Lessons about swimming from a child's cartoon?

Competition has its place and so does a competitive nature. Too far and you end up taking your swimmers to 5AM practice on your own, buying the latest, greatest swim suit and sucking the fun out of it.

As long as swimmers are figuring it out in the right way, they will end up getting the most out of this great sport. Letting swimmers compete for the fun of it early is key. Their competitors are there to help them get the most out of themselves, not just someone to beat. It is the personal improvement and life lessons we learn as swimmers that is most important at an early age in practice and swim meets, not a medal or some trophy destined for a shoebox. I have a few shoeboxes myself and don't remember much of the individual races from the early years. I do remember how much fun it was to hang out with everyone in between races, being encouraged to be loud, traveling out of town to swim in different cities and going to practice with a bunch friends everyday!

The kids figured out, hopefully all us adults have as well..

-Coach Erik