Swim Meet underlying lessons

Most sports provide life lessons, and swimming does the same. Many times we talk about the life lessons, just as life lessons in a vague sense. I think we do that because there are many lessons to be learned in sports, and each lesson is learned at different times and with time. This growth is different for each individual, and we bail ourselves out by being vague in the term life lessons.

I think sometimes we just use the loose term so much, that now there are some people who actually don't realize some of the specific ones that are attainable for their sport. I want to point a few out that I focus on when dealing with my swimmers in regards to swim meets.

Early in the swim career, swimmers can gain self-esteem through swim meets. If the coach and parent go into the competition understanding that in the beginning they may get dead last. Praised for their courage to go out there and compete, and praised for the things that they did right in the swim. The coach then tells the swimmer what they need to work on, so they get to know that they have more things to work on to get faster in the future. (I emphasize, the coach provides criticism; not the parents. That includes repeating what the coach just told the swimmer).

The early meets are the time where they can build self-esteem. If they attend practice on a regular basis and listen well, they will improve most of the time. This is why I am not afraid of newbie swimmers to attend swim meets because they may miss a lot of those early chances to have dramatic improvement, and an opportunity to build the self-esteem. Example, a swimmer get's DQ'd in the breaststroke the first meet (even though you have been telling him for weeks how to kick correctly, and have done so many various drills to try to teach it), then they listen better at practice and are rewarded by doing a legal breaststroke the next meet. Even though the swimmer got dead last by 2 seconds in a 25 breaststroke, it doesn't matter, you can celebrate the legal kick.

As the swimmer gets more experienced, the improvements become not as regular. This becomes difficult, but it is one of the best lessons that many sports provide. How to deal with failure. I remember listening to an interview of the two time heisman trophy winner, Archie Griffin, talk about his football career. He said the most important thing he learned was how to deal with failure. After he had a carry where he had 0 to negative yards, he had to get back to the huddle and perform again, whether it was another run, a receiving route, or a blocking assignment. To him that was more important than awards, accalades, or recognition. It prepared him for life.

Next is the idea of challenge the impossible. As I have my swimmers increase their training, many times they do not gain confidence in being able to do the longer events. The events that seemed impossible when they first joined the group, but now have the training to actually be able to do the event. The lesson of learning that what you once thought impossible for you, is now possible; can provide a great lesson. Something is only impossible if, you never put the effort in to accomplish it and you never step up and try.
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The last concept was something I began teaching in my last season or so with RCA. With that new philosphy I had two swimmers who really embraced it, and has gone on to do very well in swimming. Since then, I have tried to continue the challenge the impossible view point, without repeating myself all the time, and have had success with it, as many of my swimmers do the longer events before moving to our lower level senior group now.

The lessons as you can see aren't going to work all the time juist by participating and going to a meet. The environment must be setup correctly, and forcing swimmers to do all the events, good events and off events, throughout the season. Remember that young swimmers meets are more than just opportunities to qualify for the next level of meet, but part of the building process to a more successful career. Coaches and parents must focus on the long-term, which can be difficult due to the amount of patience that it requires.