SWIM PARENTS
Published
by The American Swimming Coaches Association
5101 NW 21
Ave.,
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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!