So, with my regular pool downed for maintenance, I've been swimming at the other gyms in this chain. I was swimming at the next-closest the other day and noticed a sign saying T/Th the pool is closed at 7pm for a Masters' workout, and on the gym schedule there's a "Competitive Swim Training" listed. So after spending much of the day nervous over it, waffling heavily (what if it's too tough, what if people are mean, people at this gym are widely regarded for being less than chill after all, what if, what if) I finally convince myself I'll go and at least give it a try.
It turned out to be, essentially, very much a DIY workout. There was a very small whiteboard attached to a "wet floor" sign with the workout written on it, tucked next to the kickboards and not visible from anywhere in the pool. No "teacher", no coach (someone who might have been in the coach had a printout of something at the lane they were swimming in?), no direction whatsoever. People came, no one seemed to follow any particular routine, other than that they knew each other. I kept checking to see if I was somehow missing something, but no. I did my own little workout, of course, because why waste the time, but ...
Is this what a practice is supposed to be like? Because this felt like basically just an adults-only lap swim hour. I would've been just as well off printing out a workout from the forum and following that. It was kind of disappointing to go expecting something resembling a class ("competitive swim training" is an actual category of class that the gym chain offers, because I've seen it elsewhere, and seen it run at other gyms, usually with kids/teens) just to do the same thing that I could've done first thing in the morning by myself. :(
We have a coach on deck, giving out the sets. Occasionally he joins us in the water. But he is always watching, he is always telling people what to change or what to work on. After summer, he usually asks us to tell him his goals. For those that are interested in swim meets or marathon swims, he tends to give different sets. When it gets closer to swim meets, he will tell us to taper, practice diving from the blocks. For drills, he would explain how to do them and why. It's not written down, so it gets confusing for complicated sets, but I just look at the other lanes and see what they are up to.
I've visited another masters team while travelling for work. It was all typed out on paper, there was a paper in each lane. Most people try to do it, but since there wasn't really a coach, they tend to skip sets or do their own thing.
There is also a masters program I tried at my other gym. That was definitely not a "masters" class. It was just me, a coach that sometimes didn't show up. But when she did, she typed out the sets for me. It has always been freestyle sets.
We have a coach on deck, giving out the sets. Occasionally he joins us in the water. But he is always watching, he is always telling people what to change or what to work on. After summer, he usually asks us to tell him his goals. For those that are interested in swim meets or marathon swims, he tends to give different sets. When it gets closer to swim meets, he will tell us to taper, practice diving from the blocks. For drills, he would explain how to do them and why. It's not written down, so it gets confusing for complicated sets, but I just look at the other lanes and see what they are up to.
I've visited another masters team while travelling for work. It was all typed out on paper, there was a paper in each lane. Most people try to do it, but since there wasn't really a coach, they tend to skip sets or do their own thing.
There is also a masters program I tried at my other gym. That was definitely not a "masters" class. It was just me, a coach that sometimes didn't show up. But when she did, she typed out the sets for me. It has always been freestyle sets.
