Where is the best place to join a swimming club?is 18/19 too old to join one?

Star18

I've always enjoyed swimming and learnt early by watching someone.
I did lessons for about a year when I was 7/8 then I did more lessons in school. I know all the basic swimming moves.
I've always enjoyed them but after they stopped I didn't continue because I also had a slight deep water fear even though I was able to swim well . Since then I've combatted that fear a lot and I feel a lot confident with swimming and not afraid of the deepwater.
I've started swimming again on my own in the gym and I swim quite a few length 10/20. I've always been told my family I'm a strong swimmer although I'm not sure if that fast . How do I work on speed?

And watching the olympics has got me inspired I'd love to swim for fun and maybe try it competitively not for any major tournaments as it's probably far too late for that now . I'm 19 though would I be too old as most swimmers would have competed their whole life?. I only want to do it for fun and to see how I'd get on with it competively.
Where would be the best place in North Dublin to join a swimming club? or even join a team.
Would I need a few lessons before joining a club to get the the same level as everyone?

gutenberg

You could try joining a Master's club perhaps? It's designed for 'older' competitors, and provides a structured training programme and competitions, which might suit you.

I'm not sure what standard they require to be honest, it might be club-specific: one observation though, most of the Master's clubs I investigated had sessions that lasted an hour to an hour and a half, and they would be covering significantly more distance than 10/20 lengths, so best to ask what kind of standard you'd need.

I know the National Aquatics Centre (NAC) has a Master's swimming team; I'd say a quick Google will turn up some more. I'd be surprised if some of the big clubs, such as Aer Lingus/Cormorant didn't have teams.

Tropheus

I know Aer Lingus have a Masters team also. They train early on Saturdays, not sure about their mid week sessions.

Star18

I had a look on their website and they have A and B groups and you start off in the B and move up in terms of lane and you start off in lane 1 at the start.

I haven't done any proper training in years but I can still swim to a okay standard. I just wonder that I'll join and be too slow or not fast enough. And I wasn't doing any competitive swimming. I still enjoy and love swimming.
The aquatics centre is too far away for me.
What level of speed should I be at? Or should I just wait and join as I guess I'd progress the more training I did in swimming.
The styles of swimming I know are front /back stroke , dolphin and the breast stroke I can't remember if I can do the butterfly or not.
Would the pools be the depth of the normal swimming pools or deeper for the competitive swimming. I haven't learnt to dive before with the deep water fear I had before.

gutenberg

Star18 wrote: »

I had a look on their website and they have A and B groups and you start off in the B and move up in terms of lane and you start off in lane 1 at the start.

I haven't done any proper training in years but I can still swim to a okay standard. I just wonder that I'll join and be too slow or not fast enough. And I wasn't doing any competitive swimming. I still enjoy and love swimming.
The aquatics centre is too far away for me.
What level of speed should I be at? Or should I just wait and join as I guess I'd progress the more training I did in swimming.
The styles of swimming I know are front /back stroke , dolphin and the breast stroke I can't remember if I can do the butterfly or not.
Would the pools be the depth of the normal swimming pools or deeper for the competitive swimming. I haven't learnt to dive before with the deep water fear I had before.

None of us can answer how fast you need to be, you should contact the club and try and find out the approximate standard of the B team or whatever, if that's where you'll be starting out.

A lot of swimmers focus on one or two strokes for competition purposes, but for training all strokes would be used, so if you don't know 'fly then I suppose you could be taught it in training, or practise it yourself.

Most pools in Ireland have a shallow end and a deep end, with the latter being anywhere between 2-3 metres in depth. The NAC is 2.4 metres I believe. If you want to compete it might be an idea to learn how to dive, it gives you a big advantage, and then you can progress to diving off starting blocks.

Star18

gutenberg wrote: »

None of us can answer how fast you need to be, you should contact the club and try and find out the approximate standard of the B team or whatever, if that's where you'll be starting out.

A lot of swimmers focus on one or two strokes for competition purposes, but for training all strokes would be used, so if you don't know 'fly then I suppose you could be taught it in training, or practise it yourself.

Most pools in Ireland have a shallow end and a deep end, with the latter being anywhere between 2-3 metres in depth. The NAC is 2.4 metres I believe. If you want to compete it might be an idea to learn how to dive, it gives you a big advantage, and then you can progress to diving off starting blocks.

I'm not too into the diving , I'd prefer just to stick to swimming without the diving or if I was the dive not diving from diving boards. If I was to pick a swimming technique probably front/back stroke I wouldn't mind doing the other two.
is the Aer lingus club my best option to join? I'm not a member of alsaa .
It's easy to get to from where I live.

gutenberg

Star18 wrote: »

I'm not too into the diving , I'd prefer just to stick to swimming without the diving or if I was the dive not diving from diving boards. If I was to pick a swimming technique probably front/back stroke I wouldn't mind doing the other two.
is the Aer lingus club my best option to join? I'm not a member of alsaa .
It's easy to get to from where I live.

Fair enough about the diving, but if you're considering competing then it might be a fear you'll need to overcome eventually; plus diving drills in training are a lot of fun!

I don't know anything about Master's clubs really, apart from that they exist. I'm sure a quick Google would find more in Dublin; Swim Ireland at one time maintained a list of active Master's squads, perhaps start with their website?

Star18

Thanks. I had a look at the website aer lingus have 2 swimming clubs masters and the normal . I should probably try and joining the aer lingus club. I just need to find out more information. I guess I'd be slightly nervous being new going back to swimming .Thats the swimming club nearest I had a look at others there too far away. I'll see what lessons they run and if they happen to do diving, I should try it out I'm not the best with heights the deep water I overcome quite easily. I'm sure it'd be fun once I try it out. I reckon I'd try it out if I had to learn it , I'm taking more chances nowadays. I'll probably get back in the water this week and make sure I still really want to swim before joining any classes I always enjoy it whenever I do swim and I normally prefer to swim lengths.

Star18

Which club would be the best to join out of the Aer lingus club or the Alantis club in the Markievicz centre?

Clseeper

Star18,

To answer some of your questions, I'm very familiar with the Aerlingus club having done all my swimming/coaching career there. You talk about A & B clubs, that is the normal competitive club and would be a good bit above your level from reading your posts.

The masters club is more ideally suited to your current ability. Technically masters swimming in competition starts around the 25yrs but there are a number of galas (swimming competitions) now starting to include a 19-25yrs category. They would have a range of different abilities across the 5 lanes of the pool. The outside lanes near the wall would swim at a much slower rate than the centre lanes. You can swim at your own pace and slowly build up your endurance and technique.

The Aerlingus masters train 3 times a week and I don't believe you need to be a member of ALSAA (can't remember?). They have a session Monday eve, Wednesday morning and Saturday morning. I think they also do an adults lessons on a Thursday night and it may be worth doing a term of these to brush up on strokes. I believe the coach of the masters club teaches in these lessons so you could get chatting to him (Gerry Foley).

The swimming season is finished at the moment but will start back in September so you could get a head start in the pool now to get familiar and work from there. I teach and coach up there so PM me if you'd like more specific info.