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Hi everybody,
This story is from Guy Edson. He is the ASCA
Technical Director.
The story is about being late to practice, but the
"big picture" of it is actually about opportunities that are
presented and we (parents) should try and take advantage to educate
our children.
Right now, in our "Dolphin time", we have a good
opportunity to teach them that if they want to improve, and go to
the next level, they need to commit to practices. Here are a couple
phrases that can help, and could be important for them for the rest
of their lives:
- It is not only having goals, but WHAT you need to
do to achieve them.
- The harder you work, the "luckier" you
get.
- True success is overcoming the fear of being
unsuccessful.
- We accomplish in proportion to what we
attempt.
The team is moving forward to achieve greater
goals. Embark on this nice journey !!!!!!
Coach Mavi
News For
SWIM PARENTS
Published by The American Swimming Coaches
Association
5101 NW 21 Ave., Suite 200
Fort Lauderdale FL 33309
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One Day
in The Life of an Age Group Parent
Guy Edson
My wife was off to a continuing ed class. My 12
year old daughter was at swim practice. I had the much needed
chance to spend a couple extra hours catching up with some work at
the office. That is, until my cell phone buzzed at 5:30.
“Dad, can you come pick me up?” “What’s
wrong?” I asked. “I got kicked out of swim
practice,” she said. I was stunned! My daughter is a fairly
standard 12 year old, as fully capable of getting into trouble as
any other 12 year old – except at swim practice where she is
unusually compliant and very coachable. I decided we would talk
about it later and said, “Well, just come home with Coach Rob
like you always do and we will talk about it when you get
home.” “Rob said you have to come pick me up
now,” she said.
The pool is 18 miles from my office by way of the
most congested interstate in the whole metropolitan area. The last
thing I wanted to do is drive 45 minutes out there and another 45
minutes back. My building anger focused on Coach Rob. I thought to
myself, “OK, my daughter screwed up but just let her swim.
It’s no big deal. Besides, why do I have to pay the price? If
it really is that bad he should just make her sit out and then
bring her home like usual. After all, that is what I would
do.”
Important note: I am also a swimming coach and have
been for nearly 30 years. Nevertheless, the parent side of me had
taken over my thought process and I wanted to blame the coach for
the inconvenience I was facing. “…the inconvenience
I was facing.”
Looking for a way out I asked, “What did you
do?” She told me she was three minutes late to practice and
he wouldn’t let her in the water. “Three minutes? THREE
minutes?” I asked. In my mind I was cursing at the coach.
“How could you be three minutes late to practice? You get
there 45 minutes before practice time!” I said. She told me
was doing homework in the locker room and lost track of the time.
“And he kicked Jackie out too,” she said. I asked,
“Jackie was doing homework also?” “No, she was
changing her swim suit and we came out
together.”
At that point distant memories started coming back
and with them rational thinking crept back into my brain. In my 30
years of coaching, how many times did multiples of 11-12 year old
girls emerge from the locker rooms 3 minutes late and how many
ridiculous excuses had I heard? Plenty. And how many times was it
the same group of kids? All the time.
“If I were to ask Coach Rob if this was the
first time you were late, what would he say?” I asked. I
heard a faint “what?” I repeated, “If I were to
ask Coach Rob if this was the first time you were late, what would
he say? Have you been late before?”
“Sometimes.”
And what did I do years ago with those who became
chronically late by 3 minutes? I sent them back to the locker room,
and told them to call their parents. This scene is all too familiar
to me.
“OK,” I said, “I’ll be
there in 40 to 45 minutes. I’ll be thinking of the
consequences along the way.” As a last ditch effort for
clemency and a play on my fatherly love, I heard my daughter
faintly say, “I’m sorry.”
When I picked her up I was all smiles. And she
lighted up right away. She might have been thinking I was going to
be cool about this. I asked her what homework she was working on in
the locker room and she told me it was math. “You’re
pretty good at math, aren’t you?” I asked. “Get
out a piece of paper and pencil and solve this problem: a man
drives a car that gets 15 miles to the gallon. He has to drive his
car 36 miles. If gas costs $1.79 a gallon, how much did the trip
cost him?” She loves these kinds of problems and started
dividing then multiplying and proudly came up with, “Four
dollars and twenty nine cents!” “That sounds
correct,” I said. That’s what it cost me to come pick
you up and it’s coming out of your next allowance.” The
rest of the trip home was on the quiet side.
The next day, Coach Rob reported to me that she was
on the deck 15 minutes early and ready to go.
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