Meet Warm-Down Through The Ages

Warm-down. Every swimmer has experienced it, whether it’s at the end of a long practice or after a race. Maybe you even call it cool-down, but let’s not bother with the semantics of it. Warm-down is something that some people love, and some people hate. I was definitely in the group that loved it, as you’ll see. A meet warm-down looks different for everyone, but let’s take a walk through (my) memory lane and see the evolution of meet warm-down through the age groups…

8 and Under

Picture this: you just completed your final 25 of a meet and crushed your best time. Are you headed back to the pool to get in a few warm-down laps?  Absolutely not. Instead, you are walking back over to where your parents are sitting. You are devising a plan to ask them to buy you one of those massive muffins the concession stands always seem to have. The taste of that muffin is the taste of sweet sweet victory.

9-10s

Ok, so you’re a little older now. Your races are starting to get a little longer and harder, mostly 50s and maybe a 100 here or there. Though you’re older, it is still totally acceptable to try to get your hands on one of those muffins after your race. At least, that’s what I would do. But as you are headed to the concession stand, $3 in hand, your coach stops you. They say, “you need to warm-down at least twice as many laps as your race”. If you only swam a 50 this is only a minor roadblock on the way to the muffin. But, oh no, you just swam a 200 for the first time, so that’s a lot more warm-down. To get through the yardage, I would recommend throwing in some dolphin dives to get you down the lane. You may even see this warm-down time as an opportunity… to perfect your capping skills by filling a cap up with water and dropping it onto one of your teammate’s heads. It may be messy, but it gets the job done.

11-12s

This is around the time a meet warm-down becomes more of a consistent thing. This is also around the time I became a huge fan of the warm-down. Yes, I did like to spend some time swimming easy after my race, but that’s not really why I liked warm-down so much. I loved a meet warm-down because it meant that I had about a half hour to goof around with my friends. Your coaches are watching the meet and not the warm-down pool, while your parents are just watching their watches, ready to leave the hot pool deck. This means, that nobody is watching you make human chains with your friends by grabbing each other’s ankles and dragging them across the pool. This is also an excellent time to begin to master the art of, “The Ring Bubble”. If you don’t take so long in the warm-down pool that the concession stand has already closed by the time you get out, there’s a small chance you can still talk your parents into a muffin as you head back to the hotel for the day.

13-14s

You are officially a teenager now. Your coach, if they haven’t already, will now pull out all the stops when it comes to events you have to swim… Even the 200 Fly. Ouch. This is when a real meet warm-down routine will come into effect. Your coach may write you something specific or they may send you out on your own trusting you’ll get in a good warm-down. Either way you should actually begin to make good warm-down habits for yourself now, trust me on this one. Once you get through a good warm-down, take some time to practice your ring bubbles or maybe take a few underwater selfies with your friends. Both of these are still very valuable skills to be honing. At this point, your mom may be packing you a nice little cooler full of snacks. This probably also means that your mom has spent time googling “healthy snacks for swimmers” and you know what didn’t make the cut on that list? The muffin. A tragedy, I know.

15-17s (open)

You may be dreaming of the days past that you could just hop right out of the pool and go straight for the muffin, but you have officially made it into the “Open” age group. AKA “The Big Time”. This is when warm-down is a necessity and muffins will not quite cut it to properly fuel your body. At this point, the warm-down pool is probably also the warm-up pool. In this case, I would advise against warm-down pool shenanigans in this case because you do not want to get in the way of the big guys warming up for their 400 IMs. That is just asking for a swift breaststroke kick to the side. Oof. You are definitely old enough that your body needs the warm-down. So be sure to get in a good one, your body will thank you. If you are warming down in a diving well, it is not uncommon to see someone blowing bubble rings ten feet below the surface. A ring bubble artist that is at the caliber to be successfully blowing perfect rings from the bottom of the diving well is excused from the previously mentioned “no shenanigans in the warm-down pool” rule. This is the best form of entertainment for a swimmer warming down. If you started practicing your ring bubbles back in the 11-12s like I said, this could be you.

College (and beyond)

Trust me, once you get to a college championship meet warm-down, you will learn that your body is not the same as it once was. Warm-down is going to help you recover from your race and let you get through a long meet weekend. You will, unfortunately, be too tired to mess around too much in the warm-down pool. A warm-down looks very different depending on what events you swam and if you have finals that night or more events over the next few days. Having at least your fins and a kickboard with you will help with some variability in those long warm-downs. Get your hands on some chocolate milk if you can, that stuff will always be the best whether you’re 12 or 22. Swim meet snacks at this point may depend on what your coach decides to buy for the meet. Muffins are few and far between, but you may be able to snag one of the better tasting protein bars if you’re quick.

Special Warm-Down Cases

• The warm-down immediately into a warm-up: This is when you have two races close enough together that you only have enough time to hop into the pool after your first race, swim a little easy, and then start preparing for your next race. A dirty double like this will happen to you from time to time, so you have to have a plan, and there is limited time for any shenanigans.
• The “I just swam my last race at a championship meet”: This is a special one. You finished the very last race of a big meet, and you may even have a few days off from swim practice after that. This is a great time to do no warm-down at all. Will your body hurt the next day because of this choice? Almost certainly but getting to immediately peel off a tech suit and hop into a warm shower is worth it.
• The 200 choice: Though not recommended as a post-meet warm-down, the 200 choice is a fan favorite amongst swimmers at the end of a practice, so I had to include it. 200 yards (or meters) of whatever you want. Usually you just grab our fins and our kickboards and social kick the whole way. The 200 choice will always hold a special place in my heart.