HEY COACHES! How about a little consistency?

Whew! Hope you feel you got that off your chest! As both a professional coach and former athlete, my philosophy regarding practice content is threefold: effectiveness, interest, and progression. Along the lines of the old saying: you can be on-time, under budget or have the job done correctly, pick two out of three. A similar quandry confronts coaches on a daily basis---its really easy to focus on just one of those components, reasonably challenging to incorporate two....but three? Sometimes the creative juices don't permit, nor should they depending on your goals, though. This applies to my entry-level, age group, senior and Masters swimmers. While I understand your point about one goal, one interval, the vast majority of Masters swimmers and coaches of noteworthy Masters' programs don't just engage the body, but also the mind. Descending efforts, intervals, changing strokes, etc. improves mental awareness, physical conditioning and overall athleticism. I agree that something steady and unidimensional has its benefits, but it often puts swimmers of all ages into 'screen saver' mode, something you don't want athletes to do. Natalie Coughlin recently is quoted as saying, "I never take a stroke without thinking about it". Personally, I wish some of the creativity I see now was around when I was a kid! See if you can forgo your paleontological ways, and some physical and mental benefits may accrue if you embrace it long enough. Cheers.

Well, I'm sure your post will be met with mixed emotions and responses, but I have to say I do share a little of your frustration as far as the secret of success through workouts. I have participated in coached workouts in the past with Masters(now I have to self-coach for schedule purposes). I never questioned that our coach would get us where we wanted to be, simply because he "walked the talk" and is very accomplished in the pool himself. I realized very positive results through those workouts, but at the same time, I couldn't always decipher the means that got me to that end over the weeks & months... and that part was a little frustrating. I'm not at all suggesting that it is the coaches responsibility to have a pre-workout briefing to explain the dynamics of every set, but I have often wished that I had access to a weekly summary (printout or verbal) of what it all means.... aerobic Monday - anaerobic Tuesday - Wednesday's distance ties in this way.... and so on.... just to provide a bigger picture. Now that I'm on my own I find it even more difficult to put together an effective training approach (effective to me being getting faster moreso than fitness and maintenance). I detected a hint of tonge in cheek in your post so I think overall you will agree.... Anyone who has access to a qualified coach should be thankful even though the coach dosen't reveal all the secrets of success. :D

I agree with both of those items. I have only once had a coach post workouts, and I do not like knowing what is coming up for the reasons given. I will coast through one to get to another. I only ask that the sets actually mean something. If I perceive tham to just be filler, I do not whine, I get out and go home.

I was ok with this thread until that... I can tell you as a former college, masters, and age group swim coach, there is most likely a reason behind this madness. I can think of a few in particular... 1. I would never preview a workout for the exact reasons you mention. You "plan" for what's coming. Truly, your best efforts and focus should be on EVERY set. The coach should be providing you with the level of desired intensity of a given set. Often, I find that swimmers (I count myself among the guilty here), will hedge one set if they know a harder set is coming. Maybe you like one set over another and decide to hold back on the first and really pound on the second. As a coach, maybe that's not what I want to have happen. I know on most occasions, I would want to put the faster stuff at the later parts of practice to train swimmers to be in the habit of having their bodies be ready to go faster in the back end of races. Sometimes, I would do fast stuff all the way through. The more upredictable you can be, the more you challenge the swimmer and their body. If you get in a totally prediciatble routine, you will not get near as much from your body as you could by keeping things changing. Sure, keep some of the routine things ilke a test set or two, or warm up/down, but on the whole, you're going to uimprove far more by changing it up and focus on each set at a time, rather than where to plan your efforts in what lies ahead. 2. The whine factor. If you see a workout that doesn't suit you, you might moan and compain about it (not that it doesn't happen anyway). However, when these are "surprises", the moment is short lived, and so is the time to dwell on them. There's other reasons, but these would be my top 2. Rob Nasser

I tried not to be very long in my first post, so perhaps I could clarify a little. I have no particular animus toward the stroke - distance - intensity level changes all in one set, I would just like to know what it is going to do for me or what I should be working on in the set. And I did refer to the boredom of the single purpose set all of the time, but would it really hurt to have one every other day or so? What holds back the swimmers is the apparent pointlessness of set after set being given with little other input from the coach than a smile and moving on to the next lane. Progress is not always pretty or fun. You have to do the work at some point, and if the fitness and tri swimmers don't care when Nationals are, why not let them experience the routine workouts and taper that go along with the experience? It won't hurt them, and the swimmers who are working toward a goal will have some company, rather than feeling like they are getting in the way of ... what? Not progress. Their (fitness and tri) routine does not change if they can help it. They live the screen saver life you refer to. If you listen, the only time they are animated is when you give a set that actually takes effort to accomplish, like 5 or 10 x 200. On a steady interval and steady descending, say 1 second per 200. After that set, every one in the pool will know how fast their average 200 is. If you give a set like :100 free fast, 3 x 50 back drill, 300 kick, 4 x 50 ***, 4 times through (don't laugh, it has been done), what is the point? What can I work on to improve my (choose one) stroke, speed or stamina?

A gripe I have had while training is the Coach that doesn't publish his workout ahead of the practice but just tells you the next set at the conclusion of the previous set. In the dark ages in age group swimming and briefly into college there were work out cards at each lane where the coach had specified the workout, the intervals and elapsed time and yardage and recommended effort. Workouts were split into sprinters, stroke, mid distance, and distance groups. The assistant coaches all knew the workouts and could explain the purpose of the drill, offer encouragement etc. You could spend a couple of minutes before practice started reviewing and planning your workout. Most of the Masters clubs I have worked with would also post work outs split by ability groups. The one exception was a team where the coaching philosophy was to never post anything. Yes the coah had a plan but we were never privy to it - you might come off of a set to hear that the next set would be a 30 minute swim for distance. This approach did not allow you to plan or focus your training. He would just say that if the workout was posted that we might dog a set or two. This really chapped me. At that time I competed in the IM and Breaststroke, and would not particularly care to find that after busting a free style set that we had a set of 3 x 200 stroke or IM to do. I retired for a while. Now thanks to a cardiologist's wake up call, I am training again. I train solo and am using Mel's workouts. He does provide some good comment about the intent of the sets and going into some of them I know what is going to hurt. I may reduce some of the yardage to fit within the timeframe, or change up the amount of fly (until I get into better shape), but that is my decision.

I agree, Michael, with your sentiment and creating benchmarks for yourself. I have recently tried swimming at a team in So Cal that is making no sense to me. A large fee to swim there and workouts are all over the place with no coherence among teammates. I suppose my biggest gripe is that though I have been there for over a month, the coach keeps assigning me to the slower lanes (ex: 5 x 200yds free on 3:30) when I usually hold 3:00 intervals. I have had to be proactive about what lane I should be in at every workout in order to actually get a workout. I think he has no idea what my capabilities or really cares for that matter. He also likes to do things three and four times through. A real nice guy, but I am confused most of the time. Anyway, I like your ideas. I think I will swim on my own on Monday and do a set of 10 x 100's. Thanks!

I went to a master club in the new town I moved to last night, in order to get in a swim and meet the gang. The session ??? 50% drills, backstroke and breaststroke. The assistant coach insisted that I follow the workout. I don't swim breastroke bad knees, I don't do backstroke because when I wear goggles swimming on the back I get sea sick. I guess I will only do lane swimming in this new town or open water swims. Is this right for me do do my own thing in a planned workout or do I have to knuckle under to inflexability of the coach.

I will participate again on a team where the coach and I share a training philosphy and we work together towards my goals. A planned and posted workout is part of that process for me. I will not swim for a club that doesn't post the workout. Its my choice. I swim *** stroke. I have been doing it enough years to focus my training around that stroke. Yes I will swim strength drills, lactate drills, long slow distance as called for in the season. But I would rather know going into a workout that I had an opportunity to set workout goals and to push certain things. If I see that there are 3 x 300 stroke desend by 100s I would set that as my main set vs worrying about desending 20 x 100's free style 1-5, 6-10 etc. It does not mean that I would necessarily slack off on another set; I eventually took up the 400 IM competitively because I enjoyed it as a challenge set in practice and I have set my personal bests in the 100 fly starting out a 400 IM. But I train to compete in the 100 and 200 *** stroke. I was never and will never be competative in the 100 free, my personal best 100 fly beats my 100 free. Swimming a few thousand more 100 frees sets is not going to make me a competative freestyler. The only time I will be swimming backstroke (other than an IM Set) is when I am in Purgatory atoning for my sins . That's my choice. An unannouced 30 minute swim for distance is not what my program is about and if a coach blindsides me like that, he or she is going to hear about it.

As you pointed out Rob, some people will complain on deck when they get a sneak preview of the practice. Others will prepare for a challenge. And some will strategically save their reserve energy for their favorites. I vote on seeing the workout before hopping in the pool. I agree with Michael about the predictability of a set rather than bouncing around all over the place. Sets like (10) 200's with descending intervals are much better in my opinion than mixing up stroke drills, and kicking within a swim set. This stuff should usually occur during warm-up rather than interrupting the rhythm of a set. Also,..familiar sets from week to week create a benchmark for understanding how the improvements are coming along. One will never know if they can go 10 x 100 on a tighter interval without lowering the "limbo bar" just a bit. Repitition isn't necessarily a bad thing. ...at least not in the pool. (Unless it's that 30 minute swim for time. That's just outright dreadful.) No offense to the distance people....