Any word on swim meets?

[Anonymous]

Some kids are born hypercompetitive. I know that two of mine are and will work harder if something is at stake like qualifying times, making finals, medaling and time standards. It doesnt make yours better or worse if they aren't wired that way. It's just who they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is older and gunning for NCAA it really is no big deal to not have meets for a few months. If your kid is under 13 and you are complaining, I definitely judge.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is older and gunning for NCAA it really is no big deal to not have meets for a few months. If your kid is under 13 and you are complaining, I definitely judge.

There are plenty of swimmers older than 13 and interested in swimming in college. For those kids, having no meets is a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is older and gunning for NCAA it really is no big deal to not have meets for a few months. If your kid is under 13 and you are complaining, I definitely judge.

+1

Each kid is different, and some kids (regardless of age or college swimming aspirations) are just hardwired to be competitive. So feel free to “judge” - but you don’t know my kid and what motivates them.

Also, we’ve been back in the pool practicing since June, and haven’t had a meet since Feb, so it’s not just a missing a “few months” of meets - it’s a lot longer period. Ultimately it will probably closer to a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:you don’t know my kid and what motivates them

hear hear!

[Anonymous]

Extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation. Time to work on the latter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation. Time to work on the latter.

Thank you, Dr. Sanctimony!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is older and gunning for NCAA it really is no big deal to not have meets for a few months. If your kid is under 13 and you are complaining, I definitely judge.

+1

Each kid is different, and some kids (regardless of age or college swimming aspirations) are just hardwired to be competitive. So feel free to “judge” - but you don’t know my kid and what motivates them.

Also, we’ve been back in the pool practicing since June, and haven’t had a meet since Feb, so it’s not just a missing a “few months” of meets - it’s a lot longer period. Ultimately it will probably closer to a year.

Its fine to enjoy winning but it sounds like the issue is more the parent vs. the child. If your child doesn't enjoy swimming and isn't motivated to practice beyond winning or bribery or force then they should find something they enjoy. Most of us see parents like you. You are yelling, screaming at your kids and other kids to win and threatening them with punishments if they don't. That is the bigger motivator is not losing electronics or some other consequence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is older and gunning for NCAA it really is no big deal to not have meets for a few months. If your kid is under 13 and you are complaining, I definitely judge.

There are plenty of swimmers older than 13 and interested in swimming in college. For those kids, having no meets is a big deal.

They are groomed that swim pays for college and parents aren't paying for it. Parents are more worried about themselves than their kids. Except if you are going on to the Olympics there is no point in swimming in college and education should come first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some kids are born hypercompetitive. I know that two of mine are and will work harder if something is at stake like qualifying times, making finals, medaling and time standards. It doesnt make yours better or worse if they aren't wired that way. It's just who they are.

You aren't born hyper competitive. Its parenting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids are born hypercompetitive. I know that two of mine are and will work harder if something is at stake like qualifying times, making finals, medaling and time standards. It doesnt make yours better or worse if they aren't wired that way. It's just who they are.

You aren't born hyper competitive. Its parenting.

To an extent maybe. But I have three kids. One hyper competitive, one could care less, and one competitive but not as much. A lot is just innate.

[Anonymous]

Swimming is so boring. Without meets it isn’t really even a sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The lack of meets will hurt the serious year around swimmers. Particularly the current HS sophomores and juniors if they aspire to swim in college. I have a senior and a freshman. My senior has many senior friends who have stopped swimming because they don't plan to swim in college so "what's the point of swimming this year with no real chance of a final HS season." The senior who already know they are swimming in college will continue for conditioning but it is difficult to do the grind of 20 plus hours/week with no actual goal to be working toward in the next 6 months. My HS freshman, would have been working toward JO cuts, sectional cuts, metro cuts etc. Those things do keep you motivated. I hope he will continue . . . but we shall see.

20 hours per week? Well, I think we’ve discovered the motivation problem.

20 hours per week is pretty standard for a serious high school swimmer. I think I did more than that actually when including dry land work. I would have hated just practicing with no meets. I worked hard at practice but I was never one of the fastest during workouts. But I almost always performed well at meets and could beat teammates who were faster than me at practice. I would have quit with no meets to motivate me.

Maybe your child does not enjoy it and only doing it for you. Winning is not everything. Enjoying the sport is far more important to me. You want your child swimming for college so you don’t have to pay.

I agree that enjoying the sport is the most important thing. Let's not pretend to know more about each other than we do. How about you stop telling people what they want and I'll refrain from telling you you're jealous because my Academic All American already has a scholarship (which we don't need to pay for college BTW).

[Anonymous]

For some kids, swim meets makes the sport more enjoyable. My child loves practices and meets and certainly is going to all of the practices. But he wants meets to start too.

[Anonymous]

my niece and nephew in RIchmond are having swim meets. they have electronic timers, 1 parent is allowed on deck to watch ea race, everyone waits outside under their own tents, they have to leisurely swim to the other end of the pool to get out closer to the doors, plexiglass in between the lanes at that end only.