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swim marathon schedule
The Swim
Why is the swim marathon
mandatory?
We’ve talked about how the funds
raised by the swim marathon help the YWCA Evanston/North Shore to continue to
provide healthy aquatic programming as well as to bring
Violence Prevention and
Building Healthy Relationship programming to our schools, and provide shelter
and support to women and children in our
Domestic Violence Services. In
addition to helping raise critical funds for the Y, however, the swim marathon
is good for your child for two reasons: 1) it challenges them in ways that help
them grow; and 2) it’s the best annual measure of how they
are progressing as swimmers. Even if you choose not to solicit any sponsors for
your swim, the marathon is a mandatory part of being a member of the team.
How does the swim marathon
help swimmers grow?
Swimming, from the very beginning levels of swim lessons (tadpoles,
bullfrogs …) to upper swim team levels, is about helping swimmers become
comfortable with being uncomfortable – physically, socially, emotionally and
psychologically. When children find themselves challenged in one of these
areas, it is an opportunity for them to grow and mature, not only as swimmers
but as people. Too often, we take these opportunities to learn and grow away
from our children because we don’t want them to hurt, to feel disappointment or
to fail – but putting children in these types of situations and challenging
them to keep going even when they want to quit is one of the most valuable
teaching tools we have.
How does the swim marathon
measure a child’s swimming development?
It doesn’t matter how fast someone swims the 50 free (or any
particular event), because speed depends heavily on maturity, which happens at
very different rates for children of the same age. It also doesn’t matter how a
child places at a meet in any event because you cannot control who swims
against them and what their maturity level is (follow this link for a helpful
article on early
vs. late maturation). So although best times and places at a meet are used
to motivate and as tools to teach, they are not true indicators of swimming
development/improvement. Instead, some of the best indicators of swimming
improvement are the following: keeping swim mechanics together for increasing
amounts of time, repeating sets at faster interval levels (usually senior
training) and swimming longer distances in fixed amount of times – the swim
marathon.
In addition, when preparing for practice daily and placing
swimmers within practice groups from season to season, it is necessary for us,
as coaches, to see how swimmers meet the challenge of the marathon each year.
Swimmers are placed into groups at the beginning of the season based on stroke
mechanics, how many seasons they’ve been on the team, maturity level, level of
commitment and endurance/aerobic capacity.
It is normal for both parents and their swimmers to be
anxious before the swim, but each year swimmers (and their parents) come away
with an appreciation for how far they have come in a year and a realization
that they are capable of far more than they thought possible. For swimmers,
parents and coaches alike, it is one of the most exciting and gratifying events
of the year.
If you are interested, there are a number of articles on the
USA Swimming website, www.usaswimming.org
(click on the "parents" tab) which help provide additional insight on
many aspects of swimming development. If you have any additional questions or
concerns, please feel free to contact me or talk to your child’s coach. Thanks.