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!
I prefer the unwritten rule of this forum, KEEP IT REAL.
I agree and that's why I said you were a breath of fresh air earlier. I will revise that, though, you are a breath of chlorine laden air. :)
Every team is going to be different and there are going to be some teams that can't really accommodate novice swimmers. This isn't elitist, it's having one coach on deck and one coach can't devote all their time to a couple swimmers. So don't take it as a personal insult if a coach tells you that their team is targeted to swimmers interested in competing. And not to say there aren't jerks out there, but I really think they are few and far between. I think most elite swimmers think it's great that adults with no competitive swimming background are willing to wade into masters swimming.
I prefer the unwritten rule of this forum, KEEP IT REAL.
I agree and that's why I said you were a breath of fresh air earlier. I will revise that, though, you are a breath of chlorine laden air. :)
Every team is going to be different and there are going to be some teams that can't really accommodate novice swimmers. This isn't elitist, it's having one coach on deck and one coach can't devote all their time to a couple swimmers. So don't take it as a personal insult if a coach tells you that their team is targeted to swimmers interested in competing. And not to say there aren't jerks out there, but I really think they are few and far between. I think most elite swimmers think it's great that adults with no competitive swimming background are willing to wade into masters swimming.
