My 11 year old son just started his first competitive year of swim team after doing a year of developmental swim team last year. He attended his first meet last weekend and was so disappointed that he told me he no longer wants to do swim. The kids in our area start swimming competitively very young and by 11-12 are all very fast. He came in last in all his races and with times twice as slow as the next slowest kid before him. Unfortunately, he just aged into the 11-12 group by 2 weeks, and in combination with being small for his age and not really being all that athletic/strong, the whole thing just made him feel like he was really bad. We have placed no expectations on him other than to try his best and have fun with his friends, but his perfectionist personality is sort of his downfall. If he can't be good at something, he would rather not try at all.
His coaches have told me that he has great technique, so I know he at least has a good foundation. We tried explaining that the other kids have had many more years of training and if he sticks it out, he will start to catch up if he works at it.
He loves swimming and being in the water, so I am hoping for some advice on how to have him continue without hating it. So far, we have compromised and said he didn't have to attend any of the USA meets this year. But we would like him to go to the local league's team meets, for the sake of supporting his teammates and being a good sport. He saw a glimpse of that at last week's meet when his teammates told him "good job" and a boy on the opposing team high fived him after he climbed out, exhausted, after the 100 yard free at almost 2:00.
tkbmom,
your son has a lot of room for improvement and can drop chunks of time. big chunks.
its the improvements that he needs to look at not the placing or times...yes i know that will be hard right now.
when i was 7 i aspired to be in the top 3 of my local meets. when i was 8 i was getting those 3rd places. there were 2 other
that were very good ahead of me. but i kept busting my hiney. i kept at it. chasing this other kid from KC named Dennis Finegold that set 7 national records that year. i was always 2nd.
i kept working hard and trying to beat the older kids in my workouts.
and let me be very frank...if he went 2min for a 100free, i would have lapped him....twice.
i went 1:51.03 in the 200yd free when i was 12. and no i didnt win that race. i got 2nd. which put me 2nd in the usa as well. once again behind Dennis Finegold.
ahhh but the summer we were 12 that all changed. and i finally out touched Dennis in the 100m fly. it took a new national record to win that race. a record that was older than i was. mine lasted 3 years. then Chas Morton broke mine....and has had it ever since.
as one of the great MX racing greats Chad Reed said about the drive to win: "its not something you can learn, you are either born with it or not."
tkbmom,
your son has a lot of room for improvement and can drop chunks of time. big chunks.
its the improvements that he needs to look at not the placing or times...yes i know that will be hard right now.
when i was 7 i aspired to be in the top 3 of my local meets. when i was 8 i was getting those 3rd places. there were 2 other
that were very good ahead of me. but i kept busting my hiney. i kept at it. chasing this other kid from KC named Dennis Finegold that set 7 national records that year. i was always 2nd.
i kept working hard and trying to beat the older kids in my workouts.
and let me be very frank...if he went 2min for a 100free, i would have lapped him....twice.
i went 1:51.03 in the 200yd free when i was 12. and no i didnt win that race. i got 2nd. which put me 2nd in the usa as well. once again behind Dennis Finegold.
ahhh but the summer we were 12 that all changed. and i finally out touched Dennis in the 100m fly. it took a new national record to win that race. a record that was older than i was. mine lasted 3 years. then Chas Morton broke mine....and has had it ever since.
as one of the great MX racing greats Chad Reed said about the drive to win: "its not something you can learn, you are either born with it or not."
