Our mission at AST is to provide a unique development and progressive system of swim practice and training that equips the age-group demographic that through various reasons are on the verge of quitting this great sport of ours through their performance times not progressing and often regressing, despite attending all the required sessions with all the physical, mental and character-building tools necessary to achieve or extend a life of wellness, health and sporting excellence., via a proven and unique program of in-water and land based practice.
Unfortunately, many promising swimmers at age-group level leave the sport on negative terms and have been soured by their experience of high volume training sessions at slow speeds.
These swimmers usually are not seen as a failure of the system, but rather as validation to coaches that the swimmer dropping out lacked the mental fortitude to continue in the sport.
There is undoubtedly some merit in that conclusion as not everyone is meant for the elite levels. But it would be delusional to think our current swimming philosophy is not at least partially responsible for driving away talent.
The number of swimmers, who have been turned-off by swim training that follows main sets like 40 x 100m or 10 x 400m, is likely to be much greater than one might care to admit.” Not every swimmer who is purged from the age-group ranks deserves that fate.
Many dropouts cite negative coaching experiences, injury, or overbearing parents for their early retirement. Since participation in swimming often depends on friends staying together, one or two within a clique leaving a team can send a bigger group rushing for the exit. If there is ever a time to protect the sport's tight standards it is the current era in which society makes discipline optional for kids. But surely there is a balance to be struck between overbearing and permissive.
One way to improve retention is to understand WHY these swimmers give up our sport. We all have our own experiences upon which to draw, but what does the formal literature have to say?
Salguero (2003) studied sixty two swimming “dropouts” and surveyed their reasons for quitting. Having other things to do was the most important reason for attrition .
Lack of fun, perception of failure or low skill was also associated with dropping out. Females placed greater emphasis than males on excessive pressure, repetitive over-distance training, dislike of competition, not improving, not feeling important enough along with not making cut-offs, making representative teams all featured highly.
Beyond the Darwinian Training Method:
99.95% of all swimming coaches tend to feel they are getting the job done if they grind out long sets of repeats. But, too often that just means reinforcing the same stroke patterns / thought patterns and attitudes with all the associated faults thousands of times. We refer to this as "Darwinian Swimming‟ and, as sad as it is to say it reflects the sate of competitive training today, we believe, on a global basis.
Swimming is unique among all sports in the opportunity it offers the individual to compensate for their own perceptions of physical ordinariness with superior thinking. The Skills to move the human body quickly through water requires many subtle skills on the behalf of the swimmer.
But, if that swimmer is taught that through the combination of the time spent learning correct limb-tract patterns coupled with a clear focus they will add more to their mastery of good swimming skills and reduce whatever age may subtract from their physical capacity.
The age-group range in swimming is in our way of thinking, the most under resourced and promoted group of swimmers in the world. At this point in time we are only now just beginning to understand how unbelievably quick these age-groupers can actually swim and how hard this group of swimmers can push themselves.
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