Le professeur de trail
So looking for all you swimmers out there on this...
Last week our kids finished up a week of swim lessons. They are 11, 9 and 6. They all seemed to be pretty comfortable in the water even before last week but I wanted then to sharpen their skills and be even more confident. We have summer pool passes to the local pool and SIL also has a pool. Yesterday we were hanging out at SILs and asked the boys to show their skills. Of course I had to bribe them - offered a dollar for swimming across the pool underwater, etc. I saw that the boys (11 & 9) are decent swimmers. DD is not bad either. But DS1 really has a nice breaststroke in my non-swimmer opinion. I looked into a local aquatic club for next year. When I asked if the boys would be interested, they demonstratively said no.
Considering I am not a big or good swimmer myself, I wanted to keep trying to encourage them. But I am not sure what more to say about it at this point. They practice, they have swim meets, and probably a lot of fun. But no dice, yet...
Any suggestions? Those that have (or had) kids that swim (swam), how did you get them interested?
My favorite day of the week is RUNday
Tim
My kids swam because they grew up with me coaching swimming and were always around it. I'd say don't push them. If they love it, they'll want to continue. If you push, they might resist.
From a coaching standpoint, when young kids have some success, the reward gets them motivated to continue. Also friends can be a huge deciding factor. If they have a friend on the team, they might be more interested in joining. DS was a great swimmer but stopped so he could play more baseball because his friends played baseball. We let him decide.
West Shore Y has a nice program (not sure how close that is to you). Most teams will have a trail period to see if kids like it. Maybe suggest a trail period so they don't feel like it's a hue commitment yet.
“Paralysis-to-50k” training plan is underway!
Hi Jamie,
Swimmer and mom of swimmers here. Our kiddos started really early-- as soon as a local swim class allowed (3 yo) and they continued with lessons until they started with school year and summer swim teams (around 7 or 8). It might seem early, but the lessons were mandatory in our house since it's a competency that can save your life, and we spend a lot of time around the water. They progressed to swim teams since, especially during the school year, they needed to expend energy to be able focus in school. They haven't always been excited for a practice (or lesson), so we're not above bribery (i.e. donuts after Sunday am practices) or setting firm expectations (i.e. X number of times a week). I'm also one of those parents that believes kids also need to learn to do things that involve a lot of hard work and sometimes discomfort, which swimming fits. Now, it's part of how they see themselves and the habit is fairly entrenched. And now they are learning to kitesurf, they see the payoff in other sports.
Summer swim teams, in my experience, are a great place to start since they are usually more social and fun and less competitive than school year programs. Swimming on a almost daily basis, with weekend meets, they will see improvement immediately and that can be a big motivator. Hopefully they have some friends on the team nearby, which will help tremendously too.
good luck!
I thought both of you would respond. I agree, definitely will not be pushing them. Asking them multiple times throughout the year if they are interested yes, but not pushing.
We live in a very large school district (one of the largest in the state) that has many different clubs, athletic teams, activities etc. so the possibilities of swim teams, diving, other are definitely there. And AT - yes we are literally a mile from the WSY. The aquatic club I was referencing is run in collaboration with the WSY and the Hampden Township Pool.
The friend angle is a great idea but I would need to do some serious investigating on that.
Since I am basically a "non-swimmer" this is not a natural fit. When I say non-swimmer I mean it is not my favorite nor am I am any good.
I really don't know if any of my kids would be good competitive swimmers. But it would be fun to find out. In the meantime, it gives me some peace of mind to know they are comfortable in the water.
Thanks!
I thought both of you would respond. I agree, definitely will not be pushing them. Asking them multiple times throughout the year if they are interested yes, but not pushing. We live in a very large school district (one of the largest in the state) that has many different clubs, athletic teams, activities etc. so the possibilities of swim teams, diving, other are definitely there. And AT - yes we are literally a mile from the WSY. The aquatic club I was referencing is run in collaboration with the WSY and the Hampden Township Pool. The friend angle is a great idea but I would need to do some serious investigating on that. Since I am basically a "non-swimmer" this is not a natural fit. When I say non-swimmer I mean it is not my favorite nor am I am any good. I really don't know if any of my kids would be good competitive swimmers. But it would be fun to find out. In the meantime, it gives me some peace of mind to know they are comfortable in the water. Thanks!
Is Hampden Township the pool with the giant spray-ground ? We had many swim meets there for the CASL League. They always ran a nice program, and I bet they have a trail period. Summer league has been practicing for a few weeks and usually ends in late July, so might need to look at Fall or next year. It's hard to jump in during a season. Talk to some of the lifeguards at the pool. Good chance many of them swim on the team, and maybe they can "talk it up".
How do you steer kids a certain direction anyway? I can really only say in my one kid family it was pretty easy regarding the swimming. When she was a tiny tot I was in my last couple years doing triathlons so she had some subliminal exposure to competitive swimming. We also had her in lessons when she was still in diapers. I think though the main thing was basically most of our recreation and free time was spent on our lake doing about every form of water recreation possible from snorkeling to skiing. She got into competitive swimming with only the slightest nudge from us when she was still quite young. It helped to have a few of her friends involved also, I'm sure. What did her in though and led to her burnout was the two-a-day practicing schedule. Just got too intense and in my opinion way too imbalanced for a young teenager. I mean she was never gonna get a scholarship or be an olympian.
One thing DW and I had instilled in her from the wee years was that she would be participating in sports of some nature. It was up to her to find her passions. She was ok as a runner and ran cross country but because that was my thing she wanted to carve her own niche. She became an excellent and very competitive cross country skier and road biker. Didn't hurt that we had her skiing as a 3 yr. old and were doing that every weekend anyway. Plus once she headed in that direction we got her involved on competitive biking and skiing teams. Good healthy fun.
So I guess you can encourage but let them find their passion. But insist they find one or two. Then be willing to participate with them as a family with no pressure, just fun times. And be willing to buy them decent equipment and get some coaching or lessons whatever their passion turns out to be.
I'm pretty happy my daughter will be a life long active participant in skiing and biking. She has a good balance and perspective and I guess that's all we can really hope for.
You're getting a later start then the 3 of us that responded but it's still ok. Just can't push too hard and like I said maybe it's not swimming for them but hopefully you can help them find something that trips their trigger.
Interesting topic. I always wanted my kids to be involved in sports of some kind. It didn't really matter if it was organized or not, I just wanted them to be active. It wasn't really too difficult to get DS involved. As long as he had friends playing soccer he was interested. He was more likely to pursue basketball on his own without friends even though he was much better at soccer. For him, having friends involved was the key. I think he would have taken up synchronized swimming if he had a couple of friends doing it. As a young adult he remains this way. He's been fairly inactive the past year and a half, only doing short runs. Now he's showing interest in biking, weight lifting and just signed up for a 20 mile trail race . Again the key is that he has friends doing it. I can beg and plead to get him to run a race with me or by himself and he won't.
Now for DD. When she is on the bike she has a huge diesel engine inside her. Piss her off and make her mad and she can really put the power to the pedals. Unfortunately you pretty much have to take her somewhere, drop her off with the bike and tell her that's her only way home. We really wanted her to be involved in sports in school and she did play soccer her junior year. It was always amusing to watch the fat girl block out and take the ball away from some of the hotshot skinny players. She even had several assists on goals and should have scored several but someone else touched the ball so they were credited with the score, she with the assist. Mostly, however, she would go out of her way, to the point of being totally by herself at school, to avoid sports or activity. Why? I don't know. Never could figure it out. When you are active there will be some inevitable aches and pains and she doesn't like that. The interesting thing is that when you are out of shape there are also aches and pains associated with that and they are often worse then what you get from working out. For whatever reason she prefers to feel miserable from inactivity . Right now she is working at a major hospital in the food service department which has to be the crappiest, lowest paid job there. She admits that she could make 3-4 dollars a hour more as a patient transporter, but doesn't want to go to that because of the walking . I know that when she was in school the more we encouraged her to be active the more she resisted it.
I really envy parents who's kids just embrace activity. For some reason some kids don't and as difficult as it is we as parents just have to let them do, or not do, what they want in this.