Warming up at a swim meet

[swim25]

This Saturday is the first meet of the season and I am excited and anxious to start racing again. My main problem with swim meets is warm ups. I have a terrible time with warming up, it is difficult for me to concentrate when so many other people around are doing completely different things plus the lanes are always to crowded to get any quality time in. My question then is does anyone have any good tips or workouts for warming up at a meet? What do you do before a meet. I haven't seemed to have gotten this part down yet and for me warm ups are crucial to my speed and it takes me awhile to get warmed up. Any advice is appreciated thank you.

By the way is anyone swimming in Fresno this Saturday November 7th?

[Rykno]

I tend to be one of the first people in the water.

I try to do the same 1000-1200 warm up at meets that I have during practice.

if you feel the need to get some drill or kicking done in your warm up start with a 200choice then go right into those things you need before the pools get crowded.

if you are not swimming in the first event, wait until the last 20minutes or so and jump in as most people are getting out.

[GGS5T]

I coach the UK's premier masters club and my swimmers have their own competitive warm-up routine designed specifically for their races on the day. A general warm-up in a (usually) crowded pool won't be useful.

We run through our stretching routine as a group on poolside before I allow the swimmers to warm-up. We work together as a team. I feel that this routine of ours is paramount to team bonding. No other clubs at a meet do this. We are different - and always aim to be so. (If you want to be the same as everybody else, then do just the same as them! This is what I tell the swimmers all the time)

Before we go in for the warm-up, we walk around the pool - again, as a group. The backstrokers check out the ceiling, and the surroundings. Are there any pipes across the ceiling? Any diving boards or air vents? We need to be very familiar with all aspects of the pool.

The breaststrokers and butterfiers, check out the ends of the pool. Is there a trough that you can grab or is it a flat timing pad? Of course, you can check this during the warm-up, but many times the warm-up is over-crowded. You can very easily get out of the pool after the warm-up and you won’t be able to describe the walls to anyone.

Take a few minutes to be familiar with the surroundings. Remember, you don’t want any surprises later on.

Warm-up sessions are very busy at the beginning. My swimmers always go in late. They usually have lots of room to swim when the early 'warm-uppers' have left the pool. At some meets you will see swimmers queuing up in lanes to practice turns. We never do this. During one week's training you will have done over 1,000 turns - and yet swimmers still feel the need to run through their turns during the warm-up!

Generally, when my swimmers are sprinting in competition, they do a long warm-up of easy-medium paced swimming. They finish the warm-up with only two starts from the blocks in the sprint lane. This involves a fast start, and fast breakout for just 15 metres, then a very slow paddle to the end of the pool. Again, they have done many starts in training so there's no need to do several before they swim in competition. With two fast starts only, the 'feelgood' factor will be sky high, and the swimmer will be prepared for their swim.

[dolf]

Originally Posted by GGS5T

We run through our stretching routine as a group on poolside before I allow the swimmers to warm-up. .

Yes

Originally Posted by GGS5T

The backstrokers check out the ceiling, and the surroundings. The breaststrokers and butterfiers, check out the ends of the pool. Is there a trough that you can grab or is it a flat timing pad? .

Yes

Originally Posted by GGS5T

My swimmers always go in late. They usually have lots of room to swim when the early 'warm-uppers' have left the pool.......and yet swimmers still feel the need to run through their turns during the warm-up!.

Yes

Originally Posted by GGS5T

They finish the warm-up with only two starts from the blocks in the sprint lane. This involves a fast start, and fast breakout for just 15 metres, then a very slow paddle to the end of the pool.

and Yes.

Personally I never swim more than 400m in a warm up. 1200m like Rykno??? that's nearly a training session for me!

[Rykno]

I've got back issues and most of my meets are 2hrs in the car, so it takes me 15-20 minutes of just moving around in the pool before it feels right.

[swim25]

Cool thank you. I'm familiar with the pool. I am fairly new to competing, I did 6 meets last year, since I swim all different events from the 200 free to the 50 fly do I want to mix up my warm up to include all strokes or will an easy moderate to long distance swim suffice?

[smontanaro]

Originally Posted by GGS5T

At some meets you will see swimmers queuing up in lanes to practice turns. We never do this. During one week's training you will have done over 1,000 turns - and yet swimmers still feel the need to run through their turns during the warm-up!

I have a hard time judging where I am in in relationship to the wall and the T on the bottom of the pool when swimming in a deep water pool such as a diving well. I generally miss (badly!) at least one turn in a 200 free at meets in these sorts of pools. While I might have had hundreds of thousands (!) of turns during the previous week in the pool where I practice it's not quite the same as a turn in a 14 ft deep diving well.

Skip