Late swimmers!

If I am going to be 45 minutes late to practice, I wouldn't even bother showing up. If people show up late at our group, it is not a big deal. They just get in the pool and bend right into the workout that we are on. This is generally the thought process right now.

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. :) Yeah....we do climbouts for every minute late for my age-groupers...

My guess is that most Masters swimmers would rather have been at workout for the first 45 minutes than doing whatever it was that made them that late. Finishing a project at work, taking the kids somewhere, running errands, you name it. More than likely, taking care of someone else instead of taking care of themselves. If we're talking about morning workout, they were probably up late the night before doing one of the above, and just needed the rest. The remaining 45 minutes of workout is healthier for their minds and bodies than heading straight home and plopping in front of the TV because they didn't want to interrupt practice. I vote you just have patience with them and welcome them into the fold when they arrive.

I am getting that impression from my swimmers, but showing up almost 45 minutes late for an hour and a half practice is sort of ridiculous, no? They're only hurting themselves. I show up 30 minutes early, and I am always the last one out of the pool. We have a few people who are like this, but the majority show up 5-10 minutes early and leave with everyone else. We do, however, have one or two people who will show up at 7:45 or almost 8pm when our practices are only 7pm-8:30pm. Personally, I would feel so stupid showing up that late, but I don't know their situation. They might have to work, and that's the earliest they can get there--something is better than nothing, right? I think that having a late policy on a masters team is just going to encourage them to not bother showing up if they're late. Would you rather them not show up or show up late?

Maybe the people who show up late to your practice just don't know how to be polite. When someone is late to our practice and gets in my lane, most of the time I don't realize they showed up until we're done a set, and they're there. Even when we have 7 or 8 people in a lane, there is still a gap at the end of the line that they just slip into and hang out at the back until the set is over so they can go to where they normally are in the order.

I would not be on a Masters team that had a late policy. Life happens, it's nothing personal.

The masters' teams I have swum with have only one policy that can be summed up as "anything goes; it's masters." That is how ours works. Coached swimming begins at 5:45 a.m. and ends at about 8:15 a.m.. Some guys show up and swim sets together. On the hand are people like me who don't want to swim at 5:45 so I show up at 6:30. No problem here!

Perhaps the answer in this question goes back to the belief of whether swimming is an individual or team sport. Yes, part of it is common courtesy if you're going to "upset" a lane of swimmers who are in the middle of their rhythm. But we're adults and should be able to adapt to changes when necessary. Our Masters workout is on a white board placed on deck at all times, so anyone can use it at any time. This fosters an atmosphere that is much more welcoming than being greeted by a locked gate.

I am getting that impression from my swimmers, but showing up almost 45 minutes late for an hour and a half practice is sort of ridiculous, no? I think there are very few people for whom masters swimming is really and truly the number one thing in their life. For me, though I enjoy swimming, family and work definitely come first. If you can't get to practice because your kid's game went into overtime or you had a late meeting at work, what are you going to do? If life intrudes, I say be grateful they think enough of their time and yours to show up at all. Skip

I would not be on a Masters team that had a late policy. Life happens, it's nothing personal. Ditto. We're adults, we have kids and jobs and other things. I pay $40 to have a place to workout. If I need to be 10 minutes late and leave 15 early that's my business. I do feel bad for the people in the lane I jump into to, but on the other hand they can look at it like this, at least I wasn't there for the whole practice, so they got more room for about 1/2 the practice.