When is my child ready to compete?
October 19, 2007
 | Growth & Development FAQs for Age Group Parents |  | |
Q: 01. When is my child ready for competition?
A: That is a difficult question, as research on athlete development provides no clear-cut answer. In an article by Passer (1988) addressing this question, he reviewed several areas of development in attempting to provide guidelines on determining readiness for competition: - Motivational readiness: Because competition is a social comparison process, the young athlete is motivated to compete when he or she possesses a social comparison orientation. Research suggests that around the age of 5-7 kids have the desire for and ability to use social comparison information.
- Cognitive readiness: Competition requires numerous cognitive and reasoning skills (i.e., perspective taking, differentiating between effort and ability) that take some time to develop in youngsters. Researchers suggest that kids do not develop the cognitive abilities to have an understanding of the competitive process until approximately age 12.
- Physical growth, physiological capacity, and development: These factors must also be considered when trying to decide readiness for competition.
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What is really important?
September 19, 2007
FROM USASWIMMING.ORG
Without fun, your child may not want to keep swimming. Swimmers of all ages rank “fun” as the number one reason they swim. Olympians with years of experience say that they will continue with the sport as long as they are having fun! Children don’t have fun standing around at practice. They don’t have fun when they feel pressure to win. They have fun in well organized, skill oriented practices. They have fun competing and striving to win while developing their skills. Fun for kids is not just fun and games. Fun encompasses learning, competing, training and being with their friends. Remember, your child won’t be able to control all of the factors that go into winning a race. She has no control over her competitors! But she will find success and fun in developing and improving skills. This is one of the most satisfying aspects of sports. The most important question you can ask following practice or a meet is “did you have fun today?”
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Should Your Child be Swimming in the Summer League?
April 10, 2007
Should Your Child be Swimming in the Summer League?
WILLIAM J PRICE
Saluki Head Coach
While a graduate student back in the 80s I was also
chief baby-sitter for my niece and became quite
familiar with the various songs and bits on Sesame
Street. One of my favorites was a song called Put down
the ducky. The catch line was "You’ve got to put down
the ducky if you want to play the saxophone." The
message: Growing up means moving on. To an athlete in
our sport this means accepting new challenges,
perfecting skills, training more intensely, and
participating in meaningful competitions.
Summer league is a great learning situation that,
initially, has gotten almost every one of our
year-round swimmers interested in the sport. Some
swimmers though never wean themselves from the summer
league experience. Instead of moving on to a new
challenge some never see summer league as a
developmental step and find themselves involved year
after year.
At some point a swimmer has to realize that making
time to participate in summer league activity is
detrimental to long-term development. "Talking the
talk" is easy. But for continued improvement the
swimmer has to "walk the walk." The work will...
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SWIM BANQUET!
March 11, 2007
DATE: Tuesday, April 3, 2007
PLACE: The Columns Banquet Center
711 Veterans Memorial Parkway
St. Charles, MO 63303
TIME: 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Dinner served at 6:30 p.m. SHARP!!
MENU: Roast beef, corn, potatoes, pasta, salad, rolls, cake
COST: $11.00 for non-swimmers, Swimmers are free, Children under 3 are free
Reservations are due by Tuesday, March 20, 2007. Please place the reservation with the payment in the folder in the Coaches’ door. Payment must be received with the reservations. No late reservations will be accepted.
A parent or guardian must accompany all children under 13.
RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR EVERYONE ATTENDING,
SWIMMERS AND NON-SWIMMERS!! IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A RESERVATION, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ATTEND!!
Activities include Dinner, Awards, Guest Speaker Sarah Kortuem (Triathlete), Silent Auction, Slide Show, Board Elections, and High School Senior Recognition
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COACH MIKE!
January 27, 2007
A big welcome to our new swim coach... Coach Mike! Coach Mike comes to us from Lindenwood University. Mike has been working over the summer with teams in his hometown. Mike is excited to join the Sharks and we are ecstatic to have another coach to help us out!
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Why Are They Floating?
December 30, 2006
X, Snow Angels, Pencils, Balls, Jellyfish, Arrows
You may have noticed that we have added a new element to our practices. And it looks a lot like "floating" we prefer to refer to our new element as Skills. Skills are designed to help us concentrate on some of the fundamentals of swimming:
1. Breath Conrol
2. Body Position and body lines
3. Balance
And I promise it is harder than it looks! If you have heard your swimmer speaking about any of these skills, you may have thought he/she was speaking a foriegn language! Not to worry! Allow me to decode
X and Snow Angel: In this skill we lie flat on the surface with our arms and legs apart so that our bodies resemble the letter "X"; in the Snow Angel we begin in an X and move our arms and legs like we are making a snow angel on the surface of the pool
Why? Balance. This focuses on our balance in the water and how our balance shifts when we move our arms, legs and head.
Body Ball: in this skill we tuck our nose into our bellybutton and try to crunch ourselves...
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Tags:
skills
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Who Is That?
December 28, 2006
You may have noticed some new faces on the deck. We are happy to welcome back our assistant coaches who have been away at college Coach Kate and Coach Kelsey. We are happy to have some extra hands to help us on the deck!
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Setting performance Goals
December 24, 2006
Help Your Child Set Performance Goals
from USA Swimming
Goal setting, especially with older swimmers, is mainly the domain of the coach and swimmer. This is another example of the need to “let go” and trust the coach! Younger swimmers may want your guidance is setting goals. (Then again, they may not!) First make sure that the goals are the swimmer’s goals, not your personal goals. Avoid statements like “I want you to do this,” or “I think you can do that.” Second, make sure that the goals are compatible with instruction given by the coach. For example, if the coach is working on long term growth and encouraging your child to complete IMX events, you should not be talking about getting an “A” time in the 50 breaststroke! Finally, focus on performance rather than outcome goals. Performance goals emphasize skill improvement. Outcome goals emphasize winning or time achievement and place undue pressure on the athlete. Examples of performance goals are completing each race legally or maintaining a breathing pattern. Achieving performance goals is one sure way to measure skill improvement
Tags:
goals
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