OK, I'm a Dinosaur. I actually like sets like 10x100 on the same interval all the way through.
Why do all of the sets have to have some kind of break in stride or change in interval or undefined purpose today? I have been swimming in Masters long enough to know that our bread is buttered by the fitness swimmers and their singular lack of desire to compete. But do the coaches believe that we are all ADD enough not to be able to complete one set on one interval ? Or do we as swimmers really pose such a dilemma that the coaches do the very worst thing possible - try to make every one happy. The ultimate result of that is to make virtually no one happy.
If you are giving a set to your swimmers, can you tell them what it (the set) should accomplish for them? What they should get out of it? If you simply gave the same set oveer and over again every day, it would become boring, of course. But it would also become a benchmark to which each swimmer could chart his or her progress. A desireable outcome by any standard, I would venture.
I fully realise that the Masters coach is handed a bewildering array of talent and motivation with his swimmers, but you, as a coach, do not have to confuse, bewilder or befuddle your swimmers with meaningless or useless sets. Keep them simple and straghtforward, with one defining mission per set. There is nothing surer to get me to go home as a (competitive) swimmer than a set with multiple intervals and distances, changing intensity and changing strokes. And don't deny that you give such sets. Many coaches thrive on designing sets that are like circuit training in the water. I would go on and on, but I have to get up early to find out what new torture my coach has in store. Take it away, folks.
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?
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?
