Getting More out of Swimming: Time Management

Everyone says that you learn life lessons from sports. It is widely talked about because so many have learned a lot from participating in sports. When I first began coaching I knew there were lessons to be learned, but I wanted to know what you learned from the sport of swimming. I felt like with this knowledge I could help gear my coaching to promote the lessons to be taught. I realized there lessons from swimming that not everyone learns, and I don't feel like I learned some of those until I began coaching.

One lesson I realized is kids learned by going into a high level group with a lot of commitment is Time Management. This one is learned by being successful at swimming and at school. To coordinate practice, school work, and other activities that you may do in your life. I remember going to college tours and they talked about how the GPA of students normally go down from there high school GPA as they learn Time Management on their own. This is a skill swimmers had to learn with club swimming and school, and it can prepare them for the demands on time that college can demand.

As a coach, you hear the excuse, "I didn't come to practice because I had too much homework," or "I really had to study for a test." We have all heard these are reasons why someone opted to not attend practice. As a coach, we promote being committed to your school work, so we allow this to be an excuse. If we didn't it would not look very good on our part on developing a student-athlete, but learning time management is about knowing how to sacrifice time spent on other things to make sure that you do what you have committed yourself.

I remember when my grades got bad, my father didn't make me not go to practice less, so I could commit more time to study; he made me go to practice more. Kind of counter intuitive, but it worked. I became a better student and a better swimmer. Of course there were other factors on why I became a better student as well, but that is a whole essay in itself.

As a coach, all we can do is try to explain to swimmer and parent the importance of learning how to manage time and be able to stay committed to both without sacrificing any part of either. Otherwise, we pretty much have to just bite our tongue and rant in private, and then continue to try to explain why it may not be the best excuse to miss practice. We don't believe that swimming is more important than school, but we do believe that balancing the two is not only doable, but beneficial.