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.
Share your funniest/saddest story about overbearing swim parents or coaches.
I'm forcing my 7 year old to swim the 100 IM, second only to the 200 fly and 400 IM, at a meet tomorrow night. Actually, it's her favorite event.
George:
No she thinks travel meets are "sweet." She gets to stay in a room with three other loud noisy girls and listen to bad music and gossip and stay up late and drive her coaches nuts.
I'm forcing my 7 year old to swim the 100 IM, second only to the 200 fly and 400 IM, at a meet tomorrow night. Actually, it's her favorite event.
Just wait until she is 13, and you get the roll eyes a lot.
Actually, I could say a lot about this, this week.......but I won't the wounds are still too fresh.
Sprinter,
Are you an official? If so, have you ever had to DQ one of your kids or someone close to them?
I DQ'd my son on a backstroke turn at the LSC Summer Champ's meet a couple summers ago. As soon as I raised my hand, here comes his mother/coach (my wife) wanting to argue the call. I had to tell her that I would not discuss it and if she wanted to contest it to go see the referee.
I have two age groupers and mine have been part of three teams in the Austin area. I don't have any stories to tell per se, but I know of one family with kids at TXLA that requires their two kids to race in every single meet. Their kids are AAA times or better, but they race every meet, even meets that their coaches frequently do not send their fast kids to. And every meet - they swim 8-10 events. I hear stories about this family but can't say I've witnessed the pressure I hear is exerted on the kids.
I know of some demanding swimming parents, but most of the time it is about making practice, not pressure to win. I have never seen anything though that matches what I have seen with baseball or soccer parents.
I will add that some parents DO intervene on coaching. Some for good reasons, some not. Some youth coaches are terrible, even on the elite programs.
The parents who bug the coaches, there are so many. The other day I saw a report on the father who tried to kill the coach, the coach did not have his son playing in the game long enough. My brother used to kick swimmers out of his club if parents interferred.
