Excuses

First of all no one likes excuses, but they are always there. Coaches hear them all the time. For the most part, I write them off, and just go with the flow. I coach a level where they enter the group with many excuses and I hope that they leave not making the same excuses. My group is a development stage, not just in ability, but in how to be a senior swimmer.

Senior Swimmers though, we still hear the complaints from and the excuses coming. Then they come up with their goals and forget to go over the aspect of goal setting, of what it is going to take to get to that goal.

For a whole season, a coach trains their group and then there are excuses that come up (hey, things come up and things happen). Sometimes a coach hears excuses too many times in the course of season, and they get tired of hearing them. Then when a swimmer doesn't achieve their goal that season, and the coach gives them the excuse (I am going to use that term for sake of comparison, as we don't really consider it an excuse) because you missed so many practices. The normal response, "but I had an excuse for the times I missed." Sorry, but the excuse isn't going to make up for that practice missed. We are talking about physiological development that is planned out for the correct amount of rest to work ratio according the time of the season. An extra day of rest shifts the ratio. Doing some running on your own, when the group is doing speed or anaerobic development isn't going to help out as it isn't the plan for the particular day on the energy zone targeted. Slacking off on a workout and not achieving the right intensity and not working the specific energy zone targeted to be hit for the day can also throw things off. It is a science, and every missed practice adds more to the margin for error. It doesn't mean that you won't have a good season if you miss practice, but you alter the plan thus creating a larger margin for error for what the coach hypothesizes will come out of the work through the season.

The best thing to do begins with the goal setting stage. Establish goals, but also determine what kind of commitment and work ethic will be needed to accomplish the goal. Write it down, and then when the season is up, you need to honestly look at the time and effort put in to see if you met the expectation of the goal that set.