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There are some of us who are very lucky to have the coach that we do. I my case Walt is always working with us on stroke if we are willing to listen. There are those who are there for the yardage and those who are there for fitness. He tries to give the triathletes what they want, and has given up one lane on Tuesday nights (for sprint, starts and turns) to those of us who are actually competing and setting goals (I am glad not to go to meets by myself any more!) and Walt is really enjoying coaching this core group. We have even started swimming with his kids team for a few USA meets. Yes I'm the 44 year old who resently swam a relay with 2 14 year olds and a 13 year old and loved it! Of course when he gives us those IM sets with lots of fly he prefaces his coments with "The kids just love this" and we just have to laugh as we struggle thru but we are getting better every day. Donna :wave:

If you dig at the coaches who just post & walk, chances are they experienced exactly the same thing while age group swimming. Good role model coaches have a lasting effect: both on future coaches & swimmers who return to masters swimming with a good knowledge of both the technical & physiological objectives of various sets, drills and intensities. Since I quit swimming at 14 and returned at age 34 (& quickly became addicted) I have learned to assertively question a seemingly unforthcoming coach about the set(s) we have been assigned & sometimes 'trained' them to offer the info without being asked. Occasionally, you find someone who just needs that expression of interest to blossom as a coach.

Michael, The sad truth about masters swimming in my opinion (based on traveling to over 20 states and swimming with dozens of different programs the last few years) is that there are very few coaches truly "engaged" in the program or theyre swimmers needs. There are exceptions....and these coaches are doing some incredible things: DU, Sun Devil Masters, WCM, Indy, etc. etc are just a few but look at th membership they have built, the nukber of coaches on deck and the variety of wokouts and it becomes very clear. I will sympathize however with most masters coaches as I also see a very apathetic group of athletes in oir sport as well. The majority of swimmers are there for fitness and reaally only care about getting in theryre yardage....at the expense of learning/changing things that would take them outside theyre comfort zone. I can see why a coach would simply back off on trying to coach when confronted with type of attitude every day. Last point.....I put the responsibility of being coached on the swimmer...at least in masters. If you are not getting what you want have a discussion with fellow swimmers and see if the feel the same and have a talk with the coach and ask for changes.

Jim, Jim, Jim.....you sooooo have the wrong impression of evil-goodsmith. First....he canot hold one beer let alone "pounding" of said beverage. :drink: Second......John is far more concerned with his figure than most 16 year old wanna be anorexic models in NY :rofl: Third....If you we're married to a beautiful ex Olympian swimmer with 3 gorgeous kids all almost as tall as you before hitting puberty and rail thin and great atheletes....you may feel some "pressure" :hug: Last.....he's a friggin twitchy jack rabbit who burns calories by the boatload worrying everyday about how he's going to get John Kerry to run for Prez again, get foreigners out of college swimming, and ultmately track the geek down and brand him with a Texas Longhorn tattoo....you'd be thin to carrying these burdens! :dunno: :help:

It's not how FAST your are.... its how FAT you are. originally posted by the evil one Ouch John! That one hits a little to close to home for me. How can a guy like you in his mid 40's maintain this sleek 185 pound build anyway? Haven't you ever heard of MMD?? (Middle-Aged Midsection Disease) Why am I soooo afflicted by this disease while guys like you can sit back and pound beer after beer and never gain a pound? ...And a sprinter at that!!....Its simply not fair!! Newmastersswimmer

about how he's going to get John Kerry to run for Prez again,: In an effort to benefit the Republican Party? :joker:

Peter is on the right track. The coach puts these sets on a white board and walks away. I have tried to engage him in a dialogue about what is important or what is to be stressed, to which the reply is usually,"it's all important". That's really sad to hear. I always go over each part of the set with my swimmers! I think they're just used to it by now. New swimmers to the team, if they came from a team where the coach just put up a set and then walked away, boy do they like me! They say, "wow, you explain the set and tell us where we should go hard, and where to go easy and where to work on technique -- THANKS! Your explanations make the swim workout so much more fun and meaningful!" I like the sound of that set. But I'd never put up a set like that on my workout without first explaining that the emphasis was on the 100 -- and yeah, I agree, I think I'd be more inclined to make the 25 an underwater kick or a no-breather, the 50 a drill, and the 75 a build-to-fast. But that's not to say that I don't give traditional sets of 10 X 100 -- those are good, too! Don't get discouraged if your coach doesn't communicate. Just make up your own focus or emphasis - we're adults and in the end, we can decide what we want to do.

Jim, Jim, Jim.....you sooooo have the wrong impression of evil-goodsmith. originally posted by Paul Smith Thanks for clarifying all of those points for me Paul...LOL!! I remember an earlier post from John in another thread about Worlds where he said that he was so jacked up on caffiene before one of his races that one of his teammates compared him to the ground hog from the movie "Over The Hedge"....Now it is all making more sense to me...LOL!! Jim, I have been fighting the same 5 lbs of fat on my gut for the last 8 years. Every time I take it off, it comes right back on. originally posted by the evil one Now I know you are truelly pure evil john! 5 pounds eh? Give me a friggin break here!!....I can gain 5 pounds in a day just by thinking about food...LOL!! And you get to be married to some gorgeous babe eh? You really do suk John you know that! (just j/k of course....or not?...LOL!) Newmastersswimmer

I said the "squirrel" not "ground hog" ! John Smith

Perhaps I am just a mouth breathing, knuckle dragging neanderthal, but I fail to discern any particular value in the set I was given this morning. 10 times through: 25, 50, 75, 100 on 1:05. Odd sets freestyle, even sets stroke (25 fly, 50 ***, 75 back, 100 free) on 1:15. There is no connecting thread of interest or challenge in any of the components here, other than to make a 100 free on 1:05 five times, spaced out by a bunch of filler. Kind of a weak argument in a 2500 yd set. I got out after 4 sets, disgusted or frustrated, I'm not sure which. Coaches, is this what you are giving because you are afraid people will be too bored with 10 x 100s? Or would you rather they get out early, knowing that you will not change because the "book" says this is a good workout? I was trying to figure out what physiologically this set is supposed to do. This looks almost like a race pace (depending on how hard it is for you to do that 1:05) set with lots of rest broken into 25, 50, and 75. The evens sets are weirder since it is sort of a broken IM but in an sequence that arbitrarily emphasizes backstroke. If I were given this set I'd ask my coach "why, what's it do?" I know yours wasn't interested in answering that question. I think the broken IM set could be useful if the strokes were sequenced to stress your weakest, or your favorite stroke.