Cheating at practice?

I swim backstroke for a lot of the boring freestyle sets. I also throw in some IM. In order to not slow down my lane mates I will also pull on the lane rope to increase my speed. I rarely leave early, but often start late. Is this cheating?

"Pulling on the lane lines" never, ever occurred to me (I'm so new at this). Would you all talk slower, I'm trying to take notes here. ;) :D Right, you and I both! That thing about pulling on the lane lines: my first masters' coach had me do that as a backstroke drill for getting the arm movement right. But I was always too self-conscious to try it any other time but in his practices, b/c I was thinking the other swimmers would think I was a few kicks short of a wall. ;) Now that I know this is something ppl actually do at other practices, I can boldly grab the lane line. Or not.

II never purposely pull on the lane lines - After all that, I feel like we should all be saying, "Hi, my name is ________, and I'm a cheater in practice." Hi, my name is Leslie and I'm a cheater in practice. But I never pull on the lane lines. Doesn't that hurt? Couldn't you cut your hand or something? Is this really an actual drill? I usually can't find any semi-useful backstroke drill except maybe sailboat. Maybe I should add this to my cheating repertoire ... Who wants to do freestyle all the time? It is not cheating to substitute strokes. That is "mature" modification. A lot of freestyle pisses off my shoulder and backstroke doesn't. Just go to the back of the lane and don't get in anyone's way. In fact, the only thing I have ever seen really annoy people in practice is leaving early and running over someone (which everyone here resoundingly dislikes), doing a different interval in the same lane (that doesn't work at all) or using fins. I've never had people comment on other cheatin'. It's all about being courteous to lanemates. Well, and I guess some people have easily bruised egos ... Girls shouldn't beat boys, etc.

Peter I am still in Melaque Mexico. The temperature here is 85 degrees f with the wind chill factor. A very cool breeze off the water, much nicer then the day I left Ladner Nov 15th the wind storm. We made it to Surrey and the storm blew my air conditioner housing offthe motorhome, trees down all over the place. We stayed our first night at Birch Bay Washington 2 hrs after leaving home.

It drives me NUTS when teammates just skip out on a part of a set. Especially when they are okay. Cramps or other non-tired pain is acceptable if it is severe enough. I had a teammate stop me during a set the other day because she didn't want to do it and thought that since she wasn't doing the set I shouldn't ... I almost punched her ... :dedhorse: :dedhorse: :dedhorse:

I can't speak for USMS workouts but I have seen cheaters in our age group senior team cause a lot of grief for other swimmers. Just recently, a swimmer was not performing a set as assigned and the coach picked up on that. That already tough sprint set has now turned into an impossible sprint set. Now, this I totally agree with. No USS swimmer should ever cheat. Age groupers are totally different. They may change events over the course of their career and the best advice is to listen to their coaches, try different events, follow the practice and do what your coach tells you. Whether you're young or in the "senior" group, which seems to have a flexible meaning. (Although I guess if age groupers are injured, then they may need modification too. They might be "sentenced" to the kicking lane for instance or be denied paddles. Although I frankly think pre-hab is undertaught in USS swimming.) But that's not masters. Matt: You finally changed your avatar. I like that one a lot! Yay! FlyQueen: Youch. I don't skip out on sets or skip a swim. I may miss a 50 very, very occasionally because of a cramp. I skipped the 800 paddle/fin set at my team's practice on Sat. because I had already done 4000. I can't go more. Don't yell at me. Can a babysister yell at their big sis? But I don't get it, why should you stop just because she is? That makes no sense at all.

I have never seen any of our senior team using paddles, fins, or pull buoys. Come to think of it, I don't recall them using kick boards very often either...rarely I suppose. As for the avatar, that was the younger of the two kiddos trying to mimic me at a swim meet this summer. She's a real card that kid. Awww... I guess she takes after her Dad! How old is that one? Is she going to be a swimmer like big sis? I don't think my 6 year will be ... I think I'm one for three on USS swimming -- which of course is fine. My one swimming daughter doesn't use equipment too much either. I think that's better. All her coaches have had shoulder injuries and they are acutely aware of issues relating to that. Their "kicking" lane is not really a lane per se, and definitely does not involve kickboards. Since I'm "generally" an equipment hater, she's used to hearing my views as well.

FlyQueen: Youch. I don't skip out on sets or skip a swim. I may miss a 50 very, very occasionally because of a cramp. I skipped the 800 paddle/fin set at my team's practice on Sat. because I had already done 4000. I can't go more. Don't yell at me. Can a babysister yell at their big sis? But I don't get it, why should you stop just because she is? That makes no sense at all. No, she actually reached over to my lane and grabbed me to stop me on a backstroke set that she didn't feel like doing it ... I don't like when people just don't feel like swimming a set because they are tired. I only wanted to punch said teammate because she wanted to be lazy and she wanted me to be lazy with her. I didn't want to swim the set either but did anyway. Skipping out a 50 or 100 from time to time is fine, especially if you get out of your lanemates way. You only hurt yourself when you do that, but my theory is why go to practice if you don't want to work hard? Fort, injuries are a different thing altogether ...

Skipping out a 50 or 100 from time to time is fine, especially if you get out of your lanemates way. You only hurt yourself when you do that, but my theory is why go to practice if you don't want to work hard? Fort, injuries are a different thing altogether ... I agree. When I go to my team practice, I know I'll be super exhausted after because I'll push myself hard. Plus, who wants to be teased for being a whimp? But I guess some people like to socialize. I socialize in the hot tub. ;) My Sat. practice is tough. I don't usually go. We swim with the college team and the college coach and it's sometimes 6000+ LC. Not everyone stays for the full torture session. At least if I leave early, I'm not disrupting a set or interval. And, most importantly, I do not disrupt anyone or kick anyone doing butterfrog.

I don't mind the leaving early, if done between sets, or if it has to be in the middle as long as you tell your lanemates and coach ahead of time. I've had to leave early from time to time and I think it's always better to leave early and go then to have not gone at all ... I don't usually beat my lanemates ... usually being the key word there and I almost never beat drop-ins ...;)