Ahhhh long course season. There are two kinds of swimmers in the world: short course lovers and long course lovers. And if you are an actual human and not some kind of monster, you prefer short-course. However, we have to do long course because that’s the way the rest of the world does it.
One problem many club swimmers come across is having to start long course season while still practicing in a short course pool. This is less of a problem int he warmer states because you guys can start practicing outside and it doesn’t really matter. But indoor pools are not always willing to switch their pool to long course, leaving many in an awkward position. Long course is just harder because there are half as many walls and require more endurance and it just throws your stroke off.
Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do about it. You cannot force a pool to switch to long course when they are set on what they want to do. In these cases, warm up is the most important thing at a swim meet. You need to get in for as long as is reasonable and get yourself used to the change in length. That’s about one of the only things you can do in this case. It sucks and if you do not have to deal with this then you are lucky. You are way ahead of the rest of us who are struggling int he middle when you realize normally you would have a wall to push off of but don’t know. In the meantime, I’ll take a long slow warm up at the swim meet trying to wrap my head around the extra distance.
Happy swimming!