Do you have to swim on a team to improve?

I wish I had a coach to yell at me when I was doing something wrong. Although I am motivated and obsessive with swimming, I only have myself to gauge my status. I can't see how I'm doing from the outside the water. Maybe someday. While I have friends that swim they aren't "experts" or "coaches", they just give little tips to help.

In high school to make Jr. Varsity you just had to show up. As long as you put in the time the coach helped you get where you needed to go. From what I've seen, the same is true of all the masters programs. If you're able to swim 25y without stopping, and have a general idea of what freestyle looks like I don't see why they wouldn't take you in. At first it'll be frustrating seeing people do 3,000y sets with only 1 or 2 minutes total break, but you'll get to that point too after a couple months of showing up every day and putting your best effort in. When I started high school swimming we did a 500y for time, it took me 10:58 to complete it. After 6 months of swimming with the team I had it down to a 6:45.32. You'll make remarkable progress if you just keep at it. Greatly appreciate the input. I think I am going to give myself a few months solo in the pool and then check out some local groups. It will be exciting to get some coach input and meet some new people!

I haven't swum on a team or had coached workouts since I began swimming Masters, five or six years ago. Usually they swim before dawn! And in my case there are no teams close by anyway so I go to the YMCAs. I have had some of my life time best swims (I quit competing after high school and one year of college). I think in most cases it is a good idea to swim with a team and to have experienced swimmers who can give you ideas, share technique, etc. I have heard that some coaches can be very helpful. Finally, depending on your make up, for most it helps to have a group that "expects" you to show up and to help push you in workouts. I just happen to be kind of obsessive and a bit masochistic so I don't need group support to put myself in pain. I think healthier souls probably do better swimming with a workout group.

I have been swimming Masters 35 years and have had less than 10 coached workouts during that time.If you are going to have success by your self you are going to have to learn coaching.You need to know about stroke mechanics,pace,aerobic threshold,lactic acid tolerance etc.It is also important to do regular video tape review and periodic stroke analysis by someone who knows what they are doing. These are all very good points. Swimming by yourself when you're first learning can be good to build your endurance but be warned: if you're learning bad habits or techniques it can be a pain to re-learn later. I think everyone could benefit from having a coached workout, whether they design it themselves or not. The biggest benefit of having a coach is having an experienced set of eyes watching you and giving you feedback on what you're doing well, and what needs some work. Coaches also have access to information that might be difficult for an every day swimmer to find about many aspects of swimming. Swimming is a physically demanding sport, but technique is what makes you go fast and do so efficiently. I see a lot of strong, slim guys in my college pool every day. Usually I'm able to kick laps around them, they don't realize so many things that I feel are basic principles of swimming. No matter how athletic and fit they are, if they can't get the technique down I'll beat them to the finish every time, and have energy left over. They may never finish... While a coach is not essential to swimming, I wouldn't trade my first months of swimming with a coach and team for anything in the world. It was a very fun time, and I learned a lot that will stick with me for the rest of my life. Best of luck to you regardless of the route you go, just keep the enthusiasm up swimming is a wonderful activity.

You don't have to but it helps! It can be very hard to maintain your motivation and pace when you're in the pool by yourself. Sometimes I'm really good at it and sometimes I completely lack focus. However when I work with a group I'm almost always "on." When I started swimming masters (after a 10 year break from the pool), I spent about a year working out totally by myself and I managed to drop time and get faster the whole time. I had set a major goal of catching up to my 100 fly time from high school and after probably about 7-8 months I did it. I think the main reason that I was able to progress rapidly and consistently is that I went to as many meets as I could to get a good reading of where I was at and what I was doing right and wrong in my swims. It was also fun and kept my motivation levels up. After SCY Nationals in May I started to do 2 workouts a week with a group of masters. At first it was really hard to adjust to working out with people, and to keep up with them! But now I love it and I credit the time spent with my workout group for most of the big improvements I've had recently in some of my times. I've found it valuable to the point that I'm looking to replace my other workouts that I'm still doing solo with group or team workouts. Either way I think you can be successful as long as you put the effort into it, but I can almost guarantee you'll get better faster if you workout with others.

I've been solo for the last year, but I'm at the point where I've plateaued and need a push. I can only go so hard and so far on my own and then I just don't have that extra to push me to go harder. I really miss the days of swimming club & college when you have a team and everyone suffers together. I'm getting ready to start up with my local masters team once my swim pass expires (since I'm paid up for 3 more weeks). Plus, at the pool I swim at I'm not allowed to use the blocks to practice starts, etc.....need a "coach" on deck. Also, its kind of hard to do relays when you are solo!! :D

I've enjoyed both training solo and training with a group. Training with a group is more fun for sure and it is easier because I don't think about stopping. You get caught up in the momentum of the group. You don't have to think up workouts either...which is a plus and a minus. I also like training solo because I can tailor the workouts to my exact needs (or what I think I need anyway). This past season I trained twice with a group and once on my own. It worked out very well. For the next couple of months I think I'm going to try to go it alone. I'm getting sick of getting up at 5am. That's the only reason though. I just don't like getting up that early. It makes my day so looong. But after I'm tired of swimming alone i'll have to start getting up early again.

Actually, instead of swimming on a team, you might try swimming in the ocean during shark season and that would help you improve. There's nothing like seeing that gray fin emerging from the water to increase motivation and improve speed. :bolt: Yeah I know this comment was pretty tacky however the board's been pretty slow today, and I thought I'd lighten things up. :D Dolphin 2

I'm with tdrop on this. Great fun in a group but the solo sessions mean I can do just what I want. No drills!!!

20 years on my own & 12 with teams has made me MUCH better! I would never work myself as hard as I do with the team & lane mates that push me even harder ! It's more fun as well. I train alone because I used to train with a team so I basically train the same way I used to train with a team. Having said that, I do tend to cut myself more slack that my coach did:D