Stay With Developing Clubs

Concern: Our club is a young club, only three years old. My child, who is now 12, started with the program three years ago and is now one of the best swimmers on the team. (There are only a few older swimmers.) I think my child has out grown the team and we need to start looking for another club where my child will be challenged by better swimmers.

Response: Consider these questions:

1. Has your present club been making steady growth progress in the past and does it appear to be growing into the future?
2. Has the same coach been with the program for the past three years and has this coach continued his/her coaching education through American Swimming Coaches Membership, Clinics and the Certification program? Is the coach growing?
3. How did your child make such good progress to this point?
4. How does one balance the value of loyalty with the desire to move on?
   

Answers: If the coach and program are making good progress toward the future we believe you should stay with the club for three basic reasons:

First, a young team needs leadership beyond what the coach offers. As a parent you can provide important leadership to your Board of Directors and to other parents. Your swimmer represents the current peak of the program and is an important leader to all other younger swimmers. When leaders leave, the peak of the program is disrupted and the program loses direction.

Secondly, you child became a good swimmer with the present coach. There is every reason to believe that your child will continue to improve. Good coaches find ways to provide workout and competitive situations for their top swimmers so that they are continually challenged.

Consider this: many of America's top swimmers have come from programs where they are far and away the fastest person in the pool. Who do they compete with on a daily basis? They compete against the clock and they are motivated from within and by the coach. They are also motivated by their position of leadership to the rest of the team. The coach also arranges the best competitive situations in swim meets. There is always going to be a "best swimmer" in a workout -- let it be your child!

Third, in today's world, people are too quick to jump ship when things don't go perfectly. Loyalty and perseverance are important qualities to pass on to children. Be an exception. Stay with the club. Be a leader. Help it grow.

If the program and coach are not growing AND your child is not happy, then it is time to either effect changes in the program and/or coach, or look for another program. The important factor here is your child's happiness. Your child's swimming ambitions and needs may be very different than what you perceive them to be. Do not let your ego make a decision to switch clubs thus removing your child from friends, coach, and environment he is happy with.

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This is another segment of News For SWIM PARENTS
Published by The American Club Swimming Association
5101 NW 21 Ave., Suite 200
Fort Lauderdale FL 33309

Ten Ways For the Swim Parent to Sabotage Their Child’s Swimming Career

Written with tongue firmly in cheek by John Leonard
After thirty-three full years of observation, it has occurred to me that some parents must internally delight in the idea of sabotaging their child’s swim career. They must for some perverse reason WANT to do this, since they work so incredibly hard at it and are so remarkably successful. Hereafter, my top ten list of means and methods. (And more seriously, some clear examples on positive alternatives.)

10. Start out making sure the child will get a material reward for good performance…. at age 8, a stop at McDonalds for a 100 IM done without disqualification. At age 10, a five-dollar bill for a new “A” time. At age 12, a trip to Disney World for a high point trophy in the JO’s. At age 14, a party for child and friends at an amusement park, complete with LIMO ride, for qualifying for state high school champs as a freshman. And, if still around in the sport, a new Mercedes or Jaguar for a state high school championship as a senior. If you can’t see what’s wrong with this, you’re the problem.
The approach that works best? Let the rewards become internal. Let the sport “belong” to the child, not something that “Mommy wants me to do.” Get them to understand the value of working hard to improve themselves EVERY DAY, and allow them opportunities to “prove themselves” through THEIR sport.

9. Demand that the child keep up with Fred’s kid, from work, who always wins at least one event in any meet they go to. Fred’s kid is 8, stands 5 feet, 5 inches tall and had his first shave last Friday. Face shave, not swimming shave. Demand that your child stays close to, or “Right with” those early developers in your club.
Reality? Children develop at different rates, in terms of size, strength,coordination, emotional and intellectual maturity and just about everything else. Allow your child to compete ONLY against itself, and measure them against only their own best efforts.

8. Coach your child part time, “when you’re available”. If you’re rarely available, show up after practice with a stopwatch and “help” Susie by timing her for 50 meters “to see if she’s getting any better”. Encourage her with “kick, Susie, Kick!” screams from the side of the pool. This will nicely balance out the fact that all your 10 and under age group coach does is ask them to swim correctly and SLOOOOWLY so they learn their strokes. You’re just encouraging them to swim Faster, right??? Right? Right? Huh?
What should you do? Just about ANYTHING except coach. Parents are for unconditional love and support. Coaches are for critical analysis of performance and developing skills physical, emotional and tactical. STAY AWAY from any coaching. If you doubt your coaches’ ability to coach, talk to them about it, at last resort, go somewhere you have enough faith in the coaching to stay out of it. No mistake is worse than trying to be both parent and coach to your child. It’s guaranteed long-term relationship disaster.

7. Insist that your child swim the race the way YOU want it swum….”like I saw them do in the Olympics” or “like I did, when I was in college in 1975.” When you’re at the meet on Saturday, after not having seen your child swim in practice for 6 months. After all, swimming’s swimming right? It doesn’t change. Does it? Does it? Huh?
Reality? Techniques and thinking on how to swim races change all the time. Swimming for a ten year old is not what it might be for a 20 year old, or an Olympic Swimmer. Allow your coach to select the race strategy that they deem age appropriate and developmentally proper for your child. If you doubt the coaches ability to do this, talk to them about it, until you are reassured.

6. Go get them a nice candy bar, mom and dad, just before they swim, so they’ll have some “quick energy” just before they dive in. Or, bring in some nice fresh Crispy Crème donuts just after the warm-up and before the big meet. That’ll give them a lift and cheer them up. Psych them up. Yeah. Good. Ugh.
Well, for those who don’t know, Sugar is the Great Satan of physical performance. It creates an immediate “sugar high” in the bloodstream and then immediately thereafter, a HUGE dip in the blood sugar, so just about the time your child gets up to swim, they’ll feel like they are wilting and just want to go lie down and rest. Not exactly “race ready”. And don’t try to figure out how to “time it” for the sugar high, either … it won’t work, its not that predictable in timing…. except exertion will immediately trigger the sugar low. What instead? If they must eat between races and meals, have a bagel or non-sugar carbohydrate snack.

5. Tell your early developed 15 year old, “But you were SOOOOO good, when you were eight!”
Wow. Nothing heavier than a great potential, according to Charlie Brown. If you have an early developing child, stay away from past results comparisons. Just look at your own child’s best times, and encourage improvement. And if the times aren’t improving as they get older, and thankfully, they still enjoy swimming, just keep your mouth shut and be pleased that they enjoy the exercise and training. Great friends to be around, great role models. If you have trouble keeping your mouth shut, go look around at the mall to see whom your child COULD be hanging out with. It should inspire you to keep bringing them to the pool.

4. Go to the side of the pool each time the child swims, to “support them”, with wild cheering, screaming, trembling and generally demonstrating your emotional involvement in your child’s swim. The child will swim REEEAALLLY fast the first time you do this, (which will encourage you to do it ALL the time…) since all they want to do is get out of the water so you’ll stop embarrassing them. Then they’d prefer to NEVER race again rather than see you like that.
Reality? Sit down. Smile. Cheer internally. When your child comes back, ask the child what they thought of their swim. Listen. Be quiet. Learn. Then cheer wildly for your child’s best friend. That’ll make your child happy, not embarrassed. (And hope your child’s friend’s parent is cheering for YOUR child!)

3. Spend your time in the car pool dissecting the workout your child just did. You can dissect the work given (critiquing the coach), or the child’s performance (critiquing the child) or best of all, OTHER people’s children’s performance. The more critical you can be, the more knowledgeable you will appear. The door you hear slamming is your child leaving swimming.
What to do after you watch practice? Go Home. Feed your child. DO NOT TALK ABOUT PRACTICE UNLESS YOUR CHILD WANTS TO DO SO. This is all about letting the sport belong to the child and not to you. Critical.

2. When your child has an improved swim, faster than ever before, jump up and down, demonstrate your enthusiasm with words like WONDERFUL! FANTASTIC! INCREDIBLE! UNBELIEVABLE! And generally behave as if you can’t believe that a child with your pitiful athletic genes could actually do something worthwhile. This will ensure that your child will believe that they have accomplished something akin to finding the Holy Grail and will ensure that they cannot even REPEAT that performance, much less improve on it, for another two years when they finally forget your performance.
Reality? We all get excited when our child performs well in any way. Try your best to be restrained around your child. Making a big deal of a best time makes it seem like you are SURPRISED that they could do so. Like you lack confidence that they could actually do anything worthwhile. Instead, play it cool. Express your confidence that the wonderful thing you just saw is an everyday event for a child as dedicated, hardworking and talented as yours. In the words of the football coach trying to diminish the “celebration factor” – “ACT LIKE YOU HAVE BEEN IN THE END ZONE BEFORE.” (And expect to be again.)

1. Tell your child that they “HAVE TO/MUST” make this “time, time standard, place, final, or medal “Right Now”. That should be crushing enough pressure to debilitate most anyone…except you of course, who can sit in the stands or at poolside, with a cup of coffee and a bun while you emote, rather than swim, the race.
What’s the right language? Each swim is an opportunity to go fast. Just another opportunity. If you miss on this one, you’ll get another chance shortly. The more important we make something, the more the pressure load to perform under. Everything is “just another swim meet”. Everything. Even the Olympic Games. Our Olympic Coaches tell our Olympic Athletes regularly …”what do you do in a regular meet? You try to go a best time. This is the same. Go a best time here, and you’ll be fine.” No one swim meet is “make it or break it” for an athletes career. Don’t artificially try to make it so.

A Family That Plays Together

By Karen Coe
Sacramento Bee Columnist

Parents should try not to push children too soon.

When the Garritsons show up at a cross country meet, they leave with most of the medals.

For the last several years, the Southern California family has dominated, and often swept, all the youth age group divisions at the National Cross Country Championships. With seven out of nine Garritson children competing, the first-place hardware is a heavy haul.

The Garritsons are a speedy lot. James, the oldest at 14, ran 32:59 for 10 kilometers at age 11. Carrie, 13, clocked a 2:49:18 at the Los Angeles Marathon two years ago. It was her debut marathon, and it qualified her for the Olympic Trials. Race organizers wouldn't let her compete in the trials marathon because of her age.

James and Carrie started running at ages 7 and 6 with their father, Mike. The others took their first fast steps with their dad at age 4. Jeremy, 3, runs 20 minutes three days a week. When Robert, 1, and the Garritson baby expected in a few weeks are ready for it, they'll run, too.

Although their running prowess has earned medals, national acclaim and even an interview on the Donohue show, some experts warn that the Garritsons have accomplished too much, too fast.

"We're against competition for kids," says Dr. Lyle Michaeli, director of the division of sports medicine at Children's Hospital in Boston. "The joints and growth plates (growth centers near the ends of bones) are susceptible to injury."

Besides the injuries related to overtraining, Michaeli also sees children who come to his clinic complaining of sleeplessness, lethargy and sometimes, depression.

"Some kids are actually stressed too much," Michaeli says. "It's a psychological stress. They can be depressed, overfatigued, show a change in the level of their schoolwork and get injured or sick."

Kids can run into performance anxiety in other sports besides running. And the angst young athletes feel when they put a personal performance on the line at a footrace is often benign compared to what children feel when they're part of a team that stresses winning instead of the joys of movement and learning new skills. Some coaches say children under 12 aren't psychologically ready to compete.

"Ask most coaches and the response you'll get is that the child should not get into competition before 11 or 12," says John Leonard, executive director of the American Swimming Coaches Association. "The problem isn't so much with the kids' adjustment, it's the parents' adjustment."

Leonard cites parents who hang around swim practices like groupies at a rock concert, timing laps and offering advice at every turn.

"There are over-involved parents in Little League, soccer, and hockey, too," says Leonard, who teaches people how to coach. "When you get adults involved, they say this is the start line and this the end. There is some standard to measure up to -- or not. Some parent might blow out of proportion that their 7 year old is blowing the other 7 year olds out of the water. Instead of learning better stroke technique, that kid relies on his superior strength. The problem comes in when he's 15 or 16 and all the kids have caught up to him in size and strength."

Dr. Gabe Mirkin, who in the late '60's, launched one of the first national age group running programs, coached his son, Jean, to 13 age group world records. At 11, Jean told his father that he'd never run another step. And Jean, 28, hasn't. Mirkin admits he pushed his son too hard.
"In my opinion it's a mistake for kids to be highly competitive unless it's their own idea," says Mirkin, who writes a syndicated column on sports medicine and hosts a regular radio talk show on the subject. "It's too much, too soon. Kids want to be kids."

But Mirkin sees nothing wrong with hard workouts.

"I don't agree with Michaeli that you can injure bone plates," he says. "It's the competition I disagree with. I pushed Jean hard. He had tremendous success and acclaim. When father is the coach, it's a dangerous situation. Parents should be supportive and encourage the kids, take them to practice, but should stay in the stands until the kid is done working out. The kids need to be motivated from within, not by their parents."

Mike Garritson isn't one to sit in the stands at workouts. He coaches his children and often runs workouts with them. And he has taken a lot of flak for that hands-on approach to his children's training.

"I think he's an extremist," says Dr. Ron Axtell, a general practitioner and chairman of the Southern California Association of Youth Athletics for The Athletics Congress. "I don't know whether he wants his kids to succeed for themselves or whether he wants them to succeed for him."

In defense, Garritson cites his kids' healthy appetite for competition, their undeniable success in running and their scholastic accomplishments.

"Their grades all went up when they started running," he says. "We do our workouts on trails and the kids love that and the wildlife they see. They like going to meets. It was Carrie's idea to run the L.A. Marathon. I didn't want her to. I wanted her to stop after 10K, but she kept going."

Here are some tips from national experts on the subject of children and
competition:

• Dr. Lyle Michaeli: "Organized sports is probably going to be the only way kids get exercise in the future," he says. "So, I'm all for that. I'd advise keeping the competition out of it until they're 14 or so."

• James Ross, vice president of Macro Systems in Silver Springs, Md., and director of child and adolescent health programs: "There's no indication that participation in high school or college sports carries over into adulthood," he says. "We should be teaching kids skills and introducing them to activities they'll do all their lives."

• John Leonard, executive director of the American Swimming Coaches Association: "For kids, I recommend lots of activities, not just swimming,"He says. "Help them get a sense of physicality through sports like soccer, baseball, or basketball."
  

• Dr. Gabe Mirkin: "Let them be kids," he says. "They can work out three days a week, but let them play and be kids the other four days."

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This is another segment of News For SWIM PARENTS
Published by The American Club Swimming Association
5101 NW 21 Ave., Suite 200
Fort Lauderdale FL 33309

Supporting Your Children in Swimming

Parents can help their kids feel that they can reach goals they've set for themselves with effort, perseverance, and just a little patience. From PARENTS magazine, here are 7 ways to help your youngster do their best.

1. Support their efforts. Listen to your child's dreams, goals, and ideas and help him to work out the steps of those that seem attainable by organizing them into do-able parts.

2. Encourage follow-through. Praise task completion and encourage them to carry on when the initial excitement fades. Relate your struggles to complete tasks and your satisfaction at having achieved a goal.

3. Offer reinforcement or reward. Give incentive for better efforts, not just accomplishments. Keep a chart with stars tracking progress and reward the task's completion, not its grade. Younger children need quicker rewards and briefer tasks.

4. Recognize his success level. When a child reaches a point of frustration, learning specialists advocate you help him return to a level where he feels successful. Then his enthusiasm will return.

5. Involve others. Tell teachers and coaches that it's more important to you that your child feel successful than to come out on top. Making your values clear to them can make them more effective in helping your child.

6. Point out effort in others. Make your child aware of how others work hard at their daily activities, so they know they're not alone in trying, overcoming discouragement, meeting challenges, and succeeding.

7. Praise him for trying. Point out how much you appreciate your child's doing something that may be difficult for him.

Applied to schoolwork, swimming, or other pursuits, these devices can help kids develop a "can-do" attitude.

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This is another segment of News For SWIM PARENTS
Published by The American Club Swimming Association
5101 NW 21 Ave., Suite 200
Fort Lauderdale FL 33309

"What Is Swimmer's Ear?"

Answered by: Robert T. Scott, M.D.

Most competitive swimmers have been bothered at one time or another by what is known as "swimmer's ear". There seems to be many ways of curing the tiresome disease but it often requires a swimmer to stop swimming for a week or two. Swimmer's ear can reoccur weeks, months or years later for no apparent reason. For some individuals, it becomes a chronic painful inflammation of the skin inside the outer ear canal. There are multiple symptoms of varying intensity. Itching and pain are mild to intense, depending on the degree of inflammation and swelling of the skin. The amount of the discharge (pus), which causes blockage of the air column leading to the eardrum, determines the severity of the interference with hearing. A dull fullness may exist for weeks to months with mild skin inflammation. However, a canal with maximally thickened skin will exert pressure on bone and cartilage, resulting in extreme pain and complete clogging of the air passage. This leads to clogging of the air passages and will result in temporary hearing loss and is a common sign of swimmer's ear.

To help prevent swimmer's ear, the ear canal should be kept as dry as possible. This will help maintain the natural protective action of the earwax. A thin mantle of wax prevents maceration (softening) of the skin surface and its acid pH inhibits the growth of bacteria and fungus. Some individuals have very little wax, and just the water that enters the canal from normal bathing of showering becomes trapped and prepares the skin for infection ensuing inflammation. A snug-fitting bathing cap will help prevent the headaches associated with cold water swimming and will also help keep water from washing in and out, taking ear wax with it.

Using comfortable earplugs while swimming will help keep ears dry. A good fit will keep water from washing back and forth through the canal. The constant traffic of water in and out of the canal will remove the protective layer of the ear wax and the more one swims, the more wax is washed out.

After a workout most swimmers can clear moisture from their ears by tilting the head and shaking it to the side. Warm hair dryers are also very useful in drying the ears after a swimming session. A warm blast of air will effectively dry out the canal in five to ten minutes and enable the ear wax to reform and do it's protective job.

If a swimmer loses his earwax easily, then a couple of drops of acidifying eardrops can help prevent the growth of bacteria. Eardrops can be used without a prescription or two drops of household vinegar will also work for most swimmers.

Each case of swimmer's ear is individual and a physician should supervise treatment. Most swimmers will be required to stop swimming for a few weeks but then again; it depends on the individual. If you can wear a well-fitting earplug that will keep water out and also keep in the drainage from your ears so that it will not infect other swimmers, then I believe it is safe to continue your training. However, if the ear plug itself is causing an irritation by touching irritated skin, then the ear plug is not the answer and some time out of the water may be necessary. A sport minded doctor will usually give you a reasonable answer.

Ben Franklin once commented, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." For swimmers everywhere who hope to avoid swimmer's ear, his words are quite literally sound advice.

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This is another segment of News For SWIM PARENTS
Published by The American Club Swimming Association
5101 NW 21 Ave., Suite 200
Fort Lauderdale FL 33309

Support Team Travel

The benefits of team travel for age group swimmers are often talked about in terms of such matters as building responsibility, developing self discipline, and gaining independence from home -- in other words, life skills. However, let's not forget that our sport is competitive swimming.
Age group swimmers who swim continually within the state or Local Swim Committee area begin to fit into the same type expectations mentioned in the article on camps -- they EXPECT to beat some swimmers while EXPECTING to be beat by others. Even parents are often overheard stating that they expect their child to lose to a specific swimmer. More experienced age group swimmers need to travel outside their immediate area and compete with new faces. They need to learn how to break out of the EXPECTED.

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This is another segment of News For SWIM PARENTS
Published by The American Club Swimming Association
5101 NW 21 Ave., Suite 200
Fort Lauderdale FL 33309

Quick Energy

By Keith B. Wheeler, Ph.D.
And Angeline M. Cameron

QUESTION: Many young swimmers eat powdered Jello at swim meets. Will this give an athlete "quick energy" for the meet and improve performance? Are there any true sources of quick energy that can be taken just before a meet?

ANSWER: No, ingesting powdered sugar (ie Jello) immediately before a swim meet will not supply the body with a quick source of energy and will not improve performance. In fact, it may reduce performance. The best way for swimmers to nutritionally prepare for a meet, is to eat a meal or snack that is high in complex carbohydrate, 4 hours before the competition begins.
This meal will help ensure that energy stores in the body, especially those in the liver and circulating blood, are adequate. Consuming too much simple sugar 15 to 30 minutes before a swim competition may cause blood sugar levels to be reduced, thus reducing performance.

There is no such thing as a quick energy source that can be taken immediately before a swim competition. Athletes and parents should be careful about using food sources or products that make this claim.