Tips for a first time masters coach...

Hosting my first masters practices this week.... variety of skill levels. Hour long practices. Any tips for good first week practices?? (new to coaching masters, but have been swimming/coaching for 35 years).... any and all advice welcomed! Mahalo! There's *not* a whole heap difference between MS coaching and age group coaching. One very clear difference is that your typical Master Swimmer, the one who likes to improve, has received a lot of stroke correction feedback of all sort. Some may have seen more than 10 coaches already. They hear this, then its opposite, etc... Therefore structure your feedback as much as possible. Get to know what the swimmer is working on, what he believes in, etc. If you feel that one believes into something you find dead wrong, be careful in not discrediting the previous way 100%, whilst justifying your own point. And more importantly, be consistent. I think every single stroke correction feedback should be followed up at least once, on the same element I mean. All too often we see a coach issuing a feedback on something, with no follow up, then another feedback on something else, with no follow up etc..... This, for some Masters, kind of sucks. After a while, they don't tell; but they don't care (and I'd do the same). Also, keep in mind that 90-95% of all masters lack on the flexibility side, and even more sad, they don't do much to improve it. They read books, go on the Internet to find clips, they try to modify their stroke to mimic the greatest swimmers, but can not achieve the range of motion due to (often severe) flexibility limitations.

Hosting my first masters practices this week.... variety of skill levels. Hour long practices. Any tips for good first week practices?? (new to coaching masters, but have been swimming/coaching for 35 years).... any and all advice welcomed! Mahalo! There's *not* a whole heap difference between MS coaching and age group coaching. One very clear difference is that your typical Master Swimmer, the one who likes to improve, has received a lot of stroke correction feedback of all sort. Some may have seen more than 10 coaches already. They hear this, then its opposite, etc... Therefore structure your feedback as much as possible. Get to know what the swimmer is working on, what he believes in, etc. If you feel that one believes into something you find dead wrong, be careful in not discrediting the previous way 100%, whilst justifying your own point. And more importantly, be consistent. I think every single stroke correction feedback should be followed up at least once, on the same element I mean. All too often we see a coach issuing a feedback on something, with no follow up, then another feedback on something else, with no follow up etc..... This, for some Masters, kind of sucks. After a while, they don't tell; but they don't care (and I'd do the same). Also, keep in mind that 90-95% of all masters lack on the flexibility side, and even more sad, they don't do much to improve it. They read books, go on the Internet to find clips, they try to modify their stroke to mimic the greatest swimmers, but can not achieve the range of motion due to (often severe) flexibility limitations.