First-time summer swim coach seeks advice from parents!

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.


Lesley,
There are about sixty kids, seventy if you count guppies. Eyes in the
back of my head...hmm, can I pick those up on amazon?? Last year,
I actually had the biggest problem with the oldest swimmers: I'm 5'2
and weigh 100 pounds; sometimes the older ones don't really want to
listen to someone who looks like their baby sister! Any ideas
about that?

Thank you for your advice!

In article ,
(Katie) wrote:


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.


Lesley,
There are about sixty kids, seventy if you count guppies. Eyes in the
back of my head...hmm, can I pick those up on amazon?? Last year,
I actually had the biggest problem with the oldest swimmers: I'm 5'2
and weigh 100 pounds; sometimes the older ones don't really want to
listen to someone who looks like their baby sister! Any ideas
about that?

Thank you for your advice!


My folks work with a Park Ranger who is about your size and cute as a
button. She has to get the immediate respect of sometimes belligerent
people -- especially fun if they're drunk. She always wears her full
uniform (which, in her case, includes a night stick and a gun) and keeps
her hair pulled back and professional looking.

Now, I know a uniform with a gun would be a bit over the top for a swim
coach, but one thing you can do is make sure you are not dressed like
"one of the kids" (even though you are just a kid!) and maintain a
professional appearence and demeanor at all times. It may go against
the grain to deliberately pick "older" looking clothing and stuff, but
that, plus maintaining a professional stance and appropriate boundaries,
should help.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 09:40:18 EST, (Katie)
wrote:
-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!!
[...]
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?

I'm not a swimming coach; I'm a hockey coach and board member. If
you're going to try to change prevailing custom about the level of
parent involvement (i.e. if they never had parent volunteers before),
you'll probably do better if you consult the people who hired you (the
parents' board, the city recreation department, whatever). If you can
get them to agree it's a worthwhile exercise (even if they say "Oh,
it'll never work, that's not the way we do things here"), ask them to
help publicising the request. I think Rosalie suggested having a
volunteer signup or skill listing on the kids' summer registration
form. You can also ask them to include a note on any advertising they
do about the program.

Dragonlady also gave you some good advice about how to take the
authority you'll need, by making sure that you always dress and act
like an adult around the swimmers and their parents. Other related
advice that I would give a young coach includes
- DO NOT FLIRT or do anything that might encourage an older swimmer to
take a romantic interest in you.
- Don't appear to have "special friendships" with certain families,
even if they're your neighbours or the board members. It doesn't
take much for people to think you're playing favourites.
- Don't change with your female athletes. Don't go in the changeroom
when they're changing without another adult.
- If you find yourself having a disagreement with a board member or
other parent, don't discuss it in front of the swimmers.
- Keep your board (or whatever other body you answer to) informed
about how things are going. It looks much better for you if they hear
about problems from you before they hear about them from an angry
parent - then they can help defend you and the program to an angry
parent and can also get involved in preventing similar future
problems.. The problems might be something like "our schedule changed
at the last minute because of double-booking the pool" or "David was
pushing people on the pool deck again so I told him to leave and not
to come back until next week."

If you want to have a chance of eventually making a career of
coaching, it will probably improve your odds if you get credentials
and experience in teaching swimming as well. Definitely work on
attaining the WSI and doing some work as a swim teacher (maybe next
winter or when you're in university). Later in the summer, identify
some articulate individual among your employers and ask him or her if
you can use his or her name as a reference for future coaching work
and your applications to colleges of education.

Have fun!

Louise

Louise wrote in message . ..

Thank you, Louise, for your good advice!

I'm not a swimming coach; I'm a hockey coach and board member. If
you're going to try to change prevailing custom about the level of
parent involvement (i.e. if they never had parent volunteers before),
you'll probably do better if you consult the people who hired you (the
parents' board, the city recreation department, whatever). If you can
get them to agree it's a worthwhile exercise (even if they say "Oh,
it'll never work, that's not the way we do things here"), ask them to
help publicising the request. I think Rosalie suggested having a
volunteer signup or skill listing on the kids' summer registration
form. You can also ask them to include a note on any advertising they
do about the program.

I like your idea of having volunteer sign ups at registration. I am
meeting the board members next week and I will suggest this to them.

Dragonlady also gave you some good advice about how to take the
authority you'll need, by making sure that you always dress and act
like an adult around the swimmers and their parents.
She did, which I did not get a chance to reply to. Thank you
dragonlady. Also, my with a gun and a uniform yelling at the kids is
a funny mental image...

Other related
advice that I would give a young coach includes
- DO NOT FLIRT or do anything that might encourage an older swimmer to
take a romantic interest in you.
That won't be an issue; I'm romantically challenged!!
- Don't appear to have "special friendships" with certain families,
even if they're your neighbours or the board members. It doesn't
take much for people to think you're playing favourites.
Point taken; I will admit I had a bad tendency to do that a bit last
year. Yeah, so I took a liking to the kids who tried the hardest,
etc. Bad thing, nonetheless, and I will work on it.
- Don't change with your female athletes. Don't go in the changeroom
when they're changing without another adult.
The kids don't have locker rooms; they come to practice with their
suits and then just go home (or stay to play in the pool).
- If you find yourself having a disagreement with a board member or
other parent, don't discuss it in front of the swimmers.
I will.
- Keep your board (or whatever other body you answer to) informed
about how things are going. It looks much better for you if they hear
about problems from you before they hear about them from an angry
parent - then they can help defend you and the program to an angry
parent and can also get involved in preventing similar future
problems.. The problems might be something like "our schedule changed
at the last minute because of double-booking the pool" or "David was
pushing people on the pool deck again so I told him to leave and not
to come back until next week."
Good advice; I relate well to children but am sometimes intimidated by
adults. I will remember this.
If you want to have a chance of eventually making a career of
coaching, it will probably improve your odds if you get credentials
and experience in teaching swimming as well. Definitely work on
attaining the WSI and doing some work as a swim teacher (maybe next
winter or when you're in university). Later in the summer, identify
some articulate individual among your employers and ask him or her if
you can use his or her name as a reference for future coaching work
and your applications to colleges of education.

Good advice. I actually think that a recommendation from my previous
stroke clinic instructor/mentor that helped land me the job! He's
pretty influential around here. I will remember this in the future;
you never know who you might run into!

Oh yeah: thanks so much to everyone who has helped me so far! I've
put all your advice in my swim team notebook. If there are any more
ideas, I would love to hear them!! Thanks!
~Katie