Coaching

I love coaching. I always have. I started coaching a little over ten years ago. The first team I coached was one of PM's basketball teams. We had signed up to play YMCA basketball. We were assigned a team, and had our first team meeting. At that team meeting parents were informed that we would have to decide among ourselves who would be the coach for this bunch of 5-6 year old boys. I being the only parent with actual basketball experience (I played in high school), and a willingness to take it on became the coach. We had a pretty good season, and I learned many things that first year. One of the things I remember the most was a coach from one of the teams teaching me that winning is not nearly as important as letting every player on the team score a basket during the season. When you are 5 or 6, scoring a basket makes a big impression.


Through the years I have coached or helped coach many teams. Mainly basketball, a few soccer (very early on), and currently swimming. Swimming? Yeah, swimming. I never swam in high school. The most I did was a few years of summer league. My qualifications as a swim coach again stemmed from filling a need for a warm body to step up and help out. PM swam competitively from age 9 to 18. If you have a swimmer you know that's a lot of hours at the pool.


I started helping out on deck three years ago. I love it. I love watching swimmers work to achieve their personal goals. The kids we train (I am an assistant coach) are not year 'round swimmers. They swim three days a week. This is not much by swimming standards. I love wet hugs or high fives from swimmers who have just achieved a cut they were striving for. I like seeing the nervous energy behind the starting blocks translated into a swim they didn't know they were capable of. I enjoy the smiles and joy of a relay team that has just realized they have made it back to swim in finals for the very first time. There are also disappointments, and helping swimmers to learn to deal with those is part of it too.


We are headed out to the high school state championship swim meet today. It is the first time I have gone anywhere coaching without one of my own kids participating. I am actually looking forward to it. I will be able to go, and just coach. It should be an interesting experience.