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
Right now we have a huge influx of new/beginning swimmers. We only have 4 lanes to work out in. Last night we had 2 experienced, fast swimmers, and three lanes full of slower swimmers. It didn't make sense nor was it fair to kick all of the beginners to two lanes and let me have my own lane. So I joined the fast lane. They kicked my butt. We were all a bit frustrated but if I had gone down to the next slowest lane, I would have lapped people in a 100. I modified my workout a bit, by not going on my exact interval if one of the faster people was about to flip. I waited until they passed me, then went. I ended up doing a bit less yardage, and was given different intervals for one set. I don't think it's cheating ...
Everyonce in awhile, I modify due to some minor (or severe) ache or pain ... usually I follow the workout exactly ... I am the queen of asking, now when you say stroke can we do IM? When you say such and such can I do blah blah blah instead?
Right now we have a huge influx of new/beginning swimmers. We only have 4 lanes to work out in. Last night we had 2 experienced, fast swimmers, and three lanes full of slower swimmers. It didn't make sense nor was it fair to kick all of the beginners to two lanes and let me have my own lane. So I joined the fast lane. They kicked my butt. We were all a bit frustrated but if I had gone down to the next slowest lane, I would have lapped people in a 100. I modified my workout a bit, by not going on my exact interval if one of the faster people was about to flip. I waited until they passed me, then went. I ended up doing a bit less yardage, and was given different intervals for one set. I don't think it's cheating ...
Everyonce in awhile, I modify due to some minor (or severe) ache or pain ... usually I follow the workout exactly ... I am the queen of asking, now when you say stroke can we do IM? When you say such and such can I do blah blah blah instead?
