News
For
SWIM
PARENTS
Published by The American
Swimming Coaches Association
5101 NW 21 Ave., Suite 200
Fort Lauderdale FL 33309
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Why is Swimming a Year
Around Sport
for Age Group Swimmers?
First, at
the competitive level a swimming athlete must train year around just to stay
competitive with all the other athletes. Swimming is both conditioning
intensive and skill intensive. Strength and endurance conditioning for
swimming are not readily transferable from other sports or activities so they
must be developed in the pool and in swimming specific dryland exercises.
Swimming skills are constantly being developed and refined throughout the
swimmer’s career.
Not all
swimmers are at competitive levels so what is the point in training year around
for them? The simple answer is that a good swimming program provides far
more than swimming skill development and improvements in strength and endurance
— it provides active development of life skills. By “active development”
we mean planned — not by accident and not by coincidence. Coaches
regularly stop practice to take advantage of teaching moments to demonstrate or
discuss a life skill and we plan short 10 minute discussions on a variety of
topics. Life skills that are actively promoted by this team include
responsibility, self-discipline, work ethic, coping with peer pressure to use
drugs, time management, team commitment and loyalty, lifetime fitness,
nutrition, setting and meeting goals, learning to extend themselves, challenges,
cooperation, and goal setting.
We know
through research that sport in and of itself does not build character or life
skills. These skills are developed by the influence of role models, the
environment, and through a systematic, planned process. Our staff does
this all year around and it is a very compelling reason to keep your child in
the water all year around.