I spent a good portion of my life training under a coach (a very wonderful coach). Now I'm kinda off on my own because at the moment I've got other priorities. I don't get a lot of training in, but I'm hoping to get in more. But right now I feel good not having some one tell me what to do, or stand over me shouting to go faster. Of course I think it would improve my speed and form and such, but right now is just not the time.
If I did decide to get a coach, I think I'd actually go back to my old coach, because I think he's pretty amazing and I like his attitude. For now I've been told I'm allowed to leech off his workouts (join the team's workouts but in another lane) since I just don't have the time to devote to being on the team. It's a USA team, not masters, so he's got an attendence requirement.
Anybody else training on their own? And if you do, do you still go to competitions? I'd definately be comfortable going to competitions without a coach, and unnattached.
Join the club!!! I've coached my own workouts for the last three years and with good results. I stopped going to the coached workouts during the week because they changed the time from 6:00 -7:30 PM to 7:00 -8:30PM. That made it way too late to eat dinner before workout and too late to eat after since I would get home at 9:00PM!!!
The key for me has been to write my own workout daily and post it at the end of my lane and then just do it!! I know what my repeat times should be and I push myself to make it. I still go to the coached workout on Saturday morning, but during the week I can get in the water usually by 2:30PM and get home by 4:30 and have an actual meal with my wife!! Everybody wins!!! :)
I'm self coached. It's really freeing to plan your own workouts. Just use the pace clock and get video taped regularly. I also read everything I can find on swimming. I go to LCM Nationals regularly and do well.(LCM is for swimmers,SCY is for turners!)
I'm a self coached swimmer. I still compete and I love it. I'm starting to feel like I need a coach though. I find it hard to push myself without someone yelling at me. I tend to make excuses. One of the hardest things I find is motivation. Sometimes it's hard to go to the pool by yourself and swim all those lonely laps. Best of Luck going it on your own! I like using these boards, they help keep me motivated when I can't get going.
~Kyra
Self-coached but I get my workouts either from Mel goldstein's site here at USMS or on workout 2000.org. I try to find people to look at my stroke every opnce in awhile. It keeps me honest. Wehn I travel, I always find a team to workout with.
I stopped training on my own since I joined a team on saturday.
but my first impression is that I've gotten better workouts when I trained on my own or used Robert Strauss' workouts so I think about staying on the team just for the "social benefits" of fellow swimmers around you and to keep up my own workout routine if the lane space situation during training permits.
I think I am probably the best coach to me, because I feel like I know best how hard I can push myself in practice I can also say on which things I need to focus most because I am actually in the situation feeling what's slowing me down.
This statement is supported by dropping my times for *** and free by 20 respective 30 seconds and I also teached me a good breaststroke accordingly to my new coach and fellow swimmers. :cool:
i'm kind of a blend- we have 4 coached workouts a week in the winter and 2 a week in the summer. i try to swim at least 5 (but usually 6) days a week, so i have to train on my own somewhere between 2 and 4 days a week, depending on the time of year. it's actually a pretty nice set up, at least for me personally. i love our current coach but it's also nice to have a workout that is tailored specifically to myself... luckily i've not had any bad experiences with masters coaches... whew!
:)
I work out twice a week with other people; other than that, I am on my own. Since I do longer open water races, it means some pretty long workouts with nothing to take my mind off endless laps. Making up workouts is no problem since I was a track coach and just adapt the physiological principles to swimming.
-LBJ
