Observing at the meet

We just finished up a swim meet this weekend in Santa Maria. As it is a decent drive to Santa Maria, this is one of the few travel meets we have outside of championship meets. The meet was fun, the swims were pretty good. It is fun to also take a few minutes at meets to observe the different things going on with the swimmers.

I am so happy that CSSC is one of those teams that always seems to have people at the ends of the pool cheering each other on. It was like that with my former teams as well, but there are those teams that you see them cheer on occasion, but not too consistently. It's nice to see teammates cheer each other on. It is also nice to see swimmers stick around and help their teammates in the distance events. They lap count, they time, they cheer them on. This is done when there was no reason that they needed to stay beyond the fact that they wanted to support their teammate. This is a hard one as after a long day, you normally just can't wait to get out of there.

I know there was a little bit of a threat for this meet, but it was still good to see parents putting in their time to help the meet run properly. I don't think parents realize that without their efforts the times swam at the meet may not be official. If you don't meet the standards of timers and officials, the times are not official. Your time matters, and allows the meets to operate.

(Tangent about volunteering)
Many times once swimmers have gone to 2 - 4 meets they know what they are to do (well, at least for kids 9 and up). The swimmer becomes very independent at meets, and learn how to check heat and lane, do their warm-up and cool-down, check in with their coach, and show up to their correct lane. So, parents want to know what are they to do. First and foremost, always support your child and allow the coach to be critical. I have had times in my coaching career where I stop being critical for certain swimmers because I hear how critical their parents are, so I try to be supportive because the swimmer needs both sides (to bad the coach can't be critical to help them realize something that could be re-directed to practice). Volunteering as a timer is great way to support your child's sport, and prevent you from being too critical. I have actually seen this, as a parent couldn't help but add their critiques when the event had just happened, and they always realized after the fact that they didn't want to coach their child, so he opted to time the majority of the meet, and sometimes the whole meet, to prevent himself from doing these instant critiques. If timing is to away from the action for you as a parent, become an official. It puts you right into the sport, and you learn about the sport as well.

Taking ownership of the team. I think it makes the experience of swimming that much better. The swimmer develops an identity that they can bond with those they work so hard beside, and the parents become a part of the team as well, as they are a critical aspect of the team functioning. The triangle relationship between coach, parent, and swimmer become strong when all parties are involved and are all part of the team.

It was great to observe at the meet and see very few not trying to do their part as part of the team. Don't be the one that takes advantage of the program, be one of the people who helps enhance it.