Parents Roles

To have a successful program there must be understanding and cooperation among parents, swimmers, and coaches.  The progress your youngster makes depends to a great extent on this triangular relationship.  You have done a great deal to raise your child.  You create the environment in which they are growing up.  Your child is a product of your values, the structure you have provided, and the model you have been.  Human nature, however, is such that a parent loses some of his/her ability to remain detached and objective in matters concerning his/hers children’s athletics. The following guidelines will help you keep your child’s development in the proper perspective and help your child reach his/her full potential as an athlete: 

• The coach is the coach.  CIA wants your swimmer to relate to his or her coach as soon as possible concerning swimming matters.  This relationship between coach and swimmer produces best results.  When parents interfere with opinions as to how the swimmer should swim or train, it causes considerable, and oftentimes insurmountable, confusion as to whom the swimmer should listen to.  If you have a problem, concern, or complaint, please contact the coach.
• The coach’s job is to motivate and constructively criticize the swimmer’s performance.  It is the parent’s job to supply the love, recognition, and encouragement necessary to make the child work harder in practice, which in turn gives him/her the confidence to perform well in competition.
• Even the very best swimmer will have meets where they do not do their best times. These “plateaus” are a normal part of swimming.  Over the course of a season times should improve.  Please be supportive of these “poor” meets. 
• Please make every effort to have your swimmers at practice on time.
• Realize that your child is working hard and give all the support you can.

 

Problems with Coaches

One of the traditional swim team communication gaps is that some parents seem to feel more comfortable in discussing their disagreements over coaching philosophy with other parents rather than taking them directly to the coach.  Not only is the problem never resolved that way, but in fact this approach often results in new problems being created.  Listed below are some guidelines for a parent raising some difficult issues with a coach:

• Try to keep foremost in your mind that you and the coach have the best interests of your child at heart.  If you trust that the coach’s goals match yours, even though his/her approach may be different, you are more likely to enjoy good rapport and constructive dialogue.
• Keep in mind that the coach must balance your perspective of what is best for your child with the needs of the team or a training group.  On occasion, an individual child’s interest may need to be subordinate to the interests of the group, but in the long run the benefits of membership in the group compensate for occasional short term inconvenience.
• If your child swims for an assistant coach, always discuss the matter first with that coach.  If the assistant coach cannot satisfactorily resolve your concern, then ask the head coach to join the dialogue as a third party.
• If another parent uses you as a sounding board for complaints about the coach’s performance or policies, listen empathetically, but encourage the other parent to speak directly to the coach.  He/she is the only one who can resolve the problem.