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10 COMMANDMENTS FOR SWIMMING PARENTS
1. Thou shalt not impose your ambitions on thy
child.
Remember that swimming is your child’s activity. Improvements
and progress occur at different rates for each individual.
Don’t judge your child’s progress based on the
performance of other athletes and don’t push them based on
what you
think they should be doing. The nice thing about swimming is every
person can strive to do their personal best and benefit from the
process of competitive swimming.
2. Thou shalt be supportive no matter
what.
There is only one question to ask your child after a practice or a
competition - "Did you have fun?" If meets and practices are not
fun, your child should not be forced to participate.
3. Thou shalt not coach thy child.
You are involved in one of the few youth sports programs that offer
professional coaching, do not undermine the professional coach by
trying to coach your child on the side. Your job is to provide
unconditional love and support and a safe place to return at the
end of the day. Love and hug your child no matter what. Tell them
how proud of them you are. The coach is responsible for the
technical part of the job.
You should not offer advice on technique or race strategy or any
other area that is not yours. And above all, never pay your child
for a performance. This will only serve to confuse your child
concerning the reasons to strive for excellence and weaken the
swimmer/coach bond.
4. Thou shalt only have positive things to say at a swimming
meet.
If you are going to show up at a swimming meet, you should be
encouraging, but never criticize your child or the coach. Both of
them know when mistakes have been made. And remember “yelling
at” is not the same as “cheering for”. You
also may want to consider being positive anytime you are around the
pool.
5. Thou shalt acknowledge thy child’s
fears.
A first swimming meet, 500 free or 200 IM can be a stressful
situation. It is totally appropriate for your child to be scared.
Don’t yell or belittle, just assure your child that the coach
would not have suggested the event if your child was not ready to
compete in it. Remember your job is to love and support your child
through all of the swimming experience. Most of their fears
are one’s you have given them.
6. Thou shalt not criticize the
officials.
If you do not care to devote the time or do not have the desire to
volunteer as an official, don’t criticize those who are doing
the best they can. You too can be trained to be an
official in an afternoon.
7. Honor thy child’s coach.
The bond between coach and swimmer is a special one, and one that
contributes to your child’s success as well as fun. Do not
criticize the coach in the presence of your child, it will only
serve to hurt your child’s swimming.
8. Thou shalt be loyal and supportive of thy
team
It is not wise for parents to take their swimmers and to jump from
team to team. The water isn’t necessarily bluer in another
team’s pool. Every team has its own internal problems, even
teams that build champions. Children who switch from team to team
are often ostracized for a long, long time by the teammates they
leave behind and are slowly received by new team mates. Often times
swimmers who do switch teams never do better than they did before
they sought the bluer water.
9. Thy child shalt have goals besides
winning.
Most successful swimmers are those who have learned to focus on the
process and not the outcome. Giving an honest effort regardless of
what the outcome is, is much more important than winning. One
Olympian said, "My goal was to set a world record. Well, I did
that, but someone else did it too, just a little faster than I did.
I achieved my goal and I lost. Does this make me a failure? No, in
fact I am very proud of that swim." What a tremendous outlook to
carry on through life.
10. Thou shalt not expect thy child to become an
Olympian.
There are 280,000 athletes in USA Swimming. Only 2% of the swimmers
listed in the 10 & Under age group make it to the Top 100 in
the 17-18 age group and of those only a small percentage will
become elite level, world class athletes. There are only 52 spots
available for the Olympic Team every four years. Your child’s
odds of becoming an Olympian is about .0002%.
Swimming is much more than just the
Olympics. Ask your coaches why they coach. Chances are, they were
not an Olympian, but still got so much out of swimming that they
wanted to pass the love for the sport on to others. Swimming
teaches self-discipline and sportsmanship; it builds self-esteem
and fitness; it provides lifelong friendships and much more.
Most Olympians will tell you that these intangibles far outweigh
any medal they may have won. Swimming builds good people, like you
want your child to be, and you should be happy your child wants to
participate.
COMMON SWIMMING DEFINITIONS
Age
Group Competition - A meet for all registered
swimmers up to and including age 18, who have met the qualifying
time standard for a specific event(s).
Bonus
Consolations – A finals event consisting of
swimmers who place in the third tier of swimmers during
preliminaries.
Button
Time – The recorded time started
automatically and stopped by a button depressed by a lane timer
when the swimmer finishes an event.
Consolations
or Consols - A finals event consisting of swimmers
who place in the second tier of swimmers during preliminaries.
Deck
Seeding – a procedure of assigning swimmers
to lanes and heats immediately before each event.
DQ
– Disqualification.
Event
– A portion of a meet competition broken down
by stroke and oftentimes by age, gender and relay type.
Final
– The portion of a competition in which just
the top swimmers of the meet compete. A “final eight”
event consists of the fastest eight swimmers from the morning
preliminaries.
Heat – A portion of an event. An event may require multiple
heats to determine what swimmers make finals.
Heat
Sheet – A sheet produced by the Clerk of
Course that assigns a swimmers heat and lane placement.
IM
– Slang for individual medley, an event in
which the swimmer uses all four competitive strokes in the
following order: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and
freestyle.
Lane
lines – The dividers used to delineate the
individual lanes. These are made of individual finned disks strung
on a cable which rotate on the cable when hit by a wave. The
rotating disks dissipate surface tension waves in a competitive
pool.
Leg
– A portion, normally one-quarter, of an
individual event or relay event, of the event.
Long Course – A pool configured for swimming with a 50-meter
long race course. World records may be set in long course and short
course competition. The main USA Swimming long course season is
during the summer months. The Olympic Games as well as all major
international competitions are conducted long course.
LSC
– Local Swimming Committee of USA Swimming,
Inc.
Meet
Program – A program consists of heat or psych
sheets for the preliminary competition of a meet.
Official
– A judge on the deck of the pool. Various
judges watch the swimmer’s strokes, turns and finishes or are
timers.
N/T
- No Time. A swimmer uses this when entering an
event he/she has no established time for.
Official
Time – The time established by an official
which is entered into the meet final records.
Preliminaries
or Prelims - The portion of a competition that
determines which swimmers qualify for the championship and
consolation finals in the events.
Psych
Sheet – A ranking of swimmers by event and
time.
Q-(minus)
- Qualifying times that have not bettered the
Arizona time standard.
Q+(plus)
- Qualifying times that have achieved or bettered
the Arizona time standard.
Sanction
– The qualification of a meet in order for it
to be officially recognized.
Seeding
– The method of placing swimmers in lanes in
order of their entry times.
Senior
Competition - A meet for all registered swimmers 15
and over, or those who have met the qualifying time standard for a
specific event(s).
Short Course – A pool configured in 25-yard or 25-meter
lengths. USA Swimming, Inc. conducts most of its winter competition
in 25-yard lengths including the Speedo Junior Championships in the
spring. NCAA swimming competition uses the 25-yard format. Most of
the world swims short course meters in the winter (25-meter pool).
The fastest times swum in a 25-yard pool may only gain U.S. Open or
American record status.
Split
– A swimmer’s intermediate time in a
race. Splits are registered every 50 meters (or25 yards depending
on the pool and equipment on hand) and are used to determine if a
swimmer is on record pace.
Taper
– The resting process in training for
swimming competition. During the middle of their swimming season a
swimmer may work out 10 to 15 thousand meters (8 to 10 miles) each
day. As major competition draws near, the swimmer will
“taper” off the distances swum each day. A perfectly
designed taper will enable the swimmer to compete at their peak
capability and is one of the most difficult aspects of swim
coaching.
Time
Trials – Events that are offered during the
regular competition to allow swimmers a chance of achieving
official times.
Touch
Pad – The area at the end of each lane in the
pool where a swimmer’s time is registered and sent
electronically to the timing system and the scoreboard.
Unattached
– A term used to identify a swimmers team
affiliation in lieu of being officially attached to a team within
the LSC.
USS
– United States Swimming: the former name of
USA Swimming Inc., the national governing body for amateur swimming
in America.
Warm-down
– Used by the swimmer to rid the body of
excess lactic acid generated during a race.
Warm-up
– Used by the swimmer before the race to get
their muscles loose and ready to race.
Watch
Time - The recorded time from a watch started and
stopped manually by a lane timer.
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