would you do this? im frustrated. this is long.

[al320]

Theres background, im sorry if this is long.

So my swim team is not an official masters team. We use pool access from a pretty elite kids swim team, my friend is the unofficial coach, and a few of the people on the team are parents of kids on the team, the rest is from word of mouth. We dont really have coaching, we just get together and do workouts.

The kids swim coach is an intense, serious guy, very highly regarded coach. Most of his swimmers go on to swim at D1 schools, many go on to olympic trials, and he coached a gold medal olympian i guarantee at least 80% of us have heard of.

Anyway, thats the background.

I started swimming a couple of years ago. I always knew how, but like, i learned at camp as a kid. I never swam competitively or swam for fitness or anything. I took a few classes at the Y to improve my stroke and last summer my friend invited me to swim with my now team. Since then ive improved a LOT. But lately i feel like ive stalled. I lose a lot of time and speed because my flip turns blow, i feel like drills are just reinforcing mistakes in my form, i dont know fly, my backstroke is embarrassing and i cant dive. And none of this stuff will just fix itself.

Anyway, to make a long story short, my friend our "coach" and i keep getting into arguments because he wont really help me (i wont get into that). He suggested i reach out to the kids coach - who i would have to pay for individual instruction (which is fine, i mean until i find out how much) but i feel like is wayyyyyy more than i need. I just want to get better, im not looking to break records.

Lets say he charges me a reasonable amount, not even knowing what that is...should i do it? Am i missing a big opportunity by thinking this is way more than what i need? Wwyd h&ferds?

[al320]

Jul 28, 2014 8:54:55 GMT -5 @vtcupcake said:

I think what you've gotta figure out first is what you want out of swimming. Is it a leisure type thing, where you just want to keep up with the other people on your "team" that you socialize with? Do you want to be competitive in swim meets or tris? Are you competing against yourself to find your edge, so to speak?

I think I would talk to the coach dude with at least a nebulous goal in mind and see what he says, and if his coaching methods would help you achieve your goals.

Good points, thank you.

I just want to get better. Im competitive with myself, but would like to get better for meets and tris. But really, i like being good at things lol

[kams]

I learned to swim on a swim team and swam all four strokes for years as a kid. As an adult, once I started with my coach, I learned I was doing lots of things very wrong. I thought I was a pretty good swimmer when I started triathlon (not like previous collegiate, but recreationally good).

I have a coach that gives me instruction on every teeny tiny bit of my stroke. It makes a HUGE difference. Swimming is so technical, that if you swim laps over and over without someone watching your stroke, it's a good chance that you're practicing and reinforcing bad technique, and you'll only get so fast. For me personally, I don't know that I'll ever pay to practice without a coach if I can help it - it makes that much of a difference to me. Thankfully, he coaches my masters team, so I work with him 3+ hrs/week.

So, that said, I think it's a good suggestion. I would check and see if maybe you could do even 1 lesson a week and work on those things during your other practices.

[al320]

Jul 28, 2014 9:20:47 GMT -5 kams said:

I learned to swim on a swim team and swam all four strokes for years as a kid. As an adult, once I started with my coach, I learned I was doing lots of things very wrong. I thought I was a pretty good swimmer when I started triathlon (not like previous collegiate, but recreationally good).

I have a coach that gives me instruction on every teeny tiny bit of my stroke. It makes a HUGE difference. Swimming is so technical, that if you swim laps over and over without someone watching your stroke, it's a good chance that you're practicing and reinforcing bad technique, and you'll only get so fast. For me personally, I don't know that I'll ever pay to practice without a coach if I can help it - it makes that much of a difference to me. Thankfully, he coaches my masters team, so I work with him 3+ hrs/week.

So, that said, I think it's a good suggestion. I would check and see if maybe you could do even 1 lesson a week and work on those things during your other practices.

Thats really good perspective, thank you kams! I felft like i had that at the y, but only to a certain point, then i outgrew it. Maybe it is a good idea.

[emilyinchile]

I don't swim at all, but generally speaking I would say that if you want to get better, this sounds like a great opportunity. Of course, if you don't really care then there's no point in spending the time and money, but it sounds to me like you do care and just feel a little silly reaching out to this level of a coach considering your level and where you'd like to end up. I say you should take advantage of having access to someone like this,

[arch01]

Yes. It's worth it.

Think about it this way-swimming is good cross training for running, right? And if you break down running-you do different workouts within training...speed, tempo runs, distance-and focus on form. While you may be running in all of them, each of them have a slightly different technique (shorter/faster strides, longer strides, etc).

So equate it to swimming. Within the 4 strokes-you're working different parts of your body, and all together, bits and pieces of one stroke translate to another stroke. The push in freestyle is similar to the push in backstroke-or the push in the underwater pull off a start or turn in breaststroke-or that push in fly. When you really start breaking down the strokes, you'll find that it has unintended (and good) consequences.

Another example-when you push off the wall coming out of a flip turn, you're in a tight streamline. Break down your freestyle-at the farthest point of your reach, you're in half a streamline. The techniques translate to so many different things that it's *really* good to have at least basic skills in all 4 strokes if you're main goal is to compete, whether it be in tris or meets.

One last thing-good technique helps keep injury at bay.

(Sorry if my examples above are a bit of a stretch-it's the best I can come up with at the moment)

[al320]

Jul 28, 2014 10:24:55 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

I don't swim at all, but generally speaking I would say that if you want to get better, this sounds like a great opportunity. Of course, if you don't really care then there's no point in spending the time and money, but it sounds to me like you do care and just feel a little silly reaching out to this level of a coach considering your level and where you'd like to end up. I say you should take advantage of having access to someone like this,

Yes, thats it. I feel silly going to someone of this level for very basic instruction.

arch01 yes, i agree with all of that. I just dont know if this level is well above what i need. Im still very new.

[arch01]

Jul 28, 2014 10:44:06 GMT -5 al320 said:

Jul 28, 2014 10:24:55 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

I don't swim at all, but generally speaking I would say that if you want to get better, this sounds like a great opportunity. Of course, if you don't really care then there's no point in spending the time and money, but it sounds to me like you do care and just feel a little silly reaching out to this level of a coach considering your level and where you'd like to end up. I say you should take advantage of having access to someone like this,

Yes, thats it. I feel silly going to someone of this level for very basic instruction.

arch01 yes, i agree with all of that. I just dont know if this level is well above what i need. Im still very new.

Any good instructor/coach will be able to bring it to your level-don't worry about that. If you're getting the recommendation to see him, I'm guessing that your coach knows that this other coach will take people of all levels.

[al320]

Jul 28, 2014 10:46:21 GMT -5 arch01 said:

Jul 28, 2014 10:44:06 GMT -5 al320 said:

Yes, thats it. I feel silly going to someone of this level for very basic instruction.

arch01 yes, i agree with all of that. I just dont know if this level is well above what i need. Im still very new.

Any good instructor/coach will be able to bring it to your level-don't worry about that. If you're getting the recommendation to see him, I'm guessing that your coach knows that this other coach will take people of all levels.

Good point!

[joenali]

What about setting up a semi-private lesson? That can often cut the cost. When I'm able to swim more, my friend and I are going to do semi-private, which if I were to do private it would be $75 an hour, but with a friend it's $35.

I say do it at least once or twice, you could learn a lot in just that amount of time.

[joenali]

Oh and I can also say that swimming without a coach for years and years even though I grew up swimming, I think had a huge play in my injury, because I think I have been doing a few things wrong for so long.

[al320]

Jul 28, 2014 10:55:43 GMT -5 joenali said:

Oh and I can also say that swimming without a coach for years and years even though I grew up swimming, I think had a huge play in my injury, because I think I have been doing a few things wrong for so long.

This is so far the most compelling argument to do it lol

I just feel silly.

And no way would anyone on my team split lessons with me. But i wont go into that. In theory, thats a great idea though, so thank you!

[emilyinchile]

Frankly, I think that often what makes great coaches great is precisely their focus on the basics. I don't think it's silly to ask someone of this level to help you with that stuff. The worst that can happen is he says no!

[al320]

Jul 28, 2014 11:04:01 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

Frankly, I think that often what makes great coaches great is precisely their focus on the basics. I don't think it's silly to ask someone of this level to help you with that stuff. The worst that can happen is he says no!

Or he expects me to more than i do and the whole thing sucks. Thats really my fear.

[emilyinchile]

Jul 28, 2014 11:06:19 GMT -5 al320 said:

Jul 28, 2014 11:04:01 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

Frankly, I think that often what makes great coaches great is precisely their focus on the basics. I don't think it's silly to ask someone of this level to help you with that stuff. The worst that can happen is he says no!

Or he expects me to more than i do and the whole thing sucks. Thats really my fear.

Eh, and if that happens you have a shitty day, and maybe you cry, and then when you've calmed down you realize that actually a coach is supposed to help you and not make you feel bad, so the problem is on him.

[al320]

Jul 28, 2014 11:17:09 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

Jul 28, 2014 11:06:19 GMT -5 al320 said:

Or he expects me to more than i do and the whole thing sucks. Thats really my fear.

Eh, and if that happens you have a shitty day, and maybe you cry, and then when you've calmed down you realize that actually a coach is supposed to help you and not make you feel bad, so the problem is on him.

Ha true. Thanks!