I have a 12-year-old son who is in his third year of competitive swimming (He's been in swimming lessons since he was 6 months old but never swam competitively until he was 10). No one in my family as ever been a competitive swimmer so I am still learning all the nuances of the swim world, even after three years into it.
Given that, I am trying to educate myself on what is the typical amount of "coaching" a swimmer gets at this age (or any age really)? What I mean is, I know by this age they pretty much have their strokes down but I'm thinking there are still things that need to be fine tuned. So how often does a coach or assistant coach say, "Your arms are crossing over during your free, trying doing this to lessen that." or "Your arms need to shoot out right away during your *** so you glide more."? Is it typical to have swimmers at this age just swim laps with no input from the coaches other than what to do next?
Any insight is helpful. I still feel like a fish out of water at times.
First of all, I would like to congratulate the original poster for reaching out to learn more about our great sport. As you can see from the responses the subject of age group coaching is a very hot topic among swimming parents. As a former ASCA age group coach of the year, I will share some of my opinions on this topic. Understand, these are only my opinions and likely if you were to ask 10 age group coaches, you will get 10 different opinions...
To begin with whether your child is being coached by a "Head Coach" or an "Assistant Coach" largely does not matter. What does matter is that the coach is providing a positive and challenging environment for your child. How many days per week is your child swimming? Are the practices challenging (the best test here is if your child is tired when (s)he get's out of practice)? Does the coach force your child to "think" during practice? Do the children in the training group seem to have a good level of camaraderie - at practice and at meets? Finally, and in my opinion most importantly, is your child swimming faster and improving (this is the easiest to figure out - are his/her times getting faster at meets?)? If the answers to these questions are generally yes, then you are likely in a good place. If not, then you likely should begin to ask for a meeting with the coach(es) to discuss and understand why not. As a retired age group coach, I always respected and enjoyed meeting with parents to discuss both our training program and the specific performance of their swimmers. Usually when performance was discussed, I would have attendance records and could largely demonstrate how performance and practice attendance are directly correlated.
The one thing that I can assure you is that after years of competing at a very high level, coaching at a very high level, and now swimming and coaching masters - Swimming is a sport with no shortcuts. Your child's improvement and development will be directly proportional to their willingness to commit to attending practice, listening and learning from their coaches, developing skills, and most importantly - training hard.
First of all, I would like to congratulate the original poster for reaching out to learn more about our great sport. As you can see from the responses the subject of age group coaching is a very hot topic among swimming parents. As a former ASCA age group coach of the year, I will share some of my opinions on this topic. Understand, these are only my opinions and likely if you were to ask 10 age group coaches, you will get 10 different opinions...
To begin with whether your child is being coached by a "Head Coach" or an "Assistant Coach" largely does not matter. What does matter is that the coach is providing a positive and challenging environment for your child. How many days per week is your child swimming? Are the practices challenging (the best test here is if your child is tired when (s)he get's out of practice)? Does the coach force your child to "think" during practice? Do the children in the training group seem to have a good level of camaraderie - at practice and at meets? Finally, and in my opinion most importantly, is your child swimming faster and improving (this is the easiest to figure out - are his/her times getting faster at meets?)? If the answers to these questions are generally yes, then you are likely in a good place. If not, then you likely should begin to ask for a meeting with the coach(es) to discuss and understand why not. As a retired age group coach, I always respected and enjoyed meeting with parents to discuss both our training program and the specific performance of their swimmers. Usually when performance was discussed, I would have attendance records and could largely demonstrate how performance and practice attendance are directly correlated.
The one thing that I can assure you is that after years of competing at a very high level, coaching at a very high level, and now swimming and coaching masters - Swimming is a sport with no shortcuts. Your child's improvement and development will be directly proportional to their willingness to commit to attending practice, listening and learning from their coaches, developing skills, and most importantly - training hard.
