{"id":315664,"date":"2018-06-27T13:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T20:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=315664"},"modified":"2018-06-27T14:34:36","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T21:34:36","slug":"what-is-the-right-level-of-competition-for-age-group-swimmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/what-is-the-right-level-of-competition-for-age-group-swimmers\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Right Level of Competition for Age Group Swimmers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Eamonn Keenan, Swimming World College Intern. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Imagine that you\u2019re a 10-year-old swimmer and have just made your first state cut. You\u2019ve been swimming for about three years now and have continued to drop time at each competition. You go to the state meet and swim one or two races – you don\u2019t make finals, but you do manage to improve on your seed time. <\/span><\/p>\n

After the season is over, your coach has a meeting with you and your parents. Your coach tells you that you could be really good and suggests that you move up into the next group: the 11-12 group that\u2019s focused on state meet performance. Because you love the feeling of being good at something, you accept without hesitation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"11053532_901070506595005_159098135567400643_n\"

Photo Courtesy: Andreas Roestenberg<\/p><\/div>\n

Instead of attending four practices a week, you now have to complete five in addition to a basic dryland twice a week. Workouts become more challenging, but you do everything that the coach asks of you, albeit never going above and beyond the call of duty. You don\u2019t have many friends in the group, but competition breaks the ice – you find a group of people of similar speed and race each other in practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

At your last state meet as a 12 year old, you final in every event you swim. The swimmers in your practice group start to regard you as one of the \u201cfast kids,\u201d and your coach and parents are even more ecstatic than you are for yourself. After this meet, your coach has another meeting with you and your family, further emphasizing that you have a future in this sport and should take the next step to training even more seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"poseidon-and-ncap-cheering-during-100-free-at-2016-ncsa-juniors\"

Photo Courtesy: Taylor Brien<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, you\u2019re training six or seven days a week, and the practices have become grueling. You soon begin to dread going to practice not only because of the physical demands, but also because you\u2019ve come to realize how consuming of an obligation swimming has become. <\/span><\/p>\n

The kids in your group race each other and socialize during workout, but racing has become monotonous and the socialization less positive. The majority of the time when kids talk about practice, they\u2019re talking about how hard the main set is and how they can\u2019t wait until it\u2019s over. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although practice has become a chore, you still go for two reasons: because your parents tell you to, and because you still want to race in the meets. People have been telling you that you\u2019re good for so long that you feel some sort of itching need to prove it in this new age group. You still do everything the coach asks of you in practice, but that isn\u2019t enough to maintain the same trend of improvement. By the time you\u2019re 14, you finally qualify for state, but don’t make it back for finals in anything. <\/span><\/p>\n

As your age group career has come to a close, the next step is high school swimming – an even greater time commitment. Now, you question whether it\u2019s worthwhile for you to continue swimming. <\/span><\/p>\n

What went wrong?<\/h2>\n
\"Playing

Photo Courtesy: Abby Boone<\/p><\/div>\n

In this hypothetical timeline, many factors may have contributed to the questioning of investment in the sport. This narrative, however, was constructed to show how the correlation between an athlete’s competitiveness and the likelihood of that individual to invest in the sport long-term can sometimes be positive but also negative. <\/span><\/p>\n

Whereas competition can be a great way for an age grouper to get into the sport, it isn\u2019t necessarily a sustainable incentive. Competition can\u2019t substitute for a genuine personal interest in the sport. That being said, a strong competitive drive is crucial to enjoyment and success in racing at swim meets. <\/span><\/p>\n

Competition, it seems, has its niche in the sport of swimming. But how can a coach, parent or swimmer facilitate this? Is it even a controllable factor? <\/span><\/p>\n

Origins of the Dilemma<\/h2>\n
\"arena-club-cp-mesa-2016-thumbs-up-reaction-finals-final-kids\"

Photo Courtesy: Kara Sekenski<\/p><\/div>\n

Parents are often attracted to swimming as a sport for their children for a multitude of reasons: the health benefits, low-risk of injury, character-building – none of which a 10 and under age group can firmly grasp. No child is going to conduct independent research on which sport is the most beneficial. Kids just want to do whatever sport their friends do or what they see on TV. <\/span><\/p>\n

As long as a kid has a friend on the team or faint dreams of Olympic glory, trying out the sport isn\u2019t typically the hardest part. Sticking with it, however, usually is. It is often up to the parents to set the foundation for their child’s continued investment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark Kurtz<\/strong>, former senior coach at NOVA of Virginia Aquatics, said<\/a>: \u201cUnless mom or dad are forcing them, every swimmer can be motivated to swim better or faster. Our job is to help each swimmer be as good as he or she wants to be. That means figuring out their motivation and helping them reach their goal.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, Coach Kurtz is suggesting that swimmers need to have a reason for swimming that is independent from external influences, like their parents. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"DCIM100GOPRO\"

Photo Courtesy: Kayla Riemensperger<\/p><\/div>\n

So why would an eight year old want to go to swim practice? The social aspect is really important. Practice is a time that you get to be with your friends and meet people from other schools. <\/span><\/p>\n

At some point, however, two hours of strenuous exercise probably doesn\u2019t seem like the ideal hangout spot. Although the element of social interaction can be really important, the significance of competition is often paramount. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, individual motivations will vary – e.g. those swimming just for the enjoyment and fitness versus those trying to attain elite status within the sport – but swimming is by nature a competitive sport. This competition not only takes place in the form of racing others in practice and meets but also as competition with yourself through improving your times and overcoming challenging workouts.<\/span><\/p>\n

How to Find Balance Within the Spectrum of Competitiveness<\/h2>\n
\"gunnar-schmidt-club-wolverine

Photo Courtesy: Club Wolverine<\/p><\/div>\n

Now we return to the issue of how to balance competition in age group swimming. Competition is a double-edged sword. The Youth Sports Research Council at Rutgers University cites<\/a> that winning increases confidence, motivation and esprit de corps in young athletes.\u00a0On the other hand,\u00a0Heather Maher<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/span>former head age group coach at Lakeside Aquatic Club,\u00a0argued<\/a>: \u201cI’m all for healthy competition, but when you’re judging success based on how you do in relation to someone else, it’s a potential disaster because you have no control over others. Coaches need to drive home that point from the beginning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Given the individual discrepancy among swimmers’ motivations, there is no universal solution for how all age groupers should be coached or parented. Rather, coaches and parents should have a dialogue with the young swimmer to find out what motivates them to swim and what goals they have for themselves in the sport. <\/span><\/p>\n

A swimmer who is in the sport for the thrill of racing at meets may need help creating fun opportunities to race in practice in order to make workouts more enjoyable for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

For a different swimmer who doesn\u2019t care about making age group state and actually finds that the stress of competing is uncomfortable, he or she may benefit from focusing on the process of racing, such as strategy and technique, rather than the outcome.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_5578.JPG\"

Photo Courtesy: Chandler Brandes<\/p><\/div>\n

Kurtz\u2019s comment seems to imply that there\u2019s a formula to motivate every swimmer who is interested in the sport to invest long-term. Swimming, however, isn\u2019t necessarily for every kid, and that\u2019s something that parents have to respond to as well.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a tough battle for any parent – to see your kid completely unmotivated to swim in spite of the health benefits or their talents. T<\/span>his is why parent-swimmer-coach meetings are so crucial. If there is no discernible motivation to swim, perhaps it’s not because the child has no competitive spirit, but rather that swimming isn\u2019t the right platform to access it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Competitive sports provide ample benefits to the young athletes, some of which are heightened with long-term investment. A primary goal of any youth sport should be to sustain participation over a long period of time. Having an honest conversation with each individual athlete about their goals will help coaches and parents facilitate the right level of competition or motivation in order to foster continual independent interest.<\/span><\/p>\n

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Eamonn Keenan, Swimming World College Intern. Imagine that you\u2019re a 10-year-old swimmer and have just made your first state cut. You\u2019ve been swimming for about three years now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6524,"featured_media":237068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,17,8,7],"tags":[63558,54530,51606,55071,62936,68839,53285,2690],"class_list":["post-315664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coaches-education","category-commentary","category-high-school","category-usa","tag-age-group","tag-age-group-swimming","tag-club-swimming","tag-competition","tag-eamonn-keenan","tag-mentality","tag-racing","tag-usa-swimming"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nWhat is the Right Level of Competition for Age Group Swimmers? 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