YWSF Masters Team Policies and Practice Guidelines

•   Competitive pool temperature for racing is 78 degrees F.  Acceptable workout pool temperatures vary between 75 and 84 degrees F.  Our facility will aerate the pool to acceptable temperatures in the warmer times of the year (to cool it down) and heat the pool to raise pool temperatures during cooler times of the year.

•   Arrive at practice on time. If you are not able to come to practice on time, that’s OK – but don’t expect everyone to conform to your late schedule.  Arrive and conform yourself to whatever is going on in the lane at that time.  Don’t try to “make up” what you have missed.

•   Intervals are more complicated than saying to yourself or your coach, “this is too easy of an interval for me” or “this is too hard for me”.  Take the opportunity to work harder (or just do your best) and results will come.  Too many swimmers get caught up in their intervals being a particular number with a particular rest maximum – intervals should not be understood simplistically.  Few issues trump hard work.  Make something positive of interval situations that you may not find ideal.

•   Negative Self Talk is unhelpful and destructive both to yourself and those around you.  Use positive Self Talk and create a world of possibilities rather than of non-possibilities.  Try Positive Self Talk if you have not already done so – it works!

•   Set goals for yourself to keep yourself invested into coming to workouts regularly.  In short, come to workouts as much as possible and expect results when you have a regular and consistent workout attendance.

•   Many goals require additional instruction outside of swim practice.  It’s hard to expect yourself to change your stroke during workout when your heart rate is higher than what it would be in a swimming lesson.  Consider taking a series of private swimming lessons (or semi-private [where the cost is split between 2 persons]).  By taking lessons, you will become more aware of your stroke and more likely achieve your training or racing goals.  To begin your journey and improve your stroke, please speak with you coach and/or Darian Townsend. 

•   If you are unhappy with how YWSF is running a particular workout or workouts, make an appointment with Coach Debbie to discuss your concerns.

Lane Etiquette

•   Get into a lane you can keep the interval on.  Don’t overshoot and try to “push” yourself when other swimmers in your lane are suffering by your having to be passed an inordinate number of times during workout.

•   Lane hierarchy (who goes first, second, etc.) is effected by many factors.  Adult-like negotiation is a good start (e.g., “I am going to wear a fins and that makes me much faster, may I go ahead of you on these repetitions while I am using fins?”).  Hierarchy is best worked out in the water while swimming.  Pass someone you believe you can stay ahead of.  Don’t pass someone you can’t stay ahead of for the set.  Knowing your general condition level and general swimming ability is a good start to keeping the peace in your lane.

•   Swimmers should leave :05 apart on a given send-off (short course) and either :05 or :10 (long course).  You may leave :10 apart in short course on a speed day or on shorter increments or when you coach says you should do so.

•   You should be submerging about 2 seconds from your send-off, so that when you actually push off the wall, the final practice split for your yardage/meterage increment will be more easily interpreted.

•   Keep track of your splits as appropriate (not during warm-up or warm-down or drills), so you can swim your sets correctly.

•   Gently move to another lane with a more appropriate interval when you are not feeling well and can’t keep up on the interval for the day/set.

•   Because coaches do not know who will show up on a given day, they may assign you to a lane, then move you to another lane for reasons you may not understand immediately.  Refrain from quizzing a coach on your lane assignment.  Ask for time outside of workout to discuss the matter.  

•   Swim on the right side of the lane, not in the middle unless you are passing.  When you pass, be aware and respectful of oncoming swimmers.

•   Communicate with your lane mates.  Before a new interval begins, if you believe you can lead the lane or go up in the swimming queue, then ask if that’s OK.  Chances are the person in front of you will realize you were coming up on them during previous repetitions.

•   For safety reasons, be aware of where other swimmers are in your lane during workout.  Spacing out is not a great reason to crash into another swimmer.

•   In YWSF workouts, it is considered unacceptable to touch a person’s feet to indicate you want to pass.  Instead, just pass the swimmer at an appropriate time and in an appropriate way.

•   If you are being passed, veer right, even if you are approaching a wall!

•   When passing, don’t try to “keep up” with the passing swimmer.  Maintain your speed but don’t race the swimmer who is passing you – let someone coming up on you pass!  Be polite.

•   If you are passing someone, then don’t slow down after you pass – so they in turn have to pass you!  Hold your pace and as appropriate, your place in the lane.

•   Refrain from being a lane leader if you are unable to calculate interval and repetition mathematics.

•   Even if you are not the lane leader, you should be keeping track of the number of repetitions that have taken place at a given point in the set as well as previous and next send-off times.

•   Disagreements in a lane can be unpleasant.  Refrain from trying to resolve conflicts yourself if things are getting out-of-hand.  A coach can and should act as a mediator and final arbitrator in all lane conflicts; however, the coach for the day may not see what has happened or what is happening.  Kindly let the coach for the day know of a tense lane situation while it is happening, if at all possible.

•   Everyone in a given lane should start sets at the same time (of course, :05 [or :10] apart from each other) for regular sets (outside of warm-ups and warm-downs).  If you fall behind and have to skip ahead, that’s OK --  we do the best we can.  As soon as you fall behind as much as a 50 (or 100 in LCM), skip ahead to where everyone else is.  Again, that’s OK :)

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to the coach on deck or the coaches in the Silver Fin office. Darian Townsend - [email protected] or David Laudati - [email protected]