Reply to Kid has announced she wants to be an Olympic swimmer. How to respond?

Forum Index » Swimming and Diving

Reply to "Kid has announced she wants to be an Olympic swimmer. How to respond?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. To be clear, I don't think my kid is going to the Olympics. I'm asking how to respond in a way that is encouraging, since she really enjoys this activity and I think it would be great for her personally to keep pursuing it, without building up a dream that is 99.9999999999% a pipe dream.

Agree we need to look into year round swim options.[/quote]
Year round is your first step and is a good way to encourage her passion without the Olympics being the end game. Year round swim is very different than summer swim, but 8 is a good age to start and see if she really has a passion for swim. My kid is 11 and as it turns out it is her passion, she started year round at 9 and loves it (the next month is her least favorite time of year because there is no swim). She’s grown out of Olympic dreams, but she’s good and wants to swim in college and now has an understanding that work ethic plays a big part. She loves following her favorite Olympic level swimmers (she was up early to watch finals of the recent World Championships live) and wants her birthday and Xmas present to be a trip to the Olympic trials. I don’t think you need to just “yes, dear” her (I know she’s only 8 but that just seems unnecessarily condescending and unsupportive), let her explore whether this is a passion for her and support her in that effort. [/quote]

Thank you for this, it's really helpful. I had previously thought 8 was too soon for club swim, and to be honest I'm not sure if [I]I[/I] am ready for it because it's a commitment for us, too. But she told me recently that no matter how she's feeling, getting in the pool makes her happy, so the idea of stopping for the next 9 months sounds mean, tbh. I'm hoping to find a relatively relaxed club atmosphere in budget that will let us ease in. Proximity is going to be big too.

But thanks for sharing your experience. I agree I don't 'want to just say "that's nice, dear" -- that' the kind of thing that would have hurt my feelings when I was her age because I agree, it's patronizing. But I want to be careful what I say, too, because the combination of very competitive, obsessed with swimming, and a goal like this feels mildly stressful to me. I don't want her to fall apart when it doesn't happen.

Also want to note I'm a total swimming newbie. Grew up in an area where swimming was not big, I learned to swim but like in a "I won't drown and could use it for exercise if I don't have to share a lane because I'm so slow" way. The level of intensity around swimming here is overwhelming at times and I guess I'm a little unsure about navigating it, but I wound up with a swimming obsessed kid. Just trying to figure it out![/quote]
Since it’s August, most of the competitive local clubs (RMSC, NCAP, Machine, etc.) have already completed their tryouts for the 2023-2024 season. However, if she/you are interested in letting her try year round swim most of the lower key teams will probably still take her. The season starts in September so if you are interested now is the time to reach out. The biggest advantage to swimming year round with a club is the ability to compete at meets once a month or so. Year round swim can be drudgery without the carrot of meets.[/quote]

Thanks for the info -- yes, I was seeing that a lot of the club tryouts are well past. I will say that DD actually really loves swimming against her own times and has always been a fan of swim class and refining discrete skills like turns or dives so if we wind up doing that this year, I don't think it will be the end of the world. But now that she has a taste of the team environment and meets, I definitely think that's going to be a major motivator so if we can find a club that is open and is not an insane commute or schedule, we'll try it.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics