The new Master's coach philosophy is to do lower yardage and more IM. Lots of kicks (strengthen the core), lots of drills, and lots of toys (snorkel, skull finger paddles, regular paddles, zoomers, regular fins, *** stoke fins, finis tempo trainer, light weight kick board...) (disclaimer...I have not bought any of this stuff, just have the normal toys). I am in my 60's, have swum forever, many years in masters, raised age-group kids through college swimming, and am very confused.
I am used to 10 x 100 or 5 x 200's or couple 500's, IM once in a while, option to swim IM or free, kicks as a set in a workout, you know what I'm talkin' bout.
Now I am exhausted doing 90 minutes of kicks and sprints and only going 2000 yards. Flipping at the end of every set, using weight balls in the water, doing 6 x 100 *** stroke kick no hands, doing tandem training, example: swimming arm in arm with the other 60 year old doing fly kicks then holding his legs while I kick and he strokes, then vise versa. Now it is not always exhausting, but it seems always to be frustrating.
Working hard is not the problem, but working hard doing fly kicks in 50 meter pools is frustrating. And my distance flog is suffering. Not just 4 x 50 fly kicks, but 10 x 50 fly kicks.
It has been 4 months with new coach. Others say that they workouts are making them stronger for races and allowing them to be tougher. I worry about hurting my back, my shoulders, and not getting in my yardage.
Fitness swimming should be challenging and fun; I am a wimp? Should I give it more time? I like my team!
Either Masters is going to encourage and welcome swimmers at all levels of skill and interest, or it's going cater to the elitists who thumb their noses at the rest of us. In which case, you can be sure I won't ever be at your practice.
I'd like to point out the hogwasheryiness of this post. It is people like you that perpetuate the myth that Masters is only about competition, not the competitive folks. Most successful teams know that you can very easily accommodate both the hyper elite competitors and the fitness/triathlete crew, and do it with ease. It's never been an either/or situation. I swim 3X/week with probably a dozen top 10 athletes alongside eager and inspiring fitness swimmers and we get along just fine. There can be and is a real team feeling when you have a mix of levels and abilities. There's no magic formula for how teams like this succeed. But, there is a poison pill - the rantings and complaints of a few people. If you want to watch a team implode, invite this kind of negative locker room talk onto your team.
Either Masters is going to encourage and welcome swimmers at all levels of skill and interest, or it's going cater to the elitists who thumb their noses at the rest of us. In which case, you can be sure I won't ever be at your practice.
I'd like to point out the hogwasheryiness of this post. It is people like you that perpetuate the myth that Masters is only about competition, not the competitive folks. Most successful teams know that you can very easily accommodate both the hyper elite competitors and the fitness/triathlete crew, and do it with ease. It's never been an either/or situation. I swim 3X/week with probably a dozen top 10 athletes alongside eager and inspiring fitness swimmers and we get along just fine. There can be and is a real team feeling when you have a mix of levels and abilities. There's no magic formula for how teams like this succeed. But, there is a poison pill - the rantings and complaints of a few people. If you want to watch a team implode, invite this kind of negative locker room talk onto your team.
