Late swimmers!

Age group is a different story. The standing policy at my club was 100 fly at the end of practice for every minute late. ("On time" meant in the water by start time, not standing on the pool deck.) I can pretty much credit this and similar policies by that coach for turning me into a 200 butterflier by the time I went to college. :) Is there any punishment for the "shower rats"(people who hang out in the shower/locker room area for the good portion of the practice or the people who show up at the start of practice, go hang out at the local pizza place(We used to train at Swarthmore college and the pool was next to downtown Swarthmore) and then, come back before their parents came to pick them up. These kinds of things were prevalent at my age group club. Heck, some of the girls would dunk their hair in the shower to make it look like they swam when they didn't. Of course, none of this affected some of these individuals' performance for some odd reason. This one girl never trained more than 30 minutes but was always able to get her Junior Cut every year. The coach didn't do anything. If I was the coach, I would ignored these slackers at the meets and put all my focus at the meet to the "hard workers".

I REALLY would have a hard time with a team with rigid rules (in general). My preference is that we are all adults with relatively complicated lives and schedules. It isn't so easy to weave a job, a commute, family, and swimming workouts together. I'm fortunate - my team has plenty of lanes - most of the time it is just two per lane. I haven't circle swum in two years. My coach is excellent - and he is happy when we show up. He will push us. He harrasses us when he doesn't think we are putting the proper effort into the workout. But in the end - it is Masters swimming!

I admit I find it mildly annoying. Not so much if there aren't a lot of people already in the water, but if you've already got five swimmers in your lane and someone new jumps in it's annoying. This is my biggest concern with this. If I am running a full practice and someone jumps in late I will have them swim a warmup which throws off the rest of the group, or throws off the tempo of the practice. I guess I could say that it's just Master's but I hold the program in higher regard than that....expecting too much??

I definitely don't want to be a harda$$, but I want people to show up on time as well! Well, it seems like one of those two things is going to have to give. (I have never swum on or with a masters team with a late policy and couldn't imagine doing so.)

Is there any punishment for the "shower rats"(people who hang out in the shower/locker room area for the good portion of the practice or the people who show up at the start of practice, go hang out at the local pizza place(We used to train at Swarthmore college and the pool was next to downtown Swarthmore) and then, come back before their parents came to pick them up. These kinds of things were prevalent at my age group club. Heck, some of the girls would dunk their hair in the shower to make it look like they swam when they didn't. Of course, none of this affected some of these individuals' performance for some odd reason. This one girl never trained more than 30 minutes but was always able to get her Junior Cut every year. The coach didn't do anything. If I was the coach, I would ignored these slackers at the meets and put all my focus at the meet to the "hard workers". lol Age Group/ SR Swimming @ USS is totally different from masters. What would happen you ask? This works well where I swim. In the instance you describe, the coach would say they need not bother to get in. Go home. Think about what you want to get out of swimming. If you pull that kind of a stunt, this is not the group or team for you. The next time, they will be moved down a level for a period of time. Third time is find another team. bye bye :wave: It's a known fact that it's a privilege to be on the team. It is no one's right to be on the team. The kids that are there all work their A$$'s off. This is a coach run team by the way. As for this gal who trains 30 minutes a day and gets her JR cuts, I would suspect that she doesn't have too great a showing at Juniors. I could be wrong. . .

Well, it seems like one of those two things is going to have to give. (I have never swum on or with a masters team with a late policy and couldn't imagine doing so.) Ditto this.

lol Age Group/ SR Swimming @ USS is totally different from masters. What would happen you ask? This works well where I swim. In the instance you describe, the coach would say they need not bother to get in. Go home. Think about what you want to get out of swimming. If you pull that kind of a stunt, this is not the group or team for you. The next time, they will be moved down a level for a period of time. Third time is find another team. bye bye :wave: It's a known fact that it's a privilege to be on the team. It is no one's right to be on the team. The kids that are there all work their A$$'s off. This is a coach run team by the way. I remember those days of straight USS team! I kind of miss them, but I have to say that the Y atmosphere (though not as competitive all the time) is much more leniant. If I ever said that to the Y swimmers I could probably just leave the office keys on my way out...different programs (different strokes for different folks per se)

I remember those days of straight USS team! I kind of miss them, but I have to say that the Y atmosphere (though not as competitive all the time) is much more leniant. If I ever said that to the Y swimmers I could probably just leave the office keys on my way out...different programs (different strokes for different folks per se) Ah yes. I agree in that would so NOT fly at the Y!

Ah yes. I agree in that would so NOT fly at the Y! haha! Yeah....but wait until we turn Y and USS! That will be interesting since these swimmers haven't been there/done that before! Anyway, I am still debating on where to take my Master's "policy" (for lack of a better term)....someone play that jeopary music, please!

Generally if I think I'll be more than about 10 or 15 minutes late, I won't go to practice. Sure, things come up in the office, I could get stuck in traffic, whatever....but as a courtesy to those who are there on time I don't feel it is appropriate to be that late. Shortly after I moved into my house (back in 2001), it took me a while to figure out the traffic patterns. I was consistently late for the 6AM workout. At some point the coach took me aside and said something. After that, I set my alarm clock 10 min earlier, and everything changed. Other than a freak freeway closure, there's little to get in the way of making a morning workout. If I really want to swim (like I haven't had the chance for a while), and know I'll be very late, I'll just jump in a lap lane (if available), or come apologizing to the coach. Since it doesn't happen very often, I can get away with it when it does. I try to treat swimming (and my entire workout routine) like any other meeting or appointment. If you have a 3 PM dentist appointment and show up at 3:30, I doubt your dentist would be too happy. If swimming the workout is that important to you, schedule the time to get there (of course extreme circumstances could come up occasionally). Now I'll admit that I didn't swim on a team prior to masters, so I probably treat it differently than others.