My local YMCA has three different coaches that coach Masters and two additional coaches who teach a once a year triathlon swim class. Of the five, all but one swim regularly. One of them actually doesn't coach much since he is swimming the workout with us. I don't know all the age group coaches since many of them are working at times that the pool is closed to adults. Two of them swim with masters though.
I swim every day - 4500-5500 yards. Except for when I coached college, I was swimming as much as the kids I was coaching (and much of the time faster as well).
None of my coaches were swimmers. Best coach I know was a wrestler. He could relate to the swimmers like no other coach I have known. He was an even better diving coach. So, being a swimmer does not necessarily mean the coach will know what they are doing. Many coaches simply coach the way they were coached. :(
PW
Arrieros -
Yeah, off topic, so what...
Contrary to all the stuff you read about eating & drinking before and after practices, I don't follow any of that. The only time I used a water bottle was during my first 10K swim. After that, if I needed water, I just drink what I am swimming in. Learned that from a good open water swimmer in Minnesota, Roger Bosveld. Faster. Have never had a bottle in practice either. I am generally never thirsty after practice and don't drink anything before practice either. if I do, I have to pee too often.
As for food, nothing more than a small bowl of granola w/ milk - maybe 500 calories all told in energy content. I might have a cup of yogurt a couple of hours before I swim.
No one is gonna like me saying this, but most masters athletes are not burning anywhere near the calories they think they are. Most are probably burning 200-250 calories per hour max. To burn the kind of calories the olympians report, you have to be running your heart rate in the 165-180 range for the better part of 2 hours in each practice where they are covering 16-20,000 yards/day.
I know I will get push back from individuals who are pushing that hard - my comment is NOT about what you are doing. NOR am I slamming the rest of us who are swimming easier. I am just saying that swimming with your heart rate in the 100-120 range is not going to burn alot of calories.
For the heck of it, you might want to estimate how many calories you consume after a practice to see if it is balanced against how much you burned.
Let the outcry begin!
PW
I swim every day - 4500-5500 yards. Except for when I coached college, I was swimming as much as the kids I was coaching (and much of the time faster as well).
None of my coaches were swimmers. Best coach I know was a wrestler. He could relate to the swimmers like no other coach I have known. He was an even better diving coach. So, being a swimmer does not necessarily mean the coach will know what they are doing. Many coaches simply coach the way they were coached. :(
PW
4400 yards everyday?? Wow what do you eat after a workout like that... anything over 2500 yards and my appetite is out of control. I actually gain weight when I swim that much.
oh I just realized this might be off topic for the post
My masters coach joins us in the water when it's not too crowded. But he skips a few sets, to make sure he is available when the fast lanes are done or to give individual comments.
Our team has 5 coaches - 4 who swim regularly and 1 who didn't swim that much as a kid and doesn't swim now. He coaches for the USAS team and is one of the best coaches out there. He has really creative and outside the box thinking. I regularly swim his practices and incorporate his ideas into my workouts when I coach. I love swimming other coaches' practices to keep my own coaching fresh with different ideas.
The Masters coaches at my pool all swim for themselves. But seperately...not during the Masters' workout. On of them is the holder of several age-group world records.
I've always believed that the best coaches were 'average' athletes. But in fact...a good coach doesn't necessarily need to have played the game he/she is coaching. Roger Bannister's coach, Franz Stampfl, was not a runner. He threw the javelin, and was a skier. Bill Belichick played football only briefly in h.s. But, lacrosse was his favorite sport.
Dan
Well, that's interesting... seems that the majority of coaches still seem to enjoy swimming themselves, and that being a good coach doesn't necessarily require having much of a swim background.
I've been considering it for a while. No competitive experience here, do not swim all that fast myself, and I was like, 'if this is what coaching is, then I can coach this class'. When I really thought about it though, yikes! For various reasons, most significantly that I like to swim for myself and there's nothing like turning a hobby into a job, and I don't want to work another job.
I'd rather volunteer, but I don't think volunteers are allowed at my facility because of insurance purposes. Anyways it's good to hear that coaching doesn't drain all the joy out of being in the water yourself.
Dan,
I have a trouble swimming long distances in salt water - my throat gets very raw. So, although I am not trying to sip the water, I obviously do ingest more than I should. So, to amend my post, drinking the water only applies to fresh water. :)
