Hello everyone!
i have a 14 yr old daughter who has been swimming with a USA swimming club for about 2yrs now. She is the only person in our family to swim, so naturally I feel in a bit over my head at times, though she seems to fit in well in the swimming world. I’m not sure how my daughter ranks against her peers, or her just others in her age group for that matter, nor what is a “good time” or “bad time”. Given she is not in the top swim group at her club, I’m get the sense her times about average for her age or perhaps a bit below. So anyways, I’m wondering what I can do to be a “good swim parent”, how far do I go when she adds time and how happy should I be when she drops a little time? Thanks for all your help! I’ve put a couple of her short course yards times below.
100fly: 1:02.51
100back:1:02.35
100free: 56.32
200free: 2:00.59
200back: 2:13.15
200IM: 2:18.87
200fly: 2:24.11
50free: 26.15
I agree with the advice not to get involved with her times, and wanted to add one thought. I look back fondly on the time I spent with my dad driving to practice and swim meets. We didn't usually talk about swimming. I learned a lot about his childhood for example. We had some good laughs. I didn't fully realize it back then, but those times together were precious. So my advice would be to enjoy those times together.
Swim Dad,
The best advice, from a swim coach to me many years ago about my daughter’s times, is to FORGET her times. Your daughter is old enough to keep up with them herself if she is motivated to do so, and her coach will definitely know her times. Focus on having fun. You start watching times and pushing and it could likely turn her off to swimming all together. After she has competed in the event the first time, her best time will be printed in the heat sheet at swim meets (There will be a NT, or no time, the first time she swims an event) No need to know her times. You also don’t need to keep up with them because any time you NEED to know her times you can look them up on the USA Swimming website. The organization keeps a data base of every swimmer’s times. I swam as a kid, my daughter swam and my granddaughter swam—long history of swimming in my family. My granddaughter just “retired” from swimming as a two time/two years in a row, first team, All American, because she wants to do junior and senior years in college as a “regular” college student. The point here is we never kept up with times and my granddaughter excelled. Excellence doesn’t come from outside it comes from within. But, if you JUST HAVE TO KNOW where she stands in relation to others go to USA Swimming and look for motivational times. Somewhere on the net there is an explanation of how those times were developed and what they mean as percentile ranks. In other words a AAA time might mean she ranks in the top 5% nationally.
Have fun
I agree with the advice not to get involved with her times, and wanted to add one thought. I look back fondly on the time I spent with my dad driving to practice and swim meets. We didn't usually talk about swimming. I learned a lot about his childhood for example. We had some good laughs. I didn't fully realize it back then, but those times together were precious. So my advice would be to enjoy those times together.
Swim Dad,
The best advice, from a swim coach to me many years ago about my daughter’s times, is to FORGET her times. Your daughter is old enough to keep up with them herself if she is motivated to do so, and her coach will definitely know her times. Focus on having fun. You start watching times and pushing and it could likely turn her off to swimming all together. After she has competed in the event the first time, her best time will be printed in the heat sheet at swim meets (There will be a NT, or no time, the first time she swims an event) No need to know her times. You also don’t need to keep up with them because any time you NEED to know her times you can look them up on the USA Swimming website. The organization keeps a data base of every swimmer’s times. I swam as a kid, my daughter swam and my granddaughter swam—long history of swimming in my family. My granddaughter just “retired” from swimming as a two time/two years in a row, first team, All American, because she wants to do junior and senior years in college as a “regular” college student. The point here is we never kept up with times and my granddaughter excelled. Excellence doesn’t come from outside it comes from within. But, if you JUST HAVE TO KNOW where she stands in relation to others go to USA Swimming and look for motivational times. Somewhere on the net there is an explanation of how those times were developed and what they mean as percentile ranks. In other words a AAA time might mean she ranks in the top 5% nationally.
Have fun
