Masters swimming fees and cost of coaching

[Steve]

Found this on uk.sport.swimming (http://groups.google.com/groups?q=uk.sport.swimming&meta=site=groups). It's been there for a while with no repsonse so as I have a vested interest :D thought I'd post it here and see if anyone had any thoughts.

My club is considering hiring a dedicated masters coach (club coach
qualified), however we are deliberating over how to fund this. We
could either look at the whole club funding this, as it frees time
from the Head and Assistant coaches to spend more time with the age
group swimmers or we could take the approach that the Masters Swimmers
have to directly fund 'their' coach.

I was wondering if other Masters swimmers could either post to the
group or direct to me jcochrane@solidworks.com information on:

1) How much pool time you get per week
2) How much coaching time
3) How much this costs

Of course I can summarize this for the group

Regards

John Cochrane
City of Cambridge Swimming Club

[Bazza]

I don't have any thoughts, but I can tell you our masters squad have 8.5 hours a week pool time in the form of four early morning sessions and Saturday and Sunday evening.

No specific coaching but attention from Head and Assistant Coaches who write the sessions.

Not certain of cost but will check if I remember (unlikely!). :)

[GettingFaster]

Monday 6am, Wednesday 7pm, Friday 6am, Friday 9pm. The morning sessions are also open to age group squads but very few come along so we have the whole pool, and we have the whole pool on a Friday evening as well.

We have our own Masters coach who never shouts at us (just persuades us gently to do what we're told) and we don't normally swim in the same lanes as other squads, so we have our own sets. This allows the coach to set sets according the a large range of abilities, from my level of mobile drowning all the way to national record holders (Northern Ireland breaststroke age group D I think, and several Jamaican records).

Think it's £80 per term. It's still a lot more per hour than most of the other squads and at unsocial hours, but as far as I know that's fairly standard practice, and the coaching and camaraderie are excellent. Don't know if all those fees completely cover the cost of the coach and pool time, but it goes a long way towards doing so.

[ktcute]

Wow, a coach that never shouts... surely thats unheard of?

I just shout back ;D.

I don't think we would get on too well with masters being forced to get up, we have gripes about this already. I wouldn't mind funding the cost of a masters coach, but I suspect other might, and as our numbers aren't enormous I wonder how much this might end up costing us? As there seems quite a bit for the existing coaches to take care of, maybe someone who could fill both shoes, and be funded by both camps would be a good idea. Might help resolves some of the conflicts between our two camps as well.

Sorry, know I could have just told you this, but I'm too shy to say anything irl, as you know ;).

[GettingFaster]

No, seriously, he doesn't shout at the Masters (you should see him when he's teaching some of the other squads, he doesn't put up with any nonsense!). Our coach does teach other squads too, forgot to mention that. We have about 30-40 Masters on the books I think, but they don't all swim all sessions, and some swimmers who do Masters meets are actually seniors who swim and train as part of the other squads, so it's hard to be precise.

What are your Masters training times, ktcute? And other wrinklies too.

[Chris]

Our masters swimmers (unless they show exceptional talent like swimclub's very own Bootie) only have about 3.5 hours training available to them - Tuesday, Friday and Saturday early mornings.

Not great really :(

As for the cost ... no idea. I just hope it's not as expensive as the main squad fees. I'd be better giving the swimming club direct access to my bank account ;)

[ktcute]

Masters training:

8pm Tuesday, Thursday, 7.30pm Sunday, all for 1 hour
8pm Monday (invited only)

5.30am Tuesday & Thursday for 1.5 hours
6.00am Friday for 2 hours

[GettingFaster]

Corr! and how much does that set you back, ktcute?

[Steve]

Almost right kt ;)

8pm Tuesday, Thursday, 7.30pm Sunday, all for 1 hour
7pm Monday (invited only)

5.30am Monday, Tuesday & Thursday for 1.5 hours
6.00am Saturday for 2 hours

[Steve]

GF, for costs see: http://www.cocsc.org.uk/Cocsc_membership_information.html

Club A, B and C are the "masters" squads (with a few nippers thrown in for good measure)

[mammamedley]

ok - are you ready for this??????!!!!!

Masters squad training with coach at $7 per session:
Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat morn 5.30-7am
Mon, Wed, Fri 9.30-10.45 with creche available
Mon, Tues, Thurs eve 5.30-6.60

Master Swimming Club 3x per week with coach at one session a week $50 per year!

[super_fish88]

How much are $7 and $50 in £s???

[Linny]

Mammamedley wow! Don't tell me, I bet it's also an outdoor 50m pool with glorious sunshine and gorgeous lifeguards. Oh I think I am going to be sick. :(

[mammamedley]

yep! :)

pool is 50m and heated to 28 but I haven't really noticed the gorgeous, tanned lifeguards - hee hee!!! Needless to say doing alot of swimming right now.

$7 = 2.80
$50 = 20 quid

[ktcute]

Awww... don't. And we wonder why the Aussies swim better?

God the tanned bodies... ow... it would almost be worth putting up with aussies for it ;).

[GettingFaster]

mammamedley, I really hate you! (lol!) And I bet it only costs about 50 cents a race at meets, either that or they pay you to enter. NOW we know why you left leafy Surrey.

Lynn move over, I need that bucket too!

I forgot to mention, there is also an optional land training session in the Spectrum gym an hour before Friday evening training, for a small additional fee (if you don't want to go you don't have to pay). We had 12 or 13 there tonight, which isn't bad for a drinking night! Not much fun doing a whole hour of legs only though, I could hardly walk afterwards.

[londoner62]

At St Ives masters can have,
Saturday 0700-0900
Wednesday 0700-0815
Thursday 0700-0815.

Cost is £10.50 a month regardless of number of sessions you attend.

We don't have our own coach and we use the same workouts as the other squads!

There are rumours afoot that under the 'new' structure we might lose an hour on the Saturday!

[Pete]

Cranleigh has four sessions for Masters. Three are one hour; one session, an hour and a half. It costs £10 a month. I coach two sessions with other sessions based on my schedules or the Chief Coach's.

[KatieBun]

We get 4.5 hours dedicated evening Masters sessions with coach and may also swim 6-7am four days per week. Head coach is available at the morning sessions. I think we're really lucky, .......by GB standards, that is!