Would your summer swim coach bench a top swimmer for bad behavior?

[Anonymous]

NP here.
To the OP: can’t you share your concerns with the swim rep?
The role of the swim rep is to liaison between parents (who pay the money that pays the coach) and the coach.
Behavior is part of team management, and coaching is more than standing on the deck with a whistle.

[Anonymous]

As a board member, I would want to know about this. There is a code of conduct and if it isn't being adhered to, then swimmer shouldn't swim. Our coach would absolutely follow this. And the board has the ability to direct the coach to follow this.
Also, how can 1 kid in a 200 person team be that bad? Must be a really bad situation that should be dealt with by adults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Team reps and other posters who say this is “unacceptable” and “not tolerated” - have you ever not allowed a kid to swim? I notice there are no anecdotes of kids not being allowed to swim. I’m sure there have been cases in which coaches have had to talk to parents of difficult kids, but actually telling a kid they can’t swim and telling the family to take a hike- has anyone done it?

The handbook might say one thing, but it’s quite another to actually pull a kid out of a rec activity.

We did but not how you describe. A swimmer (15-18) pulled some stunts at a meet and then left. One of the top swimmers. The next meet the swimmer was not allowed to swim the following A meet and it was explained to all parties that seed time, sportsmanship and being a good teammate were all factors for A meet selection.

Sounds fair. It’s different with a 15-18 year old, though. They should be mature enough to not be a PITA. I’m guessing OP is talking about a younger swimmer, 10u or even 8u.

Yes, it is very unlikely that OP is talking about the 15-18 year old age group. Has OP come back to respond to any questions? This may be a troll post. Summer swim is always a good topic to rile up dcum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I assume these are younger kids? My guess is these kids and parents who are not signing up are not that into swim and using this as a partial excuse.

I don't doubt the "toxic" swimmer has a bad attitude, but, not listening is par for the course with summer swim, nobody cares if a swimmer practice or not, bad attitude is also prevalent because there are always some kids being forced to do it by their parents, so, that leaves bullying other team mates. If your child is impacted I would take it to the coach, the rep, and the parents if my child was targeted.

I'm not a pp, but I've seen swimmers pulled from the rest of the season for misbehavior at the pool. It was older kids having a late night party who probably didn't realize that cameras work in the dark. For something as bad as OP describes, especially screaming at people on the deck, I think a kid would be kick off of the team unless it was a special needs situation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's Mclean's ad https://www.mynvsl.com/coach/2396 it doesn't say bonus for winning, but season end bonus. Which surely depends on winning.

OP- why don't your friends speak out? If they're the ones that are upset enough not to swim they should talk to the coach- otherwise it may be making a mountain out of a molehill for you. In these upper div. the kids that don't swim club won't be the fastest for long. I can't imagine anyone being the fastest except 8U if they don't swim club in the top 2 divisions

I don't get the big bonuses for summer swim when its the year round club kids winning usually and the summer coaches don't really do much for those kids.

Every team I've coached for has given me an end of season bonus. When I coached NVSL D1, my end of season bonus was not tied to our wins; we lost every meet one year. I don't know of a single D1 coach who's bonus is tied to wins. It usually has to do with how much money is left in the swim team budget at the end of the season, and sometimes depending on who is doing the budgeting, is determined before any meet is swam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1)How old is this swimmer? Not practicing will catch up to them.
2) The swimmer yells at their parent, Why is this a coach issue?

She’s 11. I would think that the lack of practice would have caught up to her by now, but it hasn’t, possibly because summer is obviously only sprints.

I offered the example of her screaming at her parents at meets because it causes everyone around to sort of freeze and feel tense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check the NVSL and pool codes of conduct. Mandatory SafeSport training for reps and coaches also reference this sort of thing. Unacceptable.

Talk to your rep and your pool board.

This!

We have an athlete code of conduct that all swimmers must sign.

I would also argue that this decision is actually up to the team rep as the coach technically reports to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1)How old is this swimmer? Not practicing will catch up to them.
2) The swimmer yells at their parent, Why is this a coach issue?

She’s 11. I would think that the lack of practice would have caught up to her by now, but it hasn’t, possibly because summer is obviously only sprints.

I offered the example of her screaming at her parents at meets because it causes everyone around to sort of freeze and feel tense.

OP, I don't think a coach or rep is going to intervene in her yelling at her parents. If the parents wanted to discipline her, they would. Or, maybe they are disciplining her at home and you don't know it. She is 11 and has some pretty extreme behavior. She probably has disabilities that you don't know about. In this area most of the top division teams have numbers approaching or exceeding 200 kids. Other people aren't quitting just because this girl yells at her parents or is a poor sport during a meet (since you claim she doesn't practice, a meet seems to be the only time people have to interact with her). The other kids most likely quit, in part, because they don't want to do summer swim anymore.

[Anonymous]

Could she have special needs? We had a swimmer like that on our NVSL team. Many did not know the child had special needs. Reps did, coaches did, and other coaches and reps did when we swam against them.

[Anonymous]

I still can't imagine an 11 year old in a top division that doesn't swim year round being the best in 11/12? I don't know that she'll be some huge factor this year. Are you all like 1 or 2?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check the NVSL and pool codes of conduct. Mandatory SafeSport training for reps and coaches also reference this sort of thing. Unacceptable.

Talk to your rep and your pool board.

This!

We have an athlete code of conduct that all swimmers must sign.

I would also argue that this decision is actually up to the team rep as the coach technically reports to them.

The final say would be with the team rep. The coach is their employee and the rep is the "owner" of the team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still can't imagine an 11 year old in a top division that doesn't swim year round being the best in 11/12? I don't know that she'll be some huge factor this year. Are you all like 1 or 2?

With sprints and a generally athletic kid it can happen. The kid might be on the spectrum or have some other issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still can't imagine an 11 year old in a top division that doesn't swim year round being the best in 11/12? I don't know that she'll be some huge factor this year. Are you all like 1 or 2?

And she doesn't practice? how is she a factor? boggling my mind

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Team reps and other posters who say this is “unacceptable” and “not tolerated” - have you ever not allowed a kid to swim? I notice there are no anecdotes of kids not being allowed to swim. I’m sure there have been cases in which coaches have had to talk to parents of difficult kids, but actually telling a kid they can’t swim and telling the family to take a hike- has anyone done it?

The handbook might say one thing, but it’s quite another to actually pull a kid out of a rec activity.

Absolutely. Former NVSL Rep here and we suspended a difficult A meet swimmer (after multiple warnings for bad sportsmanship and being difficult/disruptive in practice). When it continued, we kicked him off the team.

In my 10 years at a mid-division team, including 4 as Rep, I'd be shocked if we were an outlier. Outside of perhaps Div1, nobody cares that much about winning and losing to tolerate a swimmer who is that problematic and disruptive so as to affect the experience of the other swimmers.

And I'd be shocked if there were more than a half dozen NVSL pools paying their coaches bonuses based on the team's results.

To a later poster: "Summer End Bonus" is basically the parents all pitching in some extra cash like almost every youth sport (end of season coach's gift). I would never assume it was explicitly based on Ws and Ls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Team reps and other posters who say this is “unacceptable” and “not tolerated” - have you ever not allowed a kid to swim? I notice there are no anecdotes of kids not being allowed to swim. I’m sure there have been cases in which coaches have had to talk to parents of difficult kids, but actually telling a kid they can’t swim and telling the family to take a hike- has anyone done it?

The handbook might say one thing, but it’s quite another to actually pull a kid out of a rec activity.

Absolutely. Former NVSL Rep here and we suspended a difficult A meet swimmer (after multiple warnings for bad sportsmanship and being difficult/disruptive in practice). When it continued, we kicked him off the team.

In my 10 years at a mid-division team, including 4 as Rep, I'd be shocked if we were an outlier. Outside of perhaps Div1, nobody cares that much about winning and losing to tolerate a swimmer who is that problematic and disruptive so as to affect the experience of the other swimmers.

And I'd be shocked if there were more than a half dozen NVSL pools paying their coaches bonuses based on the team's results.

To a later poster: "Summer End Bonus" is basically the parents all pitching in some extra cash like almost every youth sport (end of season coach's gift). I would never assume it was explicitly based on Ws and Ls.

How old was the swimmer you had to suspend?