I've been swimming with two masters club for the past year and I feel a bit left out in the dust with one of the clubs I am in.
The first club is fine because we pay the annual pool fee and that's it ($238 bucks). So, the coach we have during the training session volunteers his time to coach us from time to time. I respect that and I don't expect much since I don't pay for his coaching anyway.
However, in the evening... I swim with a different masters club, which their instructors are composed of coaches and students from a varsity team (2 - 3 people per session). This club, I pay for pool and coaching fees. However, all they do is pretty much stand there and chat up with each other and never really focus on me to improve on my strokes. They can tell I am a beginner... and I see no motivation from them to coach me at all. It ticks me off because I am paying for their coaching and sometimes they say nothing to me for the entire session. What's up with that? I can tell they have favorites... and I feel like I am left in the dust to improve on my own, which I need help on.
Anyways... I am getting off topic here... I would like to know what makes a good masters coach, because I don't feel comfortable spending my money on people who are utterly useless.
Please advise.
Parents
Former Member
Funny because I was wondering about this recently in another thread ("Do you have to swim in a team to improve")... I do not know about you guys in the US but here up North in Canada, I'd say that a certain number of Master Squads are coached by unskilled coaches (either young age group swimmers, outdated coaches etc).
Lots of talk, lots of poor advices, lots of doubtful sets. Lots of master coaches are down below at the bottom of the Coaching food chain.
To answer your question, here are some important qualities common to good Master coaches:
- Ability to easily establish meaningful contact with every swimmer no matter their level. This is important in order to know what people's goals are
- Minimal planning abilities (I can tell when not enough thoughts are put into building sessions)
- Great capacity to foresee and prevent injuries
- **** IMPORTANT ***** Video Support. We all know now about the huge importance of seeing ourselves swimming for better stroke correction. Feed back without Video support won't get you very far.
- Being organized in the way you deliver feed back. Swimmers should not have the impression that all they do is always wrong. Tackle onto something meaningful to work on with every swimmer, and stick to what really counts.
- Ability to adapt the workouts/sets to the level of their swimmers.
I'll stop there and finish with a little advice. These coaches are not well paid. We have to be forgiving at least to some extent.
If you want more feedback, I'd recommend that you go after them and ask for it. Bring your video cam with you and ask them shoot you etc... *Ask*
Funny because I was wondering about this recently in another thread ("Do you have to swim in a team to improve")... I do not know about you guys in the US but here up North in Canada, I'd say that a certain number of Master Squads are coached by unskilled coaches (either young age group swimmers, outdated coaches etc).
Lots of talk, lots of poor advices, lots of doubtful sets. Lots of master coaches are down below at the bottom of the Coaching food chain.
To answer your question, here are some important qualities common to good Master coaches:
- Ability to easily establish meaningful contact with every swimmer no matter their level. This is important in order to know what people's goals are
- Minimal planning abilities (I can tell when not enough thoughts are put into building sessions)
- Great capacity to foresee and prevent injuries
- **** IMPORTANT ***** Video Support. We all know now about the huge importance of seeing ourselves swimming for better stroke correction. Feed back without Video support won't get you very far.
- Being organized in the way you deliver feed back. Swimmers should not have the impression that all they do is always wrong. Tackle onto something meaningful to work on with every swimmer, and stick to what really counts.
- Ability to adapt the workouts/sets to the level of their swimmers.
I'll stop there and finish with a little advice. These coaches are not well paid. We have to be forgiving at least to some extent.
If you want more feedback, I'd recommend that you go after them and ask for it. Bring your video cam with you and ask them shoot you etc... *Ask*
