ASCA Parent News

News For SWIM  PARENTS

Published by The American Swimming Coaches Association

5101 NW 21 Ave., Suite 200,  Fort Lauderdale FL 33309

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When The Coach Goes To Nationals

 Concern:  The coach leaves the team for a whole week just to take one swimmer to nationals.  It is not fair to the team and a poor use of money.

 Response:  It is an important milestone in the development of the swimmer, of the coach, and of the team when the first national qualifier is developed.  This swimmer represents the current "peak" of the program. All parts of a program are important but the peak is of special importance because it is a point that all younger developing athletes can look forward to and work towards.  It provides direction in the program.

 It is difficult for newer swim parents, especially parents of young age group swimmers, to understand the importance of sending the coach away to nationals at great expense and while all the other swimmers on the team stay at home without their head coach.  The situation is sometimes made worse by the fact that local junior Olympic meets are held at about the same time as nationals.

 What are the choices and what are the consequences?

 1.  Swimmer attends nationals without coach.  This is not fair to the athlete or to the coach.  The athlete has worked for and deserves the attention and professional guidance of the coach.  The coach also deserves the reward of developing such a fine athlete by being involved in the national experience.  Attending nationals is also a very important educational experience for the coach.   By not sending the coach to nationals with the swimmer the club is also sending a message to the athletes that the club is not interested in elite athletes.

 2.  Swimmer and coach stay home.  This cuts the peak of the program and removes incentives for athletes and coach to become the best they can be.  It is the mark of a team that does not include growth as part of its long range goals, or perhaps does not have any goals at all.  It is a program that will always have young and relatively inexperienced coaches because few coaches will be satisfied working in a situation where they cannot grow. 

 3.  Swimmer and coach attend nationals with the support and good will of the entire club.  This is the mark of a program that looks to the future, believes in growth, and believes in rewarding the good work by both the athlete and the coach.  When the coach and athlete attend nationals it is a celebration of team success.  The athlete can return home as the hero and "tell the story" of nationals that will inspire the rest of the team.

 What then of the younger swimmers who have workouts and possibly a meet to attend while the coach is at nationals?  It is the responsibility of the Board of Directors and coach to 1) educate the families as to the needs of the whole program, and 2) prepare assistant coaches and swimmers for the opportunity to be their best during this time.  These things should not be thought of two weeks before nationals, but should be part of each seasonal plan.

 We are hopeful that parents will look at the larger picture.  When the coach goes to nationals it is not just for one swimmer, it is for the whole team… and, it’s for your age group swimmer. 

When Sally Swims Poorly…

How Mom and Dad Might Talk To Their Child at a Swim Meet

By John Leonard

Swim Meet conversation between parent and athlete can be either highly productive, or highly counter-productive.  Your goal as a parent should be to contribute to a positive swim meet experience for your child.  This is the same goal as shared by the coach and the athlete.  It is important that all three sides of the triangle be working together on meet days, as well as the rest of the swim year.

 As I travel the country talking to parents, and observing swim meets and the effects of individual athletes, a few things stand out for comment.  The inter-relationship of athlete, coach and parent on the days of swim meets is one of the most important.  To discuss this adequately, it is necessary to define the role of each person.

 The athlete attends the meet to attempt to gain or affirm some progress that has been made in their development.  This may take the form of a personal best time, or holding a stroke technique together for an entire race, or executing accurately a particular strategy for  "splitting" the race, or any of a multitude of other possibilities and combinations.  The role of the athlete is the active one.  It is up to them to perform, and the meet day is a selected time to perform the experiment.

 The role of the coach on meet day needs to be thoroughly understood. It is dependent upon how the coach  has presented themselves in the athlete's swimming career.  Primarily, for most coaches, they are the technical resource that a swimmer depends upon to help them improve.  They also serve as a role model, and to a greater or lesser extent, as a motivator, friend, and co-author of the strategy or experiment being performed on that day.

 The parent is the racing "support crew".  The parent makes sure they have all their human needs attended to, and continues their parental function of supervising personal development.  Their love, attention, and caring are key ingredients in creating a successful experience on race day.

 Athlete, technical support, and human support. That's all it takes.

 Now, back to the question of meet conversation. Lots of talk goes on at a meet, and coming and going around the meet. Let's focus on the conversations that go on around a particular swim, and see what can be learned from that item.

 Sally is eleven years old, and she is about to swim the 100 yard freestyle. Sally is a pretty good little swimmer, and has a best time of 1:01.3.  She'd like to go a personal best time in this event at the meet, and she and her coach have been talking all week about how Sally has to concentrate on keeping her stroke long and strong during the last 25 yards of her race.  Sally knows she is supposed to stop and talk to Coach before she swims so she goes over to see her.

 "Hey Kiddo, ready for the big swim?"

 "Coach, I got it all under control, and I'm ready to go fast."

 "What do you need to remember on this swim?"

 "To keep my stroke long on the last twenty-five."

 "Not just long, but...."

 "long and Strong!"

 "Right!  Have a real good swim.  Now, go get it!"

 Sally blasts off, and gets out in front immediately.  Mom and Dad cheer like crazy.  Sally turns for home, and......   

 (Now, at this point let's consider two endings.  We will take a look at each one.)

 Sally turns for home and...... shortens her stroke bit by bit as she gets more and more tired, and struggles to the wall, with a time of 1:01.5.

 Sally is disappointed, and she goes back to her coach choking back tears, and stands there, waiting for her to speak.

 "Well, not quite what we wanted. How did it feel?"

 "It felt awful! I was terrible! I couldn't do anything!"

 "From here, it looked like you were only pushing through to your waist, and towards the end of the race maybe not even that far.  Where should your hand finish?"

 "At my suit line."

 "And what did your arms really feel like?"

 "I got all hot and my arms were burning at the end of the race."

 "Do you know why that is?  I think you haven't had enough good fast pace work yet.  Next month, we'll work on that, and by the next meet you'll be much better!"

 Sally leaves happy and feeling much less like the Ugly Duckling. Now, she heads to see Mom and Dad.

 Most parents I talk to think that this is a tough time to deal with their children.  It isn't!  (The tough one is next.)  All Mom and Dad have to do in this case, is two simple things:

 First, deal with human things.

 "Are you warm enough, honey?"

"Put on your warm-ups, and your towel"

"Do you need something to drink?"

 Then, if all is well, STOP.  Do not get into the race unless the child wants to.  That is not your role. You are there to support.

 But let’s say that Sally comes back and says....

 "I Stunk!"

 Mom and Dad say, "Stunk?  Stunk means you smelled badly.  All that chlorine is kind of nasty, but I wouldn't say you stunk.  What do you really mean?"

 After Sally has a chance to get rid of her emotional response, you should ask, "What did Coach say?"

 Now is a good time to explore this.  What you are trying to do, as a parent, is duplicate the same mind-set the coach is trying to re-instill.  Analyze what went wrong with the experiment.  You don't have the technical expertise to offer the answers that her coach does, but by asking questions that require a technical response, you shift Sally out of the emotional context.  This is nothing more than an experiment that did not turn out the way Sally and her coach wanted it to.  This is perfect swim parenting.  You reinforce the message that the coach is sending.

 If you will simply take care of the human needs, and shift the emotional disappointment to an analytical response, all will be well in Sally's world.

“I Went To The Results Board To See How I Did…”

By John Leonard

It was a great teachable moment.  Out of the mouths of young people come things that “set up” the coach for an opportunity to do some great education.   When an athlete came over to me and started with the sentence at the top of the page, here was my response.

“Really? You didn’t already know how you did?”

“Well, I was sixth the 100 fly and 5^th in the 100 back and….”

“ No, really , you didn’t already know how you did?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, what did you do incorrectly in the 100 fly and what do you need to do to improve?”

“You said I have to keep my hips up on the back 50 and make sure I keep breathing every second stroke…”

“and so….??”

“Huh?”

“and so, THAT is “how you did”. Not the place. The place means nothing. I can take you to plenty of swim meets where you can finish first….and can take you to even more where you’ll finish dead last……where you finish depends on what others have done, not on how you have done…..You need to measure two things…your time versus your best time (which is you against the previous best you) and how you did compared to the assignment I gave you before you headed for the starting blocks. How was your time?”

“Well, I don’t know, I never swam long course before.”

“Of course you haven’t, so now you have a time to measure yourself against…congratulations. And do you need a results board to tell you how you did?”

“No, I guess not.”

“Don’t guess. Know that you don’t. If you go to the blocks with clear goals, you know how you did without anyone else needing to tell you. You can evaluate the race for yourself, and “know how you did”.

“So what is the race for?”

“Two things…first, it’s always easier (and more fun) to swim fast when you are racing someone next to you. And second, as you mature, there is a purpose to “winning races”, but in the developmental stage, it’s a terrible way to evaluate yourself…….racing is stimulation, not measurement of you as an athlete, a learner, a person….anything…..Enjoy the race, but measure against your own best self.”

Please everyone take that lesson to heart and mind.

All the Best, Coach John

THE TAPER CHASE

By T.J Liston

Many times senior swimmers get to the end of the season and look for great swims and great time drops due to the “Magic of The Taper.”  Often, swimmers expect these things to materialize because they have in the past, because other swimmers on the team have done well, because it is an important meet, or because they just want it to.  But in reality, the reason why swimmers swim fast is because they have prepared to.  Good performance is preceded by good preparation.  To swim fast, swimmers must train hard and must swim fast in practice.

The coach lays out a season plan before the season even begins.  The season is divided into several different training cycles.  These macro cycles are then divided into smaller mini cycles.  These all add up to a season’s training.  Each mini cycle must be swum with effort and focus or a key part of the swimmer’s training will be missed.  Each cycle is in itself very important and each mini cycle sets up and enhances the next training cycle.  The successful athlete approaches each cycle with great effort and focus realizing that every cycle, indeed every practice, is dependent upon the one before it.

As coaches, we are often able to detect strengths and weaknesses in an individual’s training by how well they are able to hold on to a taper or by their endurance and ability to go from one race to the next with equal success.  To perform well, it is important that early season training is successfully challenged.  To put together smart races and have good splits, the successful athlete will need a strong and focused middle part of the season.  Good fine tuning in later cycles will help the swimmers set up their races correctly and have the necessary speed to race.  Every cycle in a season is important to the success of the next cycle.  Successfully challenging and completing each cycle helps swimmers perform faster and to be able to meet the demands of even more challenging sets at practice.  Swimmers who are able to perform during physically demanding practices, the ones whose repeats hurt, are the swimmers who are preparing for success at the end of the season.

We establish guidelines for what we expect and want at practices for each cycle.  We may make some minor adjustments to intervals and sets, but we don’t make changes to the performance parameters of the cycle’s focus.  Many times we use key individuals as markers to determine the effects of the overall training.  These individuals are the ones that best represent the work offered and the groups’ expectations and abilities.  These swimmers have near perfect attendance and have fulfilled the challenges of the workouts we have given.  These athletes understand that the training curve is well ahead of the performance curve, and that practice efforts from weeks before the championship meet are impacting the swimmer’s ability to race.  The season’s results are dependent on the season’s efforts.  The taper will highlight the work done during the season, and the swimmer whose efforts and attendance have been consistent is usually the swimmer who performs well at the championship meet.

So, before swimmers expect “Taper Magic,” it is important that they put in the work during the early months of training and all the way through the season.  Their attendance needs to be as near to perfect as health allows.  Their efforts and focus have to be 100% every day.  They have to eat, sleep, and hydrate properly throughout the season and all the way through their big meet.  They should not gain weight on their taper.  They should not use up all their extra energy that begins to emerge as they are tapering by staying up late, spending all day playing in the sun, etc..  What they do away from the pool is as important as what is happening at practices.  Rest, rest, and more rest are in order.  Save up that energy.  Save it for racing.  Successful swimming is not magic.  Successful swimming is part of the plan.

Speaking Up to Grow Up

By Coach Bryan Davis

Your swimmer has a multitude of things that they could improve technically to get just a little faster. You know it, your swimmer knows it and your child’s coach knows it. The coach however knows which techniques are the priorities at any given time. The swimmer should have a pretty good understanding of what they are supposed to be working on. Although, your swimmer will not know what the coach has possibly not brought to the swimmers attention yet. The coach may omit technical corrections if there is a technical focus of high priority at the time. It may be that the swimmer is struggling with another high priority focus, then the coach may feel the need to not overload the swimmer with too many technical corrections.

If there is something specific that your swimmer does not understand, is struggling with or just curious about, you should encourage your swimmer to ask the coach to explain it better or for extra attention in that area. When a parent brings the request straight to the coach outside of the presence of the swimmer, it cuts the responsibility of the swimmer out of the equation. The goal of the coach is to get their swimmers to need the coach as little as possible. This frees up more time for the coach to focus on the finer details of your swimmer as an athlete. If you want to help your swimmer become more self-sufficient, then encourage your child to take the responsibility of approaching the coach personally on all aspects of the sport. If you know your swimmer is apprehensive about this type of interaction with the coach. Please stand there with your swimmer and support them as they speak with the coach. With this approach the swimmer will be practicing the skill of speaking up for oneself. The sooner your child takes the wheel the better.  Remember, youth sports are about personal growth competitively but also for growing up in general, not always just about getting a little faster.

When Swimmers Return From Camp

Concern:  “My daughter was able to do a 50 meter freestyle in 32 seconds from a push off in practice while at camp, which is her best time.  Now that she is back home, she can't even do a 32 in a swim meet.”

 Response:  A coach we know took two nationally ranked age group swimmers to a USA Swimming elite training camp several years ago.  He told us how amazed he was to observe and time with his own watch these young swimmers perform sets in times they had never done at home. 

 Was it better coaching?  The swimmers told him that it was a matter of competition and a matter of pride.  They worked so hard in six workouts over three days that it took them over a week to recover once back home.

 Too often swimmers fall into a niche at home where they EXPECT to out-perform some swimmers and EXPECT to be out-performed by other swimmers.  Going to swim camps gives swimmers a chance to be a star away from home.  Many swimmers will do exceptional things that can take them several weeks or in some cases, a whole season to duplicate at home.  This is not a problem with coaching, it is a problem with what swimmers expect of themselves in a given environment.

 If the swimmer can return home and break out of the EXPECTED, they have learned a great lesson.

 In addition to the above explanation, coaches are concerned that some camps give swimmers times that are not altogether accurate.  Swim camps are businesses and they thrive by bringing swimmers back year after year for positive experiences and by having swimmers spread the good news of their positive experience.  One of the most positive experiences a swimmer can have is going a life time best time.  Parents and coaches should be wary of best times reported during practice swims or "time trials".  Accept only times done in sanctioned swim meets.

 Concern:  My child learned stroke techniques she never learned at home and trained differently than she does at home.  Why doesn't the coach teach this way?

 Response:  Keep in mind several things:

 1.  Communicate with the home coach.  Ask about the "new" techniques and training the swimmer learned at camp.  Often times "new" techniques or training are not new at all, but are simply taught with different words.

 2.  Swimming performance is not produced by a direct cause and effect relationship.  There are many ways to teach a given technique and there are many techniques that can produce a given result.  Techniques used at camp may simply be a different, though not better, attempt to produce the same result which can be produced at home.

 3.  Children are very impressionable by their temporary new coaches at camps.  As an example, imagine how you, a parent, feels when your child returns home from home practice one day and announces that he is now going to drink three glasses of milk each day because the coach said it is a good idea, even though you have been trying to get your child to do this for years!  Swimmers go to camp and often hear the same things the coach at home has been trying to teach but because it is being said by a new camp coach, it is now important and the child will enthusiastically accept this advice as the best way.

 4.  Just because it is done at camp a certain way, does not mean it is the only way or the best way.  Staff members at camps are often times less experienced and less knowledgeable than your home coach.

 5.  Be open and cooperative with your home coach.  Many coaches do not like swimmers going away to swimming camps because swimmers return home tired, out of synch with the season training plan, and full of "new" ideas that may not be very new or very helpful.  When selecting a camp for your child, ask the coach to help you select a good camp.  There a many very good camps.

 6.  If you have a young and relatively inexperienced coach make sure that you turn your child's experience at camp into a POSITIVE one for the coach and team and not a NEGATIVE one for the coach.  Share thoughts with the coach rather than demand changes based on something experienced at a camp that is perceived as being the right and only way.  Help your coach grow, send your coach to camp!  You can make sure your coach has every opportunity to be up on the latest in technique, training, administration, and sports psychology by sending your coach to the ASCA World Clinic in the fall!