Some lessons we learnt growing up
I have deliberated over this blog post for a couple of weeks now as a result of its subjectivity and potential controversy. However, here goes…
A couple of weekends ago, I went for a swim with Filipe and I still can’t quite believe what we witnessed in the lane next to us. I did a few double takes to check I had seen everything correctly… then it played on my mind for the entire 4km swim and journey home, and it initirally spurred me to write this blog post.
Two students around 11 and 13 years old were training hard for 2 hours in the lane next to us in the pool, both parents employing their ‘hard’ coaching tactics. The father was using both a microphone and headset. I thought he was just chatting away on the phone to someone whilst the kids were swimming…. But, no. The headset was connected to the kids, who had microphone earplugs and could hear everything he was saying.
“Kick stronger off the wall”
“That’s not 5m underwater”
“Reach forward more”
“Come on, you need to go faster than that”
“You can go more than 5m underwater, you don’t have a physical disability. The only disability you have right now is mental”
It took a lot of restraint, but I had to stop myself from getting out of the water and intervening in his parenting methodology. I knew it was not my place, but I also know that Filipe (being a professional athlete for a decade now) and me (overseeing a swimming programme for 1000 students in my current job role) could probably make some valuable contributions. Our journey to breakfast – Single Fin, of course - involved a great discussion about our upbringing and the pressures we felt growing up. In turn, we reflected how it has impacted us today.
My Story (Part 1)
At the age of 9, I told my parents that I wanted to start swimming at the Local Swim Club. It was a natural progression from the Learn to Swim programme that I went through, but I also saw many of the older girls I was friends with training there and I looked up to them. At my first Essex County Championships one year later I took the win on the 50m breaststroke in a time of 42 seconds (I’m lucky to do that now!). Then it escalated from there… by the age of 13 I had won over 50 County titles and broken a couple of records too. Many swimmers in my club dreamed of qualifying for all of the events at this Championships, let alone winning 1 title. At the age of 13, I got 15 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze out of a total of 18 events. I was a considerable margin ahead of everything else, lapping all of the field in the 400m events at least once. 4:40 for the 400 freestyle and 9:30 for the 800 freestyle aged 13 – triathletes may be able to comprehend this pace. My swimming achievements may sound successful, and I will be forever grateful for resilience and the focus I developed through my competitive experiences at such a young age. I can remember sitting in McDonalds with my dad after my first morning swimming session, and my mum called to ask “Do you really want to do this?”. I wish my answer had been “No, not for a few more years”. But, my parents were incredibly supportive and encouraging from that moment onwards and did not miss a single race of mine.
Filipe’s Story (Part 1)
Filipe was your typical energetic young boy, who swam, played football and got involved in everything he could. As the oldest of three brothers, they spurred each other on and made each other tougher… typical family punch wars which ended in tears. Filipe simply enjoyed being around his friends and playing sports with them. He would only go to Swim Squad training if he knew that all his friends would be there and they would play your usual squad tricks, including hiding under the water at the end of the lane and turning around when the coach wasn’t looking (probably building foundations for holding your breath and swimming around buoys). They would play football for hours on end (probably running a half marathon in the process). They would go out on their mountain bikes and practice stunts; jumping on the bikes, picking up bottles and coins from the ground whilst clipped into their cleats (developing the ridiculous bike handling skills). Friends and fun… that’s all it was about. Filipe didn’t even know the meaning of Triathlon or competition until the age of 16.
My Story (Part 2)
At the age of 15, I was having a bad season. A couple of injury niggles, a few distractions from boys and a lot of pressure from both school and swimming. I finished the County Championships winning just 2 gold medals out of the total 18 and I had to work VERY hard for them. Following on from one of these many disappointing weekends of the Championships, my coach made me start the 2-hour training session from the other end of the pool so that I couldn’t speak to anyone. My main set was 8 x 400m butterfly. That’s no joke. My mum walked in halfway during this session and has later told me that she regretted not intervening, but she put her trust in the hands of my coach and hoped he was doing the right thing for her daughter. How the heck could I love swimming and bounce back stronger after that?! Of course not many children would respond positively…. my love of swimming was killed and I quit soon after. The dream of the London 2012 Olympics was over; I didn’t want to enter a swimming pool for the next 10 years.
Filipe’s Story (Part 2)
Age 16 is when Filipe started competitive sport and entered his first triathlon. In 2010, he was the Portugese National Duathlon and Triathlon champion, and was part of a team that came 5th at the European Youth Triathlon Championships. His career escalated from there, and he will now admit himself that he is “completely addicted” to triathlon. It makes me laugh that most of his closest relatives do not comprehend what level he is at. They don’t know what an ‘Ironman’ involves and they sometimes have no idea that he is traveling across the globe every month to compete in numerous races. They are proud of him, but there is still no pressure. He is young for a professional triathlete and we hope that he has a long, healthy career still ahead of him.
We ultimately know that this topic we have touched on is very controversial and subjective. There are so many variable factors which may need to be considered: the personality of the child and their relationship with their parents and coaches, the culture, the schooling system. We just wanted to share our beliefs and what we wish we could share with everyone: relax and enjoy.
I truly believe that these words are at the core of both of our coaching practices that we utilize now. Focus on the fun and the basics of sport from a young age. Dabble in some swimming, dabble in some team sports, go out and play on your bike. Filipe covered all these areas in his teens and he learnt very valuable lessons, including how to be gutsy on his bike and importantly - how to lose. Filipe is grateful to his parents and also the coaching system he grew up in, which didn’t put any pressure on him at a young age and enabled him to develop these foundations. I am grateful for my parents’ dedication and ongoing support, but wish the system I grew up in really did believe in LTAD (Long-term athlete development), rather than just throwing that term around loosely and pretending it was happening.
I am very fortunate that my love for sport has been reinvigorated in the past 2 years with Triathlon and I am delighted that I still have some talent in the water to bring forward to this new multi-discipline sport, yet I am still working on some of the basics, including my bike handling skills. Filipe is including some of these strategies in my cycling workouts including 20 x loops of the car park, transition practice in a crowded car park, removing my bottles x number of times…you get the idea…
We are being asked by many people if we will introduce a programme for children. Whilst we are delighted with this request and would love this opportunity, however it will not bring the intensity or short term success that we know many people are striving for. We can promise that they will focus on the foundations and FUNdamentals, but we can’t promise that we are going to develop local champions…yet.