Overbearing Swimming Parents

Wonder how some of those parents would handle their swimmer getting outraced in the pool by a masters swimmer? Little Johnny could be in for a long ride home with parents saying you let the ole guy beat ya.

OH greg, on my club team we had two masters swimmers who always swam with us in the evening practices. Everyone absolutely despised losing to them in practice, because of that mentality. They both were quite fast, yet somehow both of them always liked to swim down the center of the lane, whoever was in their lane would get smashed during fly or back. Even with them smashing us, no one wanted to lose to those "old guys." :laugh2:

Guess I am lucky with the age group swimmers, they are all very supportive and like to race the ole guy. The coach always says keep up with the ole guy in practice or dont let the ole guy beat ya. I think we feed off each other, and make ourselves faster and push things more in practice. I always get sad at end of year when the Seniors graduate and move on to college. So I am always scoping out the lower age group to see who is going to push me. Cool thing is, Im accepted as a team mate and swim on their relays. Last year when the Seniors graduated they invited the ole guy to their graduation party. I have not really heard any negative feedback from parents from our team but from other teams I have heard thru the grapevine some parents get bent out of shape of a master swimmer swimming uss meets. Usually this is in a prelim/final meet and little johnny was knocked out of finals because a master swimmer made it to finals. My feeling is, work harder and stop your whining. Although, I have told my coach, if his swimmer was first alternate and I was in the finals, I would scratch so his swimmer could swim at night. I will not do it for any other teams though. Its just the respect I have for my team and wanting them to experience swimming in finals.

At the converted quarry/pool across the street from our house, you have to swim approx. 110 yds free in order to swim in the deepend. Our daughter is nearly 17 months. I told her we let this past summer slide, but we need to crackin' so she can pass that test this coming summer... :laugh2:

When my sister competed for our local Y (this was years back since we're both in our fifties), my mom would go to meets, but more for support than for the screaming/demanding "you have to win" stuff. In fact, she was quite a mellow spectator. She'd have her knitting and work on it until my sister's events, when she'd cheer for my sister, then go back to her knitting until the next event. If my sister won something, great, but if not, no matter, my mom remained proud of her "little girl" (she called us her "little girls" almost until the day she passed away at 83). Other parents would rush up to her asking "what's your daughter's time?" "I don't know," my mom would truthfully say... it never really mattered to her. Just that my sister was out there giving it her best shot was all that mattered. My mom encountered a lot of "stage parents" up there in the gallery, and I think they so turned her off that she never wanted to be like them. I think because of that, the parents among my sibs have similar outlooks.

When my son was young, there was one mother who was crazy with the screaming and yelling. Nice lady, but don't stand by her in a meet if you value your hearing. One day on a car ride home from a meet, I asked my son if he ever heard people yelling for him, or see the coach doing his antics while he was swimming. He said, "the only thing I ever her is L's Mom yelling!", which was the screaming lady. I chuckled all the way home. L's Mom did eventually calm down, although by the time her daughter was a teen, she hated swimming....really hated everything about life. girl is in college now, and seems to be doing OK, just one of those teens that hates the world.

We were concerned with our Linda when she was born and her height when she was 8 years old. Linda was in the lower 10% of the growth range. When she was 14 she just started growing and ended up at 5'8" she is the shortest of our 4 girls. She was a very good swimmer when she was young but very tiny. The Doctor talked growth H but we decided let nature do what it would.

Parents are the one thing I hated most about coaching age group swim teams. Parents can be outragious! I remember one father who was so determined to make his kids better swimmers he would come out on deck during workout and actually scream at his kids to work harder and to do the correct stroke. I eventually barred him from the deck, which he complete blew his top! Years later I saw the same father and kids at a high school meet and he was now an assistant coach for the team. He still yelled at his kids. What I found interesting was that kids really never became championship swimmers. They always placed way down the list. I think daddy had bigger goals than the kids. I think the most horrible thing I've ever witnessed was when I was an age group swimmer in the 70's. A fellow swimmer who I always competed against (we were on different teams) would actually be physically abused by his dad. I don't know how bad the abuse ever got, but I remember that we always raced neck and neck in many events. Whenever I beat him, or anyone for that matter, in a race, his father would scream at him, grab his arm and shake him, and berat him for several minutes. I remember being very shocked at noticing this one day at meet and thanked God that my parents were never like this. My competitor and I were actually quite good friends and ended up going to the same university together. He quit swimming 1/2 way through his freshman year and I've never heard from him since. I think he got away from his father as far as he could. I alway wonder what happened to him?

This is what happened with Linda at 17 at 5'8"on the left and Cathy her sister 26 yearsold on the right.

Hey Dennis, How are things in SLC? Wanted to make it over for your meet next week but we're going to Reno for the weekend to watch Nevada's football team beat up on Utah State.