For those of us who have kids, do your kids swim?
I had this vision of teaching my kids to swim (I was a WSI instructor) and they would be strong swimmers who love the water.
It didn't turn out that way! :eek:
My son (he's 12) had this aversion to getting water in his face and he developed a fear of the water when he was about 5 when he had some trouble in the water and his friend's parent pulled him out (I was not there at the time). We paid for some private lessons for him to overcome his fear. He will get his face wet now and he can swim well enough to attend a pool party but he's not a strong swimmer and has no desire to learn.
My daughter (age 5) picked up on her older brother's fears of water in the face and she has continued on with her fear of the water in a similar fashion.
My son never allowed me to teach him. He wanted nothing to do with it. My daughter will allow me but my time is very limited. I'm trying to get her into swim class next month to help with this. She wants to do it but is also has some fear. My plan is to be away from the deck while she's in the class so she won't search me out to "rescue her".
I don't care if they want to swim on teams or anything like that. I just want them to be competent in the water.
Parents
Former Member
I have three kids - 14 (girl), 16, and 18 yrs. old. At one point in time, all three swam for a USA team. That only lasted one year.
But we live on a lake. Our kids all took swim lessons, then they joined a summer league team without complaining. The summer league team was simply a way to get a bunch of repetition in one summer instead of going for multiple rounds of swim lessons. We wanted the kids to be lake-drown-proof. With almost no pressure from me - they decided they wanted to continue swimming and switched to a USA-S year round program.
The daughter didn't stay with USA swimming. She switched to gymnastics and competed in US gymnastics through level 7, then quit because the next step was a big step neither she nor we (parents) were ready to take. So she is now an intermediate diver and dives for the high school team that her brother swims on.
My oldest swims for a non-ranked Div 1 college. The other son is a very solid USA and high school swimmer.
My kids unfortunately are not tall, nor have big hands and feet. My 18 yr old at 5-9 is the shortest guy on his team. But he swims a 1:55 200 IM and a 58 100 ***. My 16 yr. old is 5-7 and is a very solid middle distance IMer and freestyler.
We video tape lots of their races and we look at them together but I do not coach them. I observe - and they want to know what I saw. I love it.
I have three kids - 14 (girl), 16, and 18 yrs. old. At one point in time, all three swam for a USA team. That only lasted one year.
But we live on a lake. Our kids all took swim lessons, then they joined a summer league team without complaining. The summer league team was simply a way to get a bunch of repetition in one summer instead of going for multiple rounds of swim lessons. We wanted the kids to be lake-drown-proof. With almost no pressure from me - they decided they wanted to continue swimming and switched to a USA-S year round program.
The daughter didn't stay with USA swimming. She switched to gymnastics and competed in US gymnastics through level 7, then quit because the next step was a big step neither she nor we (parents) were ready to take. So she is now an intermediate diver and dives for the high school team that her brother swims on.
My oldest swims for a non-ranked Div 1 college. The other son is a very solid USA and high school swimmer.
My kids unfortunately are not tall, nor have big hands and feet. My 18 yr old at 5-9 is the shortest guy on his team. But he swims a 1:55 200 IM and a 58 100 ***. My 16 yr. old is 5-7 and is a very solid middle distance IMer and freestyler.
We video tape lots of their races and we look at them together but I do not coach them. I observe - and they want to know what I saw. I love it.
