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
Parents
Former Member
Here's one of my personal favorite "modifications" -
I'm a decent mid/long distance freestyler, and I usually go first on those sets. Depending on the time of day I'm swimming, and of course, depending on who I'm swimming with, I may or may not wear paddles. If I swim at 6 am and we have a set like that, I don't wear them. If I swim at noon, I wear paddles, because if I'm leading - and you folks know how it is sometimes with lane democracy and you get "voted" to lead, and there's someone else who doesn't want to go first, yet your speeds are comparable, then by golly, I'm putting on those freakin' modifying paddles!!
Of course, I am like a slug when it comes to IM sets of any kind, so if we're working on 100 or 200 IMs on an interval, then I will modify my IM - on a 200, for example, I'll swim a 25 fly, 25 free, 25 back, 25 free, and so on. Otherwise I won't make the interval. On IM sets I should be in a slower lane. Yet on kick sets or long freestyle sets I'm fine where I'm at - so does that mean that I bounce from lane to lane during the workout, or do I modify myself?
We too have lanes that are set up fastest to slowest; however, even in each individual lane there are various degrees of speed, etc.;)
Here's one of my personal favorite "modifications" -
I'm a decent mid/long distance freestyler, and I usually go first on those sets. Depending on the time of day I'm swimming, and of course, depending on who I'm swimming with, I may or may not wear paddles. If I swim at 6 am and we have a set like that, I don't wear them. If I swim at noon, I wear paddles, because if I'm leading - and you folks know how it is sometimes with lane democracy and you get "voted" to lead, and there's someone else who doesn't want to go first, yet your speeds are comparable, then by golly, I'm putting on those freakin' modifying paddles!!
Of course, I am like a slug when it comes to IM sets of any kind, so if we're working on 100 or 200 IMs on an interval, then I will modify my IM - on a 200, for example, I'll swim a 25 fly, 25 free, 25 back, 25 free, and so on. Otherwise I won't make the interval. On IM sets I should be in a slower lane. Yet on kick sets or long freestyle sets I'm fine where I'm at - so does that mean that I bounce from lane to lane during the workout, or do I modify myself?
We too have lanes that are set up fastest to slowest; however, even in each individual lane there are various degrees of speed, etc.;)
