After watching one of our recent meets, where scores of swimmers set massive new personal bests and even broke records that had stood for over a decade, you’d be forgiven for thinking the clock is the only measure of how well swimmers are performing in the pool.
It’s certainly an important metric. For age group swimmers, though, I’d argue there are plenty of things that matter more than that single fixed outcome.
A time is the product of a swimmer’s effort not just in that one race, but in the weeks, months, and sometimes years of training that brought them to that point. Here’s why I believe the process matters every bit as much as the outcome.
Let’s look at some things that matter more than the time:
Technique. If a swimmer can keep this sound even as they fatigue during a race, we’re more than halfway to a fast time. In training, we’re constantly reminding, cajoling and challenging swimmers to improve their technique. What coaches are really looking for is whether that transfers into a race scenario and holds up under fatigue and pressure.
Effort. This often correlates with a swimmer’s time, but not always. You can’t get there purely by wanting it as life doesn’t work that way. Einstein, I think it was, defined madness as doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting a different result. Swimmers often repeat the same stroke or skill flaws, then get upset when they don’t hit the time, they believe they’re capable of. Is that really a surprise?
To reach their potential, every swimmer needs some genuine insight into their own performance, and the right mindset to go with it, which brings me to the next set of golden rules.
Listening and taking instruction. For me, this is the single biggest predictor of whether a swimmer will achieve or not. I’m constantly urging our athletes to swim smart, and the very best of them listen, take it on board, and immediately adjust what they’re doing. If we’ve worked on a skill in training in the weeks before an event, seeing that put into practice in competition is what I want to see, regardless of the time on the clock.
Self-management. How do swimmers look after themselves across a meet weekend? Are they eating the right things? Switched on during the warm-up? Engaged before they get in the pool? Do they need repeated reminders to swim down afterwards?
All of this is part of the bigger picture and getting it right matters more than any single time.
Competing hard. Children don’t always get this bit, believe it or not. For me, it’s a genuine light-bulb moment watching a swimmer attack a race for the first time or push to beat a tough opponent they might previously have let swim off into the distance.
Executing the plan. Every one of my swimmers gets a briefing before the race and feedback afterwards. I tell them what I want to see in terms of skills, then give feedback against that afterwards. I might mention their time at the end, but it never features in the pre-race brief.
In 200m events and above, I might talk about splits, because pacing is itself a skill. Swimming 800m with even splits takes real concentration and sound technique and that’s what we’re after.
All of this comes together in the process that turns children into better swimmers.
They might improve in one area at a time, or across several at once, but it’s that ongoing process, learning new skills, focusing on what they’re doing rather than how fast they’re doing it that drives future improvement and keeps them engaged in the sport over the long term.
If I could give parents one piece of advice, it would be to take the long view. Don’t pressure them to swim fast today. Focus instead on building the skills that will make them faster tomorrow and help them genuinely enjoy swimming as they grow.
Thank you to Alan Dickson for this guest blog. At the time of writing Alan had coached the junior age group squads at North Ayrshire Swimming Club for eleven years. His youngest son, Rory, competed at the 2019 British Championships in Glasgow.
