Coaches and Sprinting

I coach in a really small pool, with a huge range of swimmers crammed into two and a half lanes. Distance is hard, because people get run over, but I still do it with them. We also do a lot of stroke. Sprints are hard because not everyone wants to race, and people want to get those yards in. However, I occasionally do sprint sets, but it is hard when for half the lane swimmers get tons of rest, and for the other half of the lane, they are kind of cheated out of really getting to sprint. We only have three practices a week, an hour for each (the limits of our Y). It's hard to find the balance. I'm working on it. One of our previous coaches, much more experienced than I am, regularly would have us do a sprint at the end of practice for time, and regularly had us do what for me was continuous threshold training. Since I am not a sprinter, that helped me with my pace for distance. What is a good amount of rest for a sprint of 100? Of 50? Of 200 (based on my group: most swimmers sprint a 100 free on 1:20 or 1:35, but a few sprint on 1:05 or 1:15? The 1:20, 1:15, and 1:05 sprinters are all in the same lane. The 1:25, 1:30, 1:35 sprinters are all in the next lane. The 1:45, 1:50 sprinters are in the next lane.)? We have an exuberantly enthusiastic team that likes to go to meets, just not superfast swimmers except for a very few. 2:30 for the 100 for the fastest group? 2:45 for the next fastest? 3:00 for the last group? Still learning; appreciate feedback. If you want to do 100 sprints 3 min intervals are too fast,allow at least 5.Better for sprint work is 25s or even 12.5s on the min. I hate lactic acid sets as they really hurt,but if one is going to swim a fast 100 they are really useful and my 2009 resolution was to do at least 1 set/wk mid-season(now).My current set is 50s all out on the minute until my stroke breaks down(which now is about 6,but I have been forcing myself to do them just a couple of weeks(started "mid-season"Mar 1st.)

I coach in a really small pool, with a huge range of swimmers crammed into two and a half lanes. Distance is hard, because people get run over, but I still do it with them. We also do a lot of stroke. Sprints are hard because not everyone wants to race, and people want to get those yards in. However, I occasionally do sprint sets, but it is hard when for half the lane swimmers get tons of rest, and for the other half of the lane, they are kind of cheated out of really getting to sprint. We only have three practices a week, an hour for each (the limits of our Y). It's hard to find the balance. I'm working on it. One of our previous coaches, much more experienced than I am, regularly would have us do a sprint at the end of practice for time, and regularly had us do what for me was continuous threshold training. Since I am not a sprinter, that helped me with my pace for distance. What is a good amount of rest for a sprint of 100? Of 50? Of 200 (based on my group: most swimmers sprint a 100 free on 1:20 or 1:35, but a few sprint on 1:05 or 1:15? The 1:20, 1:15, and 1:05 sprinters are all in the same lane. The 1:25, 1:30, 1:35 sprinters are all in the next lane. The 1:45, 1:50 sprinters are in the next lane.)? We have an exuberantly enthusiastic team that likes to go to meets, just not superfast swimmers except for a very few. 2:30 for the 100 for the fastest group? 2:45 for the next fastest? 3:00 for the last group? Still learning; appreciate feedback. If you want to do 100 sprints 3 min intervals are too fast,allow at least 5.Better for sprint work is 25s or even 12.5s on the min. I hate lactic acid sets as they really hurt,but if one is going to swim a fast 100 they are really useful and my 2009 resolution was to do at least 1 set/wk mid-season(now).My current set is 50s all out on the minute until my stroke breaks down(which now is about 6,but I have been forcing myself to do them just a couple of weeks(started "mid-season"Mar 1st.)