Great article that I had gotten while working on an internship in Colorado in 2007. With swimmers moving up, schedules getting busier, as well as our upcoming holiday break and change in daily routine I thought this was important.
Training Table in Your Backpack
Have you ever had a day when you skipped lunch, and then felt weak and lightheaded at practice or training? Have you ever run low on energy during a game, long match or competition because there was nothing around that you wanted to eat? While traveling to a competition, have you eaten food that you usually don’t eat and ended up with a stomachache? If you answered yes to any of these, you already know that leaving nutrition to chance can hurt up your performance. Carrying food with you is one solution to these and other common nutrition problems. World-class athletes have long known that a backpack, gym bag or locker can make a great training table.
1. What To Pack
Basically, the food has got to be sturdy, ready to eat, and not need refrigeration. We’re not talking gourmet meals, but with some planning you can get the energy you need to perform your best.
2. Carbohydrate To Go
Carbohydrates provide fuel for your muscles to work long and hard. High carbohydrate foods and beverages, like breads, muffins, crackers, rolls, doughnuts, bagels, candy, chips, cookies, granola bars, pretzels, popcorn, cookies, cereal, soft drinks, juice and so forth are a cinch to pack, and available from most vending machines and convenience shops. Most athletes don’t have a problem getting enough of these foods.
But other carbohydrates, like fruits and vegetables, are sometimes more difficult to get unless you pack them. Fruits and vegetables are full of the vitamins and minerals that help your body recover from training, and help keep you from getting sick. Pack pieces (apples, pears, bananas, oranges, peaches), sealed containers (applesauce, fruit cocktail, peaches, pears, mandarin oranges, pineapple) or bags (grapes, carrots, celery) of fruits and vegetables in your backpack, bag or locker.
That was easy. The biggest stumbling block for most athletes is, what else to pack. After all, athletes cannot live on carbohydrates alone.
3. Packable Protein
Make sure your portable training table contains food rich in protein. Protein helps repair and build your muscles to help you increase your strength when you train hard. Here are some protein-rich foods to pack.
· Peanut butter, on bread or as a dip for carrots or celery
· Canned tuna, chicken, salmon, sardines
· Beef jerky
· Sealed cheese sticks or cheese slices
· Liquid meals in a can or carton, like Boost or Ensure
· Peanuts, walnuts, almonds, cashews, and other nuts
· Sunflower seeds
· High protein sport bars
If you have a tote with an ice pack or access to a refrigerator, you can pack deli meats, yogurt, cottage cheese, hard-boiled eggs, and other refrigerated protein-rich foods. You can get sick from eating meat, dairy products and eggs that have been at room temperature for more than about two hours. It’s not uncommon to eat spoiled food because it doesn’t always have a bad taste or smell. Many a great athlete has had a performance ruined because of food poisoning. This can be avoided by keeping your cold foods cold.
4. Beverages On The Move
Don’t overlook the obvious. Drinking a variety of beverages over the day helps keep you hydrated. Bottled water, sport drinks, juices and soft drinks are easy to carry, but milk can be more difficult to keep close at hand. If you have a tote with an ice pack, round out your beverage choices with white or chocolate milk.
5. What About Days Of Competition
On competition days, the nutrition goals are to eat enough to feel comfortable, and most importantly, to get enough fluid so that you are hydrated. Pack foods that you usually eat, that agree with you, and that you like. Your eating during a day of competition should be routine and predictable, and carrying food with you makes that a no-brainer.
One very important thing about carrying food with you is that you are in control of what and when you eat. For example, during games, long matches, or competitions, many athletes don’t like to eat large precompetition meals, but instead like to graze, eating every few hours. One way to pack for this is to put your day’s worth of food in individual bags and eat one item every hour or two between sets, games, innings, periods, quarters and so forth. For example, you might pack a handful of grapes in one bag. In another bag you might put a cup of cereal; in another, 4 graham crackers; in another, ½ peanut butter sandwich, and so forth.
6. How Much
A common mistake is not packing enough food. If your day is full from dawn til dusk (or later) and you need to carry food for the whole day, forget the little brown bag. In fact, you may need to dedicate an entire backpack or gym bag to food and drinks to make sure you get enough.
7. Take Charge Of Your Eating
When you meet your opponent, you want the advantage. Part of that advantage lies in not leaving your nutrition to chance. Turning your backpack, gym bag or locker into a training table puts you in control.
Prepared by the U.S. Olympic Committee Sports Medicine Division and the International Center for Sports Nutrition. ©2000 U.S. Olympic Ccommittee
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
30th Annual Woodie B Malone Recap
Age Group 3
Lifetime Best Times: M Williams, M Boyer, A Renner, J Shields, C LaMastra, R Viersen, L Spratling, R Bentz, A Reiter, H Robison, M Capozzoli, C Gantt, A Cook, A Bernot, K Yao, G Sherman, M McJilton, I Ariail, C Marwitz, C Perry, N Gonzalez, J Hansen, B Lonial, J Von Bibetstein, J Shuford, R Cetron, J Durmer, C Marwitz, F Bettin, J Hedenquist, T Piper, M Ware, I Velarde, J Hull, E Martin, C Tappero, D DeHaven
New Swims: M Boyer, A Renner, C LaMastra, L Spratling, A Bernot, K Yao, M McJilton, J Hedenquist, J Hull, E Martin, L Adams
USA Swimming Motivational "B" Times: M Boyer, A Renner, J Shields, C LaMastra, M Williams, R Bentz, K Yao, G Sherman, J Hansen, B Lonial, I Velarde, L Spratling, L Adams, J Hedenquist, D DeHaven, M Capozzoli, J Hull
USA Swimming Motivational "BB" Times: L Spratling, A Cook, A Bernot, J Shuford, T Piper, M Boyer, R Cetron, L Adams, R Bentz, I Ariail, C Tappero, K Yao, N Gonzalez, E Martin
Age Group State Cuts:
Allie Ann Reiter - 100 Free, 100 Back
Hannah Robison - 100 Free, 100 IM
Caleb Perry – 100 Free
Nicholas Gonzalez – 100 Free, 50 Back
Courtney Gantt – 50 Fly, 100 Fly
Julia Von Biberstein – 50 Fly, 50 Back, 100 Breast, 100 IM
Foster Bettin – 50 Fly, 100 Fly
Emily Ann Martin – 50 Free, 100 Back, 100 Fly
Teo Piper: 50 Free, 200 IM, 50 Breast
Alissa Cook – 50 Breast
USA Swimming Motivational "A" Times: C Perry, A Reiter
USA Swimming Motivational "AA" Times: C Marwitz, C Perry, J Durmer
Age Group Sectional Cuts:
Carl Marwitz – 100 free, 500 Free
Caleb Perry – 50 back, 100 IM, 100 Back
Jeffrey Durmer – 100 breast
USA Swimming Motivational "AAA" Times: J Durmer
Gold Group
Lifetime Best Swims: L Beem, L Hutson, C Langer, Y Smith , M Johnson, H Burdette-Sapp, D Hall, C Staley, P Wang, S Humphrey, N Rotolo, N Shields, A Voloschin, M Rotolo, P Wang, B Curry, M Schickel, M Fennelly, M Young
New Swims: L Beem, L Hutson, C Langer, Y Smith, N Rotolo, A Voloschin, B Curry
USA Swimming Motivational "B" Times: L Beem, M Johnson, D Hall, C Staley, P Wang, L Hutson, M Fennelly, B Fadjariza-Dumais, M Schickel, N Shields
USA Swimming Motivational "BB" Times: Y Smith, N Shields, B Curry, M Schickel, M Rotolo
Age Group State Cuts:
Lauren Hutson: 100 Breast
Yannick Smith: 50 Free
Brooks Curry: 50 Fly
Green Group
Lifetime Best Times: M Li, K Cheng, I Taboada, J McGuire, H Kopelman, W Dillard, W Wright, G Wheeler, A Elhamahmy, P Biondi, C Chernow, M Ariail, S Bettin, L Cryor, C Ficery, C Hughes, J Hull, A Kohler
New Swims: H Kopelman, W Dillard, G Wheeler, M Ariail, L Cryor, C Hughes, P Biondi, W Dillard, J Hull, A Kohler, J McGuire
Total State Cuts/Goals Age Group 3 -
This Does Not include Swimmers/cuts from this summer that do count towards the short course states as long as they do not age up!
Number of cuts/Group Goal --> 110/130
Number of swimmers with a cut/ group goal --> 18/25
^^^^Getting closer!! ^^^^^
Lifetime Best Times: M Williams, M Boyer, A Renner, J Shields, C LaMastra, R Viersen, L Spratling, R Bentz, A Reiter, H Robison, M Capozzoli, C Gantt, A Cook, A Bernot, K Yao, G Sherman, M McJilton, I Ariail, C Marwitz, C Perry, N Gonzalez, J Hansen, B Lonial, J Von Bibetstein, J Shuford, R Cetron, J Durmer, C Marwitz, F Bettin, J Hedenquist, T Piper, M Ware, I Velarde, J Hull, E Martin, C Tappero, D DeHaven
New Swims: M Boyer, A Renner, C LaMastra, L Spratling, A Bernot, K Yao, M McJilton, J Hedenquist, J Hull, E Martin, L Adams
USA Swimming Motivational "B" Times: M Boyer, A Renner, J Shields, C LaMastra, M Williams, R Bentz, K Yao, G Sherman, J Hansen, B Lonial, I Velarde, L Spratling, L Adams, J Hedenquist, D DeHaven, M Capozzoli, J Hull
USA Swimming Motivational "BB" Times: L Spratling, A Cook, A Bernot, J Shuford, T Piper, M Boyer, R Cetron, L Adams, R Bentz, I Ariail, C Tappero, K Yao, N Gonzalez, E Martin
Age Group State Cuts:
Allie Ann Reiter - 100 Free, 100 Back
Hannah Robison - 100 Free, 100 IM
Caleb Perry – 100 Free
Nicholas Gonzalez – 100 Free, 50 Back
Courtney Gantt – 50 Fly, 100 Fly
Julia Von Biberstein – 50 Fly, 50 Back, 100 Breast, 100 IM
Foster Bettin – 50 Fly, 100 Fly
Emily Ann Martin – 50 Free, 100 Back, 100 Fly
Teo Piper: 50 Free, 200 IM, 50 Breast
Alissa Cook – 50 Breast
USA Swimming Motivational "A" Times: C Perry, A Reiter
USA Swimming Motivational "AA" Times: C Marwitz, C Perry, J Durmer
Age Group Sectional Cuts:
Carl Marwitz – 100 free, 500 Free
Caleb Perry – 50 back, 100 IM, 100 Back
Jeffrey Durmer – 100 breast
USA Swimming Motivational "AAA" Times: J Durmer
Gold Group
Lifetime Best Swims: L Beem, L Hutson, C Langer, Y Smith , M Johnson, H Burdette-Sapp, D Hall, C Staley, P Wang, S Humphrey, N Rotolo, N Shields, A Voloschin, M Rotolo, P Wang, B Curry, M Schickel, M Fennelly, M Young
New Swims: L Beem, L Hutson, C Langer, Y Smith, N Rotolo, A Voloschin, B Curry
USA Swimming Motivational "B" Times: L Beem, M Johnson, D Hall, C Staley, P Wang, L Hutson, M Fennelly, B Fadjariza-Dumais, M Schickel, N Shields
USA Swimming Motivational "BB" Times: Y Smith, N Shields, B Curry, M Schickel, M Rotolo
Age Group State Cuts:
Lauren Hutson: 100 Breast
Yannick Smith: 50 Free
Brooks Curry: 50 Fly
Green Group
Lifetime Best Times: M Li, K Cheng, I Taboada, J McGuire, H Kopelman, W Dillard, W Wright, G Wheeler, A Elhamahmy, P Biondi, C Chernow, M Ariail, S Bettin, L Cryor, C Ficery, C Hughes, J Hull, A Kohler
New Swims: H Kopelman, W Dillard, G Wheeler, M Ariail, L Cryor, C Hughes, P Biondi, W Dillard, J Hull, A Kohler, J McGuire
Total State Cuts/Goals Age Group 3 -
This Does Not include Swimmers/cuts from this summer that do count towards the short course states as long as they do not age up!
Number of cuts/Group Goal --> 110/130
Number of swimmers with a cut/ group goal --> 18/25
^^^^Getting closer!! ^^^^^
A Letter To Swim Parents Pt 5 - Problems, Potential, and Kinetic
The final part of a series of articles written by Michael Brooks from NBAC.
PROBLEMS, POTENTIAL AND KINETIC
UNEQUAL Justice for all? Sometimes parents ask, “Why don’t you treat the kids equally, with one standard for all?” For the same reason that most parents don’t treat their own children exactly the same: because kids have different capabilities, personalities, and motivations, and what works for one child doesn’t work for all.
MEDDLING isn’t coaching. A lot of coaches, especially younger ones, will “overcoach” as a rule, especially at meets. “Overcoaches” are in the kids’ faces all the time, giving them twenty thousand instructions before they race, timing them incessantly during the warm-ups of a championship meet, controlling every little thing. Many parents are impressed by this show of active coaching. However, overcoaching is destructive, at practice and at meets. At practice, swimmers need instruction -- that is agreed. But they also need to be allowed to try things, to find out what works and what doesn’t, to watch other swimmers, with perhaps a few leading questions from the coach. You don’t teach an infant how to walk; he watches you, he tries it, he falls, he falls again and again, and in no time he is charging around the house making mischief. And when you get to a meet, the general rule should be, the less said the better. In a stressful environment, the more information you try to force into a kid’s head at the last minute, the more likely you are to jam his circuits entirely (similar to “cramming” for an exam in school). He will head to the blocks not knowing which way is up. If a coach has been doing the job in practice, the swimmer will know how to swim his race before he gets to the meet. A couple of cues or reminders, and only a couple, and the swimmer can hop on the blocks without his mind cluttered by overcoaching.
TALK to the coach. Communicate your concerns about the program or your child’s progress within it with the coach, not with your child. Never complain about a coach to a child. The last thing a ten year-old needs is to be caught in the middle between two adult authority figures. Further, when you have a problem or concern, please do not head to other parents to complain, head to the coach to discuss. There is nothing guaranteed to destroy a program faster, and to send good (even great) coaches running for the door quicker, than a group of parents sitting together every day in the stands comparing notes about the things they don’t like.
DON’T try to be a swimming expert. With the internet rage, the amount of really bad information available at the click of a mouse is overwhelming. And not being a coach, not being immersed in the sport twenty-four hours a day, not having much historical perspective on technique and training, and generally not knowing where the website you just stumbled onto fits in the jigsaw puzzle of the sport, you are in no position to judge what you find critically.
THERE are no “age group parents” and “senior parents.” There are only swimming parents. Once a portion of the team’s parents begins to think of itself as having a different interest from that of the group as a whole, the team has begun to rip itself apart. The rose bud is not distinct from the rose in full flowering; they are the same things at different stages of development, with identical interests.
KEEP me in the loop. It happens quite frequently that I cannot understand why a swimmer is responding to the training as he is. It seems to make no sense, if we assume that the only variables are the ones that I am in control of in training. Why is he so tired? Why is he so inconsistent? It is easy to forget that everything happening in the swimmer’s life during the twenty-one hours a day when he is away from the pool affects his swimming as much or more than the three hours of training when I am ostensibly in charge. Let me know if there are problems at home or at school that will affect your swimmer’s training and racing performance. You don’t need to give me all the details, but in order to coach your swimmer individually, I have to know what is happening individually.
PROBLEMS, POTENTIAL AND KINETIC
UNEQUAL Justice for all? Sometimes parents ask, “Why don’t you treat the kids equally, with one standard for all?” For the same reason that most parents don’t treat their own children exactly the same: because kids have different capabilities, personalities, and motivations, and what works for one child doesn’t work for all.
MEDDLING isn’t coaching. A lot of coaches, especially younger ones, will “overcoach” as a rule, especially at meets. “Overcoaches” are in the kids’ faces all the time, giving them twenty thousand instructions before they race, timing them incessantly during the warm-ups of a championship meet, controlling every little thing. Many parents are impressed by this show of active coaching. However, overcoaching is destructive, at practice and at meets. At practice, swimmers need instruction -- that is agreed. But they also need to be allowed to try things, to find out what works and what doesn’t, to watch other swimmers, with perhaps a few leading questions from the coach. You don’t teach an infant how to walk; he watches you, he tries it, he falls, he falls again and again, and in no time he is charging around the house making mischief. And when you get to a meet, the general rule should be, the less said the better. In a stressful environment, the more information you try to force into a kid’s head at the last minute, the more likely you are to jam his circuits entirely (similar to “cramming” for an exam in school). He will head to the blocks not knowing which way is up. If a coach has been doing the job in practice, the swimmer will know how to swim his race before he gets to the meet. A couple of cues or reminders, and only a couple, and the swimmer can hop on the blocks without his mind cluttered by overcoaching.
TALK to the coach. Communicate your concerns about the program or your child’s progress within it with the coach, not with your child. Never complain about a coach to a child. The last thing a ten year-old needs is to be caught in the middle between two adult authority figures. Further, when you have a problem or concern, please do not head to other parents to complain, head to the coach to discuss. There is nothing guaranteed to destroy a program faster, and to send good (even great) coaches running for the door quicker, than a group of parents sitting together every day in the stands comparing notes about the things they don’t like.
DON’T try to be a swimming expert. With the internet rage, the amount of really bad information available at the click of a mouse is overwhelming. And not being a coach, not being immersed in the sport twenty-four hours a day, not having much historical perspective on technique and training, and generally not knowing where the website you just stumbled onto fits in the jigsaw puzzle of the sport, you are in no position to judge what you find critically.
THERE are no “age group parents” and “senior parents.” There are only swimming parents. Once a portion of the team’s parents begins to think of itself as having a different interest from that of the group as a whole, the team has begun to rip itself apart. The rose bud is not distinct from the rose in full flowering; they are the same things at different stages of development, with identical interests.
KEEP me in the loop. It happens quite frequently that I cannot understand why a swimmer is responding to the training as he is. It seems to make no sense, if we assume that the only variables are the ones that I am in control of in training. Why is he so tired? Why is he so inconsistent? It is easy to forget that everything happening in the swimmer’s life during the twenty-one hours a day when he is away from the pool affects his swimming as much or more than the three hours of training when I am ostensibly in charge. Let me know if there are problems at home or at school that will affect your swimmer’s training and racing performance. You don’t need to give me all the details, but in order to coach your swimmer individually, I have to know what is happening individually.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
November Sunday Special Recap
A little delayed, I appologize. There were almost 70 swimmers between the three groups there - which made for some exciting swimming. Out of all 3 groups, there were only 7 DQs! I mention this because that is a low number compared to the number of splashes the swimmers had. Everyone's attention to detail and doing things right in practice is being seen in the meets.
Now on to the stats! Again remember there were a lot of swims to be looked at, if I missed your swimmer on something - please let me know so they may receive the correct acknowledgement!
Green
New Swims: A Altera, C Hughes, C Ficery, K Cheng, I Taboada, S Bettin, P Biondi, C Bell, J Purdy, A Elhamahmy, M Li, C Chernow, G Wheeler
Lifetime Best Swims: S Bettin, A Altera, C Hughes, C Ficery, I Taboada, K Cheng, P Biondi, C Bell, J Purdy, A Elhamahmy, M Li, W Wright, C Chernow, G Wheeler
Gold
New Swims: N Rotolo, C Horlock, H Burdette-Sapp, L Sun, A Warncke, C Langer, M Lee, M Johnson, A Cartwright, C O’Kelley, J Grobety, Y Smith, M Rotolo, B Fadjariza-Dumais, K Chen, M Young, N Shields
Lifetime Best Swims: C Horlock, M Johnson, H Burdette-Sapp, N Rotolo, L Sun, L Hutson, A Warncke, C Langer, C O’Kelley, M Lee, S Humphrey, A Cartwright, K Chen, M Young, Y Smith, T Courtney, J Grobety, N Shields, M Rotolo, B Fadjariza-Dumais, P Johnson,
USA Swimming Motivational “B” Times: M Johnson, C Horlock, L Sun, L Hutson, S Humphrey, M Lee, K Chen, Y Smith, N Shields, M Rotolo, B Fadjariza-Dumais
USA Swimming Motivational “BB” Times: L Hutson, L Sun
Georgia Age Group State Cuts:
Lauren Hutson – 50 Breast
AG3
New Swims: A Bernot, L Spratling, M Capozzoli, C Gantt, A Renner, H Robison, A Reiter, J Shuford, K McGrady, C Tappero, L Adams, G Sherman, R Bentz, I Ariail, R Cetron, M Boyer, J Hedenquist, C LaMastra, M Ware, N Gonzalez, F Bettin, M Chen, B Lonial,
Lifetime Best Swims: C Gantt, G Sherman, J Shuford, R Bentz, H Robison, A Bernot, I Velarde, L Spratling, A Reiter, M Capozzoli, A Renner, L Adams, I Ariail, C Tappero, R Cetron, K McGrady, N Bent, F Bettin, J McGuire, C Perry, M Boyer, W Horlock, JR Hull, C Marwitz, J Hedenquist, T Piper, C LaMastra, M Chen, M Ware, N Gonzalez, J Shields, B Lonial,
USA Swimming Motivational “B” Times: A Bernot, M Capozzoli, A Renner, L Adams, I Velarde, R Bentz, G Sherman, L Spratling, J Shuford, K McGrady, W Horlock, F Bettin, B Lonial, JR Hull, J Hedenquist, C LaMastra
USA Swimming Motivational “BB” Times: G Sherman, R Bentz, I Velarde, A Bernot, C Gantt, H Robison, A Reiter, L Adams, I Ariail, J Shuford, R Cetron, M Boyer, T Piper, C Perry, N Gonzalez
Georgia Age Group State Cuts:
Courtney Gantt – 50 Back
Allie Ann Reiter – 50 Free
Julia Shuford – 100 Breast
Hannah Robison – 200 IM
Caleb Perry – 200 Free
Nicholas Gonzalez – 500 Free, 200 IM
Teo Piper – 100 Fly
USA Swimming Motivational “A” Times: C Gantt, L Spratling, A Reiter
USA Swimming Motivational “AA” Times: J McGuire, C Perry
Age Group Sectional Cuts:
James McGuire – 200 IM
Caleb Perry – 200 IM
Now on to the stats! Again remember there were a lot of swims to be looked at, if I missed your swimmer on something - please let me know so they may receive the correct acknowledgement!
Green
New Swims: A Altera, C Hughes, C Ficery, K Cheng, I Taboada, S Bettin, P Biondi, C Bell, J Purdy, A Elhamahmy, M Li, C Chernow, G Wheeler
Lifetime Best Swims: S Bettin, A Altera, C Hughes, C Ficery, I Taboada, K Cheng, P Biondi, C Bell, J Purdy, A Elhamahmy, M Li, W Wright, C Chernow, G Wheeler
Gold
New Swims: N Rotolo, C Horlock, H Burdette-Sapp, L Sun, A Warncke, C Langer, M Lee, M Johnson, A Cartwright, C O’Kelley, J Grobety, Y Smith, M Rotolo, B Fadjariza-Dumais, K Chen, M Young, N Shields
Lifetime Best Swims: C Horlock, M Johnson, H Burdette-Sapp, N Rotolo, L Sun, L Hutson, A Warncke, C Langer, C O’Kelley, M Lee, S Humphrey, A Cartwright, K Chen, M Young, Y Smith, T Courtney, J Grobety, N Shields, M Rotolo, B Fadjariza-Dumais, P Johnson,
USA Swimming Motivational “B” Times: M Johnson, C Horlock, L Sun, L Hutson, S Humphrey, M Lee, K Chen, Y Smith, N Shields, M Rotolo, B Fadjariza-Dumais
USA Swimming Motivational “BB” Times: L Hutson, L Sun
Georgia Age Group State Cuts:
Lauren Hutson – 50 Breast
AG3
New Swims: A Bernot, L Spratling, M Capozzoli, C Gantt, A Renner, H Robison, A Reiter, J Shuford, K McGrady, C Tappero, L Adams, G Sherman, R Bentz, I Ariail, R Cetron, M Boyer, J Hedenquist, C LaMastra, M Ware, N Gonzalez, F Bettin, M Chen, B Lonial,
Lifetime Best Swims: C Gantt, G Sherman, J Shuford, R Bentz, H Robison, A Bernot, I Velarde, L Spratling, A Reiter, M Capozzoli, A Renner, L Adams, I Ariail, C Tappero, R Cetron, K McGrady, N Bent, F Bettin, J McGuire, C Perry, M Boyer, W Horlock, JR Hull, C Marwitz, J Hedenquist, T Piper, C LaMastra, M Chen, M Ware, N Gonzalez, J Shields, B Lonial,
USA Swimming Motivational “B” Times: A Bernot, M Capozzoli, A Renner, L Adams, I Velarde, R Bentz, G Sherman, L Spratling, J Shuford, K McGrady, W Horlock, F Bettin, B Lonial, JR Hull, J Hedenquist, C LaMastra
USA Swimming Motivational “BB” Times: G Sherman, R Bentz, I Velarde, A Bernot, C Gantt, H Robison, A Reiter, L Adams, I Ariail, J Shuford, R Cetron, M Boyer, T Piper, C Perry, N Gonzalez
Georgia Age Group State Cuts:
Courtney Gantt – 50 Back
Allie Ann Reiter – 50 Free
Julia Shuford – 100 Breast
Hannah Robison – 200 IM
Caleb Perry – 200 Free
Nicholas Gonzalez – 500 Free, 200 IM
Teo Piper – 100 Fly
USA Swimming Motivational “A” Times: C Gantt, L Spratling, A Reiter
USA Swimming Motivational “AA” Times: J McGuire, C Perry
Age Group Sectional Cuts:
James McGuire – 200 IM
Caleb Perry – 200 IM
Sunday, November 22, 2009
A Letter To Swim Parents Pt 4 - Support Not Pressure
A great series of articles written by Michael Brooks from NBAC.
SUPPORT, NOT PRESSURE
THE Rock of Gibraltar. As they succeed then fail then succeed again, kids will ride emotional roller-coasters. One of your most important functions as a swimming parent is to provide emotional support during the tough times, of which there will be many. Let them know that they are still loved, no matter how poorly they think they swam. And don’t let them get cocky when they win.
DON’T coach your kids. If the swimmer is hearing one story from his coach and another from his parent, we have one confused swimmer. A swimmer must have trust in his coach and in the program, and he will not if his parents are implicitly telling him that they know best. If you have concerns about the coaching or the coaching advice, talk to the coach directly. If in the end you feel that you cannot support the coach or the program, your best course is to find a team whose coach you trust. Your swimmer has a coach; she needs you to be a parent.
THE next Ian Thorpe?? No matter how good your swimmer seems to be as a ten year old, don’t get your hopes too high. Don’t expect an Olympian (you are allowed to hope for an Olympian), and don’t judge his every move (or swim) by Olympian standards. In order to make it to the Olympics so many things over such a comparatively long time have to go right, so many decisions have to be made “correctly” (and can only be seen to be correct with hindsight), and so much plain good luck is required, that the odds are heavy against it. Further, many kids are physically talented, but few have the mental talent: the poise, drive, and persistence to develop the gifts they are given. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. As psychologist Howard Gruber, who has made a life-work out of studying great achievers, has argued, the difference between the very good and the truly great isn’t talent but much harder and consistent work.
IN praise of famous kids? Don’t puff up a 10-year old, or we will end up with a monster on our hands. Don’t get too impressed, don’t praise too highly – leave room for when they get a lot better. No matter how fast a child swims, it is still a child swimming, and the level of accomplishment is very low compared to how high she will reach five or ten years from now. Don’t treat him like a superstar, because the more you treat him like a superstar, the less likely he will become one. Pampered kids aren’t tough. Similarly, be careful not to brag about your swimmer to other parents. No one likes to hear continuous talk about someone else’s kid, and if your swimmer is really good, it will be apparent to everyone without your having to tell them. Dale Carnegie said, “Talk about them, not about me.” Translate this into: “Talk about their swimmer, not about mine.”
EVERY Soviet victory a victory for Soviet socialist ideology? How your child swam in the 50 fly ten minutes ago is no reflection of your value as a person or as a parent. A first place ribbon does not validate your parenting techniques, or the quality of your genes. Alternately, a slow swim should not bring into question a family’s commitment, financial and otherwise, to a child’s swimming. Swimming is hard enough for a child without having to carry around her parents’ self-esteem on her shoulders when she races. Also remember that what goes around comes around. The better you allow yourself to feel about a victory now, the worse a loss will feel next meet, or the next event.
SUPPORT, NOT PRESSURE
THE Rock of Gibraltar. As they succeed then fail then succeed again, kids will ride emotional roller-coasters. One of your most important functions as a swimming parent is to provide emotional support during the tough times, of which there will be many. Let them know that they are still loved, no matter how poorly they think they swam. And don’t let them get cocky when they win.
DON’T coach your kids. If the swimmer is hearing one story from his coach and another from his parent, we have one confused swimmer. A swimmer must have trust in his coach and in the program, and he will not if his parents are implicitly telling him that they know best. If you have concerns about the coaching or the coaching advice, talk to the coach directly. If in the end you feel that you cannot support the coach or the program, your best course is to find a team whose coach you trust. Your swimmer has a coach; she needs you to be a parent.
THE next Ian Thorpe?? No matter how good your swimmer seems to be as a ten year old, don’t get your hopes too high. Don’t expect an Olympian (you are allowed to hope for an Olympian), and don’t judge his every move (or swim) by Olympian standards. In order to make it to the Olympics so many things over such a comparatively long time have to go right, so many decisions have to be made “correctly” (and can only be seen to be correct with hindsight), and so much plain good luck is required, that the odds are heavy against it. Further, many kids are physically talented, but few have the mental talent: the poise, drive, and persistence to develop the gifts they are given. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. As psychologist Howard Gruber, who has made a life-work out of studying great achievers, has argued, the difference between the very good and the truly great isn’t talent but much harder and consistent work.
IN praise of famous kids? Don’t puff up a 10-year old, or we will end up with a monster on our hands. Don’t get too impressed, don’t praise too highly – leave room for when they get a lot better. No matter how fast a child swims, it is still a child swimming, and the level of accomplishment is very low compared to how high she will reach five or ten years from now. Don’t treat him like a superstar, because the more you treat him like a superstar, the less likely he will become one. Pampered kids aren’t tough. Similarly, be careful not to brag about your swimmer to other parents. No one likes to hear continuous talk about someone else’s kid, and if your swimmer is really good, it will be apparent to everyone without your having to tell them. Dale Carnegie said, “Talk about them, not about me.” Translate this into: “Talk about their swimmer, not about mine.”
EVERY Soviet victory a victory for Soviet socialist ideology? How your child swam in the 50 fly ten minutes ago is no reflection of your value as a person or as a parent. A first place ribbon does not validate your parenting techniques, or the quality of your genes. Alternately, a slow swim should not bring into question a family’s commitment, financial and otherwise, to a child’s swimming. Swimming is hard enough for a child without having to carry around her parents’ self-esteem on her shoulders when she races. Also remember that what goes around comes around. The better you allow yourself to feel about a victory now, the worse a loss will feel next meet, or the next event.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Water VS Sports Drinks
This week I picked a good article from USA Swimming on Water vs Sports Drinks (http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/ViewMiscArticle.aspx?TabId=1302&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&mid=635&ItemId=553).
I have always been taught that the average person loses about 8oz every 15-20 minutes of workout, and so every 15-20 minutes an athlete should take 2 gulps of water which is about 8oz. Swimmers should come prepared with water bottles already filled and can keep them by their lanes. It is also important to make sure they are getting water from other sources too throughout the day (fruits and vegetables for example). Eddie Reese at the University of Texas allows his kids to drink things like pop (yes I said pop), however for every drink they have that is not water they have to have the same amount in water that day also. So just a few tips on staying hydrated and help avoid cramping and dehydration in the pool and after practice!
I have always been taught that the average person loses about 8oz every 15-20 minutes of workout, and so every 15-20 minutes an athlete should take 2 gulps of water which is about 8oz. Swimmers should come prepared with water bottles already filled and can keep them by their lanes. It is also important to make sure they are getting water from other sources too throughout the day (fruits and vegetables for example). Eddie Reese at the University of Texas allows his kids to drink things like pop (yes I said pop), however for every drink they have that is not water they have to have the same amount in water that day also. So just a few tips on staying hydrated and help avoid cramping and dehydration in the pool and after practice!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
About the Saturday Special
Green Group:
Lifetime Best Time(s): R Jatar, J Purdy, J McGuire, C Chernow, G Wheeler, W Wright, A Elhamahmy, W Dillard, K Cheng, A Reid-Martin, C Ng, C Hughes
First Time Swim(s): R Jatar, J Purdy, C Chernow, A Elhamahmy, W Dillard, K Cheng, A Reid-Martin, C Ng, C Hughes
Gold Group:
Lifetime Best Swim(s): N Shields, B Fadjariza-Dumais, M Young, M Dillard, M Rotolo, C Staley, D Hall, Y Smith, M Johnson, S Humphrey, N Rotolo, B Brownell, M Fennelly
First Time Swim(s): M Rotolo, M Young, D Hall, Y Smith, C Staley, N Rotolo, B Brownell, M Fennelly
USA Swimming "B" Time Standard(s): M Young, N Shields, B Fadjariza-Dumais, D Hall, Y Smith, D Hall, M Rotolo, M Johnson
USA Swimming "BB" Time Standard(s): B Fadjariza-Dumais, N Shields, Y Smith
Age Group 3
Lifetime Best Swim(s): JR Hull, C LaMastra, J Shields, J McGuire, C Marwitz, C Perry, M Swett, N Bent, R Viersen, G Sherman, K Yao, H Robison, R Bentz, T Lauterbach, C Gantt, J von Biberstein, I Ariail, L Adams, M Williams, C Tappero, K McGrady, M McJilton
First Time Swim(s): C LaMastra, J Shields, N Bent, R Viersen, H Robison, N Bent, K Yao, R Bentz, T Lauterbach, M Williams
USA Swimming "B" Time Standard(s): JR Hull, J Shields, K Yao, J von Biberstein, T Lauterbach, K McGrady, L Adams, C Tappero
USA Swimming "BB" Time Standard(s): C Perry, H Robison, R Bentz, J von Biberstein, C Gantt, C Tappero, G Sherman
New Age Group State Cut(s):
Caleb Perry – 100 Breast, 100 Fly, 100 Back, 500 Free
Matthew Swett - 100 Back
Hannah Robison – 100 Fly, 100 Back
Raleigh Bentz – 100 Fly, 100 Breast, 100 Back
USA Swimming "A" Time Standard(s): J McGuire, C Marwitz, C Perry
Age Group Sectional Cut(s):
James McGuire – 100 Breast
Caleb Perry – 100 Fly
USA Swimming "AA" Time Standard: C Perry
Wes – DQ 50 Breast – started free
Alex E – DQ 50 Breast - kick
Kaleigh Mc- 200 IM – back/back/back
C Tappero – 100 fly – simultaneous arms (last 25 tired)
N Rotolo – 50 Breast – 1 hand touch
N Bent – 100 back – turn non simultaneous, 200 Free???
Total DQs all three groups - 5 - lowest number in any meet!
Total State Cuts/Goals Age Group 3 - This Does Not include Swimmers/cuts from this summer that do count towards the short course states as long as they do not age up!
Number of cuts/Group Goal --> 76/130
Number of swimmers with a cut/ group goal --> 14/25
Lifetime Best Time(s): R Jatar, J Purdy, J McGuire, C Chernow, G Wheeler, W Wright, A Elhamahmy, W Dillard, K Cheng, A Reid-Martin, C Ng, C Hughes
First Time Swim(s): R Jatar, J Purdy, C Chernow, A Elhamahmy, W Dillard, K Cheng, A Reid-Martin, C Ng, C Hughes
Gold Group:
Lifetime Best Swim(s): N Shields, B Fadjariza-Dumais, M Young, M Dillard, M Rotolo, C Staley, D Hall, Y Smith, M Johnson, S Humphrey, N Rotolo, B Brownell, M Fennelly
First Time Swim(s): M Rotolo, M Young, D Hall, Y Smith, C Staley, N Rotolo, B Brownell, M Fennelly
USA Swimming "B" Time Standard(s): M Young, N Shields, B Fadjariza-Dumais, D Hall, Y Smith, D Hall, M Rotolo, M Johnson
USA Swimming "BB" Time Standard(s): B Fadjariza-Dumais, N Shields, Y Smith
Age Group 3
Lifetime Best Swim(s): JR Hull, C LaMastra, J Shields, J McGuire, C Marwitz, C Perry, M Swett, N Bent, R Viersen, G Sherman, K Yao, H Robison, R Bentz, T Lauterbach, C Gantt, J von Biberstein, I Ariail, L Adams, M Williams, C Tappero, K McGrady, M McJilton
First Time Swim(s): C LaMastra, J Shields, N Bent, R Viersen, H Robison, N Bent, K Yao, R Bentz, T Lauterbach, M Williams
USA Swimming "B" Time Standard(s): JR Hull, J Shields, K Yao, J von Biberstein, T Lauterbach, K McGrady, L Adams, C Tappero
USA Swimming "BB" Time Standard(s): C Perry, H Robison, R Bentz, J von Biberstein, C Gantt, C Tappero, G Sherman
New Age Group State Cut(s):
Caleb Perry – 100 Breast, 100 Fly, 100 Back, 500 Free
Matthew Swett - 100 Back
Hannah Robison – 100 Fly, 100 Back
Raleigh Bentz – 100 Fly, 100 Breast, 100 Back
USA Swimming "A" Time Standard(s): J McGuire, C Marwitz, C Perry
Age Group Sectional Cut(s):
James McGuire – 100 Breast
Caleb Perry – 100 Fly
USA Swimming "AA" Time Standard: C Perry
Wes – DQ 50 Breast – started free
Alex E – DQ 50 Breast - kick
Kaleigh Mc- 200 IM – back/back/back
C Tappero – 100 fly – simultaneous arms (last 25 tired)
N Rotolo – 50 Breast – 1 hand touch
N Bent – 100 back – turn non simultaneous, 200 Free???
Total DQs all three groups - 5 - lowest number in any meet!
Total State Cuts/Goals Age Group 3 - This Does Not include Swimmers/cuts from this summer that do count towards the short course states as long as they do not age up!
Number of cuts/Group Goal --> 76/130
Number of swimmers with a cut/ group goal --> 14/25
Parent and Coach...The Other Stuff
I found this article from USA Swimming to be interesting. One of the most important relationships to help you swimmer is the one between coach and parent. There needs to be communication, patience, and some understanding. Any coach you will encounter, including myself, wants the same thing you do - what is best for your swimmer. Remember that emergencies and the big stuff - please call me. If you have random questions (what time does the meet start, what time is practice) or even the general how is my swimmer doing in practice - then e-mail me. Please trust that I will get back to you as soon as I can, I try not to let more than a day or two to go by on things that may require more thought - but your swimmer is important to me and so are you.
Parent and Coach...The Other Stuff
Coaching is about more than athletes, practices, and competition. As Mike Krzyzewski, Duke's hugely successful basketball coach said, it's also about "the other stuff." For coaches of club teams, that means parents.
By Tom Slear, Splash Magazine special correspondent
“All that craziness,” is how Monica Teuscher describes the rituals of other parents who nervously follow their children’s swimming development. Teuscher, mother of Cristina, a 1996 and 2000 Olympian, never owned a stopwatch and rarely bought a meet program. She didn’t track her daughter’s times, yell during her races, or seek out her coach after practices for private chats. During swim meets, she went off by herself to read or knit, only to be amused when other parents gave her a rundown on Cristina's swims, complete with split times.
"I thought it was important that I was there, but for support, not for coaching or to add pressure," Teuscher explains. "My job was to take my daughters (older daughter Carolina also swam) out for a good meal after they raced. The last thing we talked about was swimming."
Most coaches would agree that the best team to coach is one filled with parents such as Teuscher, who recognize the line between parenting and coaching and avoid it as if it were radioactive. They somehow manage to counterbalance their staunch support with a refreshing cluelessness.
Years ago Debbie Phelps, mother of Michael, the world record-holder in the 200-meter butterfly, relocated the family so that her children would be closer to North Baltimore Aquatic Club’s practice facility. Yet when asked about Michael’s world record time, she can do no better than to say, “I’m not sure – 1:50 something?” (Actually, 1:54.58)
"The swimmers I've had who have had the most success were unencumbered by parents calling the shots behind the scenes," says John Collins, who has coached Olympians Rick Carey and Lea Loveless as well as Cristina Teuscher at the Badger Swim Club in Larchmont, N.Y. "These parents are very good about backing up their kids, but they are hands off when it comes to swimming business."
The Growing Intrusion of Parents
Most coaches will tell you that Teuscher and Phelps are hardly exceptions. The overwhelming majority of parents instinctively, or with gentle guidance, find their place in the background. A few, however, can’t resist meddling, such as the mother who wrote Collins a five- or six-page letter every week for a year and a half. Rare is the swim coach who doesn’t have a similar story to tell.
"So many," says Chuck Warner, the head coach at Rutgers University who coached club teams for years before entering the college ranks. "All filed away in a painful spot."
The effect of such parents is all out of proportion to their numbers. A survey by Dan Doyle, which will be published in his forthcoming book, The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting, found that high school coaches across different sports are convinced that the biggest change in their profession over the last 15 years has been the growing intrusion of parents.
"No other factor they mentioned even came close," says Doyle, the executive director of the Institute for International Sport.
The top issues raised when the development coordinators for USA Swimming solicit opinions from club coaches are "parent education" and "club governance," euphemisms for the difficulty of dealing with parents, whether individually or as members of the club's board of directors. (The coach-board relationship will be covered in a future issue of Splash.)
An Oasis
But a bit of perspective is in order here. While all coaches labor to properly shape the parent-athlete-coach triangle, some suffer more than others. Rick Wolff, chairman of the Center for Sports Parenting (www.internationalsport.com/csp), calls swimming "an oasis."
Coaches of team sports have only subjective means to evaluate talent. Even at its best, the process is imprecise and open to question. How does a coach fix with any certainty which offensive lineman blocks better, or which outfielder offers the best combination of hitting and fielding?
Yet these judgements determine playing time, which is at the root of nearly all parental complaints. Coaches are forced to defend themselves armed with nothing stronger than an arbitrary standard. Who’s to say a guard with a deft shooting touch should play more than a tenacious defender?
With swimming the only standard is time, so performance is entirely quantifiable, measured precisely by a stopwatch. And playing time is rarely an issue. The only barrier to entry at most age-group meets is the entry fee. Everyone who wants to swim can compete.
“When you compare what coaches of team sports have to put up with when they make decisions about who makes the team and who plays, coaches of individual sports like swimming and track are not even in deep water as far as their problems with parents,” says Doyle. “They are barely in three feet of water.”
Swimming's preciseness, however, comes with a price. In sports such as soccer and basketball, parents can judge their children’s potential only against the players they compete against, which typically stretches no farther than adjacent counties. Not until the last two or three years of high school do they step onto a stage that provides statewide or national exposure.
Swimming, on the other hand, allows comparison between a 10-year-old breaststroker in Pennsylvania to one in California right down to the hundredth of a second. The temptation for parents to extrapolate is irresistible. If a son or daughter is among the Top 16 when they are 10, shouldn't they be in the running for a national championship when they turn 18?
In fact, quite the opposite is the case. Improvement is not a steady, positive slope, especially for prodigies. A study by USA Swimming using the All-Time Top100 swims in each age group through 1996 found that only 10 percent of the Top 100 10-and-Unders maintained their status through age 18. Only half of the swimmers among the Top 100 in the 17-18 age group had made any top-100 list when they were younger.
"Those winning races at 10 probably won't be winning races when they are 20," says John Leonard, the executive director of the American Swimming Coaches Association. "This is one of those things that is obvious to coaches but is a mystery to parents. Coaches understand the long-term nature of the sport, parents often don't."
This misunderstanding creates swimming's equivalent of playing-time disputes. As swimmers begin to slip in national, regional, and even local rankings, their parents scramble for solutions. Sue Anderson, a former world record-holder and one of USA Swimming's development coordinators, saw the pattern repeat itself many times when she was head coach of the Scarlet Aquatic Club in New Jersey during the 1990s. These "pressure parents," as she calls them, begin to micromanage their children's swimming by arranging for extra practices and seeking out meets not on the team's schedule. When expectations still aren't met, they invariably blame the coach, who is mostly defenseless because no one can say for sure why young, talented swimmers stop improving. Maybe it is the coach's fault, though the problem just as likely could stem from the swimmer's early physical maturation or a mindset that has become mis-wired because of parental pressure, or a host of other reasons. Regardless, the conflict heats up until the swimmer jumps to another club, which is often the first of several such moves.
"What the parents think is helping their kids is only putting them under a lot of pressure," says Anderson. "Many of these kids do very well when they are 10-and-under and 11-12, but eventually a lot them they stop living up to expectations, and they fall apart."
The Other Stuff
Of course, not all disputes fall under the category of domineering parents and underachieving swimmers (though they tend to be the most intractable). A coach's personal style can cause problems, particularly if he focuses almost exclusively on the senior swimmers. There is also the matter of different outlooks. Parents see only their sons and daughters and the next few weeks and months. Coaches see the entire team and the upcoming years. Then there's the issue of how coaches are viewed. Many parents don't see a professional, but a former jock slumming between real jobs.
"It was amazing how differently parents acted when I started coaching at the college level," says Warner. "I knew nothing more than when I was coaching a club team, but the parents assumed that I did."
Mike Krzyzewski, who, over the last 20 years at Duke has established himself as one of the most successful college basketball coaches ever, once said, "The coaching I love. The kids I love. It’s the other stuff you have to watch out for."
What often matters to parents is the other stuff, whether coaches are returning their phone calls promptly or thanking them for their volunteer work on behalf of the club. These small courtesies seem insignificant by themselves, but when taken together they acknowledge that the coach is meeting the parents halfway. They also keep disputes to a minimum. A meticulous plan handed out in March for the summer season will inhibit parents from overlapping family vacations with major competitions. Regular parent meetings run by the coaches and board members that both inform and educate will minimize rumors and alleviate concerns over the cyclic nature of competitive swimming. Set office hours for the coach will discourage interruptions from parents during practice.
The biggest courtesy of all, Leonard believes, is listening. A handful of parents are unreasonable. Others simply have healthy concerns about what's best for their children. Separating the two requires more than a five-minute conversation.
To make his point, Leonard refers back to his first coaching job, which was in Illinois during the 1970s. The father of a talented girl initially gave off all the signs of trouble.
"The classic horror story of a parent," Leonard recalls. "He was a trial attorney. Very pushy. His style of conversation was confrontational."
Yet Leonard endured and gradually came to realize that despite the father's bluster, he had a lot to offer. After two years, they were running together. Leonard would talk about his new ideas and the father would poke holes in all of the right spots.
"He'd question me on everything I was doing, which gave me a lot to think about," Leonard says. "Our relationship lasted for eight years and the daughter represented the United States on national teams. The mother and the father were the most active parents in helping to run the club. They were the best swimming parents I have ever known. It took me a while, but I discovered they were only interested in the best possible experiences for their daughter – both in life and in swimming – and they wanted to learn all they could about the sport.
"It just took a little bit of willingness to understand what they were after, and a little bit of patience to give them the opportunity to do the right thing."
Good advice, both for coaches and parents.
Parent and Coach...The Other Stuff
Coaching is about more than athletes, practices, and competition. As Mike Krzyzewski, Duke's hugely successful basketball coach said, it's also about "the other stuff." For coaches of club teams, that means parents.
By Tom Slear, Splash Magazine special correspondent
“All that craziness,” is how Monica Teuscher describes the rituals of other parents who nervously follow their children’s swimming development. Teuscher, mother of Cristina, a 1996 and 2000 Olympian, never owned a stopwatch and rarely bought a meet program. She didn’t track her daughter’s times, yell during her races, or seek out her coach after practices for private chats. During swim meets, she went off by herself to read or knit, only to be amused when other parents gave her a rundown on Cristina's swims, complete with split times.
"I thought it was important that I was there, but for support, not for coaching or to add pressure," Teuscher explains. "My job was to take my daughters (older daughter Carolina also swam) out for a good meal after they raced. The last thing we talked about was swimming."
Most coaches would agree that the best team to coach is one filled with parents such as Teuscher, who recognize the line between parenting and coaching and avoid it as if it were radioactive. They somehow manage to counterbalance their staunch support with a refreshing cluelessness.
Years ago Debbie Phelps, mother of Michael, the world record-holder in the 200-meter butterfly, relocated the family so that her children would be closer to North Baltimore Aquatic Club’s practice facility. Yet when asked about Michael’s world record time, she can do no better than to say, “I’m not sure – 1:50 something?” (Actually, 1:54.58)
"The swimmers I've had who have had the most success were unencumbered by parents calling the shots behind the scenes," says John Collins, who has coached Olympians Rick Carey and Lea Loveless as well as Cristina Teuscher at the Badger Swim Club in Larchmont, N.Y. "These parents are very good about backing up their kids, but they are hands off when it comes to swimming business."
The Growing Intrusion of Parents
Most coaches will tell you that Teuscher and Phelps are hardly exceptions. The overwhelming majority of parents instinctively, or with gentle guidance, find their place in the background. A few, however, can’t resist meddling, such as the mother who wrote Collins a five- or six-page letter every week for a year and a half. Rare is the swim coach who doesn’t have a similar story to tell.
"So many," says Chuck Warner, the head coach at Rutgers University who coached club teams for years before entering the college ranks. "All filed away in a painful spot."
The effect of such parents is all out of proportion to their numbers. A survey by Dan Doyle, which will be published in his forthcoming book, The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting, found that high school coaches across different sports are convinced that the biggest change in their profession over the last 15 years has been the growing intrusion of parents.
"No other factor they mentioned even came close," says Doyle, the executive director of the Institute for International Sport.
The top issues raised when the development coordinators for USA Swimming solicit opinions from club coaches are "parent education" and "club governance," euphemisms for the difficulty of dealing with parents, whether individually or as members of the club's board of directors. (The coach-board relationship will be covered in a future issue of Splash.)
An Oasis
But a bit of perspective is in order here. While all coaches labor to properly shape the parent-athlete-coach triangle, some suffer more than others. Rick Wolff, chairman of the Center for Sports Parenting (www.internationalsport.com/csp), calls swimming "an oasis."
Coaches of team sports have only subjective means to evaluate talent. Even at its best, the process is imprecise and open to question. How does a coach fix with any certainty which offensive lineman blocks better, or which outfielder offers the best combination of hitting and fielding?
Yet these judgements determine playing time, which is at the root of nearly all parental complaints. Coaches are forced to defend themselves armed with nothing stronger than an arbitrary standard. Who’s to say a guard with a deft shooting touch should play more than a tenacious defender?
With swimming the only standard is time, so performance is entirely quantifiable, measured precisely by a stopwatch. And playing time is rarely an issue. The only barrier to entry at most age-group meets is the entry fee. Everyone who wants to swim can compete.
“When you compare what coaches of team sports have to put up with when they make decisions about who makes the team and who plays, coaches of individual sports like swimming and track are not even in deep water as far as their problems with parents,” says Doyle. “They are barely in three feet of water.”
Swimming's preciseness, however, comes with a price. In sports such as soccer and basketball, parents can judge their children’s potential only against the players they compete against, which typically stretches no farther than adjacent counties. Not until the last two or three years of high school do they step onto a stage that provides statewide or national exposure.
Swimming, on the other hand, allows comparison between a 10-year-old breaststroker in Pennsylvania to one in California right down to the hundredth of a second. The temptation for parents to extrapolate is irresistible. If a son or daughter is among the Top 16 when they are 10, shouldn't they be in the running for a national championship when they turn 18?
In fact, quite the opposite is the case. Improvement is not a steady, positive slope, especially for prodigies. A study by USA Swimming using the All-Time Top100 swims in each age group through 1996 found that only 10 percent of the Top 100 10-and-Unders maintained their status through age 18. Only half of the swimmers among the Top 100 in the 17-18 age group had made any top-100 list when they were younger.
"Those winning races at 10 probably won't be winning races when they are 20," says John Leonard, the executive director of the American Swimming Coaches Association. "This is one of those things that is obvious to coaches but is a mystery to parents. Coaches understand the long-term nature of the sport, parents often don't."
This misunderstanding creates swimming's equivalent of playing-time disputes. As swimmers begin to slip in national, regional, and even local rankings, their parents scramble for solutions. Sue Anderson, a former world record-holder and one of USA Swimming's development coordinators, saw the pattern repeat itself many times when she was head coach of the Scarlet Aquatic Club in New Jersey during the 1990s. These "pressure parents," as she calls them, begin to micromanage their children's swimming by arranging for extra practices and seeking out meets not on the team's schedule. When expectations still aren't met, they invariably blame the coach, who is mostly defenseless because no one can say for sure why young, talented swimmers stop improving. Maybe it is the coach's fault, though the problem just as likely could stem from the swimmer's early physical maturation or a mindset that has become mis-wired because of parental pressure, or a host of other reasons. Regardless, the conflict heats up until the swimmer jumps to another club, which is often the first of several such moves.
"What the parents think is helping their kids is only putting them under a lot of pressure," says Anderson. "Many of these kids do very well when they are 10-and-under and 11-12, but eventually a lot them they stop living up to expectations, and they fall apart."
The Other Stuff
Of course, not all disputes fall under the category of domineering parents and underachieving swimmers (though they tend to be the most intractable). A coach's personal style can cause problems, particularly if he focuses almost exclusively on the senior swimmers. There is also the matter of different outlooks. Parents see only their sons and daughters and the next few weeks and months. Coaches see the entire team and the upcoming years. Then there's the issue of how coaches are viewed. Many parents don't see a professional, but a former jock slumming between real jobs.
"It was amazing how differently parents acted when I started coaching at the college level," says Warner. "I knew nothing more than when I was coaching a club team, but the parents assumed that I did."
Mike Krzyzewski, who, over the last 20 years at Duke has established himself as one of the most successful college basketball coaches ever, once said, "The coaching I love. The kids I love. It’s the other stuff you have to watch out for."
What often matters to parents is the other stuff, whether coaches are returning their phone calls promptly or thanking them for their volunteer work on behalf of the club. These small courtesies seem insignificant by themselves, but when taken together they acknowledge that the coach is meeting the parents halfway. They also keep disputes to a minimum. A meticulous plan handed out in March for the summer season will inhibit parents from overlapping family vacations with major competitions. Regular parent meetings run by the coaches and board members that both inform and educate will minimize rumors and alleviate concerns over the cyclic nature of competitive swimming. Set office hours for the coach will discourage interruptions from parents during practice.
The biggest courtesy of all, Leonard believes, is listening. A handful of parents are unreasonable. Others simply have healthy concerns about what's best for their children. Separating the two requires more than a five-minute conversation.
To make his point, Leonard refers back to his first coaching job, which was in Illinois during the 1970s. The father of a talented girl initially gave off all the signs of trouble.
"The classic horror story of a parent," Leonard recalls. "He was a trial attorney. Very pushy. His style of conversation was confrontational."
Yet Leonard endured and gradually came to realize that despite the father's bluster, he had a lot to offer. After two years, they were running together. Leonard would talk about his new ideas and the father would poke holes in all of the right spots.
"He'd question me on everything I was doing, which gave me a lot to think about," Leonard says. "Our relationship lasted for eight years and the daughter represented the United States on national teams. The mother and the father were the most active parents in helping to run the club. They were the best swimming parents I have ever known. It took me a while, but I discovered they were only interested in the best possible experiences for their daughter – both in life and in swimming – and they wanted to learn all they could about the sport.
"It just took a little bit of willingness to understand what they were after, and a little bit of patience to give them the opportunity to do the right thing."
Good advice, both for coaches and parents.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Age Group Development
The following link will take you to a short article that describes why we coach our 10 & Unders like we do. Though my AG3 swimmers ay come home excited because they finally reached x amount of yards in practice - the quality of that work always means more to me than the total amount we did. Right now, we are doing a great job of making changes and producing quality work at practice - something you should be proud of with your swimmer(s)!
http://www.floridaswimming.org/PAR/PAR%20Dev%20p14.pdf
http://www.floridaswimming.org/PAR/PAR%20Dev%20p14.pdf
Monday, October 12, 2009
A Letter to Swim Parents Pt 3 - How Kids Work
A great series of articles written by Michael Brooks from NBAC. He brings up some good points in this one.
HOW KIDS WORK
KIDS are inconsistent. There is nothing that any coach or parent can do to change that. A ten-year old swimmer who knows better will in the pressure of a meet do a flip-turn on breaststroke. Another young swimmer will take twenty seconds off her best time in a race this week, and next week add it all back, with interest. One week it will seem that the butterfly is mastered, and the next week that we’ve never even been introduced to the stroke. A senior swimmer will take ten seconds off her best time one race, then an hour later add ten seconds in her next race. It’s enough to make your hair turn grey. Learn to expect it and even to enjoy it.
SO you thought she was a backstroker. Age groupers change favorite or “best” strokes
approximately every other day. A stroke will “click” suddenly, and then later just as suddenly unclick. There is no explanation for this phenomenon. A stroke the child hated becomes her favorite by virtue of her having done well at yesterday’s meet. These are good arguments for having kids swim all four strokes in practice and meets, and for not allowing early specialization.
NO cookie-cutter swimmers. Kids learn at different rates and in different ways. One swimmer
picks up the breaststroke kick in a day; it takes another swimmer a year to master the same skill. If you pay close attention, you could probably write a treatise on motor learning after watching just one practice of novice swimmers. Be careful of comparing your swimmer to others, and especially be careful of comparing your swimmer to others in her hearing. Never never never measure the continuing success of your child by his performance against a particular competitor, who is likely to be on a completely different biological timetable from your child. Doing so makes you either despondent or arrogant.
WHY doesn’t he look like Ian Thorpe? Little kids are not strong enough or coordinated enough
for their strokes to look like the senior swimmers, no matter how many drills they do or how many repeats. And parents shouldn’t stress about a little thing that a swimmer struggles with for a time, such as a proper breaststroke kick. Kids seem to get these things when they are ready, and not until. We are winning the game if they steadily improve their motor control, steadily improve their aerobic conditioning, and steadily improve their attitudes. They will look like the Thorpedo soon enough.
HOW they do versus what they do. Especially at younger ages, how fast a child swims and how
well he places in a meet have little significance for how that swimmer will do as a senior. Many
national caliber athletes were not at all noteworthy as ten year olds. Competition times and places often tell you not about the amount of swimming talent a child has, but about how early a developer he is. What is truly important in determining future swimming success is what happens everyday in practice: Is he developing skills and technique? Is he internalizing the attitudes of a champion? Is he gradually building an aerobic base and building for the future? The work done is cumulative, with every practice adding a grain of sand to what will eventually become a mountain.
TIMES are the least of our worries. Many young swimmers spaz out when they swim, especially
at meets when they race. But you learn technique and control best at slow speeds. Don’t rush, take it slow, and get it perfect before you try to go fast. Even in meets, for the little ones I am much more interested in how they get down the pool than in how fast they do. Technique and tactics are more important than the numbers on the watch; if the technique and tactics are improving steadily, the time on the watch will improve steadily, too, and without our obsessing over it.
BUT he swam faster in practice!?!? Younger kids are routinely swimming as fast in practice as
they do in meets. From one perspective, this makes no sense. Why should a swimmer do better on the last repeat of 10 x 400 on short rest, after having swum 3600 meters at descending pace, than she does when all she has to do is get up and race one rested 400? She swims faster when she’s tired? Sometimes, yes. After all, in training she is well warmed up, her body has run through the spectrum and swum faster and faster, so her aerobic systems are working at full steam and her stroke rhythm is perfect and grooved, and she is energized from racing her teammates and shooting after concrete goals without the pressure she often feels in meets. Practice is much less threatening than meets.
NOT even Ted Williams batted a thousand. No one improves every time out. Don’t expect best
times every swim; if you do, you will frustrate yourself to death in less than a season, and you will put so much pressure on your swimmer that she will quit the sport early. You would think that if a swimmer goes to practice, works hard, and has good coaching and a good program, then constant improvement would be inevitable. Wrong. So much more goes into swimming than just swimming.
THE Rubber band effect. It would be easier for the swimmer, his parents, and his coach if
improvements were made slowly and gradually, if all involved could count on hard work in practice producing corresponding improvements in competition every month. This “ideal”, however, is so rare as to be nonexistent. Often improvements are made in leaps, not baby steps. Improvement happens by fits and starts, mostly because improvement results as much from psychology as from physiology. It is harder this way, because less predictable. Further, swimmers and their parents tend to become a bit discouraged during the short “plateaus” when the improvements that the child is making are not obvious; then, when the rubber band has snapped and the swimmer makes a long awaited breakthrough, they expect the nearly vertical improvement curve to continue, which it will not do. Fortunately, because our program emphasizes aerobic training, the long plateaus common in sprint programs are rare here.
THERE is a lot more to swimming than just swimming. This will become especially apparent as
the swimmer gets older, say around puberty. But even for the young kids, inconsistency is the rule. What’s going on in a swimmer’s head can either dovetail with the training or completely counteract the hours and hours in the pool. Again, if a swimmer has been staying up late, not allowing her body to recover from training, or if she’s been forsaking her mother’s nutritious meals for BigMacs, fries and shakes, that swimmer’s “hidden training” will counteract what she’s been doing in the water. Again, if a swimmer is in the dumps and can’t see straight after breaking up with his girlfriend, the best coach and the best program in the world will not save today’s race.
TERMINAL strokes and “coachability”. Often young swimmers, especially “successful” younger
swimmers who are very strong for their age, have terminal strokes – i.e., strokes that are inefficient dead-ends, strokes that will not allow for much if any improvement, strokes that consist of bulling through the water and not getting much for the huge outpouring of effort and energy. For kids with terminal strokes, it is time to throw away the stopwatch, slow down, and learn to swim all over again. Often this adjustment period is characterized by slower times, which is difficult for the swimmer and for the parents. Difficult, but necessary, because this one step backwards will allow for ten steps forward soon enough.
Note that for the stroke improvement to be made, the swimmer (and parent, supporting the coach’s decision) must be coachable: they must trust that the coach is knowledgeable and thinking of the swimmer’s best interests, and they must be willing to trust that the changes that feel awful at first (because the swimmer’s body is used to doing things a certain way, that way feels comfortable, and any other way is going to be resisted) will help him be a better swimmer. This coachability, this trust, is unfortunately rare. Most kids choose not to change horses in the middle of the stream, and both the horse and rider drown. Terminal strokers are soon caught by swimmers who are smaller but more efficient.
BIGGER is better?? The subject of early and late bloomers is a sensitive one, but nonetheless very important for parents to understand. Early and late bloomers each have “virtues” and “challenges.”
To begin with early developers. They get bigger and stronger earlier than the other kids, which means they are more likely to win their races. That early success is the virtue. However, because they can often win without having to work on their technique or train very hard, often they do not develop a solid work ethic, and often their technique is poor as they bull through the water. Note that from the child’s immediate perspective, NOT working hard and NOT working on technique is a rational choice. After all, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”: what he has done has obviously been working, since he has been highly successful, so why should he listen to the coach tell him that he needs to work harder or change his stroke? He beats all the other kids who listen to the coach, work harder, and change their strokes! So our pragmatist reaches the ages of thirteen to fifteen and suddenly the other kids whom he used to destroy in meets are catching up to him and even passing him. The size and strength advantage that he had relied on has deserted him, and he has no technique or work ethic to fall back on. He is not long for the sport: many early bloomers quit when their easy successes dry up. We avoid this future problem by not allowing the early bloomers to bask in the temporary limelight, but training them for their long run benefit, and educating them about how they should judge their own performances both
in meets and in practices.
On to the late bloomers. They are smaller and weaker than the others, so they get crushed in
swimming meets. If the coach, swimmer, and parent emphasize places and winning, then there is
little chance that this late bloomer will stay in the sport. This, too, is rational: “Why should I keep
swimming? I’m obviously lousy, even though I’m working my guts out and doing everything the
coach asks. I’m still getting killed! Coach is a bozo and I’m just not meant to be a swimmer.”
That is the obvious downside. However, if the coach and parents can help the swimmer find enough rewards from swimming, for instance improvement, meeting personal challenges, friendships, etc., to stick it out through the lean years, and if she relies on technique and hard work to overcome the temporary physical deficit, then she is in the driver’s seat in a few years. It is usually the case that the late bloomers end up bigger and stronger than the others – it just takes them longer to get there. And the qualities in the water and in their heads serve them well in senior swimming.
Note well: it is almost impossible to tell how talented your swimmer is, or how much potential your swimmer has for swimming, by looking at 10 & Under meet results. Races will often just tell you who is bigger and stronger, and that probably won’t last.
PUBERTY complicates everything. You would think that because they are getting bigger and
presumably stronger, your swimmers would be getting faster. Yes, and no. Whether fair or not, in the end puberty is highly beneficial to almost all boys, but with girls can be more ambiguous. Boys lose fat and gain muscle, getting bigger and stronger; girls, too, gain in height and strength, but they also add fat deposits. With proper nutrition (that does not mean starvation diets or eating disorders) and proper training (lots and lots of aerobic work, consistently), these questionable changes can be kept to a minimum, with no long-term harmful effects. In the short run, during puberty kids are growing, but they are growing unevenly. Arms and legs and
torsos don’t have the same proportions as they did last week, either of strength or length, so
coordination can go haywire. Strokes may fall apart, or come and go. Also, various psychological
changes are affecting swimming and everything else. Interests change and priorities are re-ordered. All these changes can cause the child’s athletic performances to stagnate. It can be a highly frustrating time for all involved. Fortunately, it doesn’t last long, and the swimmer emerges from a chrysalis a beautiful (and fast and strong) butterfly.
THE perils of getting older. Aging up is sometimes traumatic. Formerly very good ten year olds
become mediocre 11 & 12’s overnight. And often, the better they were in the younger age group, and the higher their expectations of success, the more traumatic the change is for them, because the more their “perceived competence” has suddenly nose-dived as they now race against bigger and stronger and faster competition. They are bonsais racing sequoia trees, and the standards of judgement have ratcheted up dramatically. The fastest kids are much faster than they are, to the point that they think they cannot compete, so they figure, “Why try? Working hard isn’t going to get me far, anyway. I may as well wait until my ‘good year.’” Often we see a tremendous jump upwards in practice intensity as swimmers approach their last meet in an age group (they want to go out with a bang), then a tremendous plummeting in that intensity as they become just one of the pack. This is in despite of the coach’s discussing the matter with the swimmer.
HOW KIDS WORK
KIDS are inconsistent. There is nothing that any coach or parent can do to change that. A ten-year old swimmer who knows better will in the pressure of a meet do a flip-turn on breaststroke. Another young swimmer will take twenty seconds off her best time in a race this week, and next week add it all back, with interest. One week it will seem that the butterfly is mastered, and the next week that we’ve never even been introduced to the stroke. A senior swimmer will take ten seconds off her best time one race, then an hour later add ten seconds in her next race. It’s enough to make your hair turn grey. Learn to expect it and even to enjoy it.
SO you thought she was a backstroker. Age groupers change favorite or “best” strokes
approximately every other day. A stroke will “click” suddenly, and then later just as suddenly unclick. There is no explanation for this phenomenon. A stroke the child hated becomes her favorite by virtue of her having done well at yesterday’s meet. These are good arguments for having kids swim all four strokes in practice and meets, and for not allowing early specialization.
NO cookie-cutter swimmers. Kids learn at different rates and in different ways. One swimmer
picks up the breaststroke kick in a day; it takes another swimmer a year to master the same skill. If you pay close attention, you could probably write a treatise on motor learning after watching just one practice of novice swimmers. Be careful of comparing your swimmer to others, and especially be careful of comparing your swimmer to others in her hearing. Never never never measure the continuing success of your child by his performance against a particular competitor, who is likely to be on a completely different biological timetable from your child. Doing so makes you either despondent or arrogant.
WHY doesn’t he look like Ian Thorpe? Little kids are not strong enough or coordinated enough
for their strokes to look like the senior swimmers, no matter how many drills they do or how many repeats. And parents shouldn’t stress about a little thing that a swimmer struggles with for a time, such as a proper breaststroke kick. Kids seem to get these things when they are ready, and not until. We are winning the game if they steadily improve their motor control, steadily improve their aerobic conditioning, and steadily improve their attitudes. They will look like the Thorpedo soon enough.
HOW they do versus what they do. Especially at younger ages, how fast a child swims and how
well he places in a meet have little significance for how that swimmer will do as a senior. Many
national caliber athletes were not at all noteworthy as ten year olds. Competition times and places often tell you not about the amount of swimming talent a child has, but about how early a developer he is. What is truly important in determining future swimming success is what happens everyday in practice: Is he developing skills and technique? Is he internalizing the attitudes of a champion? Is he gradually building an aerobic base and building for the future? The work done is cumulative, with every practice adding a grain of sand to what will eventually become a mountain.
TIMES are the least of our worries. Many young swimmers spaz out when they swim, especially
at meets when they race. But you learn technique and control best at slow speeds. Don’t rush, take it slow, and get it perfect before you try to go fast. Even in meets, for the little ones I am much more interested in how they get down the pool than in how fast they do. Technique and tactics are more important than the numbers on the watch; if the technique and tactics are improving steadily, the time on the watch will improve steadily, too, and without our obsessing over it.
BUT he swam faster in practice!?!? Younger kids are routinely swimming as fast in practice as
they do in meets. From one perspective, this makes no sense. Why should a swimmer do better on the last repeat of 10 x 400 on short rest, after having swum 3600 meters at descending pace, than she does when all she has to do is get up and race one rested 400? She swims faster when she’s tired? Sometimes, yes. After all, in training she is well warmed up, her body has run through the spectrum and swum faster and faster, so her aerobic systems are working at full steam and her stroke rhythm is perfect and grooved, and she is energized from racing her teammates and shooting after concrete goals without the pressure she often feels in meets. Practice is much less threatening than meets.
NOT even Ted Williams batted a thousand. No one improves every time out. Don’t expect best
times every swim; if you do, you will frustrate yourself to death in less than a season, and you will put so much pressure on your swimmer that she will quit the sport early. You would think that if a swimmer goes to practice, works hard, and has good coaching and a good program, then constant improvement would be inevitable. Wrong. So much more goes into swimming than just swimming.
THE Rubber band effect. It would be easier for the swimmer, his parents, and his coach if
improvements were made slowly and gradually, if all involved could count on hard work in practice producing corresponding improvements in competition every month. This “ideal”, however, is so rare as to be nonexistent. Often improvements are made in leaps, not baby steps. Improvement happens by fits and starts, mostly because improvement results as much from psychology as from physiology. It is harder this way, because less predictable. Further, swimmers and their parents tend to become a bit discouraged during the short “plateaus” when the improvements that the child is making are not obvious; then, when the rubber band has snapped and the swimmer makes a long awaited breakthrough, they expect the nearly vertical improvement curve to continue, which it will not do. Fortunately, because our program emphasizes aerobic training, the long plateaus common in sprint programs are rare here.
THERE is a lot more to swimming than just swimming. This will become especially apparent as
the swimmer gets older, say around puberty. But even for the young kids, inconsistency is the rule. What’s going on in a swimmer’s head can either dovetail with the training or completely counteract the hours and hours in the pool. Again, if a swimmer has been staying up late, not allowing her body to recover from training, or if she’s been forsaking her mother’s nutritious meals for BigMacs, fries and shakes, that swimmer’s “hidden training” will counteract what she’s been doing in the water. Again, if a swimmer is in the dumps and can’t see straight after breaking up with his girlfriend, the best coach and the best program in the world will not save today’s race.
TERMINAL strokes and “coachability”. Often young swimmers, especially “successful” younger
swimmers who are very strong for their age, have terminal strokes – i.e., strokes that are inefficient dead-ends, strokes that will not allow for much if any improvement, strokes that consist of bulling through the water and not getting much for the huge outpouring of effort and energy. For kids with terminal strokes, it is time to throw away the stopwatch, slow down, and learn to swim all over again. Often this adjustment period is characterized by slower times, which is difficult for the swimmer and for the parents. Difficult, but necessary, because this one step backwards will allow for ten steps forward soon enough.
Note that for the stroke improvement to be made, the swimmer (and parent, supporting the coach’s decision) must be coachable: they must trust that the coach is knowledgeable and thinking of the swimmer’s best interests, and they must be willing to trust that the changes that feel awful at first (because the swimmer’s body is used to doing things a certain way, that way feels comfortable, and any other way is going to be resisted) will help him be a better swimmer. This coachability, this trust, is unfortunately rare. Most kids choose not to change horses in the middle of the stream, and both the horse and rider drown. Terminal strokers are soon caught by swimmers who are smaller but more efficient.
BIGGER is better?? The subject of early and late bloomers is a sensitive one, but nonetheless very important for parents to understand. Early and late bloomers each have “virtues” and “challenges.”
To begin with early developers. They get bigger and stronger earlier than the other kids, which means they are more likely to win their races. That early success is the virtue. However, because they can often win without having to work on their technique or train very hard, often they do not develop a solid work ethic, and often their technique is poor as they bull through the water. Note that from the child’s immediate perspective, NOT working hard and NOT working on technique is a rational choice. After all, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”: what he has done has obviously been working, since he has been highly successful, so why should he listen to the coach tell him that he needs to work harder or change his stroke? He beats all the other kids who listen to the coach, work harder, and change their strokes! So our pragmatist reaches the ages of thirteen to fifteen and suddenly the other kids whom he used to destroy in meets are catching up to him and even passing him. The size and strength advantage that he had relied on has deserted him, and he has no technique or work ethic to fall back on. He is not long for the sport: many early bloomers quit when their easy successes dry up. We avoid this future problem by not allowing the early bloomers to bask in the temporary limelight, but training them for their long run benefit, and educating them about how they should judge their own performances both
in meets and in practices.
On to the late bloomers. They are smaller and weaker than the others, so they get crushed in
swimming meets. If the coach, swimmer, and parent emphasize places and winning, then there is
little chance that this late bloomer will stay in the sport. This, too, is rational: “Why should I keep
swimming? I’m obviously lousy, even though I’m working my guts out and doing everything the
coach asks. I’m still getting killed! Coach is a bozo and I’m just not meant to be a swimmer.”
That is the obvious downside. However, if the coach and parents can help the swimmer find enough rewards from swimming, for instance improvement, meeting personal challenges, friendships, etc., to stick it out through the lean years, and if she relies on technique and hard work to overcome the temporary physical deficit, then she is in the driver’s seat in a few years. It is usually the case that the late bloomers end up bigger and stronger than the others – it just takes them longer to get there. And the qualities in the water and in their heads serve them well in senior swimming.
Note well: it is almost impossible to tell how talented your swimmer is, or how much potential your swimmer has for swimming, by looking at 10 & Under meet results. Races will often just tell you who is bigger and stronger, and that probably won’t last.
PUBERTY complicates everything. You would think that because they are getting bigger and
presumably stronger, your swimmers would be getting faster. Yes, and no. Whether fair or not, in the end puberty is highly beneficial to almost all boys, but with girls can be more ambiguous. Boys lose fat and gain muscle, getting bigger and stronger; girls, too, gain in height and strength, but they also add fat deposits. With proper nutrition (that does not mean starvation diets or eating disorders) and proper training (lots and lots of aerobic work, consistently), these questionable changes can be kept to a minimum, with no long-term harmful effects. In the short run, during puberty kids are growing, but they are growing unevenly. Arms and legs and
torsos don’t have the same proportions as they did last week, either of strength or length, so
coordination can go haywire. Strokes may fall apart, or come and go. Also, various psychological
changes are affecting swimming and everything else. Interests change and priorities are re-ordered. All these changes can cause the child’s athletic performances to stagnate. It can be a highly frustrating time for all involved. Fortunately, it doesn’t last long, and the swimmer emerges from a chrysalis a beautiful (and fast and strong) butterfly.
THE perils of getting older. Aging up is sometimes traumatic. Formerly very good ten year olds
become mediocre 11 & 12’s overnight. And often, the better they were in the younger age group, and the higher their expectations of success, the more traumatic the change is for them, because the more their “perceived competence” has suddenly nose-dived as they now race against bigger and stronger and faster competition. They are bonsais racing sequoia trees, and the standards of judgement have ratcheted up dramatically. The fastest kids are much faster than they are, to the point that they think they cannot compete, so they figure, “Why try? Working hard isn’t going to get me far, anyway. I may as well wait until my ‘good year.’” Often we see a tremendous jump upwards in practice intensity as swimmers approach their last meet in an age group (they want to go out with a bang), then a tremendous plummeting in that intensity as they become just one of the pack. This is in despite of the coach’s discussing the matter with the swimmer.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Pentathlon - This Weekend!
Please look over the psych sheet to see what team your swimmer will be with (Ghoul or Pumpkin Head). During warm ups (at 8AM - be at the pool at 7:45AM), Ghouls will warm up in the lanes closest to the scoreboard in the outdoor pool, Pumpkin Heads will warm up on the opposite end. Your swimmer will receive their caps before they warm up with their appropriate "team" for the meet.
After warming up, we will do a cheer and new swimmers will go to their Senior buddies.
Please help out to process! Look to see what team your swimmer is with and send them to that side. I will be with Pumpkin Heads - Coach Stephens will be with Ghouls. Look for one of us to go to. Parents are asked to hang out in the inside pool (find a good seat for the meet!). Send your swimmer with their towels out to the pool.
Pentathlon Buddies List For Green/Gold/AG3
Pentathlon Psych Sheet
The meet should be about 3-3.5 hours long. Please plan on more than one towel and check out the Dynamo Monthly for our Meet Survival Guide that I have been working on. It will give you all you need to know for swim meets. As always, please e-mail or call me with any questions!
After warming up, we will do a cheer and new swimmers will go to their Senior buddies.
Please help out to process! Look to see what team your swimmer is with and send them to that side. I will be with Pumpkin Heads - Coach Stephens will be with Ghouls. Look for one of us to go to. Parents are asked to hang out in the inside pool (find a good seat for the meet!). Send your swimmer with their towels out to the pool.
Pentathlon Buddies List For Green/Gold/AG3
Pentathlon Psych Sheet
The meet should be about 3-3.5 hours long. Please plan on more than one towel and check out the Dynamo Monthly for our Meet Survival Guide that I have been working on. It will give you all you need to know for swim meets. As always, please e-mail or call me with any questions!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Snack Schedule as of 9/23/09
Please look over the snack schedule and mark your calendar for the date you signed up! If you have not signed up yet contact the appropriate group mom below to pick a date.
Green/Gold: Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson - epwjohnson@mindspring.com
AG3: Mrs. Kay Williams - kaywilliams@mindspring.com
AG3 Group Snack List
Green/Gold Fun Friday Snack List
For AG3 plan on about 20-24 swimmers on Saturdays.
For Green/Gold Fun Fridays plan on about 40.
If something comes up and you will not be able to be there on the date you are scheduled, you are able to drop snacks and drinks off at any time during the week at my desk. We also have a fridge to store items that need to be kept cold. Just be sure to write the group name and date the snacks are for on the packaging so I know where they go.
Thanks!
Coach Amanda
Green/Gold: Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson - epwjohnson@mindspring.com
AG3: Mrs. Kay Williams - kaywilliams@mindspring.com
AG3 Group Snack List
Green/Gold Fun Friday Snack List
For AG3 plan on about 20-24 swimmers on Saturdays.
For Green/Gold Fun Fridays plan on about 40.
If something comes up and you will not be able to be there on the date you are scheduled, you are able to drop snacks and drinks off at any time during the week at my desk. We also have a fridge to store items that need to be kept cold. Just be sure to write the group name and date the snacks are for on the packaging so I know where they go.
Thanks!
Coach Amanda
Goggles Guide
In all of my years of swimming and coaching, this is the first time that I have found an article that breaks it all down and makes sense when it comes to goggles. If only I knew then what I do now!
Finding a pair of goggles...
The best goggles are the ones that fit comfortably without leaking. Everyone has a different shaped face, and what works for one person isn't necessarily going to work for another. You need to find a pair that will suit the shape of your face.
A quick test - take the goggles out of the packet. Lean over, so your face is facing down towards the floor. Press the eye cups into your eye sockets and let go - they should stay in place if they are a good fit. You can make adjustments to the spread of the eyepiece, but if the goggles don't hold without the strap, at least for a few seconds, they probably will need a very tight strap to keep the water out. Don't be tempted to compensate for a bad fitting pair of goggles by tightening up the head strap. Although this may be necessary for racing, it is really no fun having sore eye sockets after a swim, so you want a pair that are watertight with only a low tension in the strap.
It is always a good idea to try before you buy - find someone at swimming who has a different pair than you and try them out, it will give you the best idea as to whether they will suit you, even if the adjustment isn't perfect.
Care for your goggles...
Caring for your goggles can be a drag, especially to keep them in as-new condition, but it can be worth it. Our top tips:
Thanks to Derbyphoenix.com for the article.
Finding a pair of goggles...
The best goggles are the ones that fit comfortably without leaking. Everyone has a different shaped face, and what works for one person isn't necessarily going to work for another. You need to find a pair that will suit the shape of your face.
A quick test - take the goggles out of the packet. Lean over, so your face is facing down towards the floor. Press the eye cups into your eye sockets and let go - they should stay in place if they are a good fit. You can make adjustments to the spread of the eyepiece, but if the goggles don't hold without the strap, at least for a few seconds, they probably will need a very tight strap to keep the water out. Don't be tempted to compensate for a bad fitting pair of goggles by tightening up the head strap. Although this may be necessary for racing, it is really no fun having sore eye sockets after a swim, so you want a pair that are watertight with only a low tension in the strap.
It is always a good idea to try before you buy - find someone at swimming who has a different pair than you and try them out, it will give you the best idea as to whether they will suit you, even if the adjustment isn't perfect.
Care for your goggles...
Caring for your goggles can be a drag, especially to keep them in as-new condition, but it can be worth it. Our top tips:
- After swimming give them a rinse in clean water (e.g., in the shower), the chlorine in the pool can eat away at the seals
- Between swimming sessions, make sure you let your goggles dry out and store goggles in a dry place, not in the bottom of your bag. This is particularly true of those with foam seals, which can breed all sorts of mould and bacteria.
- It can be worth investing in a pouch or using the original box to store your goggles in to protect them - scratched goggles are as hard to see through as fogged up goggles.
Fogging...
Fogged up goggles have to be one of the most annoying things in swimming; not being able to see where you are going let alone the coach, pace clock, etc. can drive you mad! It's a perennial problem, though and happens to everyone, but why and, more importantly, what can we do about it?
Why do goggles fog?
Basically, because the air inside your goggles is moist (it picks up water vapor both from the atmosphere in the pool when you put your goggles on and from the surface of your eyes) and the fact that this air is kept warmer than the water outside. The temperature of your goggle lens drops due to the cooling effect of the water and when a certain temperature (known as the dew point) is reached, the water vapor in the air inside the goggles condenses into plain old water on the surface of the lens -condensation, just like you get on the inside of a car windshield. This layer of condensation is what causes your view to be obstructed.
How Can I Stop Them Fogging?
A few things can help to prevent this from happening, only a couple of which are really practical. For example you could regulate the moisture content or temperature of the air inside your goggles to prevent the dew point from being reached, but this would be very impractical.
The two most successful solutions are:
- Allow a small amount of water into your goggles. The water acts as a windshield wiper as you turn your head, washing away the fog. If you have the right amount of water, it will sit far enough away from your eyes and wont irritate them. This obviously won't work for all strokes (particularly, backstroke!).
- You could use some sort of surfactant on the lenses to prevent condensation from forming, which is the best and most widely used solution. Many swimmers swear by either spitting in or licking their goggles which provides a coating to the lens. The man-made alternative is an anti-fog solution which provides this coating nicely, at a price.
Generally, whichever solution you adopt, it is wise to keep the inside of your goggles clean. Any dirt, particularly in the corners, will act as the starting point for condensation, and mean it will be more easily created. Dirt will also exacerbate the problem, by making it harder to see where you're going.
My goggles always slip when racing - is there anything I can do to stop this?
It can be wise to slightly tighten your goggle strap for racing, but you shouldn't rely exclusively on this to keep your goggles on your head - you need to have a well-fitting pair to begin with. If you do tighten it up, make sure that it doesn't cause the nosepiece to slip and become longer - this will just make the problem worse. If you have a well-fitting pair, properly adjusted and they still come off, there are a couple of other things to try. If the strap slips and the goggles end up around your neck, or even worse in your mouth, try wearing them underneath your swimming cap, this will help keep the strap in place. If the lenses flip off or slip and fill with water, you perhaps should look at your diving technique (poor streamline and too steep dive angle) - talk with your coach, he/she'll help.
"Having uncomfortable goggles can make practice miserable and having goggles that fit well and stay on during a race is imperative for good swims. Just as with suits, swimmers should have more than one pair of goggles...swimmers should not use the same pair of goggles for practice that they do in a meet. There are a number of reasons for this. The first is because goggles wear out and loose their seal after a number of practices and swimmers are more likely to feel the effects of this when they dive off the block at a meet. Also, swimmers should wear their meet goggles tighter than their practice goggles. Young and old swimmers alike are prone to forget to tighten their goggles before their first race and this can lead to goggles in the mouth or around the neck shortly after the dive."
Thanks to Derbyphoenix.com for the article.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
How To Update Your Insurance/Emergency Contact Info on the Team Website
Your Swimmer’s Account Information * IMPORTANT *
Everyone is missing 1 important piece of information from their accounts if not more than this. Please follow the instructions detailed below to check on your account information.
1. Log into the website and click on “My Account” on the left hand side.
2. 3 Sections appear right of the way vertically on your screen; the middle one has your “Billing Information.” Next to “Billing Information” are 2 more tabs. Please select “Insurance/Emergency Contact.”
3. You will have 4 places for information we at Dynamo need to have on record for your child to swim with us. In the 1st one, “Insurance Carrier,” please list the name of your insurance provider and the account number. In the 2nd one, “Insurance Carrier Phone,” please list the phone number to your insurance provider. With the last two, “Emergency Contact” and “Contact Phone,” please list the person in case of an emergency you would like us to contact first and a number we can best reach them at. The information on this page is necessary in the instance that something happens with your son/daughter during their time here at the pool.
4. Click “Save Account Changes.”
5. Get back into your account again by selecting “My Account.”
6. Go to the 3rd section of your account that lists the swimmers being billed on your account. Select your child’s name (if you have more than one swimmer, you will have to do this for each of them one at a time).
7. On your “Member/Athlete Profile” you will see two sections. The first one list all of your swimmers information when it comes to name, birthday, t-shirt size, etc. The second section has 3 tabs – select “Medical Information.”
8. From there, please enter in the following information:
a. “Physician’s Name”
b. “Physician’s Phone Number”
c. “Special Medication” – if there is anything you think we should know about – tell us! Better to be informed than surprised when something happens!
d. “Medication” – this information is important in the instance if your swimmer is taken to a hospital, if you are unavailable we will be able to list the known medication to the attendant.
9. Click “Save Changes” when done.
10. Click “Save Account Changes” when brought back to your member account screen. And you are done!
Everyone is missing 1 important piece of information from their accounts if not more than this. Please follow the instructions detailed below to check on your account information.
1. Log into the website and click on “My Account” on the left hand side.
2. 3 Sections appear right of the way vertically on your screen; the middle one has your “Billing Information.” Next to “Billing Information” are 2 more tabs. Please select “Insurance/Emergency Contact.”
3. You will have 4 places for information we at Dynamo need to have on record for your child to swim with us. In the 1st one, “Insurance Carrier,” please list the name of your insurance provider and the account number. In the 2nd one, “Insurance Carrier Phone,” please list the phone number to your insurance provider. With the last two, “Emergency Contact” and “Contact Phone,” please list the person in case of an emergency you would like us to contact first and a number we can best reach them at. The information on this page is necessary in the instance that something happens with your son/daughter during their time here at the pool.
4. Click “Save Account Changes.”
5. Get back into your account again by selecting “My Account.”
6. Go to the 3rd section of your account that lists the swimmers being billed on your account. Select your child’s name (if you have more than one swimmer, you will have to do this for each of them one at a time).
7. On your “Member/Athlete Profile” you will see two sections. The first one list all of your swimmers information when it comes to name, birthday, t-shirt size, etc. The second section has 3 tabs – select “Medical Information.”
8. From there, please enter in the following information:
a. “Physician’s Name”
b. “Physician’s Phone Number”
c. “Special Medication” – if there is anything you think we should know about – tell us! Better to be informed than surprised when something happens!
d. “Medication” – this information is important in the instance if your swimmer is taken to a hospital, if you are unavailable we will be able to list the known medication to the attendant.
9. Click “Save Changes” when done.
10. Click “Save Account Changes” when brought back to your member account screen. And you are done!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Parent Meeting Agendas
To acces the parent meeting agendas from this week click on the appropriate group for the link:
Age Group 3
Green/Gold
This link will take you to a website that I have uploaded these files to and will upload other files necessary for the group for you to easily.
Let me know if you have any problems accessing it. Thanks!
Coach Amanda
Age Group 3
Green/Gold
This link will take you to a website that I have uploaded these files to and will upload other files necessary for the group for you to easily.
Let me know if you have any problems accessing it. Thanks!
Coach Amanda
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Swimmer's Nutrition
Great nutrition handout put together by our very own Coach Ben from a presentation he gave on it a couple of years ago. I wanted to share it with everyone.
Nutrition and Swimming
Determinants of Athletic Performance
Nutrition and Swimming
Determinants of Athletic Performance
- Genetic Makeup
- Athletic Training
- Diet
There are no nutritional shortcuts to athletic performance
6 Essential Nutrients
1. Carbohydrates
- For athletes 60-65% of all calories should come from carbohydrates. Less than 10% of this amount should come from simple sugars.
- This is what gives us energy when we need to go fast
2. Protein
- 1.2 g/kg/day it the recommended amount of protein for endurance athletes
- The average American diet exceeds the RDA
- This is what builds muscle
3. Fats
- Important for some vitamin absorption
- Higher fat diets have resulted in better performance than low fat diets
- This is what gives us energy when we need to go a long time
4. Water
- 2 cups immediately before exercise
- ½ - 1 cup for every 15 minutes of exercise
- Athletes should be drinking at least 12 cups of liquid per day
5. Vitamins
- Not essential to performance but essential to health and producing enzymes
- A good multivitamin is not a bad idea
6. Minerals
- Not essential to performance but essential to health, fighting disease, and producing enzymes
**Many athletes do not meet energy intake requirements**
7. Consult a doctor or knowledgable professional before taking any supplements. Iron is very important especially to adolescent females.
Important Tips to Remember
- Eat a variety of foods
- Balance food intake with physical activity
- Choose a diet high in fruits, veggies, and unrefined grains
- Choose a diet low in total and saturated fat
- Moderate sugars
- Moderate sodium/salt
Meet Day
Eat breakfast at least 45 meets before warm-up begins.
During the meet choose the following foods: milk (regular or chocolate), spaghetti, yogurt, beans, protein and energy bars, sports drink, water, fruits, and nuts. Choose fructose over honey or sucrose (simple sugars).
If you have more than 2 hours between events or sessions: breads, potatos, cereals, honey.
Eat small amounts at a time to help avoid spiking blood glucose levels either up or down.
Fun Facts
Drink carbohydrates especially right after warm-up in practice to ward off fatigue for an extra 15-30 min.
Eat meals consistently throughout the day to replace energy in muscle (snack about every 2 hrs.)
Don’t eat within 5-30 min of practice or races (it will actually hinder performance)
Sports drinks are good for sodium, potassium replacement and recovery, but nothing can beat water.
Eat a combination of carbohydrates and protein within 45 minutes after practice to prepare your muscles for the next day (yogurt, chocolate milk, bagels, fruits, and sports drinks are great)
Don’t skip breakfast even for an early practice, food signals to your body to start working
Energy bars (carbohydrate, protein, or mixed) can be great, but make sure you read the label.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Watching Your Child at Swim Practice
If you want to see your swimmer improve and watch their development - my best suggestion is not to watch every swim practice. Improvements happen over the course of days, weeks, months, and in some cases years. Even a coach has to step back and remind themselves the little improvements that are going on. If you watch practice everytime your swimmer is there, it can lead to your frustration.
You are more than welcome to come watch your swimmer in practice though, but when doing so please sit in the stands (not on the deck) and please try not to speak with your swimmer or the coach (unless an emergency arises and you and your swimmer needs to leave early). The reason I ask this is so I can have all of the swimmers attention on the task at hand or a coach. If you were to observe your child in their classroom at school, it normally goes on by you sitting in the back of the room watching. When Susie Swimmer is doodling or Billy Backstroke is talking to his neighbor instead of listening, would you yell at them to pay attention then during the class? It would be a distraction to them and everyone around them. The same applies to swim practice.
I know I used this article at the beginning of the year last year, but it is a well written one by a swim coach who is also a parent of a child who participates in sports. I think they give great persepective into both worlds.
You are more than welcome to come watch your swimmer in practice though, but when doing so please sit in the stands (not on the deck) and please try not to speak with your swimmer or the coach (unless an emergency arises and you and your swimmer needs to leave early). The reason I ask this is so I can have all of the swimmers attention on the task at hand or a coach. If you were to observe your child in their classroom at school, it normally goes on by you sitting in the back of the room watching. When Susie Swimmer is doodling or Billy Backstroke is talking to his neighbor instead of listening, would you yell at them to pay attention then during the class? It would be a distraction to them and everyone around them. The same applies to swim practice.
I know I used this article at the beginning of the year last year, but it is a well written one by a swim coach who is also a parent of a child who participates in sports. I think they give great persepective into both worlds.
News For Swim Parents
Published by The American Club Swimming Association
21 01 North Andrews Ave., Suite 107Fort Lauderdale FL 33311
21 01 North Andrews Ave., Suite 107Fort Lauderdale FL 33311
Watching Your Child at Swim Lessons or Swim Practice
For over four years I watched my daughter swim under the direction of other coaches. I have also watched her at basketball practice and games, and dance, and figure skating. I know the joy of watching her in these activities. I also know and understand the overwhelming desire to direct, correct, encourage, and sometimes scold my child at practice. But those are not proper
parental behaviors once I have released her into the care of a coach or teacher. As a parent, am not to interfere with the practice or attempt to talk to my child during the practice session.
parental behaviors once I have released her into the care of a coach or teacher. As a parent, am not to interfere with the practice or attempt to talk to my child during the practice session.
In our swim program, we want the child’s attention focused on the coach and the tasks at hand.
Occasionally children miss an instruction, or have a goggle problem, or are involved in some other distraction, or are simply playing and having fun – which is all normal behavior for young children. We view these little difficulties as part of the learning process and we allow the children an opportunity to develop the self discipline and self reliance needed to overcome these difficulties without the help of moms or dads.
Occasionally children miss an instruction, or have a goggle problem, or are involved in some other distraction, or are simply playing and having fun – which is all normal behavior for young children. We view these little difficulties as part of the learning process and we allow the children an opportunity to develop the self discipline and self reliance needed to overcome these difficulties without the help of moms or dads.
We know it is common in many other youth sports for parents to stand at the sidelines and shout
instructions or encouragements and sometimes admonishments to their children. However, in our swim program we ask you not to signal them to swim faster, or to tell them to try a certain technique, or to offer to fix a goggle problem, or to move away for some other “menacing” swimmer, or even to remind them to listen to the coach. In fact, just as you would never interrupt a school classroom to talk your child, you should not interrupt a swim practice by attempting to communicate directly with your child.
instructions or encouragements and sometimes admonishments to their children. However, in our swim program we ask you not to signal them to swim faster, or to tell them to try a certain technique, or to offer to fix a goggle problem, or to move away for some other “menacing” swimmer, or even to remind them to listen to the coach. In fact, just as you would never interrupt a school classroom to talk your child, you should not interrupt a swim practice by attempting to communicate directly with your child.
What’s wrong with encouraging your child during practice? There are two issues. First we want your child to focus on the coach and to learn the skill for their personal satisfaction rather than learning it to please their parents. Secondly, parental encouragement often gets translated into a command to swim faster and swimming faster may be the exact opposite of what the coach is trying to accomplish. In most stroke skill development we first slow the swimmers down so that
they can think through the stroke motions. Save encouragements and praise for after the practice session! This is the time when you have your child’s full attention to tell them how proud you are of them.
they can think through the stroke motions. Save encouragements and praise for after the practice session! This is the time when you have your child’s full attention to tell them how proud you are of them.
What’s wrong with shouting or signaling instructions to your children? When I watch my 9 year old daughter play in a basketball league I understand the overwhelming desire of parents to shout instructions to their children because that is what I want to do. But those instructions might be different from the coach’s instructions and then you have a confused child. Sometimes you might think the child did not hear the coach’s instruction and you want to help. Most of us do
not want to see our own kids make a mistake. The fact is that children miss instructions all the time. Part of the learning process is learning how to listen to instructions. When children learn to rely on a backup they will have more difficulty learning how to listen better the first time.
not want to see our own kids make a mistake. The fact is that children miss instructions all the time. Part of the learning process is learning how to listen to instructions. When children learn to rely on a backup they will have more difficulty learning how to listen better the first time.
As parents, many of us want our children protected from discomfort and adversity and we will
attempt to create or place them in an environment free from distress. So, what’s wrong with helping your child fix their goggles during practice time? Quite simply, we want to encourage the children to become self-reliant and learn to take care of and be responsible for themselves and their own equipment. Swimming practice is a terrific place to learn these life skills. Yes, even beginning at age 6 or 7.
attempt to create or place them in an environment free from distress. So, what’s wrong with helping your child fix their goggles during practice time? Quite simply, we want to encourage the children to become self-reliant and learn to take care of and be responsible for themselves and their own equipment. Swimming practice is a terrific place to learn these life skills. Yes, even beginning at age 6 or 7.
If you need to speak to your child regarding a family issue or a transportation issue or to take your child from practice early you are certainly welcome to do so but please approach the coach directly with your request and we will immediately get your child out of the water. If you need to speak to the coach for other reasons please wait until the end of practice or call the phone number listed above.
I have been coaching young children for over 30 years. I appreciate the opportunity to enjoy their enthusiasm and energy and wonderful personalities. I coach each of them with care for their safety and concern for their social, physical, learning skills, and life skills
development. Thanks for bringing your children here as we both teach and direct them to become more responsible and confident young people.
development. Thanks for bringing your children here as we both teach and direct them to become more responsible and confident young people.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
A Letter To Swim Parents Pt 2 - A Journey of a Thousand Miles
In the beginning of the season it is tough to sit there and think wow all my swimmer did was kick today, or wow it looks like they did not do too much at practice. Keep in mind for 10 & Unders are championship meet is not until February/March. Besides all of the time til then, I am looking to make all of the swimmers in my group ready and prepared for aging up with skills they will need in the Age Group and Senior programs. I always talk about the basics. This month is about the basics.
Like I told AG3 last night at practice, I love how hard they work in the water! They are truly a great group, but we need to learn how to work hard when we are on the wall and all the things that go on besides when we swim. When we achieve these things, then we will be amazing.
A great series of articles written by Michael Brooks from NBAC.
A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES
THE patience of Job. Your swimmer’s career in the program is a long haul, with many peaks and
valleys. Usually, the new parent and swimmer come to the sport with little experience, so the first sign of a problem looks like the Grand Canyon, impossible to get across, and the first sign of success looks like Mount Everest – we’re on top of the world. It’s best not to get too worked up. You will see this again, over and over.
TAKING the long view. The training that will make an eight year old the area’s fastest 25 freestyler is not the training that will benefit that swimmer most in the long run. Making decisions now that will benefit the swimmer over the long haul of a swimming career calls for prudence, and it means sacrificing some speed now for huge gains later. Now we make them beautiful in the water, now we make them fit, now we teach them to expect great things, and later we make them super fast. Our destination is not two weeks down the road, but several years.
McDONALDS v. Michelin Three-Star. The fast food mentality, the attitude that “I want it NOW!” (even if it tastes like cardboard) is anathema to what we are about. Think of the swimming program, and your swimmer’s career in the program, as a fine meal in the very best French restaurant: more courses than you can count (phases and seasons), served in a very particular order (developmentally determined), each patiently savored (the cumulative effects of years’ worth of daily training), completed by dessert and coffee (Nationals). We are not in search of a quick Big Mac. We want the best, and we are willing to wait.
Like I told AG3 last night at practice, I love how hard they work in the water! They are truly a great group, but we need to learn how to work hard when we are on the wall and all the things that go on besides when we swim. When we achieve these things, then we will be amazing.
A great series of articles written by Michael Brooks from NBAC.
A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES
THE patience of Job. Your swimmer’s career in the program is a long haul, with many peaks and
valleys. Usually, the new parent and swimmer come to the sport with little experience, so the first sign of a problem looks like the Grand Canyon, impossible to get across, and the first sign of success looks like Mount Everest – we’re on top of the world. It’s best not to get too worked up. You will see this again, over and over.
TAKING the long view. The training that will make an eight year old the area’s fastest 25 freestyler is not the training that will benefit that swimmer most in the long run. Making decisions now that will benefit the swimmer over the long haul of a swimming career calls for prudence, and it means sacrificing some speed now for huge gains later. Now we make them beautiful in the water, now we make them fit, now we teach them to expect great things, and later we make them super fast. Our destination is not two weeks down the road, but several years.
McDONALDS v. Michelin Three-Star. The fast food mentality, the attitude that “I want it NOW!” (even if it tastes like cardboard) is anathema to what we are about. Think of the swimming program, and your swimmer’s career in the program, as a fine meal in the very best French restaurant: more courses than you can count (phases and seasons), served in a very particular order (developmentally determined), each patiently savored (the cumulative effects of years’ worth of daily training), completed by dessert and coffee (Nationals). We are not in search of a quick Big Mac. We want the best, and we are willing to wait.
A Letter To Swim Parents Pt 1 - Teaching Values
A great series of articles written by Coach Michael Brooks out of NBAC.
WE all want what is best for the child. That is sometimes hard for coaches to understand. That is
also sometimes hard for parents to understand. Much of the historical tension between coaches and parents can be avoided if we agree on two golden rules: first, let’s cut each other some slack and not jump on and over-react to the first unsubstantiated third-hand rumor that comes down the pike. And second, let’s communicate, often, and not just when we may have a problem.
TEACHING VALUES
YOU are key to your child’s swimming. A parent’s attitude toward swimming, the program, the
coach, and his child’s participation, is key towards the child’s attitude and success. The young
swimmer takes cues from his parent. If the parent shows by word, deed, facial expression, etc., that he does not value swimming, that he doesn’t appreciate having to drive to practice or sit in the stands during meets, that “it’s not going to matter” if the child skips practice, that morning practices are just “optional” and that the child would be better off with the extra sleep, then the chances are very good that the child will lack commitment, have little success, then lose interest in swimming. Support your child’s interest in swimming by being positively interested.
ALLOW your swimmer to be resilient. Failure, and facing that failure, doesn’t cause kids to melt.
Failure isn’t such an evil thing that parents should try to shield their kids from it. Allow them to fail, then teach them to get up off the canvas and try harder to succeed the next time. If parents are continually sheltering their swimmers from the storm, cushioning every fall, making excuses for them, finding someone else to blame, the children never learn anything. Even worse, they never learn that they are responsible both for their failures and for their successes. Allow them to stand on their own, and you will be helping them immeasurably down the road.
MOLEHILLS really are molehills. At times I may appear unsympathetic or even harsh because I
won’t let kids stop for “emergencies”: for leaking goggles, for kids passing them, for side-aches, for stretching, for repeated bathroom breaks, etc. Many kids think that the slightest obstacle is an overwhelming reason to stop and should be listened to and followed as the voice of God. I think not. I am trying to teach focus. When a swimmer is in the middle of a set, the only thing in life that matters or is worthy of attention is the set. Little “bothers” are to be overcome or ignored. And once a swimmer gets in the habit of overcoming these “little bothers,” he finds that they aren’t so overwhelmingly important after all. If we are continually stopping for “emergencies,” we will never get anything done. If a study session is continually interrupted for sharpening pencils, then getting a better notepad, then getting a drink of water, then taking a little break when a favorite song comes on the radio, then answering the telephone, almost miraculously the math assignment doesn’t get completed.
DON’T worry, be happy??? I don’t want a swimmer doing cartwheels after an awful performance. It’s okay for them to be upset about, disappointed with, even angry about having done poorly. Feeling lousy for a few minutes won’t kill them, it won’t forever damage their self-esteem, and if they are thinking correctly it will motivate them to try harder and do better the next time. I want to teach them standards of good and bad performance, so that when they really do well, they will feel appropriately pleased. If they are simply showered with praise willy nilly, they never know the difference.
TEACH them to dream big – a world of infinite possibilities. If you try to temper your child’s
dreams, if you teach her to settle for the ordinary, you may indeed save her from many a heartache and many a failure. But you also rob her of the opportunity of achieving great things, and the opportunity to plumb her depths and realize her potential. Winning big means failing many times along the way. Each failure hurts, but these temporary setbacks create the strength for the final push. Instead of having children avoid failure by never taking risks, teach them how to think correctly about failing: risk-taking and failure are necessary for improvement, development, motivation, feedback, and long-term success.
WHAT success is. Only one swimmer can win the race. Often in the younger age groups, the
winner will be the one who has bloomed early, not necessarily the swimmer with the most talent or the most potential to succeed in senior swimming. It is expected that every parent wants his child to succeed, wants his child to have a good and learning and valuable experience with swimming. Every child can succeed – only make sure you define success correctly: being the very best you can be, striving for improvement in every aspect of swimming. That leads to lasting success. And lasting enjoyment.
DON’T reward success by bribery. “Bribing” your swimmer to perform well by promising
presents, money, special meals, etc. for meeting various standards is highly discouraged. While
bribery may work in the short run – the swimmer may indeed swim fast this afternoon – the long term consequences are never good. You have to keep upping the ante, and you must ask yourself: why does my swimmer want to swim fast? What is really motivating him? Is this good? What is a twelve year old going to do with a new car?
FUN, fun, fun. If “fun” means mindless entertainment and sensory bombardment, then wasting
hours playing Nintendo is loads of fun, and swimming is by definition “not fun.” If “fun” means
working hard and challenging yourself, taking pride in accomplishing difficult goals, and discovering talents you didn’t know you had, then swimming is fun and Nintendo by definition is “not fun.” The meaning of fun is very much an open question for children, and one where parents and coaches have much influence over their charges. Are we building a nation of energized achievers or lifeless couch potatoes?
WORK, work, work. Persistence and work ethic are the most important qualities leading to success in swimming and everything else. And if a work ethic is not created and cultivated when a swimmer is young, it very likely will never appear. It is so rare as not to be an option that a kid who is a slacker from ages seven to fourteen will suddenly change his spots and become a hard worker. Love for and pride in hard work MUST be inculcated early on, and again parents and coaches have much influence in creating this attitude.
NO little league parents. Kids sometimes make mistakes at meets. If your child is disqualified at a meet, don’t complain, don’t whine, don’t make excuses. Your child’s DQ is not a reflection of the quality of your parenting. The official is not blind, he does not have a vendetta against your child or your family or your team, and he is not incompetent. In fact, he has a much better vantage on your child’s race than you do, and he is looking on dispassionately. You are sitting up in the stands where you can’t see precisely, and you are paying attention to everything except the exact angle of your child’s left foot as he kicks in breaststroke. If a DQ is questionable, as sometimes is the case, the coach – and not the parent – will take the proper steps. And even then, DQ’s are almost never overturned, so don’t get your hopes up.
By the by, most DQ’s aren’t surprises to the coach. If a swimmer rehearses an illegal turn forty
thousand times in training despite a coach’s remonstrances, then that illegal habit will likely show up under the stress of a race. As Joe Paterno said, “Practice good to play good.”
BURNOUT. So many times parents and kids will say, “I don’t want to commit to
swimming because I don’t want to get burned out.” But for every one case of “burnout” caused by a swimmer’s spending too much time in the water and working too hard, we will see a hundred cases of “pre-emptive burnout”: in order not to be burned out, the swimmer only comes to practice when she feels like it, doesn’t work out very hard, skips team meets with regularity, and generally makes no commitment to the program or to the sport. Not surprisingly, the swimmer swims slow, makes little to no improvement, and sees her formerly slower competitors whiz right by her. Then we wonder why she “just can’t get jazzed about swimming.”
Sitting on the fence and remaining lukewarm on principle has nothing to recommend it.
Discipline and commitment are good things, not things we should downplay, hide, apologize
for, or (worst of all) stop demanding because it may be unpopular. If you want to enjoy
swimming even more, commit more of yourself and swim fast! You do not become excited
about an activity you don’t do well at.
HOME and pool must dovetail. Traits of discipline, respect, high expectations, and commitment at home directly relate to the child’s characteristics at practices and meets. This is yet another area where family support is crucial to the success of the swimmer. Parents should review, carefully, the Credo and other formative memos about the values the team espouses. If the current at home is flowing in the opposite direction from the current at the pool, there will be big problems. If a family does not buy into the program, they will be very unhappy here.
WE all want what is best for the child. That is sometimes hard for coaches to understand. That is
also sometimes hard for parents to understand. Much of the historical tension between coaches and parents can be avoided if we agree on two golden rules: first, let’s cut each other some slack and not jump on and over-react to the first unsubstantiated third-hand rumor that comes down the pike. And second, let’s communicate, often, and not just when we may have a problem.
TEACHING VALUES
YOU are key to your child’s swimming. A parent’s attitude toward swimming, the program, the
coach, and his child’s participation, is key towards the child’s attitude and success. The young
swimmer takes cues from his parent. If the parent shows by word, deed, facial expression, etc., that he does not value swimming, that he doesn’t appreciate having to drive to practice or sit in the stands during meets, that “it’s not going to matter” if the child skips practice, that morning practices are just “optional” and that the child would be better off with the extra sleep, then the chances are very good that the child will lack commitment, have little success, then lose interest in swimming. Support your child’s interest in swimming by being positively interested.
ALLOW your swimmer to be resilient. Failure, and facing that failure, doesn’t cause kids to melt.
Failure isn’t such an evil thing that parents should try to shield their kids from it. Allow them to fail, then teach them to get up off the canvas and try harder to succeed the next time. If parents are continually sheltering their swimmers from the storm, cushioning every fall, making excuses for them, finding someone else to blame, the children never learn anything. Even worse, they never learn that they are responsible both for their failures and for their successes. Allow them to stand on their own, and you will be helping them immeasurably down the road.
MOLEHILLS really are molehills. At times I may appear unsympathetic or even harsh because I
won’t let kids stop for “emergencies”: for leaking goggles, for kids passing them, for side-aches, for stretching, for repeated bathroom breaks, etc. Many kids think that the slightest obstacle is an overwhelming reason to stop and should be listened to and followed as the voice of God. I think not. I am trying to teach focus. When a swimmer is in the middle of a set, the only thing in life that matters or is worthy of attention is the set. Little “bothers” are to be overcome or ignored. And once a swimmer gets in the habit of overcoming these “little bothers,” he finds that they aren’t so overwhelmingly important after all. If we are continually stopping for “emergencies,” we will never get anything done. If a study session is continually interrupted for sharpening pencils, then getting a better notepad, then getting a drink of water, then taking a little break when a favorite song comes on the radio, then answering the telephone, almost miraculously the math assignment doesn’t get completed.
DON’T worry, be happy??? I don’t want a swimmer doing cartwheels after an awful performance. It’s okay for them to be upset about, disappointed with, even angry about having done poorly. Feeling lousy for a few minutes won’t kill them, it won’t forever damage their self-esteem, and if they are thinking correctly it will motivate them to try harder and do better the next time. I want to teach them standards of good and bad performance, so that when they really do well, they will feel appropriately pleased. If they are simply showered with praise willy nilly, they never know the difference.
TEACH them to dream big – a world of infinite possibilities. If you try to temper your child’s
dreams, if you teach her to settle for the ordinary, you may indeed save her from many a heartache and many a failure. But you also rob her of the opportunity of achieving great things, and the opportunity to plumb her depths and realize her potential. Winning big means failing many times along the way. Each failure hurts, but these temporary setbacks create the strength for the final push. Instead of having children avoid failure by never taking risks, teach them how to think correctly about failing: risk-taking and failure are necessary for improvement, development, motivation, feedback, and long-term success.
WHAT success is. Only one swimmer can win the race. Often in the younger age groups, the
winner will be the one who has bloomed early, not necessarily the swimmer with the most talent or the most potential to succeed in senior swimming. It is expected that every parent wants his child to succeed, wants his child to have a good and learning and valuable experience with swimming. Every child can succeed – only make sure you define success correctly: being the very best you can be, striving for improvement in every aspect of swimming. That leads to lasting success. And lasting enjoyment.
DON’T reward success by bribery. “Bribing” your swimmer to perform well by promising
presents, money, special meals, etc. for meeting various standards is highly discouraged. While
bribery may work in the short run – the swimmer may indeed swim fast this afternoon – the long term consequences are never good. You have to keep upping the ante, and you must ask yourself: why does my swimmer want to swim fast? What is really motivating him? Is this good? What is a twelve year old going to do with a new car?
FUN, fun, fun. If “fun” means mindless entertainment and sensory bombardment, then wasting
hours playing Nintendo is loads of fun, and swimming is by definition “not fun.” If “fun” means
working hard and challenging yourself, taking pride in accomplishing difficult goals, and discovering talents you didn’t know you had, then swimming is fun and Nintendo by definition is “not fun.” The meaning of fun is very much an open question for children, and one where parents and coaches have much influence over their charges. Are we building a nation of energized achievers or lifeless couch potatoes?
WORK, work, work. Persistence and work ethic are the most important qualities leading to success in swimming and everything else. And if a work ethic is not created and cultivated when a swimmer is young, it very likely will never appear. It is so rare as not to be an option that a kid who is a slacker from ages seven to fourteen will suddenly change his spots and become a hard worker. Love for and pride in hard work MUST be inculcated early on, and again parents and coaches have much influence in creating this attitude.
NO little league parents. Kids sometimes make mistakes at meets. If your child is disqualified at a meet, don’t complain, don’t whine, don’t make excuses. Your child’s DQ is not a reflection of the quality of your parenting. The official is not blind, he does not have a vendetta against your child or your family or your team, and he is not incompetent. In fact, he has a much better vantage on your child’s race than you do, and he is looking on dispassionately. You are sitting up in the stands where you can’t see precisely, and you are paying attention to everything except the exact angle of your child’s left foot as he kicks in breaststroke. If a DQ is questionable, as sometimes is the case, the coach – and not the parent – will take the proper steps. And even then, DQ’s are almost never overturned, so don’t get your hopes up.
By the by, most DQ’s aren’t surprises to the coach. If a swimmer rehearses an illegal turn forty
thousand times in training despite a coach’s remonstrances, then that illegal habit will likely show up under the stress of a race. As Joe Paterno said, “Practice good to play good.”
BURNOUT. So many times parents and kids will say, “I don’t want to commit to
swimming because I don’t want to get burned out.” But for every one case of “burnout” caused by a swimmer’s spending too much time in the water and working too hard, we will see a hundred cases of “pre-emptive burnout”: in order not to be burned out, the swimmer only comes to practice when she feels like it, doesn’t work out very hard, skips team meets with regularity, and generally makes no commitment to the program or to the sport. Not surprisingly, the swimmer swims slow, makes little to no improvement, and sees her formerly slower competitors whiz right by her. Then we wonder why she “just can’t get jazzed about swimming.”
Sitting on the fence and remaining lukewarm on principle has nothing to recommend it.
Discipline and commitment are good things, not things we should downplay, hide, apologize
for, or (worst of all) stop demanding because it may be unpopular. If you want to enjoy
swimming even more, commit more of yourself and swim fast! You do not become excited
about an activity you don’t do well at.
HOME and pool must dovetail. Traits of discipline, respect, high expectations, and commitment at home directly relate to the child’s characteristics at practices and meets. This is yet another area where family support is crucial to the success of the swimmer. Parents should review, carefully, the Credo and other formative memos about the values the team espouses. If the current at home is flowing in the opposite direction from the current at the pool, there will be big problems. If a family does not buy into the program, they will be very unhappy here.
Practice Schedule First 3 Weeks of the Season
The first 3 weeks of the season's schedule runs slightly different for all our swim groups.
For Green and Gold, the only change is there are no Friday practices until September 11th.
Age Group 3 practice schedule for the next 3 weeks is as follows:
Week of August 17th: Monday through Thursday 5:30 - 7:00 PM, no practice Friday and Saturday.
Week of August 24th: Monday through Thursday 5:30 - 7:00 PM, no practice Friday and Saturday.
Week of August 31st: Monday through Thursday 5:30 - 7:00 PM, no practice Friday and Saturday.
For Green and Gold, the only change is there are no Friday practices until September 11th.
Age Group 3 practice schedule for the next 3 weeks is as follows:
Week of August 17th: Monday through Thursday 5:30 - 7:00 PM, no practice Friday and Saturday.
Week of August 24th: Monday through Thursday 5:30 - 7:00 PM, no practice Friday and Saturday.
Week of August 31st: Monday through Thursday 5:30 - 7:00 PM, no practice Friday and Saturday.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Awards For AG3
Attendance Award
The purpose of this award is to promote regular practice attendance by swimmers at all levels of the program. We want Dynamo swimmers to develop a strong sense of responsibility in regard to their participation in the program. We have created 3 time periods for the recognition for each practice level- Before Christmas break, at the end of the short course season, and at the end of the long course season. Swimmers must achieve the practice percentage during each period to receive the award for that period. The Incentive Award will be based on the percentage of practices a swimmer attends. This percentage is strictly based on the number of practices recommended per week. Practice requirements to win an Attendance Award for Age Group 3 is 66% which equals about 4 practices per week.
Dynamo "Dynamites"
In order to be a "Dynamite", a swimmer must meet the requirements of 3 out of 5 categories for their training group in order to qualify for the recognition. Ideally swimmers should strive to come as close as possible to achieving all 5 categories. Dynamite caps are awarded to those who accomplish the Dynamite set, and can only be worn during practices.
Age Group 3 Dynamite Requirements:
- Attendance: 75%
- Dryland (make 3 of the following): 1 mile run in 8:30/ 4 pull-ups/ 25 continous 90-degree push-ups/ 2x2:00 work- :30 rest jump rope (average 140 jumps per set of 2:00)
- Swim Set: 8x100 Free @ 1:35 (yds) or 1:45 (lcm); or 6x100 IM @ 1:50 (yds)
- Kick Set: 6x100 Choice @ 1:50 (yds) or 2:10 (lcm)
- Competition: 10 & Unders based on National "a" time; combined tome for 100 Free and 200 IM [Girls = 5:32.39 (SCY) or 6:19.29 (LCM); Boys = 5:27.19 (SCY) or 6:11.29 (LCM)]; 11-12 based on National "AA" time; combined for 500/400 free, 200 IM, and 200 free [Girls= 10:40.19 (SCY) or 10:43.69 (LCM); Boys=10:29.39 (SCY) or 10:34.89 (LCM)
Excellence Award
White caps are issued to swimmers achieving a T16 time/s and may wear that cap for 1 year. For the 11-12 age group, a swimmer must place in the top 16 for that year in the 200, 400, 1000 and/or 1650 event/s. 10 and Unders may receive a white cap upon successfully breaking into the top 16 in the 500.
The Golden Kickboard
A special award, "The Golden Kickboard", is given to a new swimmer each week in each age group that kicks the hardest in practice. The swimmer will be able to use that kickboard for 1 week.
100 Second Club
A special incentive for swimmers who drop 100 seconds or more over the course of a season (SC or LC). This time is totaled from all events swam that season they had improved.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
This Blog
In trying to come up with something simpler that I can use and get constant updates up for everyone I thought this might be an easy way to go. SwimRoom was great, but there were too many times the server was down and unable to upload new updates.
For those of you who are new - I am Coach Amanda Howard, I am going into my 2nd year here at Dynamo. I have been coaching swimming for the past 8 years and have been involved as an athlete for much longer than that!
What you will find here will be suggested articles for reading, as well as news and updates on the group as a whole. Unlike before I will also be saving weekly e-mails here for those that need to find the information in case they delete it.
For those of you who are new - I am Coach Amanda Howard, I am going into my 2nd year here at Dynamo. I have been coaching swimming for the past 8 years and have been involved as an athlete for much longer than that!
What you will find here will be suggested articles for reading, as well as news and updates on the group as a whole. Unlike before I will also be saving weekly e-mails here for those that need to find the information in case they delete it.
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