masters swim

All of the Masters teams I have observed or participated with, if you are remotely competent in the water, you will fit in somewhere.  There are all levels that participate with masters swimming, and a wide range of goals or purposes for swimming with that team.  Many just do it for health and fun, while some are competitive.  I would talk to them first about equipment.  Some provide all of it or some (usually kick boards and pull bouys) - although I prefer to have my own. 

There will usually be a tier of sets  - or at least a set for novice to intermediate,  and one for intermediate to advanced.  You will have some interval sets, and some stroke sets.  Most I have seen start with a mixed warm up of 500+ yards, a main set of 1,500 to 2,500 yards, and a cool down.  It sounds overwhelming, but the sets are usually broken up with embedded rest times.  You could drop by and observe one, ask questions and meet some people before you get into it.  But if you are interested in swimming, and enjoy working out - you will have fun. 

Jenn,

I wouldn't sweat a thing.  Just show up, introduce yourself etc.  My masters group is mixed between swimmers who do stroke work, swimmers who just do freestyle, and triathetes.  I suck at fly but if it's sets of 25's I'll give it a whirl, sometimes with my fins.  I like the workouts with 100 IM's because it's only 25 yards each stroke.

We usually have three workouts.  One lane for Group III which is beginners etc., one gals swims with a snorkel and we LOVE her!  Group II is a little faster, some triathetes and then Group I is for the fish, although we've only got 2 or 3 really fast swimmers, the rest are intermediate to beginner level.

I can't speak for the personalities and dynamics of your new masters group but I always see a half fully glass until some kuckled empties it out.

I agree with the advice already provided. I'll share my experience, since I used to be a swimmer growing up and stopped until 8 months ago, when I started training for triathlons and joined a master swimming team. 

The group was very friendly, and I have heard this is usually the case. There are wide variations in skill, so you will definitely fit in somewhere. The coach most likely will ask you on your first day if you know what your 100 yds (or meter) pace is. My recommendation is start at a slower pace than you think you can do. The reason I am saying this is that you can probably sustain the pace only for a portion of the practice, and it's better to build up slowly than gas out too fast. 

You will figure out pretty quickly how you match in terms of speed with the other people on your lane and then you will either move lanes accordingly or stay there and change who leads based on stroke / distance / pull vs. kick, etc.

Hope this helps, and don't be intimidated...

Imagine you show up for a run with a running club.  The majority of them will be 30 minute 5kers.  If you are a 27 minute 5ker would you be shy about showing up?  Can't run a 5 minute mile?  No problem, most of them can't either...

Master's swimming is often very relaxed analogous to the 'running club' I just described.  Clubs certainly vary and have their own personalities, but at some of the meetings I go to there are teams fielding middle-aged housewives who just learned to swim...and 70 year olds taking 3 minutes to swim 100 yards.

They will be very welcoming and they understand that nobody was born a great swimmer.

So be encouraged!