Name: Henry Halff
City and State: San Antonio, TX
Age Group: 65–69
Team Affiliation: Masters of South Texas

Henry swimming the 200 fly at Worlds in 2005

How long have you been swimming in Masters & why did you decide to join?

I have been a Masters swimmer since 1999. I decided to join after doing an hour swim and talking to our coach, Susan Ingraham about the club.

What kind of swimming background do you have? None at all, Age group, High School, College, International Competition, the Olympics?

I was a runner for almost 20 years until a biking accident sidelined me. During that time, I swam laps to keep from running too much. I never swam competitively until I joined Masters.

Where do you swim and how often? Do you compete? If you do compete what are your favorite events to swim?

Our team has three workout locations. My main workout group practices at the Josh Davis Natatorium (named for our local Olympic champion) in the Virgil T. Blossom Athletic Center in San Antonio. I occasionally join a group that works out at the Jewish Community Center here in town. Both pools are SCM. We also practice in an LCM pool at Blossom during the Summer.

I try to make four workouts per week, and every meet that I can. I usually show up at Zone Championships and at local and state Senior Games. I make it to Nationals when I can. My favorite events are distance freestyle and butterfly.

How does Swimming help you with your lifestyle (health, relationships, etc.)?

Swimming helps in many ways, but mainly, a workout affords me the opportunity, for one hour, to shed all of my worldly concerns and focus entirely on what I am doing at the moment.

What do you do for a living out of the pool?

I am semi retired and self employed. When working, I do research on instructional uses of computers.

What do people (coworkers, friends) say when you tell them that you are a masters swimmer?

If I run into a swimmer we ask each other about favorite strokes and events. Other people tell me that swimming is very good exercise, to which I reply that I’m in it for the fun. One woman told me that she found swimming to be a very relaxing activity. I replied, “You’ve never worked out with our team.”

How about swimming advocacy? Have you helped run or start a team? Are you involved with your LMSC? Do you have a blog or swimming website you’d like to share?

I am the webmaster for our club’s site (and am currently way behind on updates). Naturally, I give out the URL to anyone I met who has the vaguest interest in swimming.

Anything else that you want to share? Have a great swimming story? Are you a record holder in your age group? Swimming tips?

I can’t say enough good things about our club. The coach, Susan Ingraham, is the 2007 USMS coach of the year. She has brought the team from a handful of swimmers to something like 140 members from all over South and Central Texas. We all have a strong sense of striving and have a great time in the pool. We’re always competitive in pool competitions; we have strong showings in every postal event, and we can show up in force in some open-water swims.

I own most of the team records in my age group, mainly due to the sparsity of men in my age group. I have no national or zone records, but I was top 10 in 2007 in the 200 fly and 1500 free (both LC). I’ve also got a few patches for long-distance postal events.

Here are two swimming stories.

During relays at a zone championship, one of our team members wandered off just before our start. I swam the first leg of the race (a 200 yd freestyle), and then got back up on the block to swim the third leg for our missing member. No one noticed. When we told our coach, she said, “I didn’t hear that!” As far as I know our time still stands.

At a LC zone championships in Houston, our team and the local team were fairly close in points toward the end of the meet, but were definitely behind. A bunch of the locals, figuring that they had the meet in the bag, decided to skip the last event, a 1500 free. We fielded a bunch of swimmers for that event and took first place by 30 points—victory by showing up.

Tips? It seems to me that everyone swims differently. To find your best way, listen to every good swimmer and coach that will give you advice, look at every video that you can lay your hands on, time yourself with different stroke techniques, and work out the one that is best for you.

**A big thank you to Henry for talking about masters swimming with us! Henry introduced me to a cool site for those of you that are like me and have an appreciation for butterfly. Check out the Butternuts, a club for those that have gone 500 yards or more of consecutive butterfly. Henry is a member himself at 600m of fly! I’ve added this to my list of goals for 2009. If I manage to do it it’s going on my business cards and popping up completely unprovoked in conversation for pretty much the rest of my life :)

Name: Linda Shoenberger
City and State: Reno, NV
Age Group: 60-64
Team Affiliation: Tamalpais Aquatic Masters (TAM)

Linda at the Trans Tahoe relay (she is on the right)

How long have you been a swimming in Masters & why did you decide to join?

I have been swimming since 1996. I joined when I found out a Masters swim program was being started at my gym. At the time I was recovering from a broken leg and I happened to be at the pool on a Saturday morning when the coach showed up to start practice. He asked if I would like to join and I got right in the water.

What kind of swimming background do you have?

I grew up in a small town, Winnemucca, Nevada. They had a 4th of July swim race at the public pool when I was 12 years old. I competed and it turned out I was a pretty good swimmer. After that we moved to Reno, Nevada where I became a member of a very small swim team. I swam competitively until I was 16 years old.

Where do you swim and how often?

I swim mainly at Sports West Athletic Club about 7 blocks from my home in Reno. I am the Masters coach there along with Scott Young who is my personal coach. I swim 5 days per week. In the summer I swim twice a week at Idlewild Pool, a 50-meter outdoor pool in Idlewild Park. On Sundays a group of triathletes from my gym and the Reno Area Triathletes meet at Donner Lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for a 2-3 mile open water swim.

I’ve read that you have set some masters records, what events are you a record holder in? What are your favorite events to swim?

This past year I set a record in the USMS National 3,000 Postal swim. I swam it in 43:32. I swam it again a couple of weeks ago and improved my time to 42:10. I believe that will be the new national record when the results are posted in a few weeks. I also won the USMS National 1 Hour Swim this year swimming 4,200 yards. I set national records at the YMCA Nationals held in Fort Lauderdale, FL this year in the 1,000 freestyle, 500 freestyle and 200 freestyle. The women’s 55+ relay that I swam on also set a YMCA national record. Lastly, my TAM Relay set a national record at the Pacific Masters Championships in Walnut Creek, CA, breaking the old record by 14 seconds in the 800 mixed free relay.

While I love to swim any freestyle event, my favorite races this year were the Trans Tahoe Relay and the Maui Channel Swim.

How does Swimming help you with your lifestyle (health, relationships, etc.)?

Through swimming I have met many wonderful people. I coach triathletes and I love it when someone asks me to be on a relay for a triathlon. I am the treasurer for Pacific Masters Swimming and the leaders for the 10,000+ member group have become good friends. On the national level I am co-chairman of the USMS Fitness Committee and I have grown so much by participating on the committee. My main job is to write monthly fitness swimming articles for the USMS website. I enjoy writing the articles and particularly I love the feedback I get from swimmers all over the United States.
As for my health, I couldn’t be healthier than I am now at 61 years old. I had high blood pressure but it is gone. I had aches and pains that have disappeared. I never have to struggle to button my pants now that I swim. I just stay in shape!
As for relationships, I have met so many wonderful people through swimming. It is as though once I became a swimmer I discovered my true personality and I have become an open and happy person. My family members are my biggest fans and my favorite moment so far in swimming was when I finished the 1,000 freestyle at Short Course Yards Pacific Masters Championships this year and I heard my 1-1/2 year old granddaughter clapping and yelling, “Go Grandma!”

What do you do for a living out of the pool?

I am a property manager. I have a wonderful boss who owns all of the property I manage. His son is my assistant. We manage a mini-storage complex, several houses, apartment buildings and vacant land. Some of the properties are located in northern Nevada so I travel frequently to Elko, Wendover and Ely, Nevada. I love Nevada and the desert/mountain landscapes so I have ample opportunity to enjoy that part of my life too. My boss is supportive of my swimming endeavors and never complains when I’m off swimming a race. I really have the best of both worlds by having a job I love and a sport I love.

What do people (coworkers, friends) say when you tell them that you are a masters swimmer?

Some people don’t even have a clue what that means. Others are extremely impressed. Co-workers and friends have always been great fans and a wonderful source of inspiration to me.

Tell us more about the “Go the Distance” program you are involved with and how others can get signed up.

Go the Distance is a fitness event run by the USMS Fitness Committee. It is going into its 3rd season in 2009 and it has become quite popular with USMS swimmers, both competitors and non-competitors. Its attraction is that it rewards everyone at every level no matter what age, shape or amount of swimming they do. To get involved, visit the www.usms.org website. In the top bar click on Health and Fitness, then on Fitness Events. (direct link to Go the Distance) Entries are free and you can track your yards each time you swim. The chart then converts your yardage into miles. Each time you reach a certain level (50 miles, 100 miles, on up to 1,000 miles) you get a certificate and you can purchase awards such as swim caps, t-shirts, mugs, etc. that are printed with your achievement. People love it and it’s great to go to a workout and see someone wearing a Go the Distance cap saying, “I swam 100 miles.” It opens doors of friendship for swimmers everywhere.

Anything else that you want to share? Have a great swimming story? Any swimming tips for us?

My swimming has progressed through the years because I am dedicated to trying new things and listening to coaches and fellow swimmers who have tips for me. I am never afraid to ask a question of a coach or a swimmer I may have just noticed doing something better or differently. I have also attended several swim clinics that always seem to give me some tip that improves my performance. Each little step eventually adds up to a great swim in the future.

I always suggest that people try to swim in a Masters group or have a personal swim coach like I have. The fun and motivation always pushes me to go farther than I ever would have on my own.

**I actually found Linda via an article in the Reno Gazette Journal. The article was great so I e-mailed the author and he put me in touch with her. A big thank you to Linda for being nice enough to share with us!

If you would like to be profiled on the site or know an exceptional masters swimmer that would make for some good reading let me know! Check out more details on the program here.