FAQs for the day!

FAQs for the day!

Q:  Some days he likes to just play with his friends. Should I force him to go to practice?
A:  You should not force your child; you want his participation to be his decision. Reinforce the choices and decisions he has made to start swimming. For example, your son chose to go to practice on Tuesday and Thursdays, on other days he has the freedom to do other activities. As a parent, explain your expectation that he fulfill the commitment he made by joining the team. You don't want to force your child into a sport that he does not enjoy, yet you want your child to be involved in a 'lifetime sport', to learn about making and keeping a commitment and to interact with peers So, what are you to do? Instead of allowing your child to make a daily decision about going to practice, allow him to decide whether or not he wants to swim for the season. Once the decision is made to swim, he is making a commitment to the team and needs to follow through on it by attending practice on a regular basis. A haphazard schedule is detrimental to the swimmer’s overall development. Interestingly, when asked to reflect on the role of their parents in their swimming, athletes from the World Championship team talked about being pushed to swim by their parents on a weekly basis but knowing they could quit if they stopped having fun with swimming.