make sure to put that on your application.

Second, unless you are a college level athlete, volunteering your time will look just as good if not better than being on a school team.

Third, you could always try and become president of the german/spanish/chess/math/etc. club. It will take up less time than sports and is also a school sponsored activity.

I didn’t do anything outside of cross country my junior year but I’m an Eagle Scout and that has helped me quite a bit. I would of gotten into the college I’m at without it, but it is always brought up as a positive in every job interview I’ve had.

4

If your swim workouts are gonna be anything like mine were it was rough. Usually we worked up to about 5-6000 in a 2 hour practice. After practice I was drained all I did was eat and sleep. Your best bet would be to train in the morning before school.

5

Why don’t you START a powerlifting club - that might look better on your application.

Not that you should ask me. My college application essay was about a quarter page long and it was about me puking after doing squats.

6

Your best b et is probably volunteer work. Starting a sport your senior year and blowing ass at it isn’t going to make colleges stuff your mailbox with offers. From people I know it’d be:
-club leadership/membership
-volunteer work
-a job

Lets look at the benefits of not being in a sport:
-no organised team training
-no ghey lifting routine (bfs, etc)
-dealing with fucking morons at practice
-coach might be an asshole, and you’ll end up hating it
-exhausted from practice, which affects lifting, and nearly everything
-harder to manage workload (job/homework)

If you wanted to be in a sport you would already be in it at this stage.

my 2 cents, if you WANT to do it then do it. If you’re doing it to try to help your application there are equally good things that you won’t have to commit as much for, and actually might help someone else (volunteer work). It’s up to you though.

7

The key for college resume is to do all the above…volunteer work, good grades, sports, non-atheltic acitivities, and job…

On the swimming note, swimming kicks your ass. Seriously swimming is one of the hardest sports, both mentally and physically. I have played football, baseball, volleyball (just for fun on beaches), and swam. Swimming is be far the hardest. It is aerobic and anaerboic. You swim (at a high school level) between 5-7 thousand yards a day and seasons normally last nov till mar (plus all the offseason work the coaches want you do). You swim Sat mornings (like at 7 am) and sometimes have to swim before starts (like 5 am). You go weights and callistics/ab work after pracitce. Its a big commitment, but the rewards are phenomenal.

I swam in high school and played water polo in college. You get so cardiovascular fit it is nuts. You have to consume lots of calories (i consumed about 5,000 a day). I also dropped about 40 lbs in a season, mostly fat.

I am not discouraging swimming, even if you are just a beginner. I think its great, but just warning you, that if your not really sure on it you may hate it.

I personally liked being pushed to the limit and have throwen up several times at practices, even at high school level (esp if your school is good and competitive).

So, I say go for it, try it. It will make you lean and cardiovascular health. Plus you get to see chicks in bathing suits, all day. Staring at ass for 3 hours everyday while you swim a couple hundred yards isnt that bad, plus they say swimmers are the most sexually active atheltets :wink:

So yea, they are great, just be aware of the commitment and all that goes into it, but it is very rewarding physically and mentally toughening you, plus make good friends and looks good on resume!

8

Can anyone explain to me the genesis of the butterfly stroke? I cannot think of a reason to you that stroke outside of competition. I think they just needed a 4th stroke for relays.

DB

9

[quote]NateOrade wrote:
Why don’t you START a powerlifting club - that might look better on your application.

Not that you should ask me. My college application essay was about a quarter page long and it was about me puking after doing squats.[/quote]

This is the best suggestion if you want to stand out in the admissions process, especially if you’re not a “straight A” student or your SAT scores aren’t perfect.

Anybody can volunteer their time or join a sports team. It looks good on college apps. Unless you’re an outstanding athlete, you won’t be noticed.

But if you start a PL club, you show skills of leadership, organization and the entreprenurial skills that put you on top of the pile of paper on the desk of the Admissions committee.

10

I mean you can do fly else where, but why would you want to. I have done it in lakes and stuff to show off, but there is no reason for it. The normal person should prob jsut know basic front crawl (freestyle), side stroke, and maybe breaststroke (can keep head up). These will allow you to swim for recreation, fitness, and personal safety.

I feel butterfly is too aerobically taxing compared to free, and also too difficult for people to learn

11

[quote]tg2hbk4488 wrote:
On the swimming note, swimming kicks your ass. Seriously swimming is one of the hardest sports, both mentally and physically. I have played football, baseball, volleyball (just for fun on beaches), and swam. Swimming is be far the hardest. It is aerobic and anaerboic. You swim (at a high school level) between 5-7 thousand yards a day and seasons normally last nov till mar (plus all the offseason work the coaches want you do). You swim Sat mornings (like at 7 am) and sometimes have to swim before starts (like 5 am). You go weights and callistics/ab work after pracitce. Its a big commitment, but the rewards are phenomenal.
[/quote]

If you haven’t swam before you might even swim more yards. We swam more than 7 thousand alot of the time, I’ve had an 11,000 yard set (ladder) at one practice (granted that was the whole practice and it was over 2 hours). You don’t feel like going to workout or lift heavy after.

5 a.m. were normal every other day. Saturdays mandatory and everyday after school.

Try swimming with a club team during the summer for a week to see if you’ll really enjoy it otherwise it’s not that great of an idea.

12

This is true, but the coach will work with you. He wont just kick you into the pool and expect you to keep up with kids who have been swimming forever.

I have coached high school level and the new kids always hate it for the first two weeks, but once they get the hang of it (and get in shape) they become pretty good.

I swam against a kid in highschool who didnt swim till his freshman year and his junior year he qualified to go to Olympic trials, so you never know what could happen…

(For the record: he went a 46.97 in the 100 fly, and he went a 48.3 in 100 free)

I say give it a shot…