Expectation for club swimming coaching

[Anonymous]

We are new to club swimming and this is our first season. DC is 9 and practices 2 times a week. Not a fast swimmer, but the times have not improved since October (attended a few meets and no DQ). Practices are drop off only.

DC was playing in the public pool over the weekend and the DPR swim lesson instructor next to us pointed out an obvious mistake. So I asked DC if the coaches said anything at practice and the answer is no. Am I expecting too much from the coaches to correct strokes? Shall I be looking for a different club for the next season? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

You probably should name the Club and/or where you are located. If you are at something like DC Wave, they are not known to be good. I have seen those kids at meets and they are sh*t shows to put it mildly.

If you are at a place like NCAP then I would be pissed. All clubs allow you to watch and you should always be checking out a few practices yourself.

The season is almost over so it is too late now.

As for the lesson instructor pointing out an "obvious mistake" take that with a grain of salt. Most lesson instructors teach fly and breast incorrectly and it has to be corrected for USA Swimming standards. So without much specificity I would discount that.

[Anonymous]

OP here. We are at Machine. I'm not a swimmer so only know the basics. It is something like palm facing up for breaststroke.

[Anonymous]

If you are a top swimmer, they will care a lot. If you are an ok swimmer, you are occupying a spot in a lane so that the club can afford to rent the pool and pay the coaches to coach the better swimmers

[Anonymous]

Most clubs don't teach stroke. It's really frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We are at Machine. I'm not a swimmer so only know the basics. It is something like palm facing up for breaststroke.

Actually, palm placement in breaststroke (arguably the most technical of all the strokes) is a point of debate. It varies in different parts of the stroke and, as long as it's legal, can vary between swimmers. Swimming is incredibly technical - far more so than most non-swimmers realize. That means that even when coaches do give technique feedback, many kids struggle to execute it. Expecting a nine year old swimming club for the first time not to make mistakes isn't realistic.

Questions like these are best asked of your kids' coaches. Kids aren't the most reliable reporters. The most likely scenario here is that your kid's coaches have given them stroke advice and it's hard for the kid to implement. While not impossible, it's unlikely that a random DPR instructor, who's not even instructing your kid, has such an eagle eye that they spotted this issue and know exactly how to solve it. That's just not how swimming works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You probably should name the Club and/or where you are located. If you are at something like DC Wave, they are not known to be good. I have seen those kids at meets and they are sh*t shows to put it mildly.

If you are at a place like NCAP then I would be pissed. All clubs allow you to watch and you should always be checking out a few practices yourself.

The season is almost over so it is too late now.

As for the lesson instructor pointing out an "obvious mistake" take that with a grain of salt. Most lesson instructors teach fly and breast incorrectly and it has to be corrected for USA Swimming standards. So without much specificity I would discount that.

Wow, that's nice. Not every kid is going for Junior Olympics. Not every team is gunning for that either. OP-- there are LOTS of crazy swim parents like this one out there-- so be careful your child is not around people like this who are negative and put other teams/kids down.

[Anonymous]

I’d switch locations to a non-drop-off site. Most machine sites allow parents to watch. Until you see your kid at practice, you really don’t know what’s going on. It could be the coaching, it could be your kid.

But remember, there are probably 8 kids per lane with one coach. Your kid is not getting individual attention. If your kid needs a lot of stroke mechanics, you really need to consider private lessons.

[Anonymous]

We wet with PAC at Fairland and to be fair I liked how friendly and low key the coaches were. The fact they never really worked on stroke technique frustrated me too though. They really just work on endurance.
Machine was in the lanes next to us and it wasn’t very different. You can see the different coaches and how they coach. They did work on diving in but that was it.

[Anonymous]

You should also consider that swimming multiple days per week is a lot for many young kids just starting out. I've seen plenty of kids who seem to "plateau" through a first year and then make huge gains at the start of their second year. If technique needs work to get there, you can get the kid in some private lessons, wait it out and hope it improves at your current club, or switch clubs/sites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are new to club swimming and this is our first season. DC is 9 and practices 2 times a week. Not a fast swimmer, but the times have not improved since October (attended a few meets and no DQ). Practices are drop off only.

DC was playing in the public pool over the weekend and the DPR swim lesson instructor next to us pointed out an obvious mistake. So I asked DC if the coaches said anything at practice and the answer is no. Am I expecting too much from the coaches to correct strokes? Shall I be looking for a different club for the next season? Any advice would be appreciated.

All 9 year olds have multiple technique issues no matter where they swim. Swim technique improves over years of practice. Maybe nobody ever told your kid that particular issue because they are trying to correct a dozen other issues.

You should either get a private coach to provide feedback, have your child attend a swim clinic, or have your kid watch videos so they better understand why the coach says to do the things they say.

[Anonymous]

My thinking as a former swimmer and parent of a 9 year old: at most of these clubs there are too many kids in the lane for coaches to be giving a ton of individual feedback. If you're lucky the coaches will have a good progression of drills that the kids work on and they will give your kid some individual tips from time to time. This age should still be very heavily skewed toward stroke drills and practicing turns, with just a little bit of endurance work so they can swim a 100 at a meet without struggling too hard.

Another thing to consider is that there is a lot of variability in the extent to which kids will receive feedback and want to or be able to implement it. I was the kind of kid who was super conscientious and tried really hard to do drills exactly the right way. I am the same way now at the gym. I want to do the exercise exactly the way the instructor shows it and I take pride in getting complimented for good form.

My 9 year old did not seem to inherit that tendency. He will sort of try to do a drill the right way but ultimately doesn't care too much if he isn't quite doing it correctly. I don't see him becoming any kind of elite or even fast swimmer because he just doesn't approach it with the intent to master what is being taught, and he isn't naturally talented enough to just do it right the first time. I think you either need one or the other in swimming and any other technical sport.

[Anonymous]

I'd ask about what is going on at practice. My daughter is your child's age. In her group there are kids making JOs and kids that can't finish a 50. There is no way to know if your kid is struggling without watching. I've been surprised by the disparity in level of swimmer across the lanes this year. Some kids look like they have made no progress but unless you can watch practice you'd have no clue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My thinking as a former swimmer and parent of a 9 year old: at most of these clubs there are too many kids in the lane for coaches to be giving a ton of individual feedback. If you're lucky the coaches will have a good progression of drills that the kids work on and they will give your kid some individual tips from time to time. This age should still be very heavily skewed toward stroke drills and practicing turns, with just a little bit of endurance work so they can swim a 100 at a meet without struggling too hard.

Another thing to consider is that there is a lot of variability in the extent to which kids will receive feedback and want to or be able to implement it. I was the kind of kid who was super conscientious and tried really hard to do drills exactly the right way. I am the same way now at the gym. I want to do the exercise exactly the way the instructor shows it and I take pride in getting complimented for good form.

My 9 year old did not seem to inherit that tendency. He will sort of try to do a drill the right way but ultimately doesn't care too much if he isn't quite doing it correctly. I don't see him becoming any kind of elite or even fast swimmer because he just doesn't approach it with the intent to master what is being taught, and he isn't naturally talented enough to just do it right the first time. I think you either need one or the other in swimming and any other technical sport.

I replied in a different thread about swim team expectations with many of the same thoughts. Almost every parent has the same reaction after their kid joins a swim team - why aren't the coaches correcting technique? And the answer usually is, they are being taught correct technique through words, demos, and drills, but if the swimmer doesn’t apply the correction, and, more importantly, practice the corrected form, they won’t progress. I see kids still swimming after many years without a good streamline, and I know for sure that the coaches have spent a lot of time emphasizing it ad nauseum. The kids might do it correctly in a drill, but they go back to their comfort zone in practice. They also do things like skip laps, pull on the lane line, go to the bathroom, etc. There are a lot of ways for kids to avoid working hard in swim practice, just like there are a lot of ways for kids to avoid learning at school.

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work” is a favorite swim coach mantra. The kids who go to practice and just go through the motions are not going to achieve as much through osmosis as the ones who are motivated to learn and improve. This is also a reason to put your kids in meets - it motivates them to work harder in practice so they can feel good about themselves in races.

[Anonymous]

There's some great advice on here. I'd also add another thought: you might use this winter season as a way to set goals for the summer. Plan for summer private lessons to help with stroke refinement and see whether DC's summer times have improved as a result of winter swim. Sometimes that difference doesn't show right away. As the summer goes on, you'll have the chance to think through whether you want to try switching clubs, but I'd +1 to the PPs who noted that there's often just not a lot of stroke work in winter swim - otherwise technical clinics and private instructors wouldn't exist, or be able to exist. Is DC happy in their current club? Do they look forward to practice? Do they have the beginnings of friendships within the team? Do they try hard when they're there? Is the commute and the timing OK for your family? If so, you might give it another year unless the expenses just feel really out of step with the takeaway.