imswimmer328 wrote:
As a former swim coach, I saw a lot of parents forcing their kids into sports and forcing them to excel. There is a level of making kids go to practice I understand. However, I see a lot of phenomenal swimmers who hate the sport because their parents pushed them so hard when they were younger. My favorite example I used with parents is that Michael Phelps didn't specialize in swimming until he was 12. I think that's the age, could be wrong.
My younger daughter was a swimming star from her first days in the water. She loved the pool and could not wait to swim every day. Swam with the local club as soon as she was old enough. At age eight or so, she was among the fastest kids in the county. As it got more and more serious, she began to like it less and less. At around age 11, when the practices got to be harder and harder, she stopped having fun. We tried to put the brakes on. We would tell the coaches that we wanted a more fun experience. We would only take her to practices two to three times per week (and get angry emails from the coaching staff that the expectations were a minimum of five days per week). Finally, at age 13 she told us she was done. Today (age 14), if we get in the pool together she still crushes me easily, but she is no longer interested in being a competitive swimmer. I wish she would still do it but I can't live vicariously through her.....
It is a fine line between supporting your kid and fostering their passion and crossing over that line and making them hate the sport because they were pushed too hard. We struggled with it and ultimately my daughter stopped swimming.
I guess that I can just hope that some day she will decide to do triathlon and all of the years of swimming will pay off in her being first pack to T1.
Unfortunately for me, she has switched her focus to horses (with some influence from my wife). I lament for the days when I would just pay for a suit, some goggles and club fees. Horses are crazy expensive but I am glad that she has something that she is passionate about :-).
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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.