I would like to expand on the first part of that first paragraph a bit.....about parents and coaches that put excessive pressure on kids to succeed and push them to spend long hours training at an early age....I have seen first hand growing up the bad side effects of this kinda thing (as I'm sure many of y'all have experienced or witnessed this growing up as well?). I remember that we use to train twice a day 6 days a week growing up as an agegrouper....and during the summers we would sometimes swim as much as 20,000 meters in a single day.....I also recall parents that balled thier children out in front of other people at swim meets if they thought that thier kids had a sub par performance. I always hated seeing that kinda thing. One thing I am grateful for is that my parents never became that involved in my personal swimming related life. Sure they were there to support me at many swim meets growing up (and even came to some meets while I was in college)...but they never pressured me to meet any specific criteria in relation to my swimming....In fact they were so detached from the technical specifics of my swimming that I could tell them I went a :37 in a 100 free or that I went a 1:15 in a 100 free at a meet (by high school that is) and they wouldn't know the difference....they would just say something like....Was that a good time for you?....Are you happy with that performance?....etc...I personally preferred it that way over the other alternative which I had to witness so often growing up....when a parent becomes way too involved in thier kid's sporting activities.
Newmastersswimmer
I would like to expand on the first part of that first paragraph a bit.....about parents and coaches that put excessive pressure on kids to succeed and push them to spend long hours training at an early age....I have seen first hand growing up the bad side effects of this kinda thing (as I'm sure many of y'all have experienced or witnessed this growing up as well?). I remember that we use to train twice a day 6 days a week growing up as an agegrouper....and during the summers we would sometimes swim as much as 20,000 meters in a single day.....I also recall parents that balled thier children out in front of other people at swim meets if they thought that thier kids had a sub par performance. I always hated seeing that kinda thing. One thing I am grateful for is that my parents never became that involved in my personal swimming related life. Sure they were there to support me at many swim meets growing up (and even came to some meets while I was in college)...but they never pressured me to meet any specific criteria in relation to my swimming....In fact they were so detached from the technical specifics of my swimming that I could tell them I went a :37 in a 100 free or that I went a 1:15 in a 100 free at a meet (by high school that is) and they wouldn't know the difference....they would just say something like....Was that a good time for you?....Are you happy with that performance?....etc...I personally preferred it that way over the other alternative which I had to witness so often growing up....when a parent becomes way too involved in thier kid's sporting activities.
Newmastersswimmer
