While waiting for my hubby at the pool last night I was talking to two of the lifeguards, one (female) is a former student of mine. The other, a guy, is really nice as well.
"She" was eating some Greek food from the "newer" restaurant across the street from the pool. We started talking about her food and the conversation quickly took a turn to how she, and many other age groupers on the team, are throwing up during workout. I was stunned and asked her why. She said that she just does it to get out early. But the others go home from school and gorge themselves and then go swimming and intentionally throw up to get rid of it (usually in the gutter!). They are bulimic. The male lifeguard concurred and said he was disgusted but yes they do do it all the time.
They both said that the synchro girls are worse and that they are constantly told they are too fat by coaches and parents. (I haven't seen a synchro girl that isn't too skinny already). They too are bulimic.
Being a former student of mine, I put on my teacher hat, and told her that if she learned about nutrition she wouldn't be so hungry, etc..
She said, "Yea, they teach us about nutrition."
I said, "Who?"
"The coaches, but we don't listen."
I just don't remember being THAT stupid as an age group swimmer...
I found the USA Swimming article posted early on in this discussion by Elise526 (page one) to be very interesting.
It talks about how initially eating disorders/losing weight can increase swim performance, but after a few years, eating disorders often cause performance to take a huge dip. It also shows the bind coaches find themselves in, especially if they are training elite swimmers (how hard it is to curb frustration at destructive behavior in their athletes when they have spent much time and energy helping them be their best).
In addition, it addresses the identity problem for some kids re swimming: if they peak and then don't continue to improve, or burn out, or lose interest, who are they? A lot of times they put all their identity into swimming (according to this article). So it's important to let kids know they are many things besides good swimmers.
I like to do an exercise occasionally, where I draw a circle and divide it into pie slices, with each slice showing a different aspect of who I am/what I care about. I think this has a name: Self-complexity modeling. Anyway, it can sometimes put my overfocus on one issue or overidentity of one part of me into perspective. I can see I also like to read, to write, to draw, to help people; all kinds of things outside of swimming my butt off, which I also like to do.
I do hope all coaches for age-group swimming will read that article.
I found the USA Swimming article posted early on in this discussion by Elise526 (page one) to be very interesting.
It talks about how initially eating disorders/losing weight can increase swim performance, but after a few years, eating disorders often cause performance to take a huge dip. It also shows the bind coaches find themselves in, especially if they are training elite swimmers (how hard it is to curb frustration at destructive behavior in their athletes when they have spent much time and energy helping them be their best).
In addition, it addresses the identity problem for some kids re swimming: if they peak and then don't continue to improve, or burn out, or lose interest, who are they? A lot of times they put all their identity into swimming (according to this article). So it's important to let kids know they are many things besides good swimmers.
I like to do an exercise occasionally, where I draw a circle and divide it into pie slices, with each slice showing a different aspect of who I am/what I care about. I think this has a name: Self-complexity modeling. Anyway, it can sometimes put my overfocus on one issue or overidentity of one part of me into perspective. I can see I also like to read, to write, to draw, to help people; all kinds of things outside of swimming my butt off, which I also like to do.
I do hope all coaches for age-group swimming will read that article.
