DAYTON RAIDERS
Wright State University *
Dayton Boys & Girls Club * Greene County Parks & Recreation
Vol. 1, No. 6
"WHY ISN'T MY CHILD IMPROVING?"
Why isn’t my child improving at the same rate as the others in his/her group? How come they still cannot do the butterfly correctly without getting disqualified? Why am I paying all this money and not seeing improvement? These are just some of the questions that swim coaches hear on an on going basis. WOW! These are very tough questions to try to answer in one short sentence, for such a technical sport as swimming. I talk to many coaches around the country and they all seem to indicate that there is more of a trend of questions like the ones I mentioned above now more than ever.
However, as disconcerting as these questions are I do believe that everyone is entitled to a simplistic explanation to a very difficult subject. I wish I had a simple answer, but the truth is, there is no simple answer. So, I think the best thing I can do is take you through a typical progress for, a Dayton Raider swimmer.
Most swimmers first experience to the world of competitive swimming is through the summer league swim team. I would say that 95% of all of our athletes have come through summer league programs. So, once we get the young swimmer on our team the process begins. First, we assign them to a group based on age, experience, skill development, etc. In the Dayton Raider Program, the first 3 groups, minis, white and red are mostly developmental groups. I have swimmers today in the gold group who started in the minis. Now, how long they stay in a particular group is really subjective because each athlete will develop at a different rate. The motor skills involved in swimming are so numerous and are not really seen by the "naked" eye, but they are extremely difficult. I did my masters thesis on freestyle skill development in young children ages 6-10. Basically, I was looking for a beginning freestyle stroke ( no matter what it looked like ) and after 8 weeks of stroke drills, to re-evaluate the stroke for improvement. I used a video camera to help evaluate the strokes. I was looking for 5 key components of what I thought constructed a technically correct stroke. The results were varied somewhat, but 100% showed improvement to certain degrees with the older athletes in the groups showing the greatest improvement. I came up with about 10 intricate movements to be learned in order to swim a more efficient freestyle stroke. WOW! I was even amazed that we were asking these young kids to synchronize 10+ movements into one stroke! Now, I did this study almost 20 years ago and I had my control group who did not receive any instruction on the strokes with unlimited attendance and were just told to swim the sets as best they could. My second group had little instruction and they were limited to 3 times a week of practice. The third group had a lot of instruction and had unlimited time of practice. I had kids ranging from 6-10 in each group. The outcome was the third group who received the most instruction had the greater degree of improvement, followed by the 2nd group and finally the control group.
Today is much different because kids are involved in so many activities compared to 20 years ago. I think the point is that to become a stronger more efficient swimmer requires a lot of stroke instruction and a lot of time must be invested to learn these intricate movements. I only looked at freestyle, which is easier to teach than breaststroke or butterfly. So, you can begin to imagine how coaching today is even more challenging because the athletes are most likely participating in other activities which will delay the learning process. Coaches are constantly being questioned by parents who at times seem to be a little impatient of their child’s progress. Kids learn at different rates. (If you get a chance, read the section on Coaches Corner- Being a courageous coach in the "Mental Toughness Newsletter" that I sent out in an email or read it on the bulletin board at WSU.
The following are the many other often asked questions that I hear from time to time. They range from the developmental swimmer to age group to senior level. I thought you might find it useful to read.
DEVELOPMENTAL "Swimmers":
First, ask yourself, "why do I want my child to join a swim club?" Most parents respond to this question with comments such as to have fun, to learn how to swim, to be with friends, and to learn skills such as setting goals, teamwork, and dealing with success and failure. We know that mere participation in a sport does not build character or teach these skills to your children, but rather participation in sports has the potential to do so. It is important for you to talk with the coach to see if your reasons for having your child in swimming are consistent with the coach’s philosophy, goals, values and the team’s mission statement.( see handbook)
You should not force your child; you want the participation to be his/her decision. Reinforce the choices and decisions he/she has made to start swimming. For example, if your son or daughter chose to go to practice on Tuesday and Thursdays, on other days he/she has the freedom to do other activities. As a parent, explain your expectation that he/she fulfill the commitment he/she made by joining the team.
Times at this stage are not a true indication of your daughter’s abilities. In fact, it is not unusual for your daughter’s times to fluctuate as she learns to maintain proper technique.
Perhaps your child’s coach has asked her to maintain a certain number of strokes per length and she accomplished that goal. Although the time was not what you were looking for, this was the outcome while the coach is focusing on the process of swimming efficiently. Be patient and supportive during this developmental stage of your child’s career. Times will improve once your child is more consistent with her technique.
Your child needs to develop a solid foundation in stroke mechanics. Drills and drill sets serve the specific purpose of teaching skills and fundamentals. Drills develop motor coordination, motor skills and balance. In fact, your child’s coach may prescribe a particular drill, just for your child, in order to improve a part of her stroke. In addition, she will be experiencing a "training" benefit from drills.
The coach has set up expectations of proper behavior both in and out of the water. Hopefully, your child is aware of the consequences of testing these boundaries. Obviously, the coach is reinforcing what is expected of the children at practice. We encourage you to reinforce the coaches practice expectations by discussing your child’s behavior and the consequences of that behavior. Hopefully, this "time out" begins to reinforce self-discipline, accountability and respect for others.
AGE GROUP "Swimmers":
In USA Swimming, swimmers have traditionally been grouped by age. "Age Grouper" is a common term to refer to those swimming in age classified competition verses senior level competition. Although athletes can compete in single age groups and other variations, USA Swimming’s traditional age groups are 10 & Under, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16 and 17-18.
Talk to your athlete. Is this your perception or is it really happening? If your child is overwhelmed, it’s time to work together in establishing priorities. Be sure to make any observations of "wasted" time in his/her day. After helping them establish his/her priorities, help them determine whether it is necessary to drop some activities. Then, some decisions have to be made to relieve this pressure and allow your child to be better balanced and enjoy their activities. This experience will teach your child how to better manage his/her time and balance their schoolwork, family, training and activities.
Great question….and one that is difficult to answer. On one hand, you as a parent don’t want to force your child into a sport that they do not enjoy. On the other hand, you want your child to be involved in a "lifetime sport", to learn about making and keeping a commitment and to interact with peers. At a young age, he/she may not want to go to practice every day and this would be haphazard in their training if left up to them whether to go or not. So, what are you to do? Instead of allowing your child to make a daily decision about going to practice, allow them to decide whether or not they want to swim for the season. Once the decision is made to swim, they are making a commitment to the team and need to follow through on it by attending practice on a regular basis.
Children involved in other activities can benefit in the areas of coordination and balance, as well as improved social and intellectual development. Specialized training in an activity does not necessarily need to take place at this stage of development. The focus of this stage should be learning skills and enjoying the sport.
Ask your son if he developed the goals with his coach. You might find that the coach actually helped your son set these goals. This is the beginning of your son’s learning to take risks and responsibility for his swimming. Encourage his goal to be "SMART".
Specific: tells the athlete what to do
Measurable: able to measure and record progress
Attainable: athlete can experience success
Realistic: challenging but "do-able"
Trackable: short-term goals build into long-term goals
Praise them first for completing the workout the coach offers. Remind them that he/she is there to improve their own swimming and they can’t control what others will do. Tell them, however, that the best course of action is to continue to do things right and others may actually be influenced by his/her good example. By committing to do their best at all times, over the long haul they will reap the benefits of their hard work.
To a degree, nervousness is part of the competitive experience and can be used as an opportunity to teach the young athlete specific strategies or skills to help them manage arousal states or nervousness. A simple skill that can be taught to manage the "butterflies in their stomachs" is belly breathing. The athlete is taught to take slow, deep breaths into their belly, hold it briefly, and then exhale slowly. Another skill to help the athlete deal with muscular tightness brought on by nervousness is progressive muscle relaxation. In this procedure, the athlete goes through the major muscles in her body and first tenses and then relaxes each muscle. This is to teach the athlete to recognize the difference between a tense and relaxed muscle, to learn where different muscles are located, and to eventually be able to relax specific muscles as necessary.
We also know that excessive anxiety can be damaging to both performance and to the athlete’s desire to enter such situations in the future. Two factors which have been found to play a role in the level of anxiety experienced are the importance of the event and the uncertainty of the outcome. Greater importance and greater uncertainty lead to increased anxiety. Parents, this suggests that you can play an active role in reducing competition anxiety by de-valuing the outcome of the event and by focusing on their individual performance which they have control over.
SENIOR & ELITE:
Your son has established proper stroke technique and swimming fundamentals by progressing through the levels of the team. It is appropriate at this stage of your son’s career development to increase the training loads. A swimmer must be stressed slightly more each day over time to continue to improve. Although morning practices come extra early, this level of commitment is necessary for your son to reach the next level of his swimming career.
While swimming performance is influenced by numerous factors, there are three that exert the greatest influence: physical, technical and mental. As athletes progress, a greater commitment, both time and energy, is needed to enable an athlete to address all of these factors.
Additionally, the athlete is asked to take more responsibility for and ownership of his practice and competition performance. One way of doing this is by accepting responsibility for leading a lifestyle conducive to swimming well: i.e., proper nutrition, adequate sleep, time management and managing extra-curricular activities.
What you may consider sacrificing, i.e., missing a school dance, football game or simply going out with friends, is not a sacrifice at all. Instead, your child has committed himself to swimming. By doing so, he realizes that this level of commitment is necessary for him to achieve greater goals and does not look at these as missed opportunities. Keep in mind your child realizes missing a workout is like missing sleep, it cannot be madeup. If, however, your child is expressing sentiments that he is missing these chances, then it is time to re-evaluate the balance in his activities.
When your daughter is making the transition, she needs to realize that she is participating at a higher level. Improvements are in tenths and hundredths, rather than seconds.
Throughout her career, you have been supportive. This support is still needed, but it may have to be a little different than in the past. It is a good time to discuss with your daughter what she needs from you. "So,how can I support you in your swimming?" While you are an important part of her support network, realize your daughter, at this level, should be taking on more ownership of her swimming career.
These are just some of the many questions that I hear from time to time around the pool at practice or at meets. I have tried to address the questions and provide some logical feedback that I have collected over the past 30 years of my involvement in competitive swimming, both as a competitor and coach.
Kevin Weldon
Head Coach
Dayton Raiders