Reply to Explain to me your thought process (parents) with being highly competitive with your swimmer

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[quote=Anonymous]
I understand that the DMV is very competitive - parents here hire tutors for everything, take prep classes for every standardize test, get private coaching, specialized sport camps, etc. On the academic front it makes sense, you want your kid to understand/know material, succeed, do well in college, etc.  But I am having a tougher time understanding the same mentality with sports and swim in particular (where it is not subjective but time based with motivational standard to show where a swimmer falls in speed/talent).

We know some families that spend a lot of resources on private coaching and camps every year for their swimmers.  They push the head coach to focus on their swimmers' needs.  The kids are good (mostly AA times and some AAA times) although the one it very much appears is peaking and being surpassed by peers that have not swam as long. They used to have a lot of success because of all the private instruction at a very young age.  Now their peers are reaching the same skill level. You see the kid cry a lot with the parents, and it very much appears the parents are VERY hard on the swimmers and coaching their swimmers a lot (not swimmers themselves). It has been overheard the constant critiques about what the swimmer did wrong in the water.

I want to understand this parent.  Is the goal to have a D1 swimmer?  The scholarship money in no way equals the resources spent to perfect the strokes since the swimmer was 8.  Is playing a sport in college that important to lifelong success?

Do you think you have an Olympian on your hand and this could be a life long career?  I don't understand it.  Do you not realize that they could burn out, hate it, opt to quit because of the pressure?  Or they will be done in high school or college and never swim again?

What does this parent think swimming for their child means?  It very much appears the parent is "living" through their child since they were not swimmers themselves.  I guess I really and truly do not understand what the thought process is here.

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