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T. Lee Burnham, Ph.D. |
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The Human Dimension |
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T. Lee Burnham, Ph.D. |
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The Human Dimension |
At a time when communities are worried about gangs and violence I would like to invite you to come to a local Swim Meet. You could find around 100 youth involved. There are a lot of other places that this many young people could be on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Multiply this by multiple different locations around the country.
Swimming in is usually administered by a State Swimming Organization as a part of a national program sponsored by United States Swimming (USS). USS is the organization that oversees amateur competitive swimming in the United States. As the National Governing body for the sport, USS is a member of the United States Olympic Committee and the International Swimming Federation.
Nationally each year over 20,000 volunteers register with USS as non-athlete members. Interested individuals donate their time, energy and expertise to serve as officials, administrators, coaches, and workers participating at every level from serving on national committees, to involvement with the local swim club. Utah Swimming currently has 240 non-athletes and 1,600 athletes registered.
All pools should develop and run a Complete Aquatics Program which would include swimming lessons and a Pre-Comp Swim Team program. These Aquatics Programs would in many cases lead to the formation of an official USS Group Swim Team where every swimmer pays a yearly registration fee to USS and a monthly fee of an additional $20.00 to $30.00. This money is used to pay for coaching fees and other expenses of the team.
In a meet, six to eight swimmers enter the pool at a time. They are grouped by age and ability. In each group there is an even chance of any of them coming in first. But coming in first is not really the issue. Each swimmer has a personal best time from previous pool experiences. The goal for each individual swimmer is to decrease their own individual personal best time. As a result in one way there are NO losers, everyone is a winner.
Swimming teams usually have no rules about the number of swimmers that can be on a team. Anyone who wants to work and make progress can be on a team. Anyone who wants to work can be a winner. Who can put a price on the value of this experience for those youth who are positively engaged in self-improvement and hard work.
Some school districts have even considered the possibility of closing the swimming pools in the district to save money and avoid liability issues. It is interesting that no one has considered the possibility of rolling up the basketball courts or tearing up the football fields. In some areas, age group swim teams are required to rent pool time. We have become a community where ALL decisions are based on the "bottom line." Is it possible that our community values are based on money or trophies.
In many areas either the communities or the schools provide pool time to USS Age-Group Swimming as a recognition of the contribution that participation in swimming makes to the individuals involved and to the community as a whole. You simply cannot find a better way to insure freedom from drugs and other anti-social behaviors in a group of youth.
Come to any swim meet and pick any parent at random. Ask them what their child has gained from the experience in swimming. Any parent will tell you of the growth in self confidence and discipline which is unmatched by participation in any other kind of sport or activity.
Swimming does not usually get a lot of glory or publicity – except perhaps during the Olympics. As a result the coaches are not as likely to have a lot of ego on the line to produce "winning” teams at all costs. Age group coaches are not usually hired or fired based on their win-loss record. They have a lot of personal time and effort invested in helping individuals to grow and develop and to help swimmers define winning in their own personal way.
Well run Complete Aquatics Programs are designed to develop the skills and attitudes that help an individual to feel in charge of his or her own life and to feel like a winner. Research by United States Swimming indicates that participation in well run aquatics programs will foster an interesting list of characteristics:
Further research indicates that 35% of those who begin in swimming drop out by the time they turn 16 mainly due to an incomplete or inadequate program and/or conflict with the personalities of those running the program.
A swimmer conditions their body physiologically for greater physical efforts by progressively increasing the physical stress, combined with proper habits of nutrition, sleep, etc. as the body adapts to the stress of short, easy workouts, the swimmer increases the amount of stress by doing longer, harder workouts. They must also condition themself psychologically in a similar manner.
It has been said that “If you build it they will come.” However, this is just simply not true when it comes to pools. Efforts must be made to reach out to the community to encourage and make participation not only attractive but also financially possible. Because of poor management or policies pools in some schools sit empty much of the time -- what a waste of a potentially incredibly valuable asset. Get busy and creative.
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