9 Year Old Marvel What? But How?

Are you still trying to BS your way with that LSE nonsense? I am a fraud, after all. ;)

FYI... One does not have to win in this sport or any other sport to have fun! Winning a race is nice but that is just one minor thing in the sport. FUN can be found in any number of ways at a meet. Doing a best time, seeing a friend do a best time. Having a good race with the people next to you. Having a coach(yours or another) say "good swim" If fun is based on winning, then something is lost.

Bad or you and bad for the kid. I'll take it a step further and say it is bad for the team. Parents like this loony toon are a big big problem for coaches and the other swimmers aroud his kid. Now, if you'll pardon me, I have to go count my daughters' ribbons and yell at their teachers before I head to Target for my shift.

The reason you are getting mostly comments about your parenting is because most people here have either witnessed or been in the same situation you are in with your daughter. Odds are high that she will end up hating the sport and resenting you. That may sound harsh but I'm going to put it out there. I have coached kids at a huge variety or levels. The kids that are the most successful are the ones that have fun and have parents that care about them but trust the coaches. Being a second coach is only going to piss off the current coach and undermind his coaching in the eyes of your daughter. You hear stories about top swimmers taking time off and "rediscovering their love" of the sport. Dana Vollmer is a great example of this. I was surprised when she didn't make the team in 08. She is swimming insanely fast right now. Why? Because as she has stated in interviews she had to remember why she did the sport. She does it because she loves it. NOT because her parents pushed her to or her coach wants her to. The most successful people in life and sport are internally driven, love what they do and race with nothing to lose rather than in fear of losing. I had two sub groups in the summer league group I coached. As the head coach I took the older and more experienced kids and let my assistant work with the younger kids. I focused on technique, made sure we played a game or two each day and that they had fun at meets. My assistant punished the kids, yelled at them and focused on yardage. My group grew and dropped lots of time. His group started dwindling and a few kids said they didn't want to swim the next year. I ended up having to coach both groups. Right now your daughter might enjoy swimming but she is also swimming for you. I GUARANTEE part of her motivation (wether or not she actually realizes it) comes from her need to please you and make you happy. If you want your daughter to have success past age 12 back off. Let the coaches do their jobs and let your daughter have fun.

I kind of think this post was a complete joke. It reminds me of the thread where someone posted thoughts about competitive masters swimmers. The opinions RAC expressed were too generically stupid to actually be real. I mean no one actually believes that their kids grades mean anything at age 9, right?

By the way, do you people live on the internet or what? Dude, you've posted 28 times in this thread and you're accusing others of living on the internet? Yes, some of the responses have been a little accusatory toward you, but you aren't exactly an innocent victim here. You've asked us for advice and we've given it. You might like what everyone has to say, but it's not really for you to decide what everyone else's opinion should be. Also it seems like your opinions are set in stone, so why'd you bother soliciting advice in the first place? Anyway, I hope you have received some useful info here. I can tell you that I've personally met and swam against lots of people in this forum and many are far, far from being out of shape or frauds by any measure.

I clearly haven't been able to keep up on all of the comments here, but let me offer some thoughts. As background for my credibility to comment: My father was a competitive swimmer My brother, two sisters and I all tried competitive swimming: My older and sister and I did the whole age group/year-round thing (hard core) through collegiate swimming at Division I level. My younger sister did age group until about 12 or 13, stopped for a number of years and/or only did summer swimming through HS, then came back and swam on her collegiate team at a small private university. My younger brother, definitely the best athlete of us, was a great 10 & under swimmer, but just didn't like the sport. He stopped and went on to be a high quality multi-sport athlete in things like golf, basketball, etc. I coached 10 to 13 year olds on a YMCA team for 2 years, as well as a summer league team. I currently have all three of my daughters, aged from 6 to almost 14, on a year-round age group program. My reaction to the original question and some of the comments: Why are some 9 year olds faster than others? At this age, speed is almost completely a function of physicial maturity / power-to-weight ratio and raw natural athletic talent / "giftedness" / "feel for the water." Where should motivation come from - the parent, the swimmer? The swimmer. I was a very driven swimmer (probably because I sucked at soccer, basketball, running, etc.) and it's been a very hard lesson for me to learn as a parent of swimmers than I can't impose my drive on my children. I'm like a recovering alcoholic on this point and need to watch myself every day, but the push needs to come from the child. I can and do support my kids in ensuring they have access to a good team, get them to workouts & meets and then support their team through officiating and other volunteer activity. We have parent-coach meetings and do ask our children to set their own goals and offer our help (at their instigation) in developing strategies to reach their goals, but try hard to let the coaches coach. Should swimming be fun for the child? Absolutely. I loved swimming, loved killing myself in workouts and still do. This is a hard sport that requires a lot of commitment if a kid wants to stick with it; if they don't love it, I doubt they'll last long. But, that's true of any sport. I think we all need to remember that the vast majority of our kids no matter what sport they are in are NOT going to become superstars; their sports endeavors should be oriented towards fun, health benefits and the life lessons like goal setting, commitment, etc.

WOW! I post something yesterday morning (here in the UK) and by the following day 100’s of opinions and ultimately a breakdown in debate to insults etc – disappointing! RAC40 as you will see on page 1 I did say that forums like this are very democratic and if you don’t like that fact, then don’t put the post up in the first place. Having read every one I think on balance there is lot of fair comment and wisdom but of course ultimately no conclusion…. As I said previously for me the goal in parenting is producing is a rounded human being that can function in this crazy world. Athletic success can be an important element but it is only one of many alternatives. You mentioned a “straight A” student and other comments on the state of misguided youth. Remember your child is one of the lucky ones (the have’s) and while I admire your parenting commitment you have to be careful of judging others who might not get the same life chances that you and your family might have had… As I say, life is very complicated – but IMO athletic success or otherwise as an adolescent is unlikely to make the difference to overall fulfilment and success as a person…

RAC40, so it seems you had two questions. Heather gave a great reply from her perspective as a coach and a teacher (and swimmer, of course) and you should definitely respect her expertise. For what it is worth, here is mine as a lifelong swimmer, and a parent of a swimmer about your daughter's age. First question: why are some kids so fast? Innate talent. Differences in rates of physical development. That "inner competitive fire" that some kids have. I think your motivation in asking this question is basically, what can I do to make my daughter more like one of those kids? The answer is really, not much beyond providing her with opportunity and encouragement. Second question: what should I do with my daughter? -- find a team environment that your daughter enjoys. -- find a coach who is a good technician and also "gets" how to work with kids. Besides being a concerned father, you are a paying customer and you have a right to ask questions when seeking the right program. But once you find it (echoing Heather), back off. Don't constantly second-guess and give it time to work. Especially do not question the coaches' knowledge/authority in front of your daughter. -- praise your daughter for her successes and encourage her in a positive way to work hard to overcome any setbacks. You asked about private lessons. They can help, but be very careful. On the one hand, learning the proper technique is one of the most important things for your daughter right now. You don't want her to unlearn bad habits later on; it is much easier to learn proper technique at 9 than at 15. You should be happier if your daughter loses but shows beautifully efficient strokes, than if she wins as a "thrasher." Strength and conditioning will come naturally with time and training; proper technique will not. The big advantage of private lessons is that they are one-on-one, of course. Even the best coach has his/her attention divided among all the swimmers. The caveat is that proper technique requires reinforcement, and there are different -- sometimes conflicting -- ways of doing this. You need to find a person whose style "meshes" with your daughter's coach. I would recommend going up and asking the coaches about this (in a way that doesn't put them on the defensive, of course). There may be current or former swimmers from that program who give private lessons, for example. But private lessons are a supplement, no replacement for working with a coached program. And you wouldn't want that, anyway; one of the benefits of competitive swimming is (or should be) the team environment. Good luck.

, I think we all need to remember that the vast majority of our kids no matter what sport they are in are NOT going to become superstars; their sports endeavors should be oriented towards fun, health benefits and the life lessons like goal setting, commitment, etc. How true! I wish more parents could just come to terms with this simple fact.