Swimming for the fun of it...

One of the lessons I learned this year was that it is possible to become too competitive at the team level. We had a banner first year as a team. Our swimmers achieved best times at almost every meet, we had one swimmer qualify for and compete at the state championships and our team grew from 6 swimmers to nearly 40. As we got better we became aware of the competition taking notice of us. Other coaches were asking about our training, other swimmers were getting to know our swimmers, rivalries were forming. It became a pretty intense environment. As this peaked in February I began to notice swimmers missing practice, becoming ill, and a serious lack of smiles around the pool. As a coach, I realized that I set the tone for the team so we took action. We introduced water polo games into practice. We invented water baseball and water dodgeball. I began asking swimmers to give me their goals and to work collaboratively on meeting them. I noticed an immediate change in the team. Smiling was at an all time high, attendance skyrockted and friends of our swimmers were showing up to see what all the excitement was about.

The lesson we learned was that achievement is wonderful and exciting, but if it occurs in young swimmers at the expense of fun, the team will suffer.