Remedial Swimming

Nnnngggg!!!!!

Most. Frustrating. Swim. Ever.

Today's lesson was "Lane Swimming" because, according to Paul, we needed it. The sarcasm was lost on some, sadly those were the ones it was aimed at.

Warm up 3 x 200m:
50m free
50m back
25m scull
25m free
25m breast
25m free

10 x 25m w/ fins:
Practice getting out of the way once you're done your length. Seems like a fairly basic concept.

4 x 100m passing drill:
Everyone in the lane swimming on the person in front's toes. First person in line drops as soon as they hit the first flags and let everyone pass then drop in behind (like cycling drafting drill).

One person to drop every 25m

3 x 200m passing drill:
Same as above but one person dropping every 50m.

Cool down 3 x 50m:
25m choice (not free)
25m free dps (distance per stroke)

Despite being repeatedly told not to over the past month in the twice weekly sessions, a number of people continue to do their turn off the wall INTO the oncoming swimmers. A similar number of people, again despite repeated explanation, don't seem to grasp that the toe tap from the person behind you when you're nearing the wall means they would like to pass and that you should let them do so at the wall rather than swim wide and refuse to give up space.

This morning no one can figure out the workout. When we're supposed to be clearing space for the people behind us, everyone just finishes their length, hangs onto the wall and stares blankly. I managed to get one person to move out of the way and she does eventually get it, later on in the swim she even pushes someone so they end up in the right spot (yay! a small victory), but the rest are clueless. On the 200m passing drill the first two people pass on 25m instead of 50m and we only do 150m. In trying to organize things a bit before this I had pointed out the person who would be the last to pass, assuming we all did the drill right, and no one thought to adjust and keep going to do a full 200m. GRRRR!

I am not a patient person, I have developed the small amount of patience I have through a lot of effort and self-control but at 6:30 am when the people who've been screwing up the same things for the past month KEEP DOING IT it's very hard to stay calm. Especially when it's really, really simple stuff like getting out of the way. I tried to hide my frustration but, as a couple of the people in my lane seem openly scared of me, I'm not sure I've been doing so good a job. That said, however, I've decided to give myself triple gold stars for not yelling at anyone or wielding a kickboard in an unapproved fashion.