The Camel thats gonna break my back

Anyone else find this bizarre? I can't imagine a college swimmer getting upset about having to train year round. Good thing this guy didn't decide to swim for Stanford! :) . I would say that that is a drastic measure, but keep in mind that we all chose this program for specific reasons...and maybe he chose it because it was not a hardcore, strict program. He has really bad shoulders, and now back too. He said he wouldnt mind a cross training program-biking or what not, but swimming he doesn't want to do because like I said, he has come to hate it as a result of our program here and because of his injuries. I mean, I don't agree with him, I think thats a little irrational, but I don't blame him. We did not have post season training last year, and there was no mention of it until yesterday when we got that e-mail. If we had been prepped for it, it might have been another thing...but getting an e-mail 3 weeks from the end of school, saying we all of a sudden need to rearrange our schedules to accomandate the 1 practice he is going to offer each day--of which we need to find a way to attend 3 a week, is :frustrated: . I can't imagine even 1/2 the team will show up...because there just isnt the time for it at this point...if you were counting on those 6hours a week to get your work done, (as I was--since the practices he is offering are mid-day rather than early morning or evening like during season) thats 6hours your losing. I mean I'm not even mad at him for having post season workouts-in fact I think its a good idea, and wish he had done it last year, but giving us 2.5 months off and then trying to instate this in the last 3 weeks of the semester is what has me ticked, I think most college kids would attest to this being the highest stress time of the year:woot:

Good luck, Morgan! I recommend doing whatever it takes to have fun while swimming. The meet I met you, I had a bad 500 and I let it ruin the rest of the meet and the whole weekend. Never again! I will not walk into a meet again without a smile and will not walk out without having had an awesome time competing, talking with friends, meeting fellow forumites, etc! Life is too short! somewhere, off in the distance, a herd of rabbits are knawing on alfalfa and chanting your name... Morgan! Morgan! Morgan!:banana: :D

Morgan,I know you tried,but it also sounded like you were disheartened before the meet due to the lack of sprint training.I don't know how to advise you except talk to him and see if he can be reasonable. I don't know if letting him know you did better without him would help or make things worse.I don't recommend this as I don't know him,but I think I'd print out your threads here and our feedback and take it to him so he knows what he is dealing with(and hopefully how wrong he has been for you.):dunno:

I was actually talking earlier with the fastest guy on the team, and he is very upset as well. He does not like the program either, and was very upset to hear that we were having mandatory practices. He feels he needs the time away from the pool in order to come back in the fall and dedicate himself for the next 7-8months, which I completly understand. He however, is being drastic and telling coach that he will quit the team (which for him will mean having to leave the school and go back home to a community college-because he depends on his scholarship) if coach makes him come to the practices. Anyone else find this bizarre? I can't imagine a college swimmer getting upset about having to train year round. Good thing this guy didn't decide to swim for Stanford! :) Morgan: about your coach. Keep in mind this is his career. His comments to you were probably ill advised, but he was probably upset, too, by his swimmers not performing well. Remember, the performance of his team is more or less the only measure of his success as a coach, and maybe whether or not he'll keep his job or not.

I believe, Morgan, you have a simple choice: yes I want to swim on the team, no I want to quit. The difficulty is taking the long-term view: will I be happy in my decision tomorrow, next month, six-months from now, 5-years from now? You and others can speculate all you want about what your coach meant when he said you didn't have heart. The only way to find out for sure is to ask him. I like a quote from what concentration camp survivor, Vicktor Frankl, wrote in Man's Search for Meaning, he says this: "...everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." So, choose your attitude, choose your own way. Good Luck. --mjm