Am I too old to start competitive swimming?

[whippowil]

I am 17 years old and I have never been a part of any sports teams and I have never had any swimming lessons. I am a good swimmer, but theres no way I am cut out for competitive swimming right now. I am pretty short (5'5" or 5'6") so that may be a problem.

Would it be worth it to talk to a swim coach to see what I could do? I love swimming and I'd love to get a lot better and race, but I feel like I would be starting too late and wouldn't be very good.

Any advice is welcomed, but I'd prefer hearing from people that are on swim teams :)

[Nellerin]

You can never be too old and 17 is definitely not old. So go ahead and give it a shot!!!

[West Coast Sheriff]

You can never be too old and 17 is definitely not old. So go ahead and give it a shot!!!

Man, all I can say is good luck and go for it.

[StoneColdNicky]

I'm almost 18, and I always swam for fun too, and I started a year ago swimming regularly with fitness in mind. If you take it seriously, you can get much better fairly quickly.

[TigerBoy]

We're about the same height, I started a couple of years back. In freestyle my size is a disadvantage against bigger guys (which is basically everyone else competing at my age) these days so I don't place as well as I used to, but hasn't affected breaststroke. I do it for fun and because it's turned me from a skinny runt into a very nicely toned and extremely fit runt :P

I'd definitely do it if you are prepared to commit the time to training because it gives you such a great all-body workout, and you don't even have to win stuff to enjoy it :P

[Mikedamaniak]

See what you can set up, man. Really it depends on the swim team you join. You may have to join a team with a bunch of little kids and do some extra practice to catch up. If your lucky you may find a team for people in a similar situation to yours.