Those who practice solo...

Morgan,the relationship with the coach may be broken beyond repair,but if it's not I have an idea that may help. Offer to design the workouts for the sprint lane(I suspect you could get a lot of help from us in this.)If you need to be diplomatic you could say your were doing research on what the top sprinters were doing(something else we could help you with)and wanted to try some new things. You could offer to run the workouts by him before hand. If he is at all open minded it would be worth a try. Fabulous advice Allen :bow: :bow: :bow: . Morgan - You have nothing to loose by taking it, I hope you do.

best part about practicing solo is specializing in your events Yes! I think of myself as a breaststroker, although my breaststroke is so slow that I rarely can do it when I practice with the team, so now my free and *** are pretty comparable (free has improved, *** has degraded). So when I swim by myself I very rarely do any freestyle. I like to warmup with an 800 rev IM, drill/kick by 25. Then lots of flutter kicking, *** drills, and *** sets (all those things that I am too slow to do a lot of with the team). And now after reading Allen's and Wayne's posts, I plan to do some eggbeater. I am in awe of all you that do all your practices on your own. I'm not any good at really pushing myself through aerobic sets by myself. And I don't usually last more than 2000 yards on my own, either.

Hi Morgan, I'm sorry that you've got a lot to sort out here. I'm certainly not in your shoes but can share my experiences with you. Do I regret not swimming in college? YES! Do I regret not giving 100% in age group? YES! Would I love to be paid to swim (even $100)? YES! I have a little different take, which Morgan knows because I was in a similar college boat and we discussed it on another thread. I did swim in college, but I don't have any regrets about retiring mid-way due to a severe injury and coach-hating. I enjoyed the rest of college. I did give 100% during the time I swam. I liked my AAU team way better than high school or college teams. (High school was a bit of a formality because we mostly practiced with our AAU teams.) It's a big decision though ... But it's awfully hard to swim on a very small team like Morgan's with a coach you hate. I guess if you had fabulous teammates, that might help overcome the difficulties and make parts of it enjoyable. But college can be challenging enough without hating and despising the thought of going to practice every day. You were lucky if you didn't have to experience that part, Kristina (at least I hope you didn't!). I think it makes you so much more enthusiastic and willing to respond to all these new challenges. Look at you now! I think you're doing a bit more than OK though. You're pretty amazing. What I regret a bit, not too much, is becoming so obsessed with a fast track career and children that I didn't return to masters swimming until 24 years later. But at least I got off the fast track before imploding. I would like to get paid $$$$ to swim though. Har, har.

I ended up quitting in college and waiting 3 years to go back to swimming because I truly grew to loathe practicing with the team. My last good coach was when I was 12 years old. After that, it was lots of junk yardage... Sounds a lot like what poor Morgan is going through now... EXACTLY!:lolup: (thought id try out this scary face) I really think I might quit...it's such a taxing decision to make, but I can't see staying because of the scholarship...but then being so discouraged with swimming that I either 1. just hurt myself because of my lack of coaching, and just mental fatigue or 2. come to hate swimming, and take of 20+ years before getting back in, and thus, never knowing my true potential (because I do not feel like I have unleashed that yet, and know I will not under this coach)

I can do 95% breaststroke workouts with 60% drill. I can give myself mini challenges though the whole workout because I know the purpose of everything I am doing in the water. Michelle I'd love to see some of your workouts if you have any you'd share. Like you I am a mainly Breaststroker too. I do however want to get into doing IM at least the 100. I enjoyed the fly I did the other night. I don't have the background in training that some of you guys here have to write the correct sor of workouts for emphasising *** but still working on the others.

best part about practicing solo is specializing in your events

EXACTLY!:lolup: (thought id try out this scary face) I really think I might quit...it's such a taxing decision to make, but I can't see staying because of the scholarship...but then being so discouraged with swimming that I either 1. just hurt myself because of my lack of coaching, and just mental fatigue or 2. come to hate swimming, and take of 20+ years before getting back in, and thus, never knowing my true potential (because I do not feel like I have unleashed that yet, and know I will not under this coach) You're going to quit college swimming? It's a very hard decision to make. I was in the same boat my junior year... but with my bad shoulder (and many MANY other reasons) I made the decision to leave. It was the hardest thing to do, but then now, 7 years later - I wish that I could have been strong enough to block out the bad stuff, swim for myself and finish my four years. 20/20 hindsight really sucks sometimes... but try to think of yourself, 10,20 years from now... what would you like to say that you accomplished? I'd hate for you to stop because of one stupid coach... Just do what is best for you, use your head and your heart.

EXACTLY!:lolup: (thought id try out this scary face) I really think I might quit...it's such a taxing decision to make, but I can't see staying because of the scholarship...but then being so discouraged with swimming that I either 1. just hurt myself because of my lack of coaching, and just mental fatigue or 2. come to hate swimming, and take of 20+ years before getting back in, and thus, never knowing my true potential (because I do not feel like I have unleashed that yet, and know I will not under this coach) Hi Morgan, I'm sorry that you've got a lot to sort out here. I'm certainly not in your shoes but can share my experiences with you. Do I regret not swimming in college? YES! Do I regret not giving 100% in age group? YES! Would I love to be paid to swim (even $100)? YES! Does swimming masters help? To an extent. However, my body does not hold up as well being 20 years older, so I have to work quite hard to get okay results. Also, there's no feeling in the world like anchoring your buds to victory - something that you seem to do regularly! Not to say that can't happen in masters, but there's something about that close, team feeling that you get in HS (for me)/ College. I hate to see one stinky coach put a halt to your college career. But, you know yourself and your situation best. I can tell you're giving this lots of thought, and I know you will make the right decision for you. You know we'd love to have you as a Masters swimmer! Just thought I'd share my thoughts as I'm just one of those people who is almost haunted by not doing college or swimming 100% as a kid. :2cents:

8 more practices sounds manageable,especially if you are tapering.I hate to say it but changing teams may be the best action.Nice thing about Masters is you can swim everything you want.

Fabulous advice Allen :bow: :bow: :bow: . Morgan - You have nothing to loose by taking it, I hope you do. Thanks everyone for the input, I've been away at a meet so I just got back to see all this tonight. But, I have had many a sit down conversation with my coach, regarding the fact that I don't feel his practices are helping me specifically as a sprinter and I gave him a binder I had kept through the years that had probably around 400 workouts in it, and he copied them all, and I have never seen him use any of them. Unfortunately the problems that plague the relationship between my coach and I are not issues of miscommunication, but rather, an apathetic attitude on his part. He knew that I transfered schools after freshman year, because I had high hopes of making the NCAAs division II champioinships...I thought that him knowing that would be sufficient of an indicator that I wanted to be pushed, and challenged and would give it all it required to get there...but as we are discussing on the olympics thread...there's only so much a swimmer can do on their own without a real ever-present coach who is going to work with you to realize your potential and aspirations. I am meeting with the coach at NYU hopefully during my spring break...because if he feels there is a place for me on that team, it may be a good option for me. As I intend to attend NYU for graduate school, and therefore, if I were to take next year off...my eligibility would be back during my first year of graduate school. Of course thats only an option to be considered. Additionally, one of my major complaints with my team is that he has reinvented me as a swimmer in many ways. When I came to the college I was a 200freestyler and a 100flyer and I swam the 200im and the 100free occasionally. At this school I am always in the 50 and 100free, and never get a chance to move around and test other events. So come championship time...I have a time in 3 events...and thats what I get stuck swimming at championships...regardless of how I feel about the event. I am not against the 50 free per-say...but it's definitly not going to ever get me anywhere, esp. not any more....we don't practice starts or turns...which is pretty much...all there is to a 50free. But, we have 8 more practices left, and then we leave for championships...so....I suppose the end of the season will be the tell tale indicator. :rolleyes: