Swimming Past 50

Swimming is a sport especially well-suited for older adults. But most books cater to younger, competitive high school and college swimmers and their coaches.

Swimming Past 50 offers age-appropriate fitness and competition training programs as well as many valuable insights for swimmers who have lapped the 50-year mark. Swimming is increasingly popular among this growing age group as it is an ideal sport for developing cardiovascular fitness while putting little or no wear and tear on bones and joints. This book provides special insights and recommendations for mature swimmers. Whether you swim to stay in shape or compete as a Masters swimmer, you'll find the material useful and accurate.

Authors Mel Goldstein and Dave Tanner know their subject matter well. Both swam at Indiana University under the tutelage of legendary coach James ""Doc"" Counsilman. Goldstein went on to coach Masters swimmers and to swim competitively, and he currently ranks among the top ten nationally in the 60 to 64 age group. Tanner is a world champion and All-American swimmer and also competes in a variety of endurance sports. As an exercise physiologist and high school swim coach, he has studied training methods and schedules for fitness and performance in swimming.

Whether you want to be a more efficient and fit lap swimmer or a faster competitor in the next Masters competition you enter, Swimming Past 50 is your guide to success. Training methods, stroke technique instructions, and drills are accompanied by important age considerations. The book also provides dryland and in-pool training programs for different levels of age 50 and over swimmers. As a special bonus, the authors have included sample workout schedules for the entire year.

Age was always a poor excuse not to swim. Now Swimming Past 50 shows there's no excuse at all, so jump right in.

Mel Goldstein and Dave Tanner are accomplished swimmers, coaches, and writers. Both men swam under Doc Counsilman, the legendary swim coach whose Indiana University teams won six NCAA National Championships. These two Counsilman disciples took different career paths but reconnect on this project, allowing them to share their passion for and expertise in Masters swimming.

Goldstein is a past president of United States Masters Swimmers. He is an elite swimmer, ranked in the United States Masters Top 10 in his age group in several strokes. He won the 400-meter IM at the 1994 World Masters Swimming Championships at age 55. Goldstein has also been a Masters swim coach since 1983. He developed and is the swim coach/director of the YMCA Indy SwimFit Program for YMCA of greater Indianapolis. This program has more than 250 swimmers who either compete in Masters swimming and/or triathlons competitively or have chosen aquatics as their activity for physical fitness. Mel and his wife Judy live in Indianapolis.

Tanner brings in-depth knowledge of Masters swimming from three perspectives: as a competitor, coach, and researcher. He's been swimming competitively since 1958 and coaching at various levels from beginner to elite since 1973. He currently coaches at the high school level. An exercise physiologist, his graduate work at Indiana University included human performance research in Masters swimming. Tanner is also active in ultra-endurance sports and is the only person to complete the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run, the Race Across AMerica (RAAM), and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana.