Which do you prefer, traing with a team or swimming alone? I'm not asking which one you do but rather which one you like better, so if your not on a team but would like to be answer team.
Personally I like writing my own workouts and doing what I need to work on.
I prefer a team with a coach. I need motivation to keep pushing myself and thats what the coach provides, and he can see what I am or am not doing correctly. Its amazing how I think I am doing something so perfectly and then he tells me I am not. I know I would not be in the condition I am in now if not for him :notworthy: . Before I was able to join a team, I would ocassionally swim laps while my daughter was at swim practice. I improved my conditioning, but not much and I know my strokes did not improve. My coach now even has me doing 'nasty' butterfly :eek: . I can do 100 yds now. Before this December, the longest butterfly I had ever swim in my life was a 25 :shakeshead: .
I've been swimming alone since I started 7 years ago. I wish I had a team to swim with, or even a training partner. It's really hard to continuously stay motivated and work hard when working out alone. I go through cycles where I really swim hard and make a lot of progress then I'll have a period where it's a chore just to drive down to the pool (it's a 5 minute drive).
I love swimming with a team. I need that push as well as someone on deck telling me what I'm doing wrong, which happens more than I care to admit. Right now I swim 1 weekday morning 4:30-6am and Sat 7-9 with a local kids team. I swim 5:30-6:30 on another weekday with the masters team, sort of. The team practice is 7-8 but I have to get out by 6:30 to make it home before my husband has to leave for work (someone has to be home with our 21 month old). So I warm-up on my own and then start with the masters team when they get there.
Alison
Which do you prefer, traing with a team or swimming alone? I'm not asking which one you do but rather which one you like better, so if your not on a team but would like to be answer team.
Personally I like writing my own workouts and doing what I need to work on.
I train alone but that's because there is no masters near home. I would love the coaching and motivation of a team. There is a group near work but they don't swim until 9pm..I am not recommuting!
I most certainly wouldn't be swimming if it weren't for my team. I LOVE my team! I need a coach telling me what to do, pushing me with fast intervals, and giving me guidance. I swim with my team 4 x a week and coach once a week. On the nights I coach I swim by myself first and while I am getting better at giving myself workouts I still don't work as hard as I do when there are other people in my lane and a coach writing a set on the board.
I used to swim maybe a few hundred yards, now I do a few thousand. I could be better but I push myself hard and get my sprinting in and whateve stroke I feel was lacking that week.
I have a wierd situation. I actually swim with TWO teams. This is both for my specific needs and my schedule. Overall, I consider myself VERY lucky. I am a team guy all the way.
My son's team has a phenomenal coach, who is particularly oriented to technique. Unfortunately, most of his practices are weekday evenings. Luckily, he does one on Sundays and also one on early Monday AM. The rest of the week I am with our larger, established masters group. There is always a printed workout, and a lot of great people to share in the effort. I pay a fee for both teams but I find this to be a small price.
Then on Saturdays I get in 3000m (SCM) or so at our fitness club before lifting.
So I have the best of all worlds- technique, comaraderie, and flexibility. :groovy:
I can't motivate myself without other people. In the fall I had to swim alone, but now I'm swimming 4x/wk with an uncoached group where I am slightly slower than everyone else, which I like most of the time because I am expected to keep up. With the group I can do a set of 100's free on the 1:45; alone I don't have the motivation to do more than about 2x100 free before getting tired and switching strokes.
I would love to swim with a team. While it is nice to plug in to my mp3 player and hit the water, I think I'd work harder (and thus get better) if I had others to try to keep up with. . . or at least keep me accountable to come in to the pool. Even when I swam HS there were days where I would've loved to skip practice, but I knew my absence would be noticed so I went anyway.
It's the same with running and swimming. I was much more likely to show up for a club run or club ice than I was to run on my own or go in for developmental ice. :dunno:
