I posted earlier about our new team survey LINK
and I've decided to post my answers bit by bit as I write them up in
between doing other things. I've answered Question 3 LINK and now for Question 1:
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.
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