What do your coaches do?

Coaches need to make every swimmer in the pool feel important. It costs nothing for the coach to say hello to each swimmer as they come in to the pool. "Have you had a good day?" "You will like this session," "You've been training well recently," always goes down well. I've never been keen on putting the program on a whiteboard for all to see. The coach will have planned this workout beforehand, but if swimmers don't respond as expected, the coach can change the rest of the session to lift spirits or to make it more appropriate. If the program is on the whiteboard it doesn't look good if swimmers see that the coach has 'taken a diversion' half way through. Masters swimmers, as opposed to age-groupers enjoy a certain amount of banter. A 'connected' coach will easily be able to tease his swimmers on occasion, and allow himself to be teased in return. Self deprecation always goes down well. If swimmers can feel that the coach understands them and wants the best for them, they will respond positively. I'm cool w my coach putting a workout on a whiteboard and later tweaking it. In fact, it seems to me that allows for some flexibility. My coach will notice if we're considerably ahead or barely making it on our intervals and might adjust accordingly--or might not, depending on the goal of a set, but I trust his judgment. He knows lots more than I do. He definitely is excellent at giving feedback to all of us, the velocity challenged among us (namely yours truly) and the speedsters. And he adjusts intervals and reps accordingly. But he doesn't baby us. Last night, when I expressed concern that I wouldn't make an interval without fins, he held the line and told me I was good for it, no fins! And in fact I made the interval each time. He's a great motivator--he'll critique, but also tell us when we're doing well. And sometimes, as you mention, he and the swimmers tease one another--he's adept at puns, and if I'm stressing out over not doing as well as I want, he'll say something to make me laugh... (I have to be careful there b/c sometimes as I'm swimming and my face is in the water, I'll think of something funny he said and have had to develop the ability of laughing with my face down.) :) He also has a give-away night, where he might do a relay as the last item in a practice, winnowing down contestants until only one person is left--and that person gets a prize from his box. It's usually something he got from a sponsor or an item from one of his race goody bags, not expensive, just fun stuff (swim caps, drawstring bags, goggles, etc.). Last night there were only 3 of us, so he just let all three of us pick something from the box and complimented us on how hard we'd worked. Don't anyone hire him away from us!! :)

Coaches need to make every swimmer in the pool feel important. It costs nothing for the coach to say hello to each swimmer as they come in to the pool. "Have you had a good day?" "You will like this session," "You've been training well recently," always goes down well. I've never been keen on putting the program on a whiteboard for all to see. The coach will have planned this workout beforehand, but if swimmers don't respond as expected, the coach can change the rest of the session to lift spirits or to make it more appropriate. If the program is on the whiteboard it doesn't look good if swimmers see that the coach has 'taken a diversion' half way through. Masters swimmers, as opposed to age-groupers enjoy a certain amount of banter. A 'connected' coach will easily be able to tease his swimmers on occasion, and allow himself to be teased in return. Self deprecation always goes down well. If swimmers can feel that the coach understands them and wants the best for them, they will respond positively. I'm cool w my coach putting a workout on a whiteboard and later tweaking it. In fact, it seems to me that allows for some flexibility. My coach will notice if we're considerably ahead or barely making it on our intervals and might adjust accordingly--or might not, depending on the goal of a set, but I trust his judgment. He knows lots more than I do. He definitely is excellent at giving feedback to all of us, the velocity challenged among us (namely yours truly) and the speedsters. And he adjusts intervals and reps accordingly. But he doesn't baby us. Last night, when I expressed concern that I wouldn't make an interval without fins, he held the line and told me I was good for it, no fins! And in fact I made the interval each time. He's a great motivator--he'll critique, but also tell us when we're doing well. And sometimes, as you mention, he and the swimmers tease one another--he's adept at puns, and if I'm stressing out over not doing as well as I want, he'll say something to make me laugh... (I have to be careful there b/c sometimes as I'm swimming and my face is in the water, I'll think of something funny he said and have had to develop the ability of laughing with my face down.) :) He also has a give-away night, where he might do a relay as the last item in a practice, winnowing down contestants until only one person is left--and that person gets a prize from his box. It's usually something he got from a sponsor or an item from one of his race goody bags, not expensive, just fun stuff (swim caps, drawstring bags, goggles, etc.). Last night there were only 3 of us, so he just let all three of us pick something from the box and complimented us on how hard we'd worked. Don't anyone hire him away from us!! :)