Aspiring

Question
Hello George,
  Will like to commend you on the great experience on swimming you possess and am much impressed. Will be great to have a coach like yourself! I am merely an amateur who loved water since age 2. Unfortunately, never made it to any competitions, club, nationals or beyond but always aspire to be the best I can be. IN my teens, used to workout doing lots of laps in the pool and fine tuned my technique and learnt butterfly on my own even. I havent swam in few years. Took up weights training but Im not massively built, just well muscled. Will like to really get back into swimming. Seeing swimming in the Olympics just spurred me on. How envious I get but everyone has their own agendas in life. I just graduated in aerodynamics so it be keen to even be able to understand hyrdo dynamics and the flow patterns around a swimmer and use that to help me with my time. At college, i was dumb not to take it up seriously . Went into weights training consistently. Now I have developed much stronger arms and delts which should be an asset
 I dont intend to be jumping off the start blocks but I want to be able to be a terrific amateur swimmer, one who can work up ( once more) to swimming 1 mile and more . Also, having the ability to swim 25 m and 50 metre distances and do it in an excellent time , and constantly improving my stroke technique. If you can offer me some motivation, it be greatly appreciated!! If there is some good chance for me to become '' good' that be encouraging.
THanks a tonne
Niven  

Answer
Niven--
It sounds like you are willing to put some effort into this goal.  Since you have the experience as a child and teen, you know that it takes a lot of work to improve in swimming.  To have the desire to improve as you say is the most important motivator and you sound like you are that type of person.  Many swim centers have programs for adult swimmers who have a desire to attain a competitive level in their swimming, try to find a center with a program as it is much easier to train with someone who is also working towards that goal.
The best advice I can give you is to be consistant and persistant with your training as it takes work to improve.
Stay positive as you train, you should be enjoying what you are doing, swimming should be fun, whatever your goals are.
Best of Luck,
George

Please let me know if I can be more help.