Saw one of the more interesting articles about the past, present, and future aspects of competitive swimming on SwimInfo's website the other day from Wayne Goldsmith..
www.swiminfo.com/.../7720.asp
I think it provokes a great deal of thought in this arena and specifically within this group since many of us either participate, have friends/relatives who participate, or remember participating in competitive swim meets.
I particularly appreciate the parents perspective provided in the article. While I have little children (5 and almost 3 years old), the thought of going through what my parents did with me makes me hesitate to sign up for the first set of SwimAmerica lessons or summer club swim team to introduce them to swimming. While I swam through my school age years, I didn't really consider just what my parents had to go through right along with me.. I was always thinking about what i was going through. Wow!
Check out the article and see what you think...
Rob
Matt S - I love you thoughts!!!!!
I just put my child in her first swimming lessons (besides the ones I give her) and I am realizing that this is where we make our mistakes. Providing positive reinforcement for kids is easy, but we set up 99% of our kids for failure.
We try so hard as coaches to get kids to think about the final outcome (Olympics), when we can motivate legions of kids with much smaller and more satisfying outcomes. Why aren't we putting together meets that reward skill level and accomplishment... not who swam across the pool the fastest.
That is why "team sports" will always be more fun to the masses. Every kid has a chance to make a basket or hit the ball. Swimming there is only one winner. We tell a great majority of our swimmer that they are losers, just by making them compete for place.
We need to get creative and think out of the box, to keep kids interested and excited about being in swimming.
Matt S - I love you thoughts!!!!!
I just put my child in her first swimming lessons (besides the ones I give her) and I am realizing that this is where we make our mistakes. Providing positive reinforcement for kids is easy, but we set up 99% of our kids for failure.
We try so hard as coaches to get kids to think about the final outcome (Olympics), when we can motivate legions of kids with much smaller and more satisfying outcomes. Why aren't we putting together meets that reward skill level and accomplishment... not who swam across the pool the fastest.
That is why "team sports" will always be more fun to the masses. Every kid has a chance to make a basket or hit the ball. Swimming there is only one winner. We tell a great majority of our swimmer that they are losers, just by making them compete for place.
We need to get creative and think out of the box, to keep kids interested and excited about being in swimming.
