Age Group coaching question

RE: Age Group coaching question

pwolf66 — Sat, 16 May 2015 11:34:01 GMT

At meets, a coach should talk with his swimmers before & after each race. The swimmer should walk up to the coach about 15 or 20 minutes before and immediately after each race. The talk should be inspiring, encouraging with a few simple things to help her. Coaches should keep conversations short sweet and to the point to be fair to the team. He should avoid getting into long conversations during the meet while swimmers are racing or needing to talk with him before or after their races. The coach does not need to track down each swimmer. At meets, coaches usually stay around the same spot to observe races & talk with swimmers. Bring the situation to his attention in a simple straight forward manner and look for improvement in the future. Here's what we observed. Here's what we'd like to see. We hope this is a reasonable request. Definately this. I tried to speak to every swimmer after a race and many times had to chase down swimmers (typically teenage boys :-) ) to give them post race comments.

RE: Age Group coaching question

Former Member — Thu, 14 May 2015 09:57:21 GMT

taruky, what happened at the end? Did you have a word with the coach?

RE: Age Group coaching question

taruky — Thu, 07 May 2015 09:21:10 GMT

Thank you everyone for the input. Orca, it is a younger coach, he's probably in his early 30's. I think I will take the advice of everyone and just keep it very specific. "Coach, at the last meet my daughter was hurt because she felt like you didn't take interest in her races. Even if not true, if you could give her pre-race advice or words of encouragement it would go a long way toward maintaining her enthusiasm. She craves encouragement and acknowledgement from you."

RE: Age Group coaching question

Former Member — Wed, 06 May 2015 14:56:49 GMT

Well, the HS season is over so she is doing well. After the season was over something else happened that I can't talk about right now, but it was in writing and resulted in the head coach resigning his position as coach. My daughter is looking into reporting it to professional standards commission (for educators) and GHSA.

RE: Age Group coaching question

Former Member — Tue, 05 May 2015 13:33:55 GMT

This was published recently on swimswam. I thought it was excellent. While my granddaughter has never experienced any of this in club swimming, her high school swimming experience has been a whole other story with this year ending with the resignation of the head swim coach due to the manner he treated my granddaughter. swimswam.com/.../

RE: Age Group coaching question

flystorms — Tue, 05 May 2015 04:50:00 GMT

Laineybug, I remember you talking about the issues with your granddaughter on another thread a while back. HOw are things going these days? Is she adjusting?

RE: Age Group coaching question

Former Member — Mon, 04 May 2015 16:35:36 GMT

One thing I know for sure is NOBODY likes to be told how to do their job. Exactly! I agree with Knelson - 100%. And that is the reason why I always tell my fellow co-parents that they must define themselves their own targets and how to achieve it; unfortunately in almost 90% of cases bringing up the question doesn't resolve the issue.

RE: Age Group coaching question

knelson — Mon, 04 May 2015 12:26:18 GMT

I would definitely say something to the coach, but I would limit my criticism to the specific incident. "My daughter was upset when she expected you to come talk about her race and then didn't." I think this is the best approach. The coach may not even realize he snubbed the OP's daughter. One thing I know for sure is NOBODY likes to be told how to do their job.

RE: Age Group coaching question

ande — Mon, 04 May 2015 11:35:10 GMT

RE: Age Group coaching question

Jimbosback — Mon, 04 May 2015 11:01:10 GMT

I would definitely say something to the coach, but I would limit my criticism to the specific incident. "My daughter was upset when she expected you to come talk about her race and then didn't."

RE: Age Group coaching question

Former Member — Mon, 04 May 2015 09:37:25 GMT

Daughters thing is very close to me as I have two of them (both competitive swimmers) and I'll try to provide you my humble opinion. There are couple of things that you must be aware of as a swim-parent (this is a job position actually, cause only you could be the best advisor and coach to your daughter/or son/kids): 1. Best coaches are very rare species (I mean those who have skills and pay equal (and sufficient) attention to all team members at the same time) - max 10% of the overall number of coaches. 2. Average coaches who pay sufficient and equal attention to all, but lack some key skills to educate young swimmers are about 40%. 3. Low level: However those who think they have skills, but lack proper communication with their team members are overwhelming 50% of the overall number. You must try to find a coach from Cat. 1; or at least from Cat. 2, because with coaches from Cat. 2 you can still make a good work by helping each other, exchanging experience/news in swim techniques or strategies/advises etc.; how to motivate your daughter, to learn/discuss where she should put extra efforts/focus... and coaches from Cat. 2 are more open to gain skills and help you. Cat. 3 - well, this would be waste of time and money. Cause you can't change one's opinion and ego about himself. If your coach hasn't learn how to communicate with kids by now, surely it will be impossible or it'll take him too much time to learn now. And I'm sure you don't want your kid to be the lab rat in such journey. Most important points to your particular situation with pre-race advice: - Advises right before the race in 99% of cases are useless. Cause no matter what you say right before the race to your daughter, she will swim what she has been swimming during her practices. Practice times are what you must focus on and care about. - Post race discussions however would be more helpful.. Record on video if possible your daughter's race, so she could see what she did and analyze it with you. This way you and your swimmer shall know what to practice and how to. - If you can afford you could try to hire a personal coach for stroke techniques (if necessary) - As a swim parent you must learn, when and if possible, all relevant things that concern your daughter' swimming. You could learn a lot of things on this forum as well, cause I saw a lot of enthusiastic people with knowledge here and who are always willing to help with any matter starting from what to eat, wear, how to train etc. etc. Hope above will be somehow helpful!

RE: Age Group coaching question

orca1946 — Sun, 03 May 2015 06:29:23 GMT

Is it a young or older coach? If young then ask how that would strike him? If older he/she may need a gentle reminder that ALL the team needs advice!

RE: Age Group coaching question

DeniseMW — Sat, 02 May 2015 10:27:17 GMT

Wow, that stinks. The folks on this board are pretty great, and I'm sure they'll offer you advice, but I would think a quiet word with the coach, non-confrontational, to let him know that all the kids need attention might help. This guys sounds very unprofessional, and there's no way to fix something like that other than to encourage your daughter to hang in there, don't let the coach determine her performance, and just always give it her best without worrying about his opinion.

RE: Age Group coaching question

isilver78 — Sat, 02 May 2015 07:55:47 GMT

Hi turaky, This is unfortunately a very common problem. As a parent you need to kindly raise your concerns to the coach. It's possible that he/she isn't aware of how large the attention disparity has become. Coaches and swimmers journey through a season together, sometimes they both get lost in the process, but a coach who is dedicated to building a successful team will recognize their error and correct it. If the coach in question isn't the owner/head coach, the next step would be to voice your concern to the chief. We train our age group coaches to address groups of swimmers together when possible. Young coaches often try to do too much with each kid. Good luck!

RE: Age Group coaching question

Elaine Krugman — Sat, 02 May 2015 04:31:01 GMT

+1 on Denise's advice. I can relate to what your daughter experienced, because I had a coach just like that in high school volleyball. She had her favorite players, and I wasn't one of them. Instead, I was ignored, and it didn't do much for the self-esteem. The coach lacks empathy, and he needs to be made aware of how it affects others. When you speak with him, perhaps you can ask him to put himself in your daughter's place. How would that make him feel, especially when he was 12 years old? A little attention and positive reinforcement can go along way with a pre-teen's self-esteem. I hope he takes your advice.