50m Freestyle Times

ImDave

Hey, Just wondering what is considered a "good" time to swim 50m freestyle is. From looking up olympic times, it is unreal how fast them guys can go, but what would you consider a decent target to aim for. I would say I am an intermediate swimmer at the moment.

Clseeper

It really depends on your ability, age, fitness & swimming background amongst a lot of other factors. Good Irish national times are around 23/24 sec with the current national record around 22.4 I think.

Average times for top level amateurs [age 16-21] are ~25. But these are people who are training 8/9 sessions a week and doing 30km+ and then land work. Have a look at the other people in your age group in some of the master’s competitions and see where they are.

As long as you are improving on your PB’s [personal best] then you should be happy.

Good Luck

**These times are for mens events

ImDave

Thanks for the info, great help. I've a long way to go yet it seems

Killgore Trout

OP just asks to have more questions asked:

What sort of training have you been doing, how long have you been swimming?
Are you focussing specifically on 50s? If so why?
Have you tried longer distances at lower intensities?
Have you ever trained with a club - would you consider trying it?

hunnymonster

I'm just depressed now. I'm only slighltly better than the times above for 25m (not quite but not a million miles off!). Oh well, as I usually say, I'm built for endurance not speed!

Patrickisperfec

hunnymonster wrote: »

I'm just depressed now. I'm only slighltly better than the times above for 25m (not quite but not a million miles off!). Oh well, as I usually say, I'm built for endurance not speed!

because the distance is so short, the times depend heavily on alot of things. For example the 24/25 seconds that people would swim are swum off a block, in racing togs and timed with a stopwatch as opposed to a clock

Mellor

I was about 28-29 seconds (29 in a 50m race. 28 in a 4x50m relay) where I was younger. But I never kept the high level required up. I shudder to think what I would pull in now. I must try again for reference

Clseeper

You'd be suprised how close you may come to your best times over a 50. As long as you've kept up some exercise, you wont lose too much time. You still have your technique and anyone can push themselves for 30sec.

The real killer is trying to do the longer distances. I'm out of proper competative training a while down. I still do a bit to keep fit, but nothing compared to the crazy hours I used to do. Anyway I put myself in for a 200m brs a while bad. First 100m was ok but the second leg was unbearable. Ended up with a 10 second difference between my two 100m splits. My coach would have hung me if I did that when I was swimming properly.

My 50m times are close to what I had and my 100m are about 1/2 sec off. You should give it a shot Mellor, you could suprise yourself :-)

Mellor

I will try it, but having not been in the water much over the last few years (compared to 10hrs a week maybe) I'd imagine i'd have drifted a bit.

connundrum

Mellor wrote: »

I was about 28-29 seconds (29 in a 50m race. 28 in a 4x50m relay) where I was younger. But I never kept the high level required up. I shudder to think what I would pull in now. I must try again for reference

I used to be the same. I think my best was a 27.4 at a Leinster Schools final when I was 16. Now, 4 stone later (:() I'd me extremely happy to pull in anything in the low 30's.

In training, without blocks and race gear, we were told to aim for between 30 - 35 seconds. Take into account that we were training 4 hours a week in the pool and 2 hours in the gym.

You should time yourself at the beginning of a session (after your warm up), and then again at the end of the session. Aim to get your end of session time closer to your beginning of session time.

Continue like this over a couple of months, before you know it you'll be representing Ireland

Mellor

I'm heading back to the pool soon, so i'll get a rough time, fingers crossed

BigDragon

hunnymonster wrote: »

I'm just depressed now. I'm only slighltly better than the times above for 25m (not quite but not a million miles off!). Oh well, as I usually say, I'm built for endurance not speed!

Remember that before Mark Spitz made his name as a sprinter he was US 1500m champion.....his training was all about endurance first speed second. Unfortunately the best coach I ever had followed this philosophy too :eek:

The worst was 24 hours and 40+k a week at least 16 weeks of the year....I can still remember the 3x1500 3 times a week sessions 20 years later.

PTG

In his era Spitz was a freak though in much the same way Phelps is now, in fact Phelps even more so, he literally is WORLD CLASS in every single event, where as Spitz wasnt great on the breasts. However for the most part, nowadays swimmers are built very different, look at the Sprinters for example, last week Alain Bernard (France) broke the WR in the 50 free Long Course by going 21.50 and he is a MONSTER of a man, wouldnt last anything over a 200 in competitive terms (note: that record has since been smashed down to 21.28 by Eamon Sullivan (AUS))

AngryHippie

the strokes have evolved too. in F/C and B/C the leg kick has been given back its priority in the last 5 or 6 years, which is why the physical stature of the swimmers is less important, except for the occasional flipper footed giant. Bill Sweetenham was suggesting that at least 50% of training sessions should be geared at leg work. This affects short races more than 200m + distances, but it does take the emphasis off the big upper body....

Poloman

Did a low 25 when I was 16.. nearly 25 flat in a relay. I was training 13 hrs per week in the pool and an hour weights on a saturday. I used to swim for Limerick/Munster and represented Ireland for catholic schools games.. never made the Irish National team :-( I won Mosney 4 times though lol :-)

AngryHippie

fair play man. that was a savage training, What kind of mileage were you covering a week at that ?

ramanujan

Clseeper wrote: »

You'd be suprised how close you may come to your best times over a 50. As long as you've kept up some exercise, you wont lose too much time. You still have your technique and anyone can push themselves for 30sec.

My 50m times are close to what I had and my 100m are about 1/2 sec off. You should give it a shot Mellor, you could suprise yourself :-)

I dunno, I'll disagree here! Lets take me for example, used to swim 4 years ago. ish. Obv my start and turns wont differ too much, so lets take a long course example (no turn to help me out) I used to do a 25.something in my hayday. there's absolutely no way I'd hit a 26 in my current state, even though I'd be classified as fit by everyday standards. Would still go sub 30 though easily enough.
I think alot depends on how your body changes after you stop swimming.


on a side note, that 22.4 looks set to drop next week.
prediction: 22.2

Clseeper

I can see where you’re coming from ramanujan. It probably does depend on what level of fitness you maintain after you stop. From my own experience, I’d only get maybe one swim a week at best but would have supplemented that with taking up new sports and defiantly more gym work. Some of my retention in times could have been from increased strength rather than maintenance of my stroke and fitness?

Having said that, I still think you could get close to that 26 if you tried. Now you’re making it hard on yourself with the long course pool. As long as you’re exercising then you’ll be working your anaerobic system and more than likely that’s all you’ll use over the 50m. It’s the fitness or aerobic system that you’ll lose out on because of the lack in sustained training. That’s why it will get exponentially harder to get close to your times for 100m, 200m etc.

ramanujan

I hear ya, but my doing extra gym work without my 12+ hours cardio in the pool means I'm about 2 stone heavier than i was, which makes the 26 abit ridiculous!

although maybe all the bulk I put on is what was missing from my swimming when i was younger!!! will find out tommorrow!! my leisurely thursday swim is going to become epic