Mid-Season Slump

One thing that cracks me up about the kids I coach is that it would never occur to them that I might not want to be at practice.  They complain about being hungry or tired or whatever other reasons they have for not wanting to swim—and let’s face it, there are plenty of reasons to not want to swim, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t cross their minds that I sometimes have things I would rather be doing.   For the most part, this is a fair assumption.  I mean, nobody becomes a swim coach for the money, so on some level, I really do want to be there.  To coach is a choice, but having made that choice, I am committed to the kids and to the team, even on the days when I would rather not be at the pool.  Unfortunately, lately I find myself starring at the clock during practice and hoping it ends soon so I can go home and there have been a lot of nights that I just don’t feel like going.  If I let the kids out 5 minutes early, they think I’m being nice, they don’t realize this is for my own benefit.   And practice on Friday nights?  Not that I have some big social life, but really, who wants to go to practice on a Friday night?

Anyway, somehow last night I snapped out of it.  The kids were great.  They listened and they worked hard and barely complained.  I felt really good when I left the pool, happy to have been there, and refreshed from the 2 hour break of taking care of my own child.   We’ve been practicing now for 5 months and have just about 6 weeks to go until the championship meet.  I know that it’s normal for me to get into a funk around this time every year.  I get tired of telling the same kids, the same thing over and over and them just not making an effort to change.  I know that things are bad when I consciously decide to give up trying to correct that one kid because he’s never going to do it right.  We have such high hopes at the beginning of the season—we try to correct every child, every problem.  Five months later, we know which kids really care and try and which kids are only there because their parents make them come.  The kids with poor attendance are the most frustrating because they miss so much of what we have already gone over with the rest of the group.  More than likely, the attendance issue stems from the parents and I don’t get to take that out on the child by ignoring him when he does show up.  I need to remind myself that even though the child may not choose to come to practice, I made the choice to be a coach and I have a responsibility to mentally show up. 

Back to last night…everything ran smoothly.  I felt like a couple kids made some improvements and they really are all getting better all the time.  Plus, they’re good kids.  So, even though it’s Friday and swim practice isn’t my first choice of things I want to do tonight, I’m going to stay positive and try to ride out that good feeling I had when I left the pool yesterday as long as I can.