George asked whether age group swimmers are being bullied/pressured into swimming by parents, coaches and friends. Are they? Are parents living out their "unfulfilled dreams" through their young ones, as Geek suggested in another thread? Share your funniest/saddest story about overbearing swim parents or coaches.
One night a swimmom told me that she had started bringing her stopwatch to practice and was timing her 8-year-old daughter each night. I was about to start chewing her out because that is not the parent's role and besides, her coach spends most of the time on technique drills and games, not speed. Turned out that mom was just timing how fast the daughter could get showered and dressed after practice. Some of the little girls would stand in the showers and talk and play for about a halfhour after practice which was getting her home late on a school night. Pretty funny.
Usually my Masters group has the whole 6-lane pool for summer mornings, but our coach was out so another coach covered and brought his 11-14 year old advanced swimmers to also workout at this pool. When the SUV's rolled up and the parents and kids emerged, it was staggering how the environment changed. It was like a wave of high pressure compressing the air around the deck. This pool doesn't have a clear delineation between spectator areas and deck, and the moms were coming right up to the pool, helping their kids with their goggles, raptly watching every move the swimmers and coaches made, etc. I ended up rounding most of the parents up to go for an impromptu trip to a nearby Starbucks to get them away. There wasn't anything you could really put a finger on, but the atmosphere went from a light breezy pleasant summer morning outdoors to being really oppressive. I felt sorry for the coach but heard that it was worse than normal that day.
One night a swimmom told me that she had started bringing her stopwatch to practice and was timing her 8-year-old daughter each night. I was about to start chewing her out because that is not the parent's role and besides, her coach spends most of the time on technique drills and games, not speed. Turned out that mom was just timing how fast the daughter could get showered and dressed after practice. Some of the little girls would stand in the showers and talk and play for about a halfhour after practice which was getting her home late on a school night. Pretty funny.
Usually my Masters group has the whole 6-lane pool for summer mornings, but our coach was out so another coach covered and brought his 11-14 year old advanced swimmers to also workout at this pool. When the SUV's rolled up and the parents and kids emerged, it was staggering how the environment changed. It was like a wave of high pressure compressing the air around the deck. This pool doesn't have a clear delineation between spectator areas and deck, and the moms were coming right up to the pool, helping their kids with their goggles, raptly watching every move the swimmers and coaches made, etc. I ended up rounding most of the parents up to go for an impromptu trip to a nearby Starbucks to get them away. There wasn't anything you could really put a finger on, but the atmosphere went from a light breezy pleasant summer morning outdoors to being really oppressive. I felt sorry for the coach but heard that it was worse than normal that day.
