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
Parents
Former Member
This article really bugged me, yes it made me think but come on..
As a lifelong swimmers, we probably all had the realization at some point in our lives that this sport was probably not going to make us rich and earn us fame, even the Olypians probably did not start because they wanted to be famous..At some point thay realized they were really good and decided to committ to their dreams through alot of hard work and determination
Interesting, people join a club team, most of which have been existing sometime before they joined, and joining that team, they expect to do a program that works for them.. We hear this all the time in club coaching- people expect to do what they want and not do the program the way the coach has set up, which is totally bogus..could you imagine showing up to a football practice and telling the coach..you know, I really am not liking the whole tackling thing, maybe I should be the qaurterback, yea OK! Somebody had made a statement that these kids are forced to do what the coaches want or how they set up the program..No kidding, that's why they are the head coach of an established program...what they do seems to work for everybody, not just little Johnny (what's Johnny gonna do in the relal worl when the Boss comes knocking?).
Someone also said that swimming only places emphasis on winners and only one can be a winner.. what society are we living in where we are all winners? the big four (soccer,baseball,football and basketball) all have major world championships for their repective winners!! what is bigger than the Superbowl? Swimming teaches the true fact: There is always someone a little bigger,stronger and faster and you have no control over that and the sooner we deal with that, the sooner we can focus on being the best that we can be...
Last part of the article that really irked me.. "Kids are different."?
Kids are not different, yes they are taller on average, have higher SAT Scores on average and much are more profficient on computers than we are, but in essence don't they still need:
Discipline, to be taught proper ethics and morals, to be praised when they do something well and to be taught when they have done someting wrong, to have a place (like swim practice) where they can be themselves, have friends, be safe and set high standards for themselves and lastly to have people (like swim coaches and parents) who have high expectations of them?..
I believe it's the parents who have to change..not the sports, not the kids.. the parents need to get tougher!
This article really bugged me, yes it made me think but come on..
As a lifelong swimmers, we probably all had the realization at some point in our lives that this sport was probably not going to make us rich and earn us fame, even the Olypians probably did not start because they wanted to be famous..At some point thay realized they were really good and decided to committ to their dreams through alot of hard work and determination
Interesting, people join a club team, most of which have been existing sometime before they joined, and joining that team, they expect to do a program that works for them.. We hear this all the time in club coaching- people expect to do what they want and not do the program the way the coach has set up, which is totally bogus..could you imagine showing up to a football practice and telling the coach..you know, I really am not liking the whole tackling thing, maybe I should be the qaurterback, yea OK! Somebody had made a statement that these kids are forced to do what the coaches want or how they set up the program..No kidding, that's why they are the head coach of an established program...what they do seems to work for everybody, not just little Johnny (what's Johnny gonna do in the relal worl when the Boss comes knocking?).
Someone also said that swimming only places emphasis on winners and only one can be a winner.. what society are we living in where we are all winners? the big four (soccer,baseball,football and basketball) all have major world championships for their repective winners!! what is bigger than the Superbowl? Swimming teaches the true fact: There is always someone a little bigger,stronger and faster and you have no control over that and the sooner we deal with that, the sooner we can focus on being the best that we can be...
Last part of the article that really irked me.. "Kids are different."?
Kids are not different, yes they are taller on average, have higher SAT Scores on average and much are more profficient on computers than we are, but in essence don't they still need:
Discipline, to be taught proper ethics and morals, to be praised when they do something well and to be taught when they have done someting wrong, to have a place (like swim practice) where they can be themselves, have friends, be safe and set high standards for themselves and lastly to have people (like swim coaches and parents) who have high expectations of them?..
I believe it's the parents who have to change..not the sports, not the kids.. the parents need to get tougher!
