Guest commentary by Ernie and Mary Anne Ortiz<\/i><\/p>\n
Swimmers don\u2019t have birthdays; they \u201cage up.\u201d That\u2019s what happened to our little swimmer when she had her 11th August birthday. It was a bittersweet moment for her, and for us in a number of ways.<\/p>\n
Her perspective was that just as she was finally fast enough in her events to be truly competitive, her birthday put her into an age group where the times appeared to resemble the speed of light. As parents we were a little bit sad to leave the relative safety of her coach\u2019s care; where as long as we were having fun and enjoying the process, that was really enough. There is time enough to be competitive later on, right?<\/p>\n
Well, just like Paul Simon sang, \u201cTime, Time, Time see what\u2019s become of me.\u201d We are You, maybe a little older. It seems like a good time to think a bit about what we\u2019ve learned in the process of becoming swim parents and pass on a bit of this hard-won wisdom, keeping in mind, of course, that hindsight is 20\/20. Here\u2019s our list of what we wish we had known from the beginning.<\/p>\n
1. It\u2019s stroke technique, stroke technique, stroke technique.<\/b>
\nSwimming is an elegant sport, and as coach Barbara told us repeatedly, it is one where the swimmer cannot muscle his or her way into first place very often. And this is true in our swimmer\u2019s experience. Until she refined her freestyle, she did not begin winning events or even placing consistently. This brings us to point number\u2026<\/p>\n
2. Let your swimmer know that in practice, unless the coach is telling the swimmer to race, it is not a race. <\/b>
\nIt\u2019s time to make certain that the stroke technique is correct. In practice, the swimmers will get the opportunity to pick up speed according to the coach\u2019s timetable for doing so\u2026I\u2019m not even going to touch the hot topic of which child should be first in any given lane, but there must be a better way than the law of the jungle, which seems to be how it\u2019s decided now\u2026remember that it\u2019s the competitive spirit, even with teammates, that will inspire these swimmers to excel\u2026.onto point number\u2026<\/p>\n
3. Yes, there really is a plan at practice.<\/b>
\nThe swimmers don\u2019t just do what the coach feels like working on that day. Not unlike teachers with lesson plans, the age-group coaches, under the direction of the head coach, have the entire season planned\u2026building skill upon skill, day after day and week after week. This doesn\u2019t always look obvious to the parent who has never swam competitively\u2026which brings us to point number\u2026<\/p>\n
4. This is what we call, \u201cEl Lippo, Zippo\u201d in practice.<\/b>
\nIt\u2019s hard\u2026so very hard\u2026when you see your little swimmer, or not so little swimmer, giving less than what you consider his or her best effort. It\u2019s crucial that your swimmer develop a working relationship, and a relationship of trust with the coach. If mom or dad are yelling at their kids, correcting them or otherwise communicating with them while they are in the pool, you are interfering with the development of that relationship. If your swimmer leaves the pool for any reason other than genuine illness, send them back immediately! Talk to the coaches after practice\u2026even if you have to follow them around and insist! We think that there should be a mechanism similar to parent\/teacher conferences if needed, but we\u2019ve had pretty good luck getting feedback by approaching the coach between practices. Speaking of coaching\u2026point number\u2026<\/p>\n
5. Teach your swimmer how to accept coaching.<\/b>
\nWhile the coach is talking, the swimmer is not talking. Eyes should be on the coach\u2019s face while instruction is being given. This way the coach knows that she is being heard, and the swimmer is actually learning to pay attention. This will pay dividends in school as well. Teachers have told us that swimmers are the best students because they pay attention to instruction, have the ability to focus and are goal oriented. As far as turning that instruction into a finished product in practice or a meet\u2026point number\u2026.<\/p>\n
6. There\u2019s a process of development that I\u2019m sure a neurologist or good pediatrician could explain to us. <\/b>
\nIt occurs between the ages of six or seven, when most kids start to swim, and ten or eleven, when they really start getting fast and you know that you could no longer keep up with them, even in a 25 yard race. The younger kids can hear an instruction regarding stroke technique, but don\u2019t have enough mastery over their bodies to implement it consistently.<\/p>\n
This is a crucial point for parents of the younger swimmers to understand. It\u2019s not a matter of not trying or not understanding. It\u2019s a matter of developmental maturity, and WE are not in charge of that timetable. Our swimmer used to drag one arm in her butterfly. It was such a relief when her coach told us it was developmental and that it would change with time. She was right! Even at ten years, it requires a lot of over and over, which is why they drill, drill, drill. I know, it\u2019s boring, boring, boring\u2026when do we get to race!!! It\u2019s crucial that parents implement point number 4 (see above) at this time.<\/p>\n
This is the time to look at the big picture of the entire season. Even though it doesn\u2019t look like it on a day-to-day basis, if you compare your swimmer\u2019s level of expertise in February to their expertise the previous October, you\u2019re going to see a big difference. On to the next point\u2026<\/p>\n
7. Play dumb\u2026not so hard for us non-swimmers! <\/b>
\nThis is the technique we used to reinforce what the coach had taught in a practice session. We would ask our swimmer to explain to us the purpose of a particular drill, or what was meant by swimming an interval at a certain time or even what is an interval\u2026the list could go on and on. We approached these conversations as the uninitiated requesting information from someone who was certainly more in the know than us about this particular subject. This served two purposes. As previously stated, it reinforced the coach\u2019s instructions by having the swimmer think about the purpose of the instruction. It also gave our swimmer a chance to be our coach, giving us the benefit of her knowledge about the sport.<\/p>\n
8. Private Lessons. This is a point that causes some controversy, so we can only offer testimony to what has been true in the case of our swimmer. <\/b>
\nSwimming is an individual sport, but the training takes place in a large group situation. Our swimmer let us know, with her enthusiasm and hard work at practice as well as verbally, that she had big plans for herself in the future as a swimmer. Okay, we\u2019ll admit to the fantasy\u2026in lane four, swimming for The United States of America\u2026and now we return to reality. In order to help her reach her goals, we elected to have a series of private lessons to refine her strokes.<\/p>\n
The direct, and we do mean direct, result of this was three Texas Age Group Swimming times as a ten and under. She went out of that age group with a thrill that was beyond words, not only for her, but for the parents and sister who love her. In addition, this served the purpose of enhancing the working relationship between swimmer and coach. We plan to continue this successful strategy on a periodic basis as an investment in our swimmer\u2019s future. An addendum to this is that none of the coaches ever solicited students for private lessons, but were available when we inquired.<\/p>\n
9. Enjoy the practices and use them as a time to bond with other parents. <\/b>
\nThe aspect of swimming that our family enjoys the most, other than watching our swimmer swim fast, is that it\u2019s a sport for the whole family\u2026.even those of us that rarely venture into the deep end of a pool. The team is a family of like-minded individuals that want the sport of swimming to add to their child\u2019s joy and provide a venue for achievement. Some of our best friends are other swim parents!!!<\/p>\n
10. Last but not least, lighten up!! <\/b>
\nTen and under is a time for developing stroke technique to be sure, but almost as important, this is the time where a love of the sport is developed. If it becomes a time for argument or judgment, they may get fast and win races as a young swimmer, but they will surely leave the sport as soon as they\u2019re old enough to figure out that they can. That, however, is a column that a 13-14 parent needs to write!<\/p>\n
Ernie and Mary Anne Ortiz are veterans swim parents, with both of their children having gone on to swim for the University of Houston Cougars. Maryanne finished her career with the Cougars, and has since moved on to coaching and is currently coaching at Cypress Fairbanks. Leah is currently a freshman at Houstoon.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guest commentary by Ernie and Mary Anne Ortiz Swimmers don\u2019t have birthdays; they \u201cage up.\u201d That\u2019s what happened to our little swimmer when she had her 11th August birthday. It<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":47986,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,17],"tags":[3526,8823,185,30445,30439,30438,30444,178,30446,30442,30441,30448,30443,30440,25119,30447,24693,2412,1844,87,7988,142,62,30449,5163],"class_list":["post-50336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-commentary","tag-barbara","tag-butterfly-stroke","tag-coach","tag-ernie-ortiz","tag-ernie-ortiz-swimmers","tag-genuine-illness","tag-good-pediatrician","tag-head-coach","tag-little-swimmer","tag-mary-anne-ortiz","tag-mary-anne-ortiz-swimmers","tag-neurologist","tag-parentteacher","tag-paul-simon","tag-person-communication-and-meetings","tag-so-little-swimmer","tag-sports","tag-stroke","tag-strokes","tag-swimmer","tag-swimmer-and-coach","tag-swimming","tag-united-states","tag-university-of-houston-cougars","tag-young-swimmer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n