In my most recent years of coaching, I would email a weekly report to all the families of each of the groups I coached. These reports were a way for me to engage the parents in the process their children were in. I let them know of the goals for the week, be it technical or mental and how we had done the previous week, along with all the administrative news and reminders. The reports were written in a way that parents and athletes alike could read and benefit from them.
I took this opportunity to give parents subtle hints on what they could do to help their athletes and often suggested activities they could do with their swimmers.
Here is one of these activities.
Parents and swimmers watch a short video interview of Michael Phelps and have a set of questions about what they heard to kick start and guide a conversation between them.
This type of activity brings better results when the parent leading the activity comes from the angle of getting to know his/her child in greater depth as opposed to trying to “teach” his/her child something.
This is the link to the video to watch:
And here are the questions:
1- What makes the difference between good athletes and great athletes? What kind of athlete do you want to become? Why?
2-Great athletes make sacrifices. What does it mean to sacrifice? To sacrifice means “to make sacred”. It means you say: “this is more important to me than that.” It means you understand that you cannot have both, that you must choose. For example: your friend invites you to a party, a really super fun party BUT it’s at the same time as your practice or swim meet. You can’t go to both, you must choose. You will make sacred whatever you choose to go to.
3-What kind of sacrifices does Michael share in the video? Would you do the same to be the kind of athlete you want to be?
4-Why did he sacrifice these things?
5- Do you think he would have become the greatest athlete ever had he not made these sacrifices?
6- Do Champions make excuses? What is an excuse? (explanations, reasons, justifications) Can you give 5 examples? Do you make excuses? If you do and want to stop making excuses, how would you go about it?
7-What can mental power do? Have you ever felt your mental power push pain aside? (Saturday morning practice? A great race?)
8- What does Michael say in the last 25 seconds of the video?
All the best to you and your athlete!
Coach Philippe
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