Back in November our Team's Swim Rep sent out a Survey about the coaches, swimming, etc. The survey had four questions and an option to add anything else you like. I posted the survey and my answers to the questions. But since I took a few days to think out my answers I emailed them back too late to be part of the Coaches Meeting. So today while out and about I was checking my email and got excited to see a Spring Survey. As I started reading them thoughts came rushing into my head. So this time I'll be answering the questions all by tomorrow. I want my ranting answers to be part of any discussion coming up with the coaches. So later with a little help from a jug of wine I'll be typing like a madman. For now here is the 2009 Team Survey:
Coaches should be coordinating practices with each other to avoid major conflicts (ie. two hard distance workouts in a row)
· Coaches should not compete with each other
· Practice interval base times should not fluctuate greatly between coaches
· Coaches should be giving more technique instruction overall
· Coaches should be giving more core training
· Coaches should be giving more drills training
· Coaches should be specifying drills to be used
· Coaches should be giving more starts and turns training
· Coaches should be writing out workouts on boards
· Coaches should be rotating workout lanes based on new lane rotation schedule
How do you feel about our practices since the November survey?
Do you feel that the coaches have been following through with the above requests?
If you feel they have not been following through with the above requests, what should they be doing?
Are there any other areas you feel the coaches could improve upon?
Do you have any questions, comments or concerns about our coaching staff and how they handle swim meets?
In addition, please take the time to choose a coach that you work with frequently and think about something that you think they have done that is positive. When you respond to this survey, please include your thoughts. I would like to collect your comments and deliver them to the coaches at the next coaching meeting to show them how much we appreciate all of their efforts!!
Wowser. I made need 2 jugs of wine to answer all that. I can't believe that someone is giving me this free opportunity to rant on. You can read the questions and answers from the November survey after the jump. UPDATE: I quickly answered this survey with the help of some copying pasting. You can read that after the jump after the November Survey. And I answered it sober!
1) How do you feel about our coaches in general? Are there any coaches you would like to see have more practices?
The one thing I like about my swim team is that each workout is different. Monday mornings are highly concentrated on drilling and technique. While Friday night is all about sprints. Wednesday swimmers get to decide if they want to swim a middle distance free workout or a stroke workout. Now Friday morning has always been the tough morning workout. Even with the various coaches who have stood on deck over the years on Friday morning it's always been the tough one. Not that Tuesday or Thursday nights are any easier but they are different with yet two more coaches. The one thing I've noticed over the years is that each coach has a core group of favorites who will get the good percentage of that coaches attention. Having these various coaches it really does end up being that this attention gets spread around. Now not everyone is going to like every coach and every workout and that will never change. With our various workouts at various times, at various pools and with various coaches we offer a little bit of everything for everyone. This being a Masters swim team the swimmer gets to pick how he wants to train by showing up at the workout that best fits the swimmers training program. So when it comes to workouts all of our coaches are great.
With that said the difference in the coaches really show up at swim meets. IGLA for example is one that comes to my mind as it was the most recent swim meet. IGLA in Washington was the first swim meet for some of our team mates. Therefore many of them didn't know what to expect and didn't even understand how to swim a race. With two race pools going on the same time some of these swimmers alone and on relays showed up at the wrong pool missing the swim. I personally feel that come race day a Coach needs to raise themselves up from being a Master's Swim Coach and to be blunt more of an Age Group Coach. Making sure your swimmers know what heat, what lane and where to show up for the heat. Making sure relay swimmers know who they are swimming with and get them together. A coach should talk to all swimmers at some point before or after warm up the day of the race to talk about the swimmers events. A coach should have warm ups planned for those who just don't know how to warm up during a meet. After the race the coach should be easily found my the swimmers to get feedback, times and splits. Oh and yes it is up to the coach to do the raw math of each swimmers event for these splits. An example of that is after my 800 freestyle I had to hunt down the coach and after not finding the coach I did find a notebook tossed aside with my times on it. Of course the coach was too busy socializing to do the math so I just jotted the times down in my own notebook and did my math. Considering we pay the coach for the day and 1/2 of travel expenses I expect more from the coach. During my 1,500 the day before the coach on duty asked me what were my expected splits and did I need signals to keep on my goal time. The next day during my 800 I was on my own with no coach asking me anything. I could go on for pages and pages on what I feel were the team's IGLA Coaching Issues but I'll save that for another day.
2) How do you feel about our practices? Would you like more sprints? More distance? More core training? More drills? More starts and turns? More stroke instruction from the coaches? Stretching before and after practice? Dry land training?
I don't always agree with all of my fellow swimmers but as one swimmer once said "ab work should be left at the gym". With that said so should dry land and stretching. In age group workouts we did 15 minutes of dry land stretching but that was figured into our daily workouts. With our limited pool time we don't have such a time luxury. Sprints, distance, drills...oh my! See my answer to the question about coaches. This is a Masters Swim Team with responsible adults who each have a different training belief. Each swimmer can adjust a personal workout schedule based on the various coached workouts.
Let's talk about kicking. Don't roll your eyes. I'm not a big fan of kicking in workout for several reasons. First I don't like kicking. Second I witness too much cheating in kicking from pulling on lane lines to those who do more pulling when kicking without a board than actual kicking. I'd be in favor of quality kicking instead of the mind numbing nonsense kicking we currently do. I am a fan of Bernie's 10 minutes of kicking with bursts of fast kicking in between slower kicking. I'm in favor of doing 4 and 6 beat kick swimming drills. When I grow bored during warming up, kicking and drill sets I realize many swimmers on our team don't really kick when they swim. Now all the kicking sets in the world isn't going to make me or the other swimmers to start kicking when swimming. Hell, I never heard of a 4 or 6 beat kick in relation to swimming to about 8 months ago. I don't kick when I swim because I was never taught how to. Just as I couldn't swim butterfly four years ago it wasn't out of laziness it was just that I was never taught how to really swim the stroke. So if we are going to do kick sets let's make them smart and incorporate them into the actual swimming.
Now on the same note if I recall correctly the swim rep two years ago and the coaches agreed to a suggested minimum 500 yard kick per workout. But on the same hand no suggested minimum pulling or drilling portion. For a distance swimmer pulling may be even more important than kicking. I've gone whole workouts without one single pulling set. If the team is going to have some sort of suggested minimums shouldn't that include pulling and drilling?
As for starts and turns we do need to spend more time addressing these two important items. Doing starts need to be more of a year around concentration. Right now as it stands we do starts for two weeks of the year. The first week is always right before regionals during the cold weather month of November. Nothing is more fun then getting out on deck at 7am to do a start. We live in Southern California with sunny warm mornings for about 9 months of the year. Let's work on starts all year long. Then we won't be all moaning and groaning on deck when it's 45 degree's outside. Also relay starts. I think the last time I did a relay start in workout was about a year ago. It was a sprint workout on a Friday night in which a good portion of the workout was relays.
As for turns I'm going to skip answering that and continue to do my very artistic hand stand flip turn in which I touch the bottom of the pool with my hand. It's a very pretty turn, slow but the movement is like watching a ballet.
3) Do we need more lane speeds offered? Medium/Fast? Medium/Slow? Super Fast?
The lane speeds have a way of working themselves out and vary from workout to workout based on who shows up and coaches discretion. When the super fasties all show up on the same day then that workout might have a faster fast lane and a fast lane. Same thing goes for each group. It should be as it has always been coaches discretion. And yes sometimes that may mean one person may have to slow up but they should use this a workout to either work on weaker strokes or just work on technique in general. On the flip side sometimes people will have to move up and rise to the challenge of a faster workout. I've done both sides of this coin many a 6am workout as it always depends on who shows up.
3) Would you like a distance or a sprint specific workout during the work week?
Funny. We do already. I don't know how to make this as clear as possible but this is a Masters Swim Team. With that we are adults and can pick from a buffet of workouts. Those who want long course can swim at Roosevelt on Saturday morning. If you like stroke work you can pick to do a stroke workout on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. Want a workout that will be focused on drill work show up on Monday mornings. With that said depending on how many people show up in each lane the coaches have to make adjustments. If we have 6 people in a yard pool than we cannot to a distance workout. In addition to all that I really believe that our coaches do listen to the swimmers and change workouts from week to week to offer a little bit of everything.
4) Should we bring back the monthly 10 / 100 sets?
I am a fan of the 10/100 sets. It's nice to check in and see how one is doing from time to time. But I don't think having them monthly is the way to go. After four months in a row it becomes a daunting and repetitive task. Also our attendance at these workouts begin to dwindle. I'd like to see this workout to be maybe a quarterly event. On top of that it should be more of a choice by moving this set from the Monday workouts to one of the weekend workouts. Being a Masters Swim Team we made up with everything from the casual fitness swimmer to the swimming elite. Having a check in set such as the 10x100's doesn't appeal to everyone and once again seems to have an negative effect on attendance. By moving it to let's say Sunday at 3pm only those who really want to do the set will come drawing from the other weekend workouts.
Anything else you can think of?
Have I mentioned how much I dislike kicking. Can't it just be relegated to the first 10 minutes of warm up as a choice?
Since the team does own a camcorder and the underwater telescope lens I hope we use it more than just during the four clinics of the year. Since many of our Sunday afternoon swimmers get out after an hour I think we could have the coach plan a one hour workout and then use the next 30 minutes as a technique session. Even if it's using 1/2 the pool while the other 1/2 continues on a workout. Swimmers could sign up in advance with the swim rep in communication with the coach. The people who continue to swim will continue on with a workout posted on the board with the coach available to assist and explain the set while spending more time on the technique lanes. Two out of the three lanes would be used. The lane closest to the wall with the telescope lens would be closed off to swimmers. The second lane would be for those being filmed and the third lane would be a warm up lane in between filming. Each week some where between 2-4 swimmers would be allowed this opportunity rotating various swimmers. Swimmers would have to sign up in advance. If they didn't show up that week then the slot could be opened up for any swimmer who showed up. I mention the signing up and rotating as I stopped going to our swim clinics when I realized that the same core group goes to every clinic and in order to get the most attention one really must be the squeaky wheel. After the Sunday technique swim the swimmers can watch the swim on the camcorder and if they want the video can be burned on disc or emailed to that swimmer.
NOW FOR THE MARCH 2009 SURVEY:
How do you feel about our practices since the November survey?
You mean the workouts have changed? Besides some cockamamie. lane rotation schedule. Seriously which fast lane swimmer who doesn't want to swim in the wall lane thought of the rotation plan? The way I skip around swim practices I now get the wall almost every day but Wednesday. The old system worked as long as the same small group of people who automatically jump in the non-wall lane get moved over. It's not the lane rotation it is the individual swimmer's etiquette. I know at 6am we have one swimmer who is blunt and tells the non-wall lane swimmers that they need to take a turn in the wall lane. Of course swimmers shouldn't be telling other swimmers what to do but it works at 6am. Maybe coaches should be doing a better monitoring job or better yet individual swimmers should follow basic swim etiquette rules. Oh and remind them that when swimming butterfly it is proper etiquette to go one arm when swimming by swimmers going by in the opposite direction. I only mention that in conjunction with lane line rotation as it's at least in my observations the same swimmer who violate both etiquette's.
In direct answer to the listed topics of change I will admit that I love the fact coaches write the workouts on a board. Well most of the time it works. Of course when we are doing a set starting from the other end of the pool from which the board is at it fucking blows. I've seen so many Sunday afternoon practices breakdown lane by lane as we stop to look at the board in the middle of a swim cuz' we are starting at the other end. The easy solution would be to ban all 75's, 125'a, 225's, etc..
I also think it's been great that coaches have been giving specific drills for the swimmers to do during sets. I do suggest that the intervals be a bit more generous in drilling. At some of the practices I never make the drilling intervals and end up giving up, skipping part of the set or taking yet another pee break. It's frustrating when everyone in your lane is speeding past you and lapping you in the drill portion of the workout as you take your time to do it right.
Nothing is more fun then doing starting off the block training during the cold winter months. I've been saying this since my first winter on the team in 2005 so I'll say it yet again "why do we wait to the week before a swim meet to do turns? Especially when most of the meets our team competes in our in the winter months? I hope this summer when the temps rise we will be doing starts on a regular basis. But when it's 45 degrees outside I and so many other swimmers don't want to do starts. Also we should be doing more relay starts. I don't think I've been to one meet yet that we haven't had at least one relay DQ'ed due to the start.
Going back to the first few Fall Survey comments I'm stumped over "Coaches Should Not Compete With Each Other" as I don't know what is meant by that. As I stated back in November, The one thing I like about my swim team is that each workout is different. Monday mornings are highly concentrated on drilling and technique. While Friday night is all about sprints. Wednesday swimmers get to decide if they want to swim a middle distance free workout or a stroke workout. Now Friday morning has always been the tough morning workout. Even with the various coaches who have stood on deck over the years on Friday morning it's always been the tough one. Not that Tuesday or Thursday nights are any easier but they are different with yet two more coaches. The one thing I've noticed over the years is that each coach has a core group of favorites who will get the good percentage of that coaches attention. Having these various coaches it really does end up being that this attention gets spread around. Now not everyone is going to like every coach and every workout and that will never change. With our various workouts at various times, at various pools and with various coaches we offer a little bit of everything for everyone. This being a Masters swim team the swimmer gets to pick how he wants to train by showing up at the workout that best fits the swimmers training program. So when it comes to workouts all of our coaches are great. I don't see our coaches working or competing against each other I see them as just having different ways to get all of us swimmers to find our own natural abilities.
Intervals in each workout and each coach may fluctuate. Once again it is up to the swimmers to ask the coach with full cooperation from lane mates if they feel a set has an easier interval. The reason why they may fluctuate can be based on the overall workout approach. At each workout the group dynamics are different so the intervals may be different. If I am the only fast lane swimmer at 6am I'm not going to take my own lane to do a faster interval I'll go at a slower interval to evenly space out the lanes. Also if we have two fast lanes and the make up calls for two different fast intervals then I'll go into the slower interval. On the other hand if both lanes are filled with fast swimmers I'll suck it up knowing that I'll miss some of the intervals and will probably puke at some point but will swim on the faster interval. It's never going to be a perfect world and sometimes some faster swimmers have to suck it up and go slower and work on technique and sometimes us slower swimmers have to suck it up and puke later.
I really got to admit that I don't see much of a difference. I've always liked the fact that WH2O offers a little bit of something for everyone. You like swimming butterfly? Swim Tuesday Nights. Like swimming sprints and 50's? Swim Friday Night. Like focusing on technique and drill work? Come Monday Morning. I could go on and on with various aspects of each of our workouts. What I have noticed more in the evening workouts is that the main set seems to end right at 8pm. Which allows those who only want to swim the first hour of the workout to get out with little lane disruption. I don't know if this has been planned but I like it. As being one who normally stays the full 90 minutes it makes the workout more seamless. The lane can reset lane order during a rest break instead of mid-set. If this is just my imagination I think the evening coaches should take that 1 hour swimmer into consideration when planning the workout.
The one big loaded question of the survey that sent off internal alarm bells was this question, "Coaches should be coordinating practices with each other to avoid major conflicts". The reason that this alarms me so much is having coaches coordinating to avoid major conflicts. So who decides which side of a conflict wins? I can't say how much I like all of our coaches and I would be still swimming a 100 free on around 2 minutes without them. But we are a Masters Swim Team that isn't tied to a major University so our swim coaches as much as I value their experience in swimming they are made up of artist, accountants, liquor salesman and a few other professions. I am assuming and hoping that any judgement calls are based on the coaches past swim experiences. And then that seems to conflict with coaches giving fluctuating base interval times. If the Monday night coach gave a hard distance free set based on very little rest does that mean if the Tuesday night coach gives any freestyle set's they need to keep in mind that some swimmers may be fatigued so they need easier intervals.
As for other questions and comments boy do I have a few. Good thing I keep track of these things. Time for some copying and pasting! I'm actually going to limit to two paragraphs from the earlier survey.
The difference in the coaches really show up at swim meets. IGLA for example is one that comes to my mind as it was the most recent swim meet. IGLA in Washington was the first swim meet for some of our team mates. Therefore many of them didn't know what to expect and didn't even understand how to swim a race. With two race pools going on the same time some of these swimmers alone and on relays showed up at the wrong pool missing the swim. I personally feel that come race day a Coach needs to raise themselves up from being a Master's Swim Coach and to be blunt more of an Age Group Coach. Making sure your swimmers know what heat, what lane and where to show up for the heat. Making sure relay swimmers know who they are swimming with and get them together. A coach should talk to all swimmers at some point before or after warm up the day of the race to talk about the swimmers events. A coach should have warm ups planned for those who just don't know how to warm up during a meet. After the race the coach should be easily found my the swimmers to get feedback, times and splits. Oh and yes it is up to the coach to do the raw math of each swimmers event for these splits. An example of that is after my 800 freestyle I had to hunt down the coach and after not finding the coach I did find a notebook tossed aside with my times on it. Of course the coach was too busy socializing to do the math so I just jotted the times down in my own notebook and did my math. Considering we pay the coach for the day and 1/2 of travel expenses I expect more from the coach. During my 1,500 the day before the coach on duty asked me what were my expected splits and did I need signals to keep on my goal time. The next day during my 800 I was on my own with no coach asking me anything. I could go on for pages and pages on what I feel were the team's IGLA Coaching Issues but I'll save that for another day.
I don't always agree with all of my fellow swimmers but as one swimmer once said "ab work should be left at the gym". With that said so should dry land and stretching. In age group workouts we did 15 minutes of dry land stretching but that was figured into our daily workouts. With our limited pool time we don't have such a time luxury. Sprints, distance, drills...oh my! See my answer to the question about coaches. This is a Masters Swim Team with responsible adults who each have a different training belief. Each swimmer can adjust a personal workout schedule based on the various coached workouts.
Finally 10x100's, the check in set, the breakthrough set the 1st Monday of the month when attendance drops to it's lowest levels of the month. Now I understand the methodology of these sets. But I'd like to suggest three alternative Test Sets from Swimming World Magazine LINK:
Step Tests such as 6 x 200 with 1 or 2 minutes rest between swims. Rest should be just long enough to measure heart rate or obtain a lactate blood sample. The swimmer is asked to descend his or her times to the point where the last 200 is an all-out effort.
Another simple test set to determine Constant Swimming Velocity is a set in which the swimmer swims 4 x 100 at top speed with 30 seconds rest between each 100. This is usually done at the beginning of every season or twice during the short course season, with the second one done over the holidays.
Also timing and planning should be a bit more realistic. The kickoff to the first 10x100's was just a few days after SCM Regionals. Seriously anyone who cares about training and how they are swimming most likely swam that weekend. Some might still be recovering. Both reasons made December's 10x100 pointless. Then came January which is a good start as most of us our returning from Holiday vacations. What better time to see how slow we got eating all that Christmas Goose and playing with Tiny Tim and his crutch over our break. Personally I use to be a fan of the 10x100's but I've grown tired of it. I think a new break through set is in order. The fact that so many swimmers stay away from the 1st Monday of the month should speak volumes about how little we all care about it. Last month I just swam it without much care. I wasn't even looking at the clock when I finished. If the coach wasn't getting my time I'd wouldn't have known or cared to have known my times.
Well that is enough for my ranting. And I did it without a drop of wine. Time to open the bottle now.
