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First-time summer swim coach seeks advice from parents!
Hi everyone! I realize this is probably not a topic most of you are
thinking about at this time of year, but I recently got a job as head coach of a summer swim team. I was an assistant coach last year but have never been a head coach before. The children on my team range from four to sixteen; I will also teach private lessons to children of all ages (could be some very young children). I don't have much experience working with swim team parents, and I wanted to ask for any advice you might have. Swim parents, or even parents who've had any swim lessons/team experience: what do you look for in a good swim coach/instructor? What skills do I need to develop before May rolls around? What strengths/weakness have you seen in swim coaches/instructors? I am very excited about this opportunity and would appreciate any advice you may have for me! Thanks so much! |
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First-time summer swim coach seeks advice from parents!
Swim parents, or even parents who've had any
swim lessons/team experience: what do you look for in a good swim coach/instructor? These aren't necessarily suggestions that apply specifically to swim team, although Henry did swim for a couple of years when he was in 1st and 2nd grade: -Realize it's a recreational event, not life-and-death. If the child wants to face it as do-or-die, fine -- but don't expect that from most of your swimmers. They are there as much for the friendship as they are for the sport. There's plenty of time for that in high school and college, but a summer league should be fun. -Communicate clearly with the parents about practice times, competition times, and expectations of the swimmers. Do not expect each athlete to be able to communicate these effectively to parents. Communicate in writing and do so regularly. Make some sort of mechanism for reaching you by phone available (although it is fine to put limits on that such as times of day, etc). And please limit last-minute schedule changes. -Consider different practice times for inexperienced swimmers, so that they can get the individual attention they need in a non-threatening, non-pressure environment. -Don't tolerate hazing-type activity from the more experienced swimmers, directed at younger or less-experienced swimmers. -Be willing to bench any athlete -- even your most gifted, even in the most critical meet -- for breaking your rules. If you can't do that then you shouldn't enforce any rules on any swimmers. -Here's the one swim-specfic suggestion I'd have (although it's certainly applicable to track and field as well): If you have a race schedule ahead of time, provide it to parents. Busy working parents want to be there for their kids when they swim, but rarely have the entire afternoon available to sit around and wait for the one 2-minute race their child is in. It's a Godsend to have the knowledge that Junior's race will be some time between 3 and 4 p.m., rather than "some time Wednesday afternoon." Most of all, thanks. So few adults are willing to take on this important role for kids, and fewer still are self-aware and open enough to ask for feedback on how to do the job well (I'll extend that criticism all the way to the college level). Just the fact that you are asking makes me believe you'll be very good at it. Dawn Mom to Henry, 11, currently a track kid, and employee of a NCAA Division I college athletic program |
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First-time summer swim coach seeks advice from parents!
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First-time summer swim coach seeks advice from parents!
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First-time summer swim coach seeks advice from parents!
Rosalie B. wrote:
(Katie) wrote: Hi everyone! I realize this is probably not a topic most of you are thinking about at this time of year, but I recently got a job as head coach of a summer swim team. I was an assistant coach last year but have never been a head coach before. The children on my team range from four to sixteen; I will also teach private lessons to children of all ages (could be some very young children). I don't have much experience working with swim team parents, and I wanted to ask for any advice you might have. Swim parents, or even parents who've had any swim lessons/team experience: what do you look for in a good swim coach/instructor? What skills do I need to develop before May rolls around? What strengths/weakness have you seen in swim coaches/instructors? I am very excited about this opportunity and would appreciate any advice you may have for me! Thanks so much! [snip] If you don't have it now, I recommend that you get the Red Cross Water Safety Instructor certification (it is one step beyond Life Saving if it is still the same now as when I was doing it). They teach more strokes than the swim team will use, but that won't hurt. You probably also ought to have CPR training, and also blood borne pathogen training. I would be very surprised if this was not a requirement for the coaching job the OP got. It certainly is for my kids' summer swim coaches. For the OP: Develop your skills of patience and have fun. DD's and DS's favorite coaches were/are the ones that got/get in the water and play with them, chased them through the water, etc. Bring water toys to practice, etc. Provide some supplemental time for those kids who want more individualized workouts. DD and DS had swim team in the morning, but some evenings there was stroke practice, or starts/turns practice. It wasn't required, it was just for kids who wanted to be there. Try to keep an eye on the kids who spend all their time goofing off, as they can really distract the other swimmers, especially at younger ages. Also, as has been noted already, communicate communicate communicate with the parents. Scott DD 10.5 and DS -8- |
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First-time summer swim coach seeks advice from parents!
Thank you, Rosalie and Dawn for the prompt responses! I tried to
respond paragraph by paragraph to your messages; if it's confusing, I'm very sorry, but I'm late and it's early. Dawn: -Point taken. I do tend to make swimming much more serious than it ought to be, since I come from a family of swimmers and have been year around for six years. I try to incorporate fun into my practices (games, etc) but I do need the reminder now and then that swimming isn't an obsession for all of my kids. -I had the idea to write a weekly newsletter through email, and was wondering if it was a good one. Would you have appreciated that if a coach did that on your swim team? -Our team does have different practice times, so this is not an issue! -Wow. I had no idea that such "hazing" existed in swimming; thank you for mentioning this; I will be sure to watch for it. -Don't know how possible this is, especially since the kids are normally in events all through the meet and I honestly have no idea when they will swim. I can tell parents the order of events if that would help, but sometimes the meet can be held up many hours due to weather and they may even drop some events in rare cases. I'm glad to know of this concern, though. -You're welcome. Even through I'm not technically an adult yet (will be 18 in June). Swimming is my life and I love to work with kids; I fell in love with this group last year and can't wait to see them again. Coaching is the best job in the world; convince my mom that it's a responsible career choice and I'll do it all my life!! Rosalie: I have not taken any classes yet, but am scheduled to take three in March: YMCA Lifeguarding, CPR for the Professional Rescuer, and First Aid. I know about WSI but don't think my pool offers it. My parents' board really doesn't know whether those are suitable or not, but told me that's all I need. What do you think? My dad was a stroke and turn for fifteen years (and still does it!) so I know the rules pretty well; I also have a rulebook and refer to it frequently. I have never been to one of his classes but will consider going. Thanks. If anyone knows any other books that I could order from Amazon, etc, about coaching age group kids, let me know. My book store didn't have any, so I have to order online. Good adivce. Thanks. Ditto. Do you have any mechanisms to get parents involved at meets that worked for you? Would a sign-up sheet on the bulliten board do the trick or do I need other methods? Again, thank you to both of you; I hope my message wasn't too confusing. Gotta go: I've got NHS volunteering to do (and what do you know: it's a KIDS skating party...gee, whodathunk??). I hope to speak to you soon! |
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First-time summer swim coach seeks advice from parents!
Katie wrote:
Swim parents, or even parents who've had any swim lessons/team experience: what do you look for in a good swim coach/instructor? What skills do I need to develop before May rolls around? What strengths/weakness have you seen in swim coaches/instructors? I am very excited about this opportunity and would appreciate any advice you may have for me! Thanks so much! How many kids on the team? We have probably 75 or so, from under sixes to high school. Really, what you need is eyes in the back of your head - supervising can be a bit tricky, especially for the 9 to 12 group, which can be a bit of a problem in my experience. So I think you need the nurturing/encouraging skills for younger, more timid children and a bit of a drill sgt. side for some of the older ones who will want to test the limits. Good luck! Lesley |
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First-time summer swim coach seeks advice from parents!
Katie wrote:
.. -I had the idea to write a weekly newsletter through email, and was wondering if it was a good one. Would you have appreciated that if a coach did that on your swim team? Our team parents did this last year, and I thought it was great. It reminded us about the next meet, provided a link to map-it if the meet was away, listed what volunteer duties needed to be filled and occasionally brought up a problem. This would be a good item for you to delegate to an involved parent, imo. Lesley |
#9
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First-time summer swim coach seeks advice from parents!
x-no-archive:yes
Scott wrote: Rosalie B. wrote: (Katie) wrote: Hi everyone! I realize this is probably not a topic most of you are thinking about at this time of year, but I recently got a job as head coach of a summer swim team. I was an assistant coach last year but have never been a head coach before. The children on my team range from four to sixteen; I will also teach private lessons to children of all ages (could be some very young children). I don't have much experience working with swim team parents, and I wanted to ask for any advice you might have. Swim parents, or even parents who've had any swim lessons/team experience: what do you look for in a good swim coach/instructor? What skills do I need to develop before May rolls around? What strengths/weakness have you seen in swim coaches/instructors? I am very excited about this opportunity and would appreciate any advice you may have for me! Thanks so much! [snip] If you don't have it now, I recommend that you get the Red Cross Water Safety Instructor certification (it is one step beyond Life Saving if it is still the same now as when I was doing it). They teach more strokes than the swim team will use, but that won't hurt. You probably also ought to have CPR training, and also blood borne pathogen training. I would be very surprised if this was not a requirement for the coaching job the OP got. It certainly is for my kids' summer swim coaches. Most of the time for summer coaches all that was required was life saving training. And the OP has confirmed that. For the OP: Develop your skills of patience and have fun. DD's and DS's favorite coaches were/are the ones that got/get in the water and play with them, chased them through the water, etc. Bring water toys to practice, etc. This is sometimes a good idea and sometimes not. I would be in the water when teaching a beginners class, but for all other classes and when coaching a team, one does not have a good vantage point to be able to see that someone is in trouble unless one is up on the side of the pool. I would NOT want someone to be in the water with a number of kids (more than about 8 of them) that they were responsible for because they can't see a problem quickly enough. I did try to make practice fun and interesting by doing different things so it wasn't just the same old same old. But I did it without being in the water. Provide some supplemental time for those kids who want more individualized workouts. DD and DS had swim team in the morning, but some evenings there was stroke practice, or starts/turns practice. It wasn't required, it was just for kids who wanted to be there. Try to keep an eye on the kids who spend all their time goofing off, as they can really distract the other swimmers, especially at younger ages. Also, as has been noted already, communicate communicate communicate with the parents. Scott DD 10.5 and DS -8- grandma Rosalie |
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First-time summer swim coach seeks advice from parents!
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