🏊‍♀️ SESSION: How to Beat Swim Session Procrastination with the “Session Roulette”
QUESTION: What’s the best thing about swimming with a coach in a squad or club environment?
Two things probably:
1. The camaraderie and accountability of tackling a challenging session with mates
2. Having the Coach set the program for you so you don’t have to think about it
But what’s the worst thing about swimming with a Master’s group if you’re a triathlete or open water swimmer specifically?
Exactly that:
1. Lack of specificity
Now, don’t get me wrong. This is not a bash of Master’s swimming groups. They’re great, and serve a purpose for Master’s swimmers – namely short, sprint-based events covering all four strokes. I have swum in some brilliant Master’s programs and have some very close friends who are Master’s coaches too, and sometimes this might be all that’s available in your local area.
Just this week I had a lovely lady try our Squad for the first time. I asked her after the session, “how did you find it?” to which she replied, “it was really challenging and fun, but when do we get to do other strokes, sprinting and kick sets”, to which I answered frankly, “you don’t!”
You see, here at Swim Smooth we are comfortable in our skin for what type of swimmers we aim our program at – distance freestylers in the pool and open water essentially. Now, this can cover a HUGE range of ability levels, backgrounds, shapes and sizes, but that’s who we attract and that is who we are, and we make no apologies for that. Personally, I don’t mind a bit of butterfly or backstroke (can’t stand breaststroke, but that’s a different matter!), and whilst I don’t mind kick sets and sprints, I’m pretty rubbish at them. Like my swimmers, I’ve limited time available to enjoy my swimming, so when I hit the pool, distance freestyle (and intervals and technique work aimed to improve that) is what I want to do.
But the question is, how can you keep this varied, fun and specific to your speed and ability level without over-thinking things and having procrastination run wrought if you’re training by yourself?
Well, enter our brand new Swim Smooth GURU feature – we’re calling it “Session Roulette”. Let me explain why we created it and then how you can use it in today's 8 minute video…
