High School Swimming

From: John Leonard

Re: High School  Swimming this fall.For Parents of High School age swimmers.

Date: July, 2021

Dear Friends,

          I am a big fan of and supporter of most high school age children being part of their high school swimming team. That said, it is VERY important that you understand the following, so please bear with me and read this completely! Thank you.

       First, why is high school swimming good?

One and pretty much one reason only…It's FUN!!!!!

Everyone has a good time with friends, and its not difficult or demanding. And that alone is plenty of reason to support the short fall high school swimming season in Florida. I want our SwimFast athletes (almost all of them..) to swim High School.

 

Second, it has serious and severe “problems” associated with it. What are they?

  1. Its NOT demanding and NOT difficult. Hence, your child will likely NOT become a better swimmer while participating and having fun. (if they only do high school swimming during that season.)
  2. High School swimming is largely populated by high school season only swimmers….which is to say they are not “Swimmers”. A small percentage of each high school team are trained, educated year-round club swimmers.
  3. So guess who “wins” most events? Of course. And that’s fine..it gives a lot of people an opportunity to shine…..the year-round swimmer shines when racing next to the non-swimmer. Everyone deserves an opportunity to shine some of the time,  if they work hard. The problem is, they DON’T have to swim well to be successful!
  4. When it gets past the pointless dual meets and comes to Regionals, Sectionals and States its all year round swimmers participating and you have to swim FAST to move on. Just like the other 10 months of the year!
  5.  In the dual meets, you will win pretty easily. And that’s the problem. Human nature says we do as little as possible to still win and shine. So all the really important things that we train on daily at a club level, get forgotten because you can win without them when you train  most day and have been well taught.. And the athletes reinforce their worst habits. Total Mess!
  6. The Coach has plenty to do without giving meaningful feedback to everyone at a swim meet, so feedback does not happen. And no learning takes place.
  7. Most high school only coaches are math teachers or similar and not trained coaches, so both “training” and feedback are non-existent. There are exceptions where a good club coach is also the high school  coach but these are few and far between. They are fine teachers, I am sure, but that does not mean they can coach swimming, unfortunately. (just like most club coaches can’t teach Math!)
  8. Bad habits abound during high school  season, and since they are not corrected, they proliferate. I can’t emphasize that enough. (and the bad habits are very hard to fix when they return to club swimming.)

The RULES allow high school swimmers to participate with their club teams for practice and meets and also be part of the high school swimming experience.

And that is what needs to happen. (and the way high school swimming had been successfully done by millions of athletes in Florida over many, many decades.) 

The Parent needs to have a discussion with the high school coach, explain that their child is a year round swimmer with  SwimFast and find out what the minimum participation requirements are for the high school  team.

        And meet those.

The rest of the time, your child needs to be at our Senior Club practices as usual.

I will make sure they are rested at the correct time for the major high school meets for them, since I know that the children care A LOT about doing well in high school.     

In summary:

  1. I want our athletes to swim with their high school teams for competition and a minimum number of practices.
  2.  The athletes should be at Club Practice as much as possible if they want to keep getting better.

Any questions or difficulties, I am happy to speak to you, speak to your high school coach, etc.

           Our Mutual Goal (high school coach, you as parent and me as club coach) should be the optimally rewarding high school experience for your athlete/student. I am committed to that and will do what it takes.

           To keep getting better, I need parent and athlete to join me in that commitment. Otherwise, please let me know.

             Thanks for reading. All the Best, John Le