Parents!

Swim parents, love em or leave em!



The four different types of swim parents:

• The Offiicial- Knows everything about swimming, or at least they think so. We as coaches all have our own different styles of handling stroke problems and things we think of as bigger deals than the others. For example, I had a six year old who was an amazing breaststoker. Not a legal breaststoker, but she was very good nonetheless. Her mom would approach me almost every practice and ask me how I was going to fix her kick so that it would be legal. As far as I was concerned, there was no magic fix I could give her to make her kick legal, but we would work on it and with experience and practice the problem would take care of itself. The only thing this parent is concerned with is the legality of their childs stroke, which is important in higher levels of swimming. But in little kids? No! The important thing is that they enjoy what they're doing. If they want to be olympians then I will worry about legality but I just want them to have fun. But this parent does have many redeeming qualities. They're like your own personal rulebook. Because nobody knows the rules like the Official anytime you need to challenge a DQ they can always tell you how and what to say.

• The Screamer- Not an angry parent, but an overexcited one. This is the parent that races up and down the side of the pool along with thier child yelling Kick, Kick! We all have this parent, and to be frank they make the swim meet more exciting. They're like the team cheerleader and have endless amounts of energy. At the end of the meet this parent is always willing to help cut ribbons and give out awards.

• The Who?- No one is really sure if this parent exists, we have never met them or even seen them, but we assume they do because their kid is always at practice.

• The U-Haul- I am pretty sure that this parent manages to bring everything that they own to every single swim meet. I kid you not, I have seen this parent bring a tv and a playstation to the meet. This parent is always easy to find because of the massive amount of kids at their area every meet.

This is not a complete list (of course) nor is it intended to hurt anyones feeling. Without all of these different parents I dont think swim meets could run. There is no way one coach can assume all of these different personalities and still function. What kinds of parents have you encountered?

First blog

Here is what this blog is all about. It is basically going to be a compilation of what I see and hear on deck and off, that Ithink is right or wrong. As well as swimming news and other news that i just decide is relevant to the blog. So to start let me tell you what I saw on deck today as i was visiting a meet right down the street from my house...

• A child (maybe 10 or 11) being berated for not getting his q time in an event, even though he had gone for a personal best and this was the third day of a very busy meet for him! Im sorry but someday I would like to be the exact opposite of this coach. Whenever one of my swimmers swims be it a best time or not I always share in the blame or joy depending on how they did. I dont care who you are you can not get mad at a kid for not living up to your expectations. We have to remember that were not here to make olympic caliber swimmers but people who love swimming as much as we do!

• I saw a former olympic swimmer and was reminded what was so great about our sport. Not the money or fame (we all know swimmers are known for being rich and famous) but the people! I was able to sit down with this person and they were willing to tell me their story including all the ups and downs and what it would take to make it as a successful swim coach. Just the fact that this person is willing to share their "secrets" with me is amazing.

Now I have to encourage you to tell me what you love about swimming, and also where you would like to have me write about.