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.
Parents
Former Member
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 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
