With some recent talk about coaches, accomodating to swimmers, and swimmers obeying coaches, I thought I'd post a poll.
So who is receiving coached workouts? Do you like him/her? Do you like his/her workouts? Do they pay you attention, criticize and advise, or do they like to sit and read, or flirt with other swimmers/lifeguards?
Since changing teams I feel I am getting better coaching with the kids team, of course I am also paying alot more for it. Coach Rick treats me like one of the kids, with the exception of not having to yell at me to finish into the wall, do the whole set, or stop playing around.
Rick has corrected my strokes (we are still making corrections), my shoulders really have not hurt, yet I am doing more yardage than ever. He is teaching me to sprint again (used to be a sprinter in my youth, but due to swimming with a masters team filled with triathletes I have been trained as a distance swimmer for the last 3 years). I am looking forward to actually breaking some major sprint barriers this year, yet maintain my distance ability. That is the balance we are trying to achieve.
He keeps me accountable and is helping me to reach my goals. When he gave the assignment to the kids to turn in their long and short term goals, I was probably the first one to turn them in. Right now I have my own lane most of the time and on occasion I share it with 2 other people who never come at the same time. But when the Aquatic Center reopens the end of October I will probably have to swim with the Juniors. This week is the first week I can honestly say I kept up (stroke for stroke) with the Juniors in the workout.
My first outing after 5 weeks went really well with 3 best times and 2 really close, concidering it was a pentathlon with very little rest between events I would call this a success.
My old masters coach just assigned the workout and would give us drills but the drills never really corrected the flaws in my stroke. We also never did kick sets. The most kicking we would do was 100-200 yards in warmup. Everything else was distance or mid-distance and Tuesday and Thursday was IM or stroke. Sprints were maybe once per month.
Rick gives me drills that actually address the correction that needs to be made. He also assigns me plenty of kick sets (a real weakness for someone who just drags her legs).
Because of my schedule, I typically only swim with my team 1x a week during the school year. I'd prefer it was 2x. I can't do the same level of conditioning work on my own. Our coach writes great workouts with interesting sets that seem to have a concrete purpose. I've seen her correcting strokes, although not as much the more advanced swimmers, as Dennis notes. I would love to have more technical analysis of my strokes. I'm just winging it based on instinct and what I gleam from swim forums. But it is sometimes difficult to be essentially "guessing" what you're supposed to do technique-wise. Going to try to get myself video'd a bit more in the future. That's my only hope for my evilstroke.
However, I do like my solo workouts because then I can fine tune them to what I think I'm supposed to be doing. Most masters teams just don't do the speed work, race pace work or SDK work that I need as a sprinter. It's all about yardage. I'd like some, but not a high daily dose.
Fort does your coach write the workouts or is he or she connected to the internet and downloading the work outs.
She writes them George. She knows what she's doing. She's an Olympian and her husband is head coach of the college team and coaches the masters team on Saturdays. She's also fast as hell, though she rarely goes to meets. :cheerleader: The workouts are good. We have two stroke days, one free day and on Saturday an high yardage/heavy duty day. She has us do some innovative fun stuff too. We were in the pool throwing medicine balls at each other this summer.
I am my own coach,mostly. I write my own workouts.Although I swim with a group sometimes I can rarely get anyone to do"that crazy breaststroke stuff".Also I do more sprints/longer rest than they like.The exception that makes it "mostly" is I have a coach friend who does underwater videos and I get her to tape and critique my stroke periodically.Also I get our team coaches to give me pointers at meets.
I'm lucky enough to swim with a masters team that usually has 2 coaches on deck. Normally we split into longer and shorter groups, and a coach takes each. I used to think that our head coach (I think there's about 6 or so coaches) made up the workout and sent it out to them, but now I know that that may be the ideal, but they don't always get it. That said, they modify the workout to fit the individuals, giving intervals that are realistic (even though I may not think they are). Some days everyone will do the same set, such as Fast or Fun Fridays, when the coaches walk around the pool giving feedback to all.
The coaches are usually pretty good with feedback. There are some sets that make feedback easier, but if someone is doing something very wrong, they will make you aware of it. We do sets with all strokes, kicking, pulling, drills, etc. Even when we're doing sets where we end up on the other side of the pool, I've found the coach waiting on the bulkhead to give me feedback.
Occasionally I do swim on my own....I get in the water and have to figure out what I'm going to do. It really makes me appreciate having coaches and lanemates to keep everything flowing.
Similar question--are there any swimmers who run, or triathletes out there who run with a team or coached workouts? I currently run on my own, but am considering trying something with a coach and/or group.
I had two great coaches: George Haines and Don Easterling and am grateful for them both for how far they took me in my swimming career. 1968 comes to mind.
Once I entered the USMS, I had fair coaching. One of our coaches was an Olympian from Australia, but we were such a large club (over 300), there wasn't enough of him to go around.
I now swim alone because of where I live. It's just me and Mr. & Mrs. Parrot Fish, Mr. Barracuda, Ms. Eagle Ray, and Miss Scorpion Fish. So, I guess I truly don't swim alone, it's just that I am now the slowest amongst my little swim crowd.
II now swim alone because of where I live. It's just me and Mr. & Mrs. Parrot Fish, Mr. Barracuda, Ms. Eagle Ray, and Miss Scorpion Fish. So, I guess I truly don't swim alone, it's just that I am now the slowest amongst my little swim crowd.
...maybe, but you've eaten their relatives.:thhbbb:
