I have a 12 year old son who has been swimming USA-s for 5 years.
He loves swimming.
He just came home from an intensive swim camp(overnite) that lasted 5 days.
He also attended this camp last year.
Last year when he returned from camp he was hesitant to return to his team. He loved the training at camp. I brushed it off.
This year he's upset about returning to his usa-s team again and quite disgusted. After 5 days of learn new drills and almost revamping mosts of his races he just regrets training with his team. He says he loves the people but hates the sets. He says they have been doing the same drills for the past 5 years.
Now as a parent I have observed the coach writing a workout on the white board and then just spacing off but since I'm a new swimmer..i figured..what did I know?
What do I do...change teams???? We are saturated here in western pa.
He's not a diva but a technically beautiful swimmer. And he loves his sport.
Would it hurt to drop a year around club and he would just swim middle school?? Or find him another USA-s team?
Thanks for reading and any opinions would be greatly appreciated.
I would start by assessing your team's performance in the past few years with other clubs around. LSC Championships, Zones, etc. Certainly some programs go through cyclical issues, but generally speaking good teams are good...year in, year out.Good point. Try also to understand what the team's mission/vision/philosophy is. Not all teams aspire to turn out state-, regional-, national-level champions. It's not bad if they don't aspire to that, but if your kid wants that kind of team, it'd be good to find it if you can.
Based on what you said, it sounds like your kid wants to swim more, not less. So I would consider a different program, not dropping club swimming. Maybe meet with his current coach first to discuss their plan for the season and concerns. But I would definitely steer clear of suggesting how the coaches should do their jobs.I agree with all of this.
I would start by assessing your team's performance in the past few years with other clubs around. LSC Championships, Zones, etc. Certainly some programs go through cyclical issues, but generally speaking good teams are good...year in, year out.Good point. Try also to understand what the team's mission/vision/philosophy is. Not all teams aspire to turn out state-, regional-, national-level champions. It's not bad if they don't aspire to that, but if your kid wants that kind of team, it'd be good to find it if you can.
Based on what you said, it sounds like your kid wants to swim more, not less. So I would consider a different program, not dropping club swimming. Maybe meet with his current coach first to discuss their plan for the season and concerns. But I would definitely steer clear of suggesting how the coaches should do their jobs.I agree with all of this.
