My son is 13 and this is his first year swimming in a club. For many different reasons he was late getting into the sport and slow to warm up to it but right now he is loving it and wants to do everything he can to get better. The problem is he is not getting better fast enough (for him). I keep telling him to be patient and put in the work, but it's completely devastating to him to go to meet after meet and have marginal improvements. I want to stress that he is the one who wants this - to improve his times, to get faster, to not be dead last in every event. He is very much aware of where he is right now. He does not want to be an Olympic swimmer, obviously, just a better one than he is right now. We talk about improving in relation to his own times, not comparing himself to others, enjoying the fun of it, but he is 13 and I guess it's not great for your self esteem when your times are so much worse than your teammates. He keeps asking me, when is it going to kick in for him. Right now he swims 4 times a week about 2 hours each practice. He does some dryland (not much). I guess what I am asking is - what can we do to help?
Hi swimmom, thanks for sharing your son's story with us! If you haven't done so already, your first step should be to talk with your son's coach and find out more about the coach's perspective on what he can do to improve. If you already spoke with the coach (and the response is why you turned to the forum), what did you discover?
You're lucky that your son loves swimming and wants to improve and that this is all coming from him and his own drive and motivation. He's impatient about his rate of improvement, and the best way that you can give him the support and attention he needs is to educate yourself about the sport as much as you can. Knowledge is power - the more you learn about swimming, the better-placed you will be to help your son.
Swimming is certainly no easy sport. A great deal of it is technique-based and humans are not born swimmers - we have to learn how to swim and it does not come naturally. Although it may be argued that swimmers are better off if they learn to swim at a very early age, there are quite a few excellent swimmers and even Olympians (such as Ed Moses) who got a late start to the sport.
Again, knowledge is power. Figure out what strokes your son enjoys, which strokes he is weaker at. Try to learn some drills to develop his technique - consider attending a stroke clinic or camp for age groupers where you can both learn. Improvement takes persistence, knowledge and patience. Hopefully your son will continue to enjoy the sport and eventually will excel.
Good luck to you both!
Hi swimmom, thanks for sharing your son's story with us! If you haven't done so already, your first step should be to talk with your son's coach and find out more about the coach's perspective on what he can do to improve. If you already spoke with the coach (and the response is why you turned to the forum), what did you discover?
You're lucky that your son loves swimming and wants to improve and that this is all coming from him and his own drive and motivation. He's impatient about his rate of improvement, and the best way that you can give him the support and attention he needs is to educate yourself about the sport as much as you can. Knowledge is power - the more you learn about swimming, the better-placed you will be to help your son.
Swimming is certainly no easy sport. A great deal of it is technique-based and humans are not born swimmers - we have to learn how to swim and it does not come naturally. Although it may be argued that swimmers are better off if they learn to swim at a very early age, there are quite a few excellent swimmers and even Olympians (such as Ed Moses) who got a late start to the sport.
Again, knowledge is power. Figure out what strokes your son enjoys, which strokes he is weaker at. Try to learn some drills to develop his technique - consider attending a stroke clinic or camp for age groupers where you can both learn. Improvement takes persistence, knowledge and patience. Hopefully your son will continue to enjoy the sport and eventually will excel.
Good luck to you both!
