Hello-
I am my team's Swimming Chair (we have water polo and tri too). My team has a lot of new people (and some stubborn people) who don't seem to want to follow our coached workouts. They just want to do their own thing or do the workout at their own pace regardless of the rest of the lane.
So far, I have kept pretty quiet on this issue.
- We have some coaches that are more strict than others.
- I don't want to have to create a strict "age group" atmosphere.
- We sometimes have a compressed number of lanes at our facility, where different levels may get squeezed together in one lane. We are a larger team.
However, I'm a slower-medium swimmer, and I have left some practices because they have turned into such "**** shows" with people doing their own workouts. (Yes, I could say something to my lane mates or coaches, but I would be so bitchy in the moment).
After returning form our end-of-summer break, I'd like to kindly explain the logic of why we order lanes from fast to slow, why it is important to follow the workouts as written by the coaches and that there is no shame in moving up or down a lane depending on speed. Does anyone have any guidelines on "practice etiquette"? In my position I could just be blunt, but I'm looking for a kinder approach, especially for people who may not have swam age group and may just not "get it" Thanks!
Our team has such guidelines. You can find them on our website at www.manateeswimming.org, under "Team Rules and Regs" below the "JOIN US!" tab; look for the hyperlink to the "etiquette guidelines." Some of our rules are peculiar to our pool and some are IMO quite standard. We distribute them to new members along with our payment policies and we also remind people about them periodically via our team emails. Our board expects our coaches to enforce these norms and I am happy to say that they generally do.
It would seem to me that if no one in or out of the water is stopping the "bad behavior," then everyone is complicit to the demise of your workouts. Although I agree with all those who responded about this issue being the Coach's responsibility to squash, what I am saying is some of this also falls on your fellow swimmers.
I'm sure each lane has one or two people who are a little more serious and/or organized, and they need to step up and ask the non-followers to either lead, follow or get out of the lane. One team in my area has "lane-meisters" - they are people who tend to be at every practice and are lane leaders (figuratively and literally) for their lane. In the water, these people are an extension of the coach - they are responsible for making sure the workout is followed, people are going in the right order and any interval/repeat/stroke modifications are approved by the swimmers in that lane. I think you guys might want to try to adopt something like this.
Our team has coached workouts, and it is understood that we follow the coach's workout. (Otherwise, we'd swim in the open public lanes.). We have 3-4 intervals at all of our practices. Everyone just picks the group that fits their abilities. Each lane stays on the same interval as directed by the coach. If someone has difficulty keeping the interval, they move down a group. We also have the 5 second rule. Sometimes people will do some other stroke than directed, and that's OK as long as they can make the interval. It all works well.
Thanks everyone! Very helpful. After our short summer break, I and the coaches have been reminding the team about etiquette ... "if you want to do your own thing, go to the Y or LA Fitness." We have most of the complications when we only have a few lanes. Our venue sometimes gives us all 10 lanes ... sometimes as few as 4. Add that to an influx of newbies, and I need to pray for patience:)
Talk with the coach - they are the one that should be controlling the lanes and workouts.
Lone wolf swimmers can find another place or time to swim. IMHO
