My Approach:
Do it my way, kinda my way, or your own way
I would prefer that you do my practices the way they are written but, everybody has different goals, good and bad days, or injuries that limit what they can do. You know what you want and I want you to be able to get that out of each and every practice and I will do my best to accommodate. If you are going to stray from the coach's practice please let me know so I can adjust lanes accordingly.
Seek me out for help
I want to help everyone become better swimmers but, I don't want to impose anything on them. Some people may have no interest in making stroke changes or sometimes all you want to do is get in and swim and that's fine. Coach Marc and I are here to help so, if you have a question, want us to take a look at something, or need help with a stroke please ask we are more than happy to help.
Things I do:
Drill work
Drills are important for understanding how the strokes should be performed, preventing injury, and creating efficiency. Ultimately, this will allow you to swim faster with less effort and continue on with the sport for as long as you choose injury free.
Stroke & set variety
The body adapts quickly so just swimming freestyle at the same pace over and over again will not yield the same results over time. As a swimmer I always hated going back and forth just freestyle in monotonous sets so, I try to be as creative as possible with my sets while adding in other strokes and paces to keep things interesting and challenging.
One set
I like to write one practice for the whole group with the mindset being that it is easy to gauge your own improvement. For example, if you start the season only being able to get through one round of a set and by mid-season you are able to complete two you know that you have improved.
Things that will stay:
No radical changes
Really not much will change from what Coach Steve has started other than the practice style
Double practices
One of the greatest things about the Lyons Masters team is the camaraderie of the group and I plan to maintain that by continuing with fun social events like double practices.
Things we can do / open discussion:
Swim meets
We will not be able to host a meet this year. We will shoot for three meets this season with one of them being a intersquad/mock meet held at our pool in order to help familiarize swimmers to the process who have never competed in a meet before.
Modified practices
I do like to write one practice for the group as stated before but, I will be writing modified practices so everyone has a full practice they can finish and feel a sense of accomplishment per the request of the group.
Test sets
We will be performing test sets throughout the season in order help swimmers get a better idea of what pace or effort they should be holding during sets, lane placement, and gauging improvement.
Drill lanes
I proposed the idea of taking one or two lanes during practice once a week to work on strokes, turns, and drills for anyone that wanted more specific instruction. It was well received and will be implemented this season.
Posting of workouts
Workouts will be posted on the Lyons Masters blog and should be accompanied by an email. If you do not receive an email please check the blog as workouts will be posted approx. by noon on practice days (Friday nights for Saturday practices)
Dry land
Dry land is very beneficial for masters swimmers to prevent injury and continue improvement in the sport, we are limited with our pool time so this should be done outside of practice time. Anyone interested in a dry land program should contact Lyons Swim Club's new strength & conditioning coach Troy Dequaine. Troy's information can be found under the coaches tab on the Lyons Swim Club website.
Deep end / cross training practices
There was a request for deep end practices that incorporate no traditional swimming and dry land exercises into a circuit format. I will plan on running a deep end practice about once a month, regular practice options will be available in the shallow end as well.
