In another thread I read that an unnamed USS coach was teaching using 2 dolphin kicks in breaststroke pullout,sneaking the first one in after the dive (like Kitajima did.) I had previously heard coaches teaching dolphin kick on the pullout before it was legal saying "I'll keep teaching it until they DQ it." What do you all think of this? I think the refs should watch for this and DQ the swimmers of course,but I think the coach should be flogged I don't care how many Olympians the might have trained.
You sound like the kinda soccer parent I would've liked, Chickadee. Like me. Cheering, not debriefing every play. I just heard about a parent from nearby Bethesda MD who was arrested for stomping on the soccer field and physically tossing down a 10 year old who he claimed fouled his kid.
I feel sorry for your daughter's friend. There is nothing worse than an overbearing parent, no matter what the sport. Doing a sport to please such a parent never works and always hurts the kid. My daughter swims quite a bit now, nothing more than I used to, but we were pretty picky about choosing her coaches. She does give up sleep overs sometimes (not always), but, as I told someone in another thread, she SMILES when she gets up for morning practice and early morning meets. She thinks swim meets are like a big party that all her friends go to. The key thing parents need to remember is that they weren't invited to the party. They should just pick up the child when the party is over and asked if they had fun.
P.S. I see you're from PA. You must not be a Striker parent. That team is intense.
When I played water polo, our coach was the unarmed combat instructor for the Canadian navy (multiple black belt) who also brought in some of his 'pals' (like his counterpart from Israel) to teach us some 'nifty' underwater moves that the refs would miss (the 'nutcracker' was a declaration of war). For some reason, when we went to the Cdn junior champs our opponents took some exception to these tactics. My rambling point is this: some 'cheating' can look awfully neat to the adolescent, but abhorrent to the adult, thus it falls on us to provide leadership in condemning clear exhortations to cheat.
Geek- as you know we have armed soldiers fighting (and some being killed) right now in Afghanistan as a primary combat force against the Taliban who provided safe haven to the Sept 11 terrorists.
No, it's to satisfy the unfulfilled sports goals of their parents.
I can't believe I'm going to agree with you, but that is unfortunately the case in some situations.
Lainey
I'm not good enough to even know how to cheat. I just rag on lainey so she'll keep coming back to this free member supported website.
OHhhhhhhh Geek I didn't know you cared! :thhbbb:
lainey
you know it's not just limited to soccer, i've seen plenty of crazed, my-kid-is the-best- swimming parents. one of my teammates in particular would cry after every time she got second (even at national meets), and her parents would give her the silent treatment for the trip home. her dad would film each race, and force her to watch it after her postrace warm down so he could tell her what all she did wrong. we all felt so bad for her.
hey you parents out there - is it hard to not get caught up in the competition and put too much pressure on your kids?
My daughter is only 7 and is still in the Novice group. Every swim she makes shows improvement over the previous one. However, I have no intentions of hounding her about her times when the results are less than impressive. I want her to enjoy the sport and however she chooses to do that is fine with me. If she is happy to just compete and maintain her fitness I would be satisfied and support her fully. If she wants to set a PB every meet I will support her in that venture as well and whether it be words of encouragement upon failure of tears of joy upon success, I will be there.
there is no room in swimming (or in life) for cheating, in my book. as a USS coach, i would never ever encourage my kids to do something illegal in a race. never. i don't care if it means the difference between making a cut and not, i'm of the belief that getting to the next level by hard work (and some talent too) is much more satisfying than getting there by underhanded means. just my :2cents:
