clean room at home and help (reasonable)around the house (this should be the caseanyway).Athletes are expected to swimtheir hearts out at every practice andperform perfectly each set: no stroke flawsgreat splits (right).Athletes must commu-nicate with parent(s) in a civil manner (orsuffer the consequences: grounded) eventhough hormones are flooding their mindswith crazy thoughts about adults in leader-ship roles (parents. teachers. etc.) Athletesneed to eat properly and also hydrateproperly so they can train at higher levelsthan any other sport (no candy, Cokes,fast foods especially greasy ones, whathappened to good foods anyway?).Theseathletes get into the water having limitedhearing, sight, and temperature issues, andswim their hearts out only to hear thattheir stroke. are wrong and to fix it (evenif you have a good coach with all the rightdrills it isn't easy to change: right?). Dedi-cated swimmers are expected to swimover 468 workouts a year (9 workoutsa week), doing over 6,000 meters perworkout (2.BOO,OOO meters plus a year),at various intensities BO% 90% 95% all outeffort, hypoxic training, kick sets, pull sets,1Msets. stroke sets, long swims (T-120's),short sets and measurement sets (lOx I00on I: 15, holding within 3-5% of best times),lactic acid measurements, and on and onand on (no others sport is even close orso demanding). Swimmers are expected togive up vacations, go to meets, train reallyhard during school breaks, never be late,do crazy dry land sets. run bleachers/stairsor just run, ice shoulders, legs, and otherinjuries, stay away from sick people andnever get sick, training two times a dayyear after year (what would football/base-ball/soccer players be like if they kept thisschedule?).

Swimmers expect challenging workoutsand critiquing of strokes on a frequentbasis.They also expect educated and expe-rienced coaches as they progress. Swim-mers expect freedom to train, to compete,and to progress when they train prop-erly. Swimmers demand privacy in theircommunication with coaches (listen, notlecture) and good counsel and compassionwhen they have problems, as well as oc-casional parental counseling when familialproblems arise. Swimmers expect a safeand cordial training environment including

intra-team relationships. Swimmers alsoexpect discipline that is fair but just andappropriate. Swimmers do not want to becompared to others; they are individualsand want to be treated as such.

Swimmers want and expect coaches tocommunicate effectively (hard to hear withwater in your ears, just kidding), pay atten-tion to their times and stroke mechanics,offer challenging workouts, set goals, andcontinue' to grow and learn within theorganization. Swimmers also want theirparents to support them, listen to thembut not over-react, help grow the organiza-tion.

WHAT DO PARENTS 'DO'AND EXPECT?Hopefully they are positive re-enforcerssupporting the crazy training issues andschedule requirements, as anything elsewill implode a swimmer's career. Parentshave to unconditionally love their swimmerathlete and understand they are participat-ing in a worthy activity (not wasting theirlives at the mall, running the streets, dazedin front ofTY, on the Internet, or gamingtheir lives away).They are the main supportfor the athlete, considering they are payingthe bills and burning up tremendous timeblocks and energy driving all over God'screation for practices and meets, Parentsspend enormous amounts of kitchen timeand money preparing to feed their kids/athletes the right foods in vast quantitiesand frequently, too frequently, as well asensuring their kids are properly hydrated.Parents have to go to meets (long hours towatch maybe less than 30 seconds to justgreater than 20 minutes of actual swim-ming) in miserable conditions with otherparents and some unwilling participants.Parents have to pick their kids up off thedeck after having trained for months onlyto swim times that they swam 5 years agoagain and again (success does come but ata price sometimes too costly for parentsand relationships). Parents have to raisemoney through crazy schemes and fund-raisers, stand on hot cement decks timing,officiating, and concessionering only tomiss their child swim the only good race ofthe day/month/year. Parents normally haveto arrange travel schedules (time off fromwork), adequate hotel acquisition, and nu-tritional meals in strange cities for athletesall over the state or region. Parents have to

4- l\SCA Swim Club News Vol 08 Issue 3

support the coaches even though at timesthey think that the coaches have totallylost their minds. Parents have to be confi-dants and friends to their kids even whenthey are treated like "stupid idiots" as mostadolescents would tell them frequently.Almost all parents are there through thickand thin, good and bad, hopefully alwayspicking up after them and even sometimespicking them up out of the doldrums ofdefeat by a meager one one-hundredth ofa second, driving home listening to cryingor in the silence of an athlete's despair.

Parents expect great swims (results) fromtheir swimmers every race (it doesn'talways happen due to various trainingphases, timelines and plateaus, but whatparent doesn't want the best for theirkids?). Parents want a highly trained, dedi-cated, and compassionate coach for theirkids, especially due to money and timeexpended (some coaches spend more timewith an athlete than their parents due tojob demands and swim schedules). Parentsalso expect coaches to train their childrenin good moral tenets, positive values, andlife skills that will make them success-ful members of society. Parents expectcoaches to counsel and moderate athletes,sometimes intervening in tense family dis-course (argument mediation), producing askewed positive outcome (sometimes theyare right, sometimes they are not so right).Do coaches really walk on water? Athletesand parents can think so - trust me theydon't (best efforts and best practice is thekey expectation). Parents expect the bestpossible training facility,equipment, andsurrounding environment for their kids(wouldn't anyone?). Parents want the bestfor their kids period.

Parents want and expect coaches to com- .municate with their athlete and with them,be knowledgeable of rules, technique, bestpractices, and workout structure, care fortheir athlete (due regard/due diligence),lead the organization, and remain focusedon the vision/mission of the organization.

A crazy sport for the intellectual elite,maybe. Time management skills develop-ment, surely.A lifetime of success, truly.Swimmers, their parents and coaches are arare breed, indeed.

For more information and consultation please contacthe author Of: chucks/aght@comcast.net