Coaching, yes or no?

I am all for throwing medicine balls. She must be a good coach and not just a drill sargeant..

Superb coach, both for private training and for group. Coach pays attention. Does not flirt, read, check investments. Understandably, has devoted following. Regards, VB

I love having a coach on deck. It usually motivate me and to be quite honest I hate writing my own workouts!!! The problem with coaches in my area right now are that most of them are not professional and they typically only help the beginning swimmer. You go to a workout and they give the faster lanes the workout and then they never visit you again until you need a set explained. I don't know if they are afraid to help more advanced swimmers or they really don't know how to help advanced swimmers? I don't care how good you are in the pool, everyone wants some kind of advice on their stroke technique. In the past 15 years of swimming with masters I only had one young coach (former university swimmer) actually tell me she didn't like my stroke (freestyle) and should change my recover form. I disagreed with her, but it really made me think about what I was doing and now I'm swim better. Most of the time I need to ask a coach to watch my stroke, but I find that to be flawed. When I ask a coach to watch me I know I'm trying to swim my best. I would much rather have a coach catch me doing something when I'm not thinking about it and let me know what they think I should do.

Jeff - some options you left out. "Had a coach" or "Coached by distance/email". I had a great e-coach for a few years. The workouts would be emailed and after I did them I would respond back with how I did. I would also get some one-on-onework on those occasions when I was in her city and could get a session scheduled. I wish I had a coach or a group to swim with. Swimming alone, it's very difficult to keep motivated. Also, a coach would (hopefully) see those things in the stroke that need correction or adjustment. It's real easy to get sloppy and swim with poor technique if someone is not constantly monitoring it. I get video of my swimming occasionally and then have the local age group coach go over it with me, but it's still not quite the same as an on-deck coach.

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? I love my coach. He tailors his workouts just to fit my needs. He is always at the pool on my schedule. He's very encouraging to other new swimmers in the pool. He doesn't like folks that interfere with my workouts. He doesn't flirt though. Sadly he never manages to watch me while I swim, so he can't give good feedback, but that's his only fault.

Peg: I need either another option E-coach or two choices: Yes and swim alone.

As George Thorogood so aptly put it........ "I swim alone.........with nobody else....." :fish2:

I had the good fortune of having great coaches from age 16-22. Maybe I am naive, but I don't think that swimming has changed so much over the past 20(!) years that I can't use what I learned then and train myself. Plus, at age 40+, "I know what I want , and I know when I want it". So training with a group would probably lead me to conclude I was doing all sorts of stuff that was not relevant to achieving my goals.

I push myself harder with a coach on deck. Plus, a coach is able to identify stroke flaws and try to correct them. When I joined USMS in 2003, I trained alone for about a year and saw virtually no improvement. With coaching, my times have gotten faster.

I push myself harder with a coach on deck. Plus, a coach is able to identify stroke flaws and try to correct them. When I joined USMS in 2003, I trained alone for about a year and saw virtually no improvement. With coaching, my times have gotten faster. Yes It is why I wish they'd get the masters program off and running at my local Y...anyone can print a workout and do it...poorly.