I hate people who skip parts of the workouts. We have swimmers who are bull****ing their workout. and meanwhile Me and a couple of other dedicated swimmers on the team are actually working as hard as we can. and then the people who are skipping workouts, are telling ME that I am doing something wrong. they are beginners, and I have been swimming for 7 yrs. sorry about my tantrum, but I had to tell somebody. what are some of your thoughts on this? thanks!
I say don't make it your problem. One of the beauties of masters swimming is that we are all adults and all capable of making our own decisions about how hard to work-out or whether or not to come at all any given day. Swim the workout that makes you happy and don't worry about the others - they are big boys and girls.
By and large swimming is not considered a team sport. Having said that, I believe swimming is a team sport. Team in the sense that swimmers work hard in practice, and they do so “together”. Your team most likely enters swim meets as a team and you swim relays, which falls under the team umbrella. My point is simple; anything that detracts from the teams goals and efforts can be a serious source of irritation.
Obviously, when your fellow swimmers are jaking (loafing in old swimming terms) and missing practices it hammers the cohesiveness of the team’s efforts. When this occurs it is the responsibility of the coach to deal with these type issues and motivate, lead and guide the swimmers in a positive direction. My suggestion would be to talk with your coach and tell him/her your thoughts and feeling regarding this issue.
Lastly, I learned the hard way in my life that the actions of others cannot impact ME unless I allow them to impact me. Keep focused on your goals, your commitment and your set of standards and never let the other guy bring YOU DOWN.
I swam with a great Masters Team in Texas for many years. We had a guy from France swim with us for a year and a half while in the States on a business assignment. He had a rather annoying habit of showing up at practice a half hour to forty five minutes after the tough sets began. Then he warmed up and wanted to swim hard against the rest of team. By that time we were in the middle of the grind section of the workouts and were already hammered. He used to smile when he would hammer me in repeat sets of 100, 200 and 300’s, and he got under my skin more then once. I never told him his showing up late annoyed me and none of the other swimmers did either. What we did do was warm up for an extra forty five minutes one morning to be fresh and waiting for him to show up and want to do battle. The entire team was gnawing the chrome of the rails waiting for this guy to show up. When he did, we collectively hammered him in every set. Interestingly enough, he began to show up on time after that. Our team somewhat suspected the coach may have taken him aside and shined the flash light in his ear with respect to manners and showing up for workouts on time.
Rise above it JCFLY, and keep focused on the positive goals you have set for yourself.
As long as my son has been on swim team(8 years) this is a reaccuring problem. I always tell him to focus on his work-out and not worry about others. I know it bothers him when people sprint what is suppose to be slow and then not do the hard stuff, but what can you do? You cannot control them. What is always really tough is that some of the kids are truly gifted natural athletes. They can not show up, mess around in work-outs and then go to meets and swim very fast. My son is the type that gets really slow from hard work-outs and tapers really well at the end of the season, so it is really hard to swim slow during meets that these kids are breezing through because they are not tired!
It is always nice to see them swim at the end of the season and see no taper, and the kids who have worked hard tapering well!
Just continue doing what you are doing and try not to let it affect your swimming. Lead by example and when you succeed, maybe they will get the hint.
i am not in a masters team,i get annoyed at headup breastrokers who endlessly haunt my local pool at any time,got to laugh at them though!!!!dont take things so seriously ...laugh at how amatuerish these skimpers are..then thrash them in difficult sets.
hmmm... as one who skip parts of sets (but doesn't nag anyone else about their swimming habits :) ), I would suggest that you get on with your own workout and ignore them. Having said that, however, should anyone be derisive in their comments to you, tell them to bugger off and mind their own business. and don't be afraid to remind them that you've been working a lot harder for a lot longer before they showed up!
I'm fortunate that my coach is flexible about showing up, and if I'm quite late, I get my own lane and separate workout, which can be up to 4000 metres (which is a lot for me)... hmmm, I guess you can say that he makes me work harder when I'm by myself... there are several late comers that form their own sub-group and no one minds...
But, then again, we don't go telling the triathletes how to swim!! I have had a quasi-argument with someone who was being a bit snotty because the coach put me in the lane with him... I can't repeat what I said, but he's been a lot nicer to me since.
Good luck and don't go taking any attitude from anyone!!
Tom,
Your story is hilarious. The thought of a whole masters team collectively waiting to ambush a miscreant (getting swimmers to agree to do ANYTHING collectively is like herding cats), and even better, pulling the same trick on him that he has been pulling on everyone else, is one of life's rare moments.
One additional thought, though, is that your moment would have been truly sublime if you ambushed him at a meet.
JC: please take note of the above. If your teammates are dogging it, fine, they have just openned an opportunity for you to pick up a few seconds on them, and it will show up most prominently at the most important meet of the season. On my college team we sometimes had a tendency to swim a set in workout with somewhat less intensity if the assistant coach, rather than the head coach, was running the set. I realized that was going on, and I tried to make myself stay after it with the assistant coach. I told myself that at the Conference Championship Meet, the other swimmers from other schools in my heat were not going to swim slower because I had the assistant coach more than the head coach. Therefore, it was up to me not to give away time to them despite the fact I might be able to get away with loafing in practice. The same psychology might work for you.
On the other hand, you or your team may be relying on these people to win a relay or team title. Then loafing would be decidedly uncool. Ultimately, it is the coach's job to get them in line, but there are a couple of things you can do. First, you can discuss your impressions with the coach. It may be that they have reached an understanding with the coach about how much they participate this season, and your coach can tell you that. Alternately, the coach has to work with all the swimmers on the team, and may not have noticed what you are seeing. Second, are you a team captain? Would it be appropriate for you to exercise some leadership? Some people will not get it if an authority figure takes them to task, but it may penetrate their skulls better if a peer does it. Before I did anything like that, I would talk to the coach, but this may be an opportunity for you to grow a little.
Good luck, and as others have pointed out, you can only influence other people, the one person you can actually control is you. Try to keep some perspective.
Matt
I'd say that the lead by example approach will work best. There's always going to be a different mix in every pool, especially with age group programs. If these guys want to get serious about competing, they'll have to learn the hard way. Getting blown out of the water at a meet is an eye opener for sure.
Swimming is definitely a sport where you literally can bank on your daily investment. At the end of the day your efforts will keep adding up, and adding up. You will absolutely get a big return on that hard work when it's time to race. If these guys want to play the clown at workouts, who cares. They're only cheating themselves,... as long as they don't disrupt the whole team. Have fun, and remind the "girls" that they're welcome to swim in your lane any time. That is,... if they can keep up.
As Tom said, it really is a team sport, and it's great if everyone arrives with the same attitude. But this isn't always going to be the case. Matt pointed out the obvious. What does your coach say? Maybe it's not really too much of an issue if coach let's them "rest". Some people just don't like pushing themselves. And some people do. And the ones that do are the ones we read about, and admire, and ultimately want to emulate. Rock on JC_FLY.
I love to push myself, I want to see what i'm capable, and if I get beat, I'll know I have done the best I could. as for the coach, he could care less.
JC, one thing I think everyone has over looked. They may be trying to detract you from your goals, just because some people don't like to see others succeed. I agree, talk to your coach about the problem and don't let them get to you!
