Does your coach swim at all for themself?
I am a masters coach and have been for quite a few years now. Coaching is a lot like having a baby: your priorities change away from yourself to your masters group. I used to swim a lot, loved masters workouts, and competed frequently.
On becoming a coach, I do not swim the workout with the masters. That is not really coaching, it is just posting up a workout. Getting in the water and swimming the workout with the masters is mostly selfish, although it also gives swimmers a shared communal experience with the coach, which builds rapport.
As an on-deck coach, I can give encouragement and technique advice, keep swimmers on track with the workout, socialize with swimmers who are too wasted to finish a set, time and care about race efforts, meet and greet late arrivals and early departures, and explain confusing aspects of each set. Most swimmers like a coach who shows such interest. Others are more intense and prefer a zen inner focused and undisturbed workout, and that is ok, too.
I do not lap swim by myself that much, for all the reasons that you enjoy masters. I do not like swimming alone; I cannot push myself as fast or as long without pressure; I like being given a workout with shared expectations; I like being coached. It is also physically difficult to get in and swim my own workout after standing out in the weather, on concrete, for an hour and a half as a coach. Coaching is mentally exhausting and emotionally intense, and needs some recovery time. You as a swimmer come to a workout fresh and leave exhausted, and so do I as a coach.
I miss swimming masters workouts, but I also find on-deck coaching rewarding on many levels: social, technical, troubleshooting, and keeping track of multiple lanes and individual needs. I swim by myself now more for the fun refreshment of swimming, and less for glory speed. Swimming: loved it then, love it still, always have, always will.
Does your coach swim at all for themself?
I am a masters coach and have been for quite a few years now. Coaching is a lot like having a baby: your priorities change away from yourself to your masters group. I used to swim a lot, loved masters workouts, and competed frequently.
On becoming a coach, I do not swim the workout with the masters. That is not really coaching, it is just posting up a workout. Getting in the water and swimming the workout with the masters is mostly selfish, although it also gives swimmers a shared communal experience with the coach, which builds rapport.
As an on-deck coach, I can give encouragement and technique advice, keep swimmers on track with the workout, socialize with swimmers who are too wasted to finish a set, time and care about race efforts, meet and greet late arrivals and early departures, and explain confusing aspects of each set. Most swimmers like a coach who shows such interest. Others are more intense and prefer a zen inner focused and undisturbed workout, and that is ok, too.
I do not lap swim by myself that much, for all the reasons that you enjoy masters. I do not like swimming alone; I cannot push myself as fast or as long without pressure; I like being given a workout with shared expectations; I like being coached. It is also physically difficult to get in and swim my own workout after standing out in the weather, on concrete, for an hour and a half as a coach. Coaching is mentally exhausting and emotionally intense, and needs some recovery time. You as a swimmer come to a workout fresh and leave exhausted, and so do I as a coach.
I miss swimming masters workouts, but I also find on-deck coaching rewarding on many levels: social, technical, troubleshooting, and keeping track of multiple lanes and individual needs. I swim by myself now more for the fun refreshment of swimming, and less for glory speed. Swimming: loved it then, love it still, always have, always will.
