I like to take this time of the year to teach our swimmers the value of standing up to earn what they want in life and that swimming isn’t like Christmas presents, you don’t get the gold medal for trying to touch first.
On the last week before the Christmas break, I usually play this game with the young swimmers and here is how it goes:
On the first practice of the last week before Christmas, I asked the swimmers to tell me what they wanted for Christmas and I wrote the list in my book. Swimmers were very curious to know why I would write such a list. They asked me continuously if I would get these for them. They told me the most expensive things they wished they could have, like laptops, game consoles, card money for video games, etc. I wrote everything and made sure that, without lying, the children believed that I would really buy these presents for them.
On the last practice of that week, when the swimmers arrived on deck, their names were written on the board and beside them, the present they’d asked and their 100 Freestyle best time.
There was a lot of excitement and they had a lot of questions and wanted to know what was going to happen. Were they really going to get these presents?
When everyone had arrived, I gathered the swimmers and asked them whether or not they had been naughty this year. All at once they started talking and it came out right away!
“It doesn’t matter if we’re naughty or nice, it’s not how it works Coach!”
After confirming that everyone had realized that we always get presents even when we’ve been naughty, I asked them:
“What about in swimming? Is it the same? Do you get the gold medal if you didn’t touch the wall first but you tried?”
Some answered NO and others looked more carefully at me wondering what I would say next.
“So today, you will have to EARN your present! If you earn it, you get it! The way you can earn your present is by going faster than the time next to your name, which is your best time. If you miss it by 0.1 to 2 seconds, you’ll get $10. If you miss it by 2.1 to 5 seconds, you’ll get $5. And if you miss it by more than 5.1 seconds, you’ll get a big box of nothing!”
Giving them that range made it easier for them to take the risk of putting maximum effort without getting maximum result. At least they would get something.
Before the challenge started, we did a 30 minutes drill practice and got out of the water. The swimmers swam their 100 free one by one while the rest of the group was instructed to cheer. I tried to create an atmosphere where the swimmers were trying to ruin me by all earning their presents (to do this, I had to keep alive the mystery of whether or not I would really buy them these presents if they earned it).
This year, this worked particularly well and enhanced the bonds and energy between the kids, which resulted in fantastic performances from the swimmers.
Virtually every swimmer who stood up for the challenge ended up earning their best Christmas present! Only one swimmer earned $10.
Before letting them go home, we sat down to debrief. I explained to them why I fed the mystery of whether or not I would buy these presents. I wanted to see how much they would care to swim if they believed in the possibility of getting such a huge prize.
To give them an idea of the combined value of their gifts, I told them the number of years I would have to work to buy all their gifts!
Once this was out of the way, I asked them how they felt about what they had accomplished that night. They shared they felt proud and had a lot of fun. Some had been nervous too.
No one had wanted to miss a shot at getting such an amazing present!
The discussion was geared toward bringing the swimmers to see how the fact that they wanted their present so much, how they cared so much, had helped them swim faster and forget about the little devil on their shoulder.
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