practice attendance and an email to parents

I thought about starting this blog because of an email I wrote to Parents this past week about practice habits and attendance, and the importance of them.  We are in the middle part of the season, the weather has been bad, and we were at a weekend where there was no school for 4 days.  I have always had the practice with full attendance no matter what, and all of a sudden found myself with 14 swimmers out of the 40 that were supposed to be there.  Yes there were excuses such as the fact that it was a teacher work day, a four day weekend, and the day after the super bowl.  But my practice is from 6:30 am-8:00 am and the Super Bowl ended at 10 pm.  I decided that if I want the swimmers to really buy into what I'm selling then I had to get on the parents about this one.  The day after the Super Bowl is more than likely an excuse that came from them (sorry parents, you're the best, I know you get them there every morning by 6:30 and it's not easy).  

We are at a time of year now where we are gearing up toward championship season.  My group is awesome, which is probably something I will say every year, and they are very focused.  This year has been an interesting year because it's the youngest my group has been in probably six or seven years.  I had a steady flow of really incredible swimmers who were 11-12 and I was really lucky to coach them (maybe I'll post about some of them at a later time because they have helped me become who I am as a coach, they're awesome).  This year my practice is a little bit younger, but I have some really impressive swimmers who are about to make their mark on Potomac Valley in a year or two.  The improvement has been huge and everyone has bought into the greatness that is morning practice.  The beauty of it is that there are no conflicts, or so I thought.  There are no homework conflicts, no "I wanna play with my friends" conflicts, or even traffic conflicts.  You wake up, swim, eat breakfast, then go to school.  That becomes habit and is something that they are consistent in.  This was all the case until we decided to switch to a new schedule in Fairfax County and now had 4 day weekends everywhere and vacation time for swimmers to go skiing, friends houses for sleepovers, etc.  The new puzzle began and the challenge of practice attendance has reared its head.  

The email went something like this: I wanted to email everyone to go over a couple of things and to let them know that I have been very dissapointed at the practice attendance the past week.  We as coaches are working towards goals for the swimmers and have a plan as far as what we expect.  Aside from the technique part and physical part of swimming, the mental part plays a huge role in the development and eventual success of a swimmer.  It isn't a coincidence that all of the great swimmers and athletes are the ones who are committed to being great.  In my opinion that starts at a young age in the mental training and teaching that we try to do.  Swimming is all about the preparation and the process, things that we teach them that they can control, and their longtime success depends on this.  We try and teach them to not miss practice, ever, unless they are actually sick or are out of town for some reason, and when they're older they will be expected to swim while out of town a lot of the time.  I don't want the swimmers to start making excuses or taking days off just to take a day off.  For some context, missing days doesn't mean the swimmers are practicing every day of the week, but they need to be at practice for what they signed up for (2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, etc).

When the swimmers are at practice we have so much to work on in the pool that it is really important to be there every day.  Every day has a focus, and every swimmer has things they need to work on, if they miss practice they may miss something important that we did that day.  Today we had a very small number of people, which i'm guessing had to do with the Super Bowl and the fact that there is no school (everyone that was at practice watched the super bowl as well).  One thing my college coach always told us was no matter what we did the night before we were expected at practice and 100 percent engaged the next morning.  While these kids aren't in college, we want to teach them how to be responsible with their choices and if they make a commitment then they need to keep it.  The best thing about going to practice on a day with no school is that you get up and get your day started right, then you get to go home, have a great breakfast, and even take a nap if you want.  We have even gone to group breakfasts, or have done group activities after practice, which are always fun.  I don't want this to be a lecture but did want everyone to know that as coaches we were dissapointed with the attendance both today and Friday.  My goal is for every one of your kids to reach their potential and beyond, and in order to get there they need to be at practice.  We really do understand at coaches that it is a full year grind and we appreciate everything that goes into that.  There will be days that the swimmers miss, and days that aren't perfect at practice.  The most important thing I want everyone to take out of this is that we want you there every day because we want to get as much out of your swimmers as possible. For those of you that have been there, great job, you all got faster.  

I wrote this email and got a great response from both the parents and the swimmers.  The past week we have had 100 percent attendance and the commitment of each swimmer to every set has been impressive.  A lot of coaching and being a great leader is communication, if you want your swimmers and parents to do things a certain way, communicate your expectations to them.  I know I am lucky with the group that I always have, they believe in the process and just needed a little reminder of what the expectations are.  That should have been something I expected due to the change of schedules this year and the fact that they are still somewhat new at this.  Please feel free to comment any thoughts or ideas  you all have!

-Blair