Published by The American Club Swimming Association
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Nutrition Between Prelims And Finals
By Dr. Keith Wheeler, PhD and Angeline M. Cameron
Question: In a preliminary/finals meet, an age group swimmer might finish the last preliminary event at 3 PM and return to the pool at 5 PM to warm up for the finals, which are at 6 PM. What would be the best nutrition for this swimmer?
Answer: The best nutrition for this swimmer depends on what the swimmer eats the morning of the competition. If he or she eats a large breakfast that contains at least 200 to 300 grams of carbohydrate, the swimmer will need mainly water and a small amount of carbohydrate, which can be provided by a fluid replacement and energy drink or fruit juice.
If he or she didn't each a high carbohydrate breakfast, the swimmer will need to eat carbohydrate after the 4 PM event to provide energy for the warm up and finals. The swimmer should eat an amount of carbohydrate, in grams, equal to 75% of his or her body weight within 15 minutes of the completion of the preliminary event and again 1 hour later. For example, a 100 pound swimmer should eat 75 grams (0.75 x 100 pounds) of carbohydrate by 4:15 PM and another 75 grams of carbohydrate at approximately 5 PM.
Liquid or solid forms of carbohydrate can be eaten: however, liquids are usually better tolerated and are more quickly digested. The amount of carbohydrate needed in the example above, 75 grams, is provided by 4 apples, 3 bananas, or 3 bagels.
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When the Coach Goes to Nationals
Concern: The coach leaves the team for a whole week just to take one swimmer to nationals. It is not fair to the team and a poor use of money.
Response: It is an important milestone in the development of the swimmer, of the coach, and of the team when the first national qualifier is developed. This swimmer represents the current "peak" of the program. All parts of a program are important but the peak is of special importance because it is a point that all younger developing athletes can look forward to and work towards. It provides direction in the program.
It is difficult for newer swim parents, especially parents of young age group swimmers, to understand the importance of sending the coach away to nationals at great expense and while all the other swimmers on the team stay at home without their head coach. The situation is sometimes made worse by the fact that local junior Olympic meets are held at about the same time as nationals.
What are the choices and what are the consequences?
1. Swimmer attends nationals without coach. This is not fair to the athlete or to the coach. The athlete has worked for and deserves the attention and professional guidance of the coach. The coach also deserves the reward of developing such a fine athlete by being involved in the national experience. Attending nationals is also a very important educational experience for the coach. By not sending the coach to nationals with the swimmer the club is also sending a message to the athletes that the club is not interested in elite athletes.
2. Swimmer and coach stay home. This cuts the peak of the program and removes incentives for athletes and coach to become the best they can be. It is the mark of a team that does not include growth as part of its long range goals, or perhaps does not have any goals at all. It is a program that will always have young and relatively inexperienced coaches because few coaches will be satisfied working in a situation where they cannot grow.
3. Swimmer and coach attend nationals with the support and good will of the entire club. This is the mark of a program that looks to the future, believes in growth, and believes in rewarding the good work by both the athlete and the coach. When the coach and athlete attend nationals it is a celebration of team success. The athlete can return home as the hero and "tell the story" of nationals that will inspire the rest of the team.
What then of the younger swimmers who have workouts and possibly a meet to attend while the coach is at nationals? It is the responsibility of the Board of Directors and coach to 1) educate the families as to the needs of the whole program, and 2) prepare assistant coaches and swimmers for the opportunity to be their best during this time. These things should not be thought of two weeks before nationals, but should be part of each seasonal plan.
We are hopeful that parents will look at the larger picture. When the coach goes to nationals it is not just for one swimmer, it is for the whole team… and, it’s for your age group swimmer.
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When Swimmers Return from Camp
Concern: “My daughter was able to do a 50 meter freestyle in 32 seconds from a push off in practice while at camp, which is her best time. Now that she is back home, she can't even do a 32 in a swim meet.”
Response: A coach we know took two nationally ranked age group swimmers to a USA Swimming elite training camp several years ago. He told us how amazed he was to observe and time with his own watch these young swimmers perform sets in times they had never done at home.
Was it better coaching? The swimmers told him that it was a matter of competition and a matter of pride. They worked so hard in six workouts over three days that it took them over a week to recover once back home.
Too often swimmers fall into a niche at home where they EXPECT to out-perform some swimmers and EXPECT to be out-performed by other swimmers. Going to swim camps gives swimmers a chance to be a star away from home. Many swimmers will do exceptional things that can take them several weeks or in some cases, a whole season to duplicate at home. This is not a problem with coaching, it is a problem with what swimmers expect of themselves in a given environment.
If the swimmer can return home and break out of the EXPECTED, they have learned a great lesson.
In addition to the above explanation, coaches are concerned that some camps give swimmers times that are not altogether accurate. Swim camps are businesses and they thrive by bringing swimmers back year after year for positive experiences and by having swimmers spread the good news of their positive experience. One of the most positive experiences a swimmer can have is going a life time best time. Parents and coaches should be wary of best times reported during practice swims or "time trials". Accept only times done in sanctioned swim meets.
Concern: My child learned stroke techniques she never learned at home and trained differently than she does at home. Why doesn't the coach teach this way?
Response: Keep in mind several things:
1. Communicate with the home coach. Ask about the "new" techniques and training the swimmer learned at camp. Often times "new" techniques or training are not new at all, but are simply taught with different words.
2. Swimming performance is not produced by a direct cause and effect relationship. There are many ways to teach a given technique and there are many techniques that can produce a given result. Techniques used at camp may simply be a different, though not better, attempt to produce the same result which can be produced at home.
3. Children are very impressionable by their temporary new coaches at camps. As an example, imagine how you, a parent, feels when your child returns home from home practice one day and announces that he is now going to drink three glasses of milk each day because the coach said it is a good idea, even though you have been trying to get your child to do this for years! Swimmers go to camp and often hear the same things the coach at home has been trying to teach but because it is being said by a new camp coach, it is now important and the child will enthusiastically accept this advice as the best way.
4. Just because it is done at camp a certain way, does not mean it is the only way or the best way. Staff members at camps are often times less experienced and less knowledgeable than your home coach.
5. Be open and cooperative with your home coach. Many coaches do not like swimmers going away to swimming camps because swimmers return home tired, out of synch with the season training plan, and full of "new" ideas that may not be very new or very helpful. When selecting a camp for your child, ask the coach to help you select a good camp. There a many very good camps.
6. If you have a young and relatively inexperienced coach make sure that you turn your child's experience at camp into a POSITIVE one for the coach and team and not a NEGATIVE one for the coach. Share thoughts with the coach rather than demand changes based on something experienced at a camp that is perceived as being the right and only way. Help your coach grow, send your coach to camp! You can make sure your coach has every opportunity to be up on the latest in technique, training, administration, and sports psychology by sending your coach to the ASCA World Clinic in the fall!
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When Sally Swims Poorly…
How Mom and Dad Might Talk to Their Child at a Swim Meet
By John Leonard
Swim Meet conversation between parent and athlete can be either highly productive, or highly counter-productive. Your goal as a parent should be to contribute to a positive swim meet experience for your child. This is the same goal as shared by the coach and the athlete. It is important that all three sides of the triangle be working together on meet days, as well as the rest of the swim year.
As I travel the country talking to parents, and observing swim meets and the effects of individual athletes, a few things stand out for comment. The inter-relationship of athlete, coach and parent on the days of swim meets is one of the most important. To discuss this adequately, it is necessary to define the role of each person.
The athlete attends the meet to attempt to gain or affirm some progress that has been made in their development. This may take the form of a personal best time, or holding a stroke technique together for an entire race, or executing accurately a particular strategy for "splitting" the race, or any of a multitude of other possibilities and combinations. The role of the athlete is the active one. It is up to them to perform, and the meet day is a selected time to perform the experiment.
The role of the coach on meet day needs to be thoroughly understood. It is dependent upon how the coach has presented themselves in the athlete's swimming career. Primarily, for most coaches, they are the technical resource that a swimmer depends upon to help them improve. They also serve as a role model, and to a greater or lesser extent, as a motivator, friend, and co-author of the strategy or experiment being performed on that day.
The parent is the racing "support crew". The parent makes sure they have all their human needs attended to, and continues their parental function of supervising personal development. Their love, attention, and caring are key ingredients in creating a successful experience on race day.
Athlete, technical support, and human support. That's all it takes.
Now, back to the question of meet conversation. Lots of talk goes on at a meet, and coming and going around the meet. Let's focus on the conversations that go on around a particular swim, and see what can be learned from that item.
Sally is eleven years old, and she is about to swim the 100 yard freestyle. Sally is a pretty good little swimmer, and has a best time of 1:01.3. She'd like to go a personal best time in this event at the meet, and she and her coach have been talking all week about how Sally has to concentrate on keeping her stroke long and strong during the last 25 yards of her race. Sally knows she is supposed to stop and talk to Coach before she swims so she goes over to see her.
"Hey Kiddo, ready for the big swim?"
"Coach, I got it all under control, and I'm ready to go fast."
"What do you need to remember on this swim?"
"To keep my stroke long on the last twenty-five."
"Not just long, but...."
"long and Strong!"
"Right! Have a real good swim. Now, go get it!"
Sally blasts off, and gets out in front immediately. Mom and Dad cheer like crazy. Sally turns for home, and......
(Now, at this point let's consider two endings. We will take a look at each one.)
Sally turns for home and...... shortens her stroke bit by bit as she gets more and more tired, and struggles to the wall, with a time of 1:01.5.
Sally is disappointed, and she goes back to her coach choking back tears, and stands there, waiting for her to speak.
"Well, not quite what we wanted. How did it feel?"
"It felt awful! I was terrible! I couldn't do anything!"
"From here, it looked like you were only pushing through to your waist, and towards the end of the race maybe not even that far. Where should your hand finish?"
"At my suit line."
"And what did your arms really feel like?"
"I got all hot and my arms were burning at the end of the race."
"Do you know why that is? I think you haven't had enough good fast pace work yet. Next month, we'll work on that, and by the next meet you'll be much better!"
Sally leaves happy and feeling much less like the Ugly Duckling. Now, she heads to see Mom and Dad.
Most parents I talk to think that this is a tough time to deal with their children. It isn't! (The tough one is next.) All Mom and Dad have to do in this case, is two simple things:
First, deal with human things.
"Are you warm enough, honey?"
"Put on your warm-ups, and your towel"
"Do you need something to drink?"
Then, if all is well, STOP. Do not get into the race unless the child wants to. That is not your role. You are there to support.
But let’s say that Sally comes back and says....
"I Stunk!"
Mom and Dad say, "Stunk? Stunk means you smelled badly. All that chlorine is kind of nasty, but I wouldn't say you stunk. What do you really mean?"
After Sally has a chance to get rid of her emotional response, you should ask, "What did Coach say?"
Now is a good time to explore this. What you are trying to do, as a parent, is duplicate the same mind-set the coach is trying to re-instill. Analyze what went wrong with the experiment. You don't have the technical expertise to offer the answers that her coach does, but by asking questions that require a technical response, you shift Sally out of the emotional context. This is nothing more than an experiment that did not turn out the way Sally and her coach wanted it to. This is perfect swim parenting. You reinforce the message that the coach is sending.
If you will simply take care of the human needs, and shift the emotional disappointment to an analytical response, all will be well in Sally's world.
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Why Should a Club Support Its Elite Athletes Financially?
By John Leonard
Recently a club board member called me, and asked a simple but important question. “I’ve heard that a lot of clubs spend money to send their better athletes to Nationals and some, even to Sectionals, is that correct? And if they do, WHY do they? What does the club get out of it?“
Good questions, simply and directly asked. Hereafter, my equally simple and direct answer.
Yes, a large number of clubs that attend higher level meets, whether they be Sectionals, Junior Nationals or Senior Nationals, (or in some cases, even the Grand Prix series of meets) financially support their club athletes to those meets, to some extent.
What extent? It runs the gamut from a few hundred dollars of assistance to paying their way to the event. What does that cost? Use $350 as the average round trip airfare to an event, use $120 per night for 4 nights in a hotel, and $50 a day for food, and you rapidly have a bill of $1030.00 and you haven’t rented a vehicle yet for local transportation. Yes, high level meets are expensive.
Now, you can use some “family travel mileage” to reduce the airfare, you can share a hotel room with 1-3 others to reduce that, and you may be able to eat reasonably healthy for less than $50 a day, but any way you cut it, it’s not cheap.
So why do clubs do it? Basically to “DE-LIMIT” the aspiration level of ALL of their team athletes.
Once an athlete has been in any sport for awhile, most of them dream of competing at the highest level. As they get a little older, we realize that the travel necessary to do so, can be a substantial drain on a middle class family. No one I know likes to have their dreams limited by the financial costs of those dreams or the financial costs of working for that dream.
A fine writer by the name of Rudyard Kipling, once wrote, “The strength of the pack is the wolf. And the strength of the wolf, is the pack”. When the “wolf” on your team (the highest level athlete) qualifies for a higher level meet and they don’t attend because of money; the dream dies, not just in that athlete, but in ALL the athletes of the team. ”The team didn’t support Tim to the Sectionals, so he couldn’t afford to go.” It’s a killer, and every child on the team, right down to the 8 and unders will hear something about it whether they understand it all or not.
And it kills the aspirations of others.
When the pack does not support the wolf, the wolf will look to go where another pack will support them. And should. Conversely, when the pack DOES support the wolf, that wolf has a strong obligation to come home, explain the marvels and wonderfulness of going to Sectionals, Jr/Sr. Nationals, the Olympic Trials or the Olympic Games and help fire and fuel the dream for every other generation in that pack/team. The wolf has to be willing and able to “give back” to the pack. “The strength of the pack is the wolf”.
I can also hear the parent who says, “Wait a second, my child isn’t going to Nationals, all they want to do is swim and have fun” That’s correct and understandable. But my question is, do you want your child to be in a program that limits how far they can dream of going? Or do you want your child (like I want mine) to be UNLIMITED in their ability to dream of achievements?
The team contributing financially to the aspirational meet expenses of its top swimmers, is in reality, unlimiting ALL its swimmers. And we can all take pride in making that contribution to our team, our friends and our community.
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By T.J Liston
Many times senior swimmers get to the end of the season and look for great swims and great time drops due to the “Magic of The Taper.” Often, swimmers expect these things to materialize because they have in the past, because other swimmers on the team have done well, because it is an important meet, or because they just want it to. But in reality, the reason why swimmers swim fast is because they have prepared to. Good performance is preceded by good preparation. To swim fast, swimmers must train hard and must swim fast in practice.
The coach lays out a season plan before the season even begins. The season is divided into several different training cycles. These macro cycles are then divided into smaller mini cycles. These all add up to a season’s training. Each mini cycle must be swum with effort and focus or a key part of the swimmer’s training will be missed. Each cycle is in itself very important and each mini cycle sets up and enhances the next training cycle. The successful athlete approaches each cycle with great effort and focus realizing that every cycle, indeed every practice, is dependent upon the one before it.
As coaches, we are often able to detect strengths and weaknesses in an individual’s training by how well they are able to hold on to a taper or by their endurance and ability to go from one race to the next with equal success. To perform well, it is important that early season training is successfully challenged. To put together smart races and have good splits, the successful athlete will need a strong and focused middle part of the season. Good fine tuning in later cycles will help the swimmers set up their races correctly and have the necessary speed to race. Every cycle in a season is important to the success of the next cycle. Successfully challenging and completing each cycle helps swimmers perform faster and to be able to meet the demands of even more challenging sets at practice. Swimmers who are able to perform during physically demanding practices, the ones whose repeats hurt, are the swimmers who are preparing for success at the end of the season.
We establish guidelines for what we expect and want at practices for each cycle. We may make some minor adjustments to intervals and sets, but we don’t make changes to the performance parameters of the cycle’s focus. Many times we use key individuals as markers to determine the effects of the overall training. These individuals are the ones that best represent the work offered and the groups’ expectations and abilities. These swimmers have near perfect attendance and have fulfilled the challenges of the workouts we have given. These athletes understand that the training curve is well ahead of the performance curve, and that practice efforts from weeks before the championship meet are impacting the swimmer’s ability to race. The season’s results are dependent on the season’s efforts. The taper will highlight the work done during the season, and the swimmer whose efforts and attendance have been consistent is usually the swimmer who performs well at the championship meet.
So, before swimmers expect “Taper Magic,” it is important that they put in the work during the early months of training and all the way through the season. Their attendance needs to be as near to perfect as health allows. Their efforts and focus have to be 100% every day. They have to eat, sleep, and hydrate properly throughout the season and all the way through their big meet. They should not gain weight on their taper. They should not use up all their extra energy that begins to emerge as they are tapering by staying up late, spending all day playing in the sun, etc.. What they do away from the pool is as important as what is happening at practices. Rest, rest, and more rest are in order. Save up that energy. Save it for racing. Successful swimming is not magic. Successful swimming is part of the plan.
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By John Leonard
Our old buddy Albert Einstein is credited with saying “all things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler”. Occasionally we run into one of those situations in Swimming. I received a letter last month from a coach who said “I discovered that a few swimmers on my team were secretly seeing a ‘private coach’ for stroke work. By word of mouth, one swimmer who had been taking lessons from this person did well at a taper meet and the word spread. The stroke guru got the credit for the improvement instead of the parents crediting the training in the club setting, or the effort of the child herself getting credit. Naturally, not wanting to miss a good thing, parents flocked to the guru, without telling any of the team coaches. We just noted people missing from practice at time to time.”
My first thought was “can’t blame parents for wanting the best for their children”.
She went on, “We weren’t happy with this situation because the guru taught the strokes differently than we do, and it was undermining our program, and besides, the coach started contacting the children by phone when they were at swim meets to ‘help them’. “
My second thought was “well of course, you can’t have two coaches telling one child how to swim a stroke…all it produces is a confused child…and the phone thing…well, that’s just too much ego disguised as “caring”.
“Our facility and organization do not allow private lessons, and not one parent had approached us about work on a specific skill or technique before seeking outside help.”
Now my mind perked up. Why would an organization not want to allow private instruction? First of all, you can teach in a group, but correcting in a group is close to impossible. Taking the time for individualized feedback during practice to any real extent that is likely to be helpful, is “robbing time” from all the other swimmers. Of course you need private instruction time, and since its needed, it either has to be a part of the coach’s job description, or you have to allow the coach to charge some private and reasonable fees for private instruction.
The organization is asking for trouble when it won’t allow the expertise of its own coaches to be utilized to the fullest possible extent by members of the organization and it’s an open invitation to do something less desirable, like take a child to a “stroke guru” for outside help.
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
“I feel the parents are looking for a quick fix and are willing to pay anything to make it happen…..whether it’s a new tech suit or private lessons for their child, in order to “fast track” their swimmer. Am I crazy? Am I paranoid in my thinking that this is a bad thing for our program?”
No Coach, you’re not crazy and it IS a bad thing, both for the children involved, and the program.
1. Stroke technique is a critical piece of constructing a swimmer’s success. And the coach who works with the child everyday must be in charge of constructing and correcting that technique. Trying to do it once a week, without watching the child train daily, is like trying to cook a meal by telephone from 1000 miles away . Can’t be done. But what WILL happen is that when the child swims well, the parent and the child will attribute the positive to the guru…(because that’s what is different) and the guru will happily accept that applause….and when the child swims poorly, it will be the fault of the home coach whose training is “not correct.”. Utter and complete nonsense.
2. The reality is that swimming success is a complex interplay between technique and training and the two must be in harmony. Only the home coach can do that. The guru is ONLY looking at a snapshot in time when they work with the child and the home coach sees the whole, lifelong movie of the child in action and over time. Does a child need a great deal of technique work? Absolutely, and it must be completely integrated into the training program of the athlete…so the new techniques can be learned first by concentration and focus, then incorporated into some moderately stressful sets and finally into the crucible of competition. If you can’t do it under pressure, it is of zero value to the athlete.
3. Every coach needs to be a good teacher of technique. And every organization must realize that to be successful, they must provide all they can to enhance the success of each athlete…including supporting private correctional assistance as needed by the coach’s judgment.
4. As a Parent, we all want what is best for our children. We should chose a swimming team based first on the character of the coach…..if your child grows up a lot like the coach (and many will, since they spend so much time with them…) would you be happy with that? Second, based on the technical teaching and training skill of that coach.
While it is tempting to “go somewhere else” for an appetizer and then to the home coach for the main course and then somewhere else for dessert, it’s a LOT better for the long term health of the athlete’s swimming career, to have the “whole meal” in one setting.
Remember that the bottom line of performance is confidence in what you are doing and commitment to one team, one coach and one organization. Swimming is far too difficult a sport to be done individually…it takes a team
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"I Went To The Results Board To See How I Did…"
By John Leonard
It was a great teachable moment. Out of the mouths of young people come things that “set up” the coach for an opportunity to do some great education. When an athlete came over to me and started with the sentence at the top of the page, here was my response.
“Really? You didn’t already know how you did?”
“Well, I was sixth the 100 fly and 5th in the 100 back and….”
“ No, really, you didn’t already know how you did?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, what did you do incorrectly in the 100 fly and what do you need to do to improve?”
“You said I have to keep my hips up on the back 50 and make sure I keep breathing every second stroke…”
“and so….??”
“Huh?”
“and so, THAT is “how you did”. Not the place. The place means nothing. I can take you to plenty of swim meets where you can finish first….and can take you to even more where you’ll finish dead last……where you finish depends on what others have done, not on how you have done…..You need to measure two things…your time versus your best time (which is you against the previous best you) and how you did compared to the assignment I gave you before you headed for the starting blocks. How was your time?”
“Well, I don’t know, I never swam long course before.”
“Of course you haven’t, so now you have a time to measure yourself against…congratulations. And do you need a results board to tell you how you did?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Don’t guess. Know that you don’t. If you go to the blocks with clear goals, you know how you did without anyone else needing to tell you. You can evaluate the race for yourself, and “know how you did”.
“So what is the race for?”
“Two things…first, it’s always easier (and more fun) to swim fast when you are racing someone next to you. And second, as you mature, there is a purpose to “winning races”, but in the developmental stage, it’s a terrible way to evaluate yourself……. racing is stimulation, not measurement of you as an athlete, a learner, a person…. anything….. Enjoy the race, but measure against your own best self.”
Please everyone take that lesson to heart and mind.
All the Best, Coach John
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When a Child Starts on The Swim Team as a Teenager
“My 13 Year Old Son Has Just Started Swimming Competitively. What Are His Chances Of Succeeding Having Begun At Relatively Late Age For A Swimmer?”
Answered by: George Block, Aquatic Director of the Northside Independent School District, San Antonio, Texas.
The word “chance” reflects the disparity between possibility and probability. There is a long history of late beginning male swimmers doing very well, from George Breen to Rowdy Gaines, but the “possibility” doesn’t matter. We’re talking about your son.
First of all, he has to have certain basic physical abilities. Can he float with his lungs inflated? Can he streamline and glide when he pushes off the wall? Does he have normal strength and flexibility? Is he in good health?
You also have to find if he has some basic psychological abilities. Is he attentive? Is he a good listener? Does he follow instructions well? Will he persevere?
A little higher up the ladder, I would consider his athletic background, his extracurricular activities and his academic performance.
After this evaluation, the parent needs to work very closely with the child’s coach. The coach can tell you if your son has “talent”. Does he have the “feel” of the water? Does he learn quickly?
Finally, you must look at the team and the environment. Are swimmers performing well on the local level? The state level? Are they doing well at the Junior Nationals? Senior Nationals?
None of those things can explain the short, uncoordinated kids who try out as freshmen in high school and go on to become superstars in college. That is explained by perseverance. Coaches see perseverance beat talent every day. Perseverance in its most tangible form is “being there” and it is what changes the odds from possible to probable.
In swimmers who take up the sport “late”, the effects of training are always more “acute” (short term) than “chronic” (long term). Since your son won’t have the chronic training history of some of his teammates, he will need to train more effectively, have better attendance, and learn more from each competition than they do.
This may seem like a full order, but actually it’s great opportunity. In the long haul, the “process” is more important than “the product”. If your son decides to commit himself to excellence in competitive swimming, he will have taken a major step out of the crowd that seeks only mediocrity. He will be one of the few “committed” in an age of “dilettantes”. He will have to plan, organize and work for long term goals. He will have to arrange for the cooperation of those around him; parents, siblings, coaches, teammates, teachers, and friends. He will also have to measure his own success. Yes, your son can be successful, and, yes it will be difficult…but that is what makes it worth doing.
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Growing recognition that many American children are neither developing sufficient fitness, nor learning appropriate lifetime health habits has caused leading physical educators to re-evaluate their long-time methods and shed the traditional coach/drill sergeant image for an educational approach that gives young students the tools for lifetime fitness.
Ron Feingold, Ph.D. of Adelphi University in N.Y., and one of the leaders in this movement explains,”To me, what's relevant is what they learn about fitness, and how do they feel about physical activity. The goal should be to get them to enjoy fitness and physical activities and to understand their benefits."
Accordingly, progressive P.E. teachers are exchanging their former emphasis on teaching competitive sports skills and administering competitive fitness tests for an approach that encourages students to adopt "appropriate lifelong exercise behavior," and a healthy appreciation for physical activity. The proverbial "ounce of prevention" will help children improve their long term health prospects by developing healthy lifestyle habits from an early age.
The new priority is that kids should know how their bodies work after they've had 12 years of physical education. As one teacher said: "It's more important that they understand how to develop strength and cardiovascular fitness, how to train safely, and to have a basic understanding of what happens when you move, than to know how to shoot a basketball."
The changing focus of thinking about youth fitness is also leading to a re-examination of fitness testing methods. Such competitive tests as the Presidential Physical Fitness Test tended to discourage those children who needed help the most. Kids who performed poorly were embarrassed both by taking the fitness test and by their results, while better athletes were rewarded for their performances.
That test has now been adjusted to make it an educational process and to focus on personal improvement rather than performance level with rewards and recognition to those making progress from previous tests. "We want kids to buy into the idea that it's the activity that's important and the performance score is secondary," says Dr. Marilu Meredith, director of youth fitness programs for the Institute of Aerobics Research. "If we can impart an activity habit - and keep it fun - they'll stay active and they will be fit."
What actions can both parents and age group coaches take to import these ideas into age group swimming?
1) Consciously communicate to kids the importance of aerobic fitness and "healthy hearts" by raising their level of awareness of swimming's aerobic benefits.
2) Be more conscious of the importance of your own role modeling in maintaining good health through personal fitness programs.
3) Balance emphasis on achievement and performance for age groupers with emphasis on the simple values of participation for the long term and communicate swimming as simply the first step in a lifelong fitness habit.
4) Tie in the value of good nutritional habits, not simply for better performance, but for health's sake.
If we adopt a health-related outlook for age group swimming we'll be giving the kids in our programs a form of lifelong health insurance that can't be purchased at any cost.
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It’s clear to anyone observing a swimming meet that some swimmers are much faster off of the blocks. Differences in starting ability from one swimmer to the next are easy for parents to observe. Unfortunately, it is one part of the race that is not always mastered equally well by all swimmers. There are two contributing factors to the success of the start: learned skill and natural ability.
The simple fact is that not all swimmers are built the same. Some will always be better starters because they are born with a higher percentage of "fast twitch" fibers making them more explosive and capable of getting off the starting block faster. It is an hereditary factor and cannot be significantly changed through training.
But start ability is not all heredity as proper mechanics also contribute. Coaches teach these mechanics several times a week and can help the swimmer make significant improvements over time. It is important to remember that swimmers learn at different paces. Despite the best efforts of coaches, some swimmers will take longer to learn a good start than others.
Before judging a swimmer’s ability to get off the block, either as very good or as needing a lot more coaching, look at where and when the swimmer surfaces after the start. After the starting signal, who gets to the 10 meter mark first? It’s not always the first swimmer off of the block. A study done several years ago examined the relative importance of the initial quickness off the block versus the swimmer's ability to enter the water, streamline, kick, and breakout properly. According to the study, how the swimmer hits the water and what they do in the water are of far greater importance than speed off of the block. This ability is a complex skill requiring a lot of practice, mixed with the right body type. Some argue that it is more dependent on body type which is a factor a swimmer cannot control. The fact is, that because of body type and buoyancy, some swimmers streamline better than other swimmers and with proper kicking an breakout mechanics will surface in front of other less able swimmers.
So what can we make of all this? Answer: always look at the larger picture. Is the swimmer improving and is she or he happy? That’s the larger, larger picture. Looking at the “smaller larger picture” one needs to consider all aspects of the race including good approaches to the walls, good turns, proper breakouts, good stroke mechanics, proper race management, and a great finish. It all adds up. If the swimmer has not yet developed a great start, entry, and break out, there are many other areas of the event we can look to for success.
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What We Do In Age Group and Stroke School Practice
Written by the ASCA Staff (Who actually do coach senior, age group, and novice swimmers every day.)
Parents, you are always welcome to observe practice and if you do you might see two or three different ability levels doing different things depending on the objectives for that day for each group. Above all else, their safety and well being are our primary concern.
In general, there are eight different things we do in practice, usually not all in the same day. We work on skills including freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and starts and turns for each stroke. We do drills which emphasize various aspects of each of the strokes. We race -- giving the swimmers a chance to swim fast which helps develop coordination, strength, and racing strategies. We work on basic cardiovascular conditioning doing longer swims of 200 to 1000 yards at a time depending on ability or by doing “sets” of shorter swims with limited rest, for example swimming ten times 50 yards with 15 seconds rest between each swim. We have fun — we play a game once or twice a week or we do relays. Fun can mean more than playing a game, it can also mean learning something new or swimming farther or faster. We provide opportunities for fun every day. We present life skills sometimes during a pre-planned 5 to10 minute interactive discussion and sometimes during an appropriate teaching moment. Topics range from learning how to listen to instructions; to positive self talk, to personal responsibility. We also offer dryland training which helps increase coordination and strength. All of our dryland for age group and novice is done without weight equipment and the greatest care is taken to use proper technique and to be safe.
The final ingredient, and our favorite, is to challenge the young people to do something difficult -- something they might not have thought they can do. The role of the coach is to set the appropriate challenge before them, to prepare them to meet the challenge, to cheer them on, and finally to praise them for a job well done. Stroke Work, Stroke Drills, Racing and Speed Work, Cardiovascular Conditioning, Fun and Games, Dryland Training, Life skills, and Challenge: these make up our day-to-day practice routine.
A Short Note on Practice Times
Practice starts on time every day. That means we begin the first exercise right at the beginning of our practice time. If children are late, we welcome them and get them going right away. If the work being done at the time they arrive requires a warm-up we will accommodate that need in order to avoid any risk of injury or strain. Practice also finishes on time. If your child needs to leave earlier simply approach the coach directly and we will get the child out of the water immediately. Please do not approach the poolside to directly take your child out of the water – see the coach first. You may also send a note with your child if they need to get out earlier.
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The prototypical swimming mother, renowned for devoting herself wholly to her children's swimming careers is nearly an extinct species. With both parents working in 70% of households, the old swimming mom is now a career mom, with all the stresses and complications that brings. And that means everybody in the world of age group swimming must adjust - from coaches who will have to be more reasonable in enforcing rules on practice attendance and punctuality...to parents who must plan more thoroughly to arrange kids transportation from school or home to an afternoon practice session...to the demands the sport makes on families who must give up now-precious weekends to attend meets.
Making time for kids, jobs, and the personal needs of every family member is the greatest challenge in the two-career family. A child who feels neglected by busy parents will feel resentful. Here are some hints adapted from PARENTS magazine on how to prevent kids from feeling neglected.
It's important for kids to feel they're not competing for attention with their parents' careers. Dr. James Comer, professor of child psychology at Yale University suggests putting your child's practices, competitions, and special events on your work calendar and trying to plan work requirements around them. If one parent has a more flexible schedule than the other at particular times, that parent would take on greater responsibility for involvement in swimming activities. Whenever schedules permit, both parents should attend the kids' activities. When neither parent is available, make arrangements for the children to call on neighbors or nearby relatives.
Dr. Comer also suggests parents should be willing to receive a call at work from their children at any time. If an ethos of cooperation and teamwork evolves through honest and open communication of the reasons for both parents working, children will be unlikely to abuse the privilege. This can also be an opportunity to give children added responsibilities and a meaningful role to play in achieving family goals. Parents who actively plan for and show a clear interest in their children's activities will find that the kids, in return, respect the needs of their parents.
Above all, Dr.Comer stresses the importance of listening to the children's concerns and being willing to acknowledge the shortcomings of the situation to address the kinds of plans and cooperation needed for all family members to have their needs met.