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!
Parents
Former Member
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
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
