Recap of USA Swimming Sports Consultant's Visit to Peekskill

If you missed Peter Clark's presentation Wednesday night you missed a ton of great information, tips and perspective for swimmers, parents and coaches alike.   Peter is USA Swimming's Sports Consultant for the Eastern Zone. 

Here are a few of the hightlights:

-Do not accept or internalize limiting assumptions.  Statements like "I won't grow any more," I can't do other strokes/events," "My child will probably never be good."  These types of statements serve to limit artificially and the truth really is that we don't know how much growth, what strokes/events we will ultimately excel at and what our ultimate achievement will be.  Stay positive as you work towards the future.

-Swimmers should set short term, intermediate and long term goals and should write them down.  Share them with your coaches, parents and other swimmers.

-Swimmers should set strong basic process goals such as "make practice every day"  "Work harder in the practices you attend"

-Peter wanted our families to know that all of the champions like Phelps, Soni etc come from programs like ours and start out as age group swimmers with the same dreams and challenges that our swimmers face.  

-Peter spoke about the big time drops we typically see from from age group swimmers.  He wanted everyone to know that a time drop is not the only indication of a successful swim.  Achieving a skill like a better start or turn in a race makes a race a successful one even though it may not be a best time.  He also said that as you get faster, the time drops will be much smaller and that 100ths of a second will be your measurement of success.

-Peter feels very strongly that the life skills that swimmers acquire, as a result of their committment to the sport, are extremely important and will serve them for their entire lives.  Skills such as time management, goal setting, patience, committment and tolerating discomfort are just a few of the benefits.

-Peter thanked parents for doing all they do to provide their children with this amazing experience.  He felt that parents should be positive but honest with their children in assisting in their development.