If you’re new to competitive swimming, then the whole insider language can seem intimidating. There are a lot of people in masters swimming who grew up on swim teams, but while I had enough in the way of informal lessons and swimming experience as a child to be a solid, competent swimmer as an adult, I’d never participated in a swim team in my life when, pretty much out of the blue, I took up open water distance swimming at 45. What did I know from descends and negative splits?
Today I came across a helpful glossary of terms via the Mountain View Masters web site.
Now if someone could just explain exactly HOW you descend (I mean really — “descend :02 on each 100.” Seriously, are there swimmers who have such minutely calibrated sense of pace that they can do that?).
