I am always amused at how often master's swimmers will take individual liberties in workout to suit their own needs. For example:
* Swimming free instead of breaststroke or the stroke prescribed by the coach.
* One handed turns on *** and fly.
* Cutting corners to stay up with the lane
* Using pull gear when it isn't a pull set
* Kicking your favorite kick and not the one given by the coach
* Leaving 2 seconds behind (more like 2 tenths behind)
* Pulling on the lane line
* Swimming when it's a kick set
* etc...
Maybe its all those years of swimming under "do it my way or the highway" type coaches, that I still have a hard time changing anything in the workout. I must admit however that it does feel good once and while to cheat a little.
As a coach, I've asked many swimmers as to why they change the set or cheat and I hear a million different excuses. I'm very interested in hearing from all of you, all the excuses you have or have heard from other swimmers.
Some of my favorite ones are:
* I don't want to get passed!!!
* I hate the other strokes? (from a former IM'r)
* My tri coach say's I shouldn't swim other strokes
I think the bottom line is if you can't keep up in your lane you should move down to a slower lane, or if that isn't an option modify the workout such that you are disturbing the rest of your lane as little as possible. There's a big difference between skipping a 50 now and then to catch up and just totally going on a different interval than the rest of your lane.
I think the bottom line is if you can't keep up in your lane you should move down to a slower lane, or if that isn't an option modify the workout such that you are disturbing the rest of your lane as little as possible. There's a big difference between skipping a 50 now and then to catch up and just totally going on a different interval than the rest of your lane.
