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.
Thank you all for responding..
you have no idea how valuable your input was.
Last night I had a talk with my son and pretty much offered a USA-s team change(I had emailed a friend for details on her team) or just quit.
He was not happy with either decision...he just wanted heard by his coachs about what's bothering him and wants to add input for training and changes but was so sure that the head coach wasn't going to listen. I told him he had to give her a chance similar to what he needs from her. She does not directly coach him anymore but write the sets and we are a small team(40) and she's very important to her swimmers. He asked me to speak on his behalf but I will but he also needs to find his voice and trust in the coach.
Our team offers 2 outdoor swims(one has low attendence and is coached by a young kid who in his second year of college, someone for my son to look up to). I approached him and gave him a quick run down of my sons current state of mind. He agreed with him and said he feels the same way with his swimming sometimes and said he'd talk to him as a fellow swimmer.
Then head coach came in and I gave her a brief description of whats going on and immediately said she wanted to meet with him and us(parents). She's flexible in scheduling and wants to meet away from the pool.
This kid just loves swimming(competing, training, etc.)..everything about it. He never slacks off in practice and was highly recognized a second year at his camp for his drive and desire(which was attended by swimmers ages 12-17). He may not practice 5 days a week all year. And he has had results....they just need to talk.
Thank you again..really I didn't know what to do and your knowledge and experience is priceless...
Sounds like it was a good talk with your son. I hope the talk with the coach goes just as well.
Thank you all for responding..
you have no idea how valuable your input was.
Last night I had a talk with my son and pretty much offered a USA-s team change(I had emailed a friend for details on her team) or just quit.
He was not happy with either decision...he just wanted heard by his coachs about what's bothering him and wants to add input for training and changes but was so sure that the head coach wasn't going to listen. I told him he had to give her a chance similar to what he needs from her. She does not directly coach him anymore but write the sets and we are a small team(40) and she's very important to her swimmers. He asked me to speak on his behalf but I will but he also needs to find his voice and trust in the coach.
Our team offers 2 outdoor swims(one has low attendence and is coached by a young kid who in his second year of college, someone for my son to look up to). I approached him and gave him a quick run down of my sons current state of mind. He agreed with him and said he feels the same way with his swimming sometimes and said he'd talk to him as a fellow swimmer.
Then head coach came in and I gave her a brief description of whats going on and immediately said she wanted to meet with him and us(parents). She's flexible in scheduling and wants to meet away from the pool.
This kid just loves swimming(competing, training, etc.)..everything about it. He never slacks off in practice and was highly recognized a second year at his camp for his drive and desire(which was attended by swimmers ages 12-17). He may not practice 5 days a week all year. And he has had results....they just need to talk.
Thank you again..really I didn't know what to do and your knowledge and experience is priceless...
Sounds like it was a good talk with your son. I hope the talk with the coach goes just as well.
