LIFE SKILLS TRAINING EXERCISES

BY AIMEE KIMBALL, PhD//SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST

Ask swimmers to identify characteristics of the best athletes. Each week pick one of these characteristics to focus on. Have a conversation with your athletes about this life skill and enforce its use throughout the week. At the end of the week, ask them how they used this life skill in the pool, in their social life, in school, or in any activity in which they are involved.

For example, if they say a “positive attitude” is a characteristic of successful athletes, spend 15 minutes talking to them and getting their thoughts on why this is so important. Throughout the week, any time someone is negative, have him turn the negative thought into something positive. At the end of the week, ask them for examples of when their positive attitudes helped them through challenging situations and if there was any time when having a negative attitude hindered their performance. This helps the swimmers understand the importance of this life skill and teaches them how to use it throughout their lives to be successful.

TEACHING LIFE SKILLS THROUGH SPORT

BY AIMEE KIMBALL, PhD//SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST

The old cliché that sport doesn’t create character, it reveals it, is somewhat true. However, because of the amount of time athletes spend in athletics during their formative years, sport is at least partially responsible for shaping the character of individuals.

Because sport impacts the psychological and social development of athletes, it is imperative that athletes use sport as a means to develop skills that will enhance their characters and contribute to their eventual success outside of sport.

While there are many life skills that can be learned through sport, we can’t just assume that athletes will pick these skills up on their own. It is up to parents and coaches to teach these skills.

A “life skill” is any personal attribute or behavior that assists individuals in overcoming challenges in athletic, academic, social and other life situations. Life skills are often the intangible traits a person must possess to turn his physical ability into a successful outcome.

For example, swimmers who have perfect technique, strength and endurance will only reach their full potential if they have the necessary work ethic, mental toughness and commitment (among other life skills) to succeed.

These same swimmers may also be academically gifted, but without those same life skills, they may not be successful in school. Therefore, it is the combination of physical ability and psycho-social skills that help people to reach their potential.

A common example highlighting the importance of life skills also happens to be one of the most frustrating things for many coaches and parents – physically gifted swimmers who do not achieve the level of success they are capable of.

Parents and coaches may wrongly assume these athletes do not care, but it is more often the case that they just don’t know how to put their skill to good use.

Often these are the swimmers that experienced early success, the early maturers were stronger and taller than their peers and were able to win races without having to work at it. When their later maturing peers physically develop and catch up, the athletes with the early success often become frustrated and their confidence decreases because they think they “lost it.” 

They didn’t actually “lose” their ability to swim well. They are not having continued success because they never learned what it meant to truly push their physical limits because they previously did not have to.

Coaches and parents can make sure skilled athletes develop the necessary work ethic and life skills to be successful by stressing the importance of constant improvement, rather than just winning. By focusing on what it takes to improve both time and technique, swimmers develop a sense of pride from seeing their hard work, commitment and dedication pay off. Swimmers can also be encouraged to develop their skills in a wide range of events, rather than concentrating on the ones where they always succeed.

By emphasizing these life skills and by talking about how these characteristics lead to success in and out of the pool, parents and coaches can teach athletes that success is not all about physical ability, it’s about how well they combine this ability with their attitude.

Like anything else, life skills take work to develop. While there are many life skills that can be taught through sport, it is up to the adults involved to use “teachable moments” to ensure that athletes learn these skills and develop them for success outside of sport.

How To Prevent Swimmers’ Ear

Every year, when the summer months come around and the city pools become overrun with thousands of summer-league swimmers, the number of swimmers’ ear cases skyrockets proportionally. This very painful infection of the inner-ear can ruin a season, a summer, or even a swimming career if it becomes severe enough. Luckily, with diligence, swimmer’s ear can be easily prevented with about 2 minutes of care after each practice.

Swimmer’s ear is caused by water penetrating the water-resistant lining of the ear canal. This lining is usually pretty solid, but when it is wet for a long period of time, it becomes pruney and soft, much like our fingers and toes do. This makes the ear very susceptible to tearing, and once there is even a tiny tear, bacteria can get into it and cause all sorts of nasty infections.

Symptoms: People with swimmer’s ear usually complain of an itchy and/or painful ear. The pain can be quite severe. The ear is particularly sensitive to the being tugged up and down. The earwax may appear soft and white, and there may be a small amount of clear discharge.

1. The first step is to consider ear plugs. When fit properly, these can help keep water out of the ear. General commercial earplugs do not tend to fit great, but ask your doctor if you want to get custom made plugs. Pulling a cap down over the swimmer’s ears will help keep the earplugs in place (as well as cover them up for those kids who are shy about them!).
2. After practice, playing in the pool, and even baths and showers, use ear drops to dry the water out of your swimmers’ ear. Q-tips can irritate the ear canal and contribute to swimmer’s ear, so ear drops are the safest way to dry them out. Tip the swimmer’s head to one side and put a few drops in. Keep the head tilted for a minute or so to ensure it absorbs the water and bacteria, and then tip the head the other way to drain the solution. Repeat with the other ear.

These solutions can be bought at your local grocery store, or just combine 1 part water, 1 part vinegar, and 1 part rubbing alcohol. The vinegar disinfects, and the rubbing alcohol dries the ear out. Note that these drops are to be used to PREVENT swimmer’s ear, or to treat very mild cases.

FOR MORE SEVERE CASES, consult a doctor before putting anything in the child’s ear to prevent a very painful reaction. Prevention can go a long way, because once a swimmer gets an infection once, it is likely to recur frequently.

This article should not be taken as medical advice. Please consult your doctor if you have any concerns about your or your child’s health.

Moving Up: The Parent Transition

swimtelligence.blogspot.com

"Moving up" is an important experience in the life of a swimmer. When a swimmer is old enough, has shown a sufficient level of commitment, and has improved his skills to a new level, he will be invited to "move up" into the next training squad. The invitation is an honor, a sign that the coaching staff believes the swimmer is ready to take his performance to new heights.

Moving up often means increases in commitment, training time, the difficulty of practices, and a new group of teammates to train with. Each of these aspects of the move-up can present challenges. Thus, the swimmer will need the support of his parents. This brings us to our topic: The Parent Transition.
When your swimmer moves from one squad to the next, you as a parent must also make a transition. These changes include:

• Increasing your own level of commitment. Your swimmer will likely be expected to practice MORE OFTEN. At BWST, our squads are set up so that each squad practices for a longer duration more frequently than the squad below it. At the senior level, this means that your swimmer may now be expected to attend morning practices. This of course means that you may have to drive!
• Adjusting your expectations for your swimmer's performance. Generally speaking, as swimmers get older they swim best times by smaller margins with less frequency. For instance, 10-year-old Johnny drops 6 seconds in the 100 free every meet all season long. When Johnny is 16, his goal may be to drop 3 seconds in the entire season. This may not happen immediately when a swimmer moves up, but with increased levels of training, he may be more fatigued and have a more difficult time swimming fast during the season. Rest assured, if he is working hard, the coaches are preparing him to swim faster than ever.
• Being willing to travel more often and for longer distances. For younger swimmers, we often don't have to travel outside of the Potomac Valley area to find competition to challenge our swimmers. As swimmers get older and reach more elite levels in our sport (particularly the Sectional level and beyond), it will become necessary to travel further for meets. Regional and National meets are usually held in locations outside of Virginia, and we want to find new competition and faster competition to continue to challenge our swimmers. Think of the story of the Japanese koi fish. When kept in small ponds, they don't grow particularly large. When set free to larger bodies of water, they grow to much greater lengths. In order for our swimmers to become "big fish" we must expose them to the "ocean" of competition that exists outside of our Virginia pond.
• Taking a step back and encouraging your swimmer to take ownership. Often, young 10 & under swimmers are motivated to swim fast in order to make their parents proud. As swimmers progress into the early teens, this motivation dries up and a swimmer must be motivated from within by his own desire to succeed. He also must learn to take responsibility for all aspects of his swimming. For instance, a 12-year-old should be packing his own swim bag, and a teenager should be waking himself up for morning practice. With increased responsibility comes increased ownership and a stronger internal drive to succeed.

Making The Parent Transition is a vital part of a swimmer's growth and development from novice to age grouper, from age grouper to senior swimmer, and from senior swimmer to elite champion.

Six No-No Phrases for the Swim Parent

swimtelligence.blogspot.com 13 July 2009

Parents often ask what to say to their swimmers to help them succeed. The conversations that happen between a parent and child can have a dramatic impact in shaping a swimmer's attitudes toward swimming. The phrases below are all things coaches have heard before, and we just cringe when we hear them. Each is an example of what not to say to your swimmer.

1. Introducing your child to someone as "the swimmer." "This is Johnny, the swimmer." Swimming is something your child does, not who she is. Help your child cultivate his identity as a person, and encourage him to be the best he can be at swimming. Ultimately, he will better be able to weather the storms of failure and enjoy the fruits of success in swimming if his identity is not wrapped around it.
2. "We came all this way/spent all this money/took all this time... and you swam slow/didn't try/performed poorly." Your kid is probably already disappointed in her own performance, without adding the weight of your parental sacrifices. Understand that it is the nature of human performance that your child will not perform at his or her best at every meet or in every race. The effect of making this comment is that the next time you make a sacrifice to go to a meet, your child will feel the added pressure - possibly to the detriment of his performance.
3. "Good job" (When your child doesn't perform well) She knows when it was a good swim and when it was a bad one. False praise does nothing but cheapen the praise when it is actually deserved. Try "good effort" or "you'll get 'em next time" or "I love you anyway."
4. "WE need to get this cut, WE need to win this event, etc." How many lengths of the pool are you swimming, mom? It is your child's swim, not yours, and you should try to promote his ownership of his performance. Be his biggest fan--there to support him through good and bad--not his teammate.
5. "It's probably your training" (reason why you swam slow). As a parent, it is important that you buttress your child's confidence in his coach. If you have concerns about your swimmer's progress, address them with the coach. Passing your concern on to your swimmer is likely to weaken the coach-swimmer partnership.
6. "It's okay, you don't have to go to practice today." This one comes up when your child is tired, cranky, or is just not wanting to go to practice. It is going to happen at some point that your age grouper will have one of these days. But rather than act as enabler by caving to your swimmer's desire not to attend practice, remind him that it his swimming and his results at the end of the season that will be affected. Remind him of the commitment he has made to his team and to his own swimming. The key is to get your child to make the decision, rather than having you the parent act as the passive enabler. It's tough -- you may not want to take him to practice either, but taking this approach consistently will help your child take ownership of his performance.

Parents, any questions about effective ways to talk swimming with your kid?  Let your coach know, and let's get the lines of communication open and flowing!

What is Short Course, What is Long Course?

News For SWIM  PARENTS Published by The American Swimming Coaches Association

For years the "American Standard Short Course" pool has been a 25 yard pool.  Almost all high school pools and most college pools are 25 yards long and most high school and college meets are run as short course meets.  USA Swimming Club teams generally swim short course meets from September through March.

The international standard is meters.  The Olympics, Pan-American Games, and World Championships are held in 50 meter pools.  In this country, most 50 meter pools are outdoors due to the cost of building an indoor 50 meter pool.  For that reason our long course season is generally from March through August.  As more and more indoor 50 meter pools are being built and as the United States focuses more on international swimming the distinction between the "short course season" and the "long course season" becomes less distinct and more meets are going to the long course standard throughout the year -- with the exception of high school and college swimming which will generally remain short course yards.

At this time (April) many teams are training short course but are preparing to go to long course when the outdoor pool is ready.  Some lucky teams are located in a climate and have access to long course pools all year around.  And some lucky teams have indoor 50 meter water all year around.

Eventually we all will be at swim meets during the spring and summer that are long course.  This will cause some confusion about times.  The times will be slower because a 50 meter swim is approximately 5 yards longer than a 50 yard swim.  Another factor are turns.  There are less turns in long course swimming and generally, turns are faster than swimming -- we can push off the wall faster than we can swim.  (Although for some of our swimmers who have not yet mastered a turn, the turning process is slower than swimming!)

Some people attempt to "convert" a short course time to a long course time or visa versa.  The conversion factors are not precise due to differences in turns, strokes, and individual's ability to swim the extra distance at speed.  Conversions can lead to unrealistic expectations and disappointments, or to a false sense of achievement.  For those reasons we do not convert times.  We simply say that each swimmer has two sets of best times, one for long course and one for short course.

Kids And Sport

News For SWIM  PARENTS Published by The American Swimming Coaches Association

By Ira Klein, ASCA Level 5

Recently I read an article from Sports Psychology magazine, written by Dr. David A. Feigley.  He works with the Rutgers University Youth Sport Research Council.  The article was entitled "Why Kids Quit" and contained interesting and useful information which I wish to share with all of you.

First, why do kids play sports? 

There are three basic types of participants.  Ability oriented children enjoy competition and "want to be the best".  Task oriented children enjoy the activity itself and often focus on self-improvement.  Social approval oriented children work to please others such as coaches, parents, and teammates.  To my surprise, the author says that the evidence suggests that those who work for social approval persist the longest.

Children aged six years and younger cannot distinguish between ability and effort.  They believe that when they try hard they are automatically good at what they are doing.  Praise tends to be accepted positively by very young children regardless of whether the task was successfully completed or not. 

Children aged seven through eleven develop the ability to differentiate between having talent and trying hard.  They compare themselves with others, and if they feel they cannot succeed, they would rather not try.  They find it easier to attribute failure to a deliberate lack of effort, than to admit that they lack ability.

Children from age twelve become skilled at making social comparisons and realize that expending effort is no longer a guarantee that they will succeed.

What can we do to help reduce the pressures that children feel?

1. Encourage enjoyment of the activity and self-improvement.
2. Encourage children to interpret comparisons with others solely as a tool for improving.  Comparisons should be constructive and never as simple as "they are better" or "you are not as good".
3. Praise must be an earned reward.   As children mature, they begin to value praise for successful outcomes much more than praise for trying hard.  Look for specific successes.
4. Continually remind your children that ability often changes dramatically as they mature.