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!
Building on some of the other ideas given here; why not arrange a time after practice with your coach and talk to him about your goals and what you think you need to do to accomplish them. Ask him if he thinks he can help you achieve your goals and if so, what would that look like and if not what are your options with him and doing some work on your own.
I bet if you sit down and engage him in the solution he will come up with some creative ideas. Just an FYI, this is what I did last year when I felt like I was doing the wrong kind of training for what I wanted to accomplish. Tom was very helpful and as is usually the case with a good solution he brought some counter points I had not thought about and we developed a solution together that had a lot of what I wanted but incorporated many of his suggestions.
I guess this is a long way of saying don't just tell him what you don't like but rather focus on what your goals are and what you think you need to do to accomplish them. Thinking about your personal goals and what you need to do is such an important thing and many of us overlook what we really want to accomplish in the next training cycle or next year. I have a sit down at the end of each training cycle and it really helps.
Just my 2 cents. Good luck HH and KK
I think that training sets should be adjusted to each swimmer. You certainly have weak points and stroke/competetition distances preferences that are not common to others, so it is pointless to work a lot on things that you don't really need or don't want to apply at all in competition.
I think that training sets should be adjusted to each swimmer. You certainly have weak points and stroke/competetition distances preferences that are not common to others, so it is pointless to work a lot on things that you don't really need or don't want to apply at all in competition.
Is this a real post? You want a coach to write workouts for each swimmer on a team environment? Well, that's just loco mcstupid.
Also, swimming research clearly shows that training strokes and distances that you don't swim in competition will help in races.
I think that training sets should be adjusted to each swimmer. You certainly have weak points and stroke/competetition distances preferences that are not common to others, so it is pointless to work a lot on things that you don't really need or don't want to apply at all in competition.
Welcome to the forum! And your opinion is just as welcome. Thank you!
Well said, Aquageek. You have hit the nail on the head! Sadly, too many masters swimmers, who have never been part of a good set-up, don't know what they are missing.
Man I REALLY hate giving Geek any kudos...you just have no idea how it pains me...BUT he's right on the money here. And GGS5T, having had the chance to swim with dozens of teams all over the US your absolutely right as well. Unfortunately just as it is with gym memberships often time the single most important factor in joining is proximity. I would however encourage people to shop around, even if its a little further drive it may make a world of difference.
Having said all that...Laura and I are 100% committed to our training philosophy which is very similar at least from the few posts I've read about this coach. We certainly listen and make adjustments if we feel their viable and work into our overall "plan" but were also not shy about suggesting other teams for those who may disagree. For example I will occasionally "throw some hay in the back of the wagon" for the "mules' that live and die by their go the distance blogs, but never without a bit of a lecture about over-training, overuse injuries, the bodies adaptability to training, blah, blah, blah (yeah I admit it, we went 10 x 200's the other day).
"Everything is about Speed" Denis Cotterell (the guy who trained quite possibly the greatest distance swimmer in history Grant Hackett and rarely did anything longer than a 200)
Wow, after reading all of these posts, I'm realizing just how lucky I am to have the coaches I have now. Our coaches separate the swimmers from the triathletes (i.e., the "all-stroke" swimmers from the freestyle-only/distance swimmers) and then each group is placed into lanes according to their abilities/speed within that group. Each of the two groups gets its own set and each set has two or three different interval times to accommodate the different abilities. My swimming background is in age-group competition but I'm now a distance swimmer, training to be a marathon swimmer (ever so slowly), and I feel like I have the best of both worlds when I go to practice because I get to decide which group I'm in the mood for on that day. I love distance swimming, but I know that if I do nothing but freestyle distance swim workouts, I'll burn out.
Now about this "suck it up, buttercup" thing. I am one of those swimmers who cannot be coddled. I do expect my coaches to call me on something they know I can do better or faster, even when I'm convinced that my previous attempt was my best or fastest. I sometimes (well, ok, maybe more often than just sometimes) have to be told to "suck it up." However, if one of my coaches ever said to me, "Suck it up, buttercup," ("buttercup being the operative word), it would end my workout right there and then only because swimming, breathing, and uncontrollable laughter don't mix well together.
I guess I'm spoiled. Our week of workouts consists of aerobic, speed, and stroke workouts....something for everybody. We also have no less than 3 interval groups, but as many as five, depending on the workout. I always feel challenged, but I have choices depending on how I want to approach the day - whether I want to make it a stroke day or a freestyle day. Our coach has the enormous talent of making it work for everyone, regardless of swimming goals. We have all kinds of swimmers among us, competitors, triathletes and fitness swimmers and we are all honored, challenged, and appreciated. How sweet is that????
I think that training sets should be adjusted to each swimmer. You certainly have weak points and stroke/competetition distances preferences that are not common to others, so it is pointless to work a lot on things that you don't really need or don't want to apply at all in competition.
In a Master's type of environment I don't think this is a completely terrible idea. Do I think it should it be set up by swimmer? Probably not. Could the workout be separated by lane? Absolutely. I coach HS and we do this all the time between our 3 lanes of swimmers.
Master's swimming is so different from age group swimming because everyone is there because they want to be whether they compete at swim meets, swim for fitness or are triathletes. While I lean towards the camp that learning all four strokes will improve your primary stroke not everyone is interested in learning butterfly or competition breastroke.
I have read through the entire thread and hope the OP feels they can talk to the coach and come to an understanding. I would hope a coach would be open to a dialogue from adults.
