Swim Squad Awards: The “Rest Is Best” Trophy

Another Swim Squad Award – the third in our series.

This award is what I like to call the ‘Rest Is Best’ Trophy!

😴 The ‘Rest Is Best’ Type Swimmer 😴
In almost every session, in almost every lane, there is a swimmer who – although very keen – wants a bit more rest than I generously give them.

Some of the strategies to eek out a bit more rest include:

😴 Using their watch rather than the pace clock to judge interval times or rest periods (so I can’t tell if a few extra seconds have passed).

😴 “Forgetting” how many reps they’ve done and having to have a conversation with their lane mates about it to “double check”.

😴 “We were just talking about swimming” when asked why they haven’t gone yet type swimmer.

😴 Doing absolutely everything they can to avoid eye contact with me or alert me to the fact they’ve finished a set, instead going deep into a conversation about food (usually!).

😴 But my favourite, and I fall for it every time, is the swimmer who asks for detail about a particular technique point completely unrelated to the set they’re doing. “So, how do you do those one-footed, running dives?” is not a question that should be asked or answered in the middle of a threshold set!

For consistency and sheer persistence, and again it was close (with many of Lane 2 in the running for this award), the prize goes to Sallie! 😀