Upon returning from swim practice this evening, I inquire with C about her evening. She informed me there is no dry land practice again! The reason four of the girls arrive in jeans. This is like showing up for PE in school without your PE clothes. She then proceeds to describe and explain to me the conversation she has with one Queen Bee. Who in C's words "gets away with anything she wants!"
Dry land workouts are the swimmer's cross and strength training. In my opinion, it helps prevent injuries. Injuries, something that my daughter seems to get very easily this past year. Perhaps it's merely coincidence or perhaps there is some stock to the fact that they are not as conditioned and strong as they used to be under the former coach. This coach inspired those kids to work hard. When they were not participating or showed poor team spirit he sent them home. He would also tell the parents. In his opinion, why should parents waste their hard earned money if their child isn't going to participate. This coach was fired suddenly last May or June by the club management. We should have parted ways then, but we wanted to give the new coach a chance.
I had a discussion with the my daughter's coach about what's going on at practice. We spoke about dry land, my daughter's fear of injuries, her bad habits, lack of motivation, and other issues. I was informed that she didn't participate well in dry land. The coach would have to stand in front of her to get her to do the exercises. She will say it's because of injuries. He also mentioned how swimmers in his group show up with cell phones and dressed inappropriately for this portion of the work outs. C and the other kids, show up dressed appropriately and ready to participate (even if C's participating halfheartedly or crappy she's ready). Yet, workouts get cancelled because of this Queen Bee and her three bad apples that follow her.
The queen bee and her three friends... don't care. Not only do they not care or respect the other swimmers, they obviously don't care about the program. I'm really at loss for words as to how this is acceptable behavior to be exhibited and modeled for the younger children who look up and aspire to be like the older children. Did I mention I pay money for my daughter to participate in this program? Last I checked I wasn't paying money for four bratty 13-year old girls to run the program.
Let's talk about sportsmanship and team spirit. There is NONE! It's every swimmer for themselves. There's no cheering for anyone outside your clique. It's acceptable to write inappropriate things on some one's motivating poster. It's acceptable to behave badly. The coach told me that they are all respectful of him. Really? This is respectful behavior?
After this weekend's swim meet when we talked about other teams. C tells me all of the things she noticed about other teams regarding team spirit and camaraderie. It was like a rock to the head, I realized she's missing those things from her team a tremendous amount. I knew it after the poster incident, but didn't realize to what degree. When she can tell me which teams cheered for one another at the end of the swimmer's lanes I knew she was paying attention to the other teams. She also took note of which groups stayed together and had a team cheer. She's noticing what she no longer has at her team and she longs for it. I suppose she is telling me that it's time for a change and I suppose I really need to listen.
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