The past 3 weekends I’ve been working so I haven’t had a weekend home in almost a month. That's fine with me because I love making money. I’ve said it once on this blog and I’ll say it again: summer 2021 was all about labor and hard work. I enjoy working hard to help kids become better swimmers. I find it both stimulating and fulfilling.
Coaching requires a lot of yelling. Well, at least my type of coaching does! It's less the angry kind of yelling, and more the commanding kind of yelling. At first it was tough screaming for 6 hours straight, but then after my drama classes in New York City, I learned how to engage my diaphragm and project without straining my voice. Look! The skills I learned during my cool art kid phase serve me in job today, how funny is that? This isn't the first time my newfound drama skills would come in handy with coaching swimming.
So much of coaching is theater and not because you're projecting your voice lol. I aim to be engaging and entertaining while also being educational. They’re there to learn new things after all.
This isn’t always easy to do, especially if you can see that the kid really doesn’t want to be there, you know? I've had kids at swim clinics cry because they didn't want to be there. When this happens, my instinct is to talk to them. Ask them what's wrong.
You’d be surprise at how hard it is for some kids to communicate emotions. Are they hungry? Are they tired? Are they scared? Are they cold? Sometimes they'll stare at me blankly. Other times they'll answer. Most of the time they're scared of the water, which is a normal and natural human response. I tell them that it's my job to teach them how to be comfortable in the water and that if I do my job correctly, they'll leave the lessons loving the water!
I also remind the kids that Rome wasn't built in a day and that I'm not expecting them to be professionals after the first lesson. Like everything in life swimming is a skill. It can be worked at, honed in, and perfected. All you’ve got to do is put in the time and effort.
I try and establish a "growth mindset" within the child early. A growth mindset is fostered through allowing a child to feel safe enough in an environment to make honest attempts without feeling the threat of being made fun of, ridiculed, laughed at, or made to feel bad about themselves. This is another component I picked up from drama classes, where actors must feel safe enough in front of their peers to get very vulnerable, experiment, get weird, all without the burden of self-consciousness in classes.
Sports and Acting y’all, sports and acting go hand in hand y’all I’m telling y’all! Yes I used y’all three times in that sentence, fight me on it. The two are more alike in process than you might think.
Anyway, back to the kids. I don't want to make anybody feel bad about themselves, ever. You have to be very careful with the words you say to a child at that age because it has the potential to really stay with them for life. You have to ask yourself: do I want to destroy a child’s self-esteem or do I want to build it? Either choice has lifelong consequences. My coaching style is centered around building self-esteem and confidence.
UGH! I'm one of those nerds that talks about their job even on their weekend off lol. Anyway, today I plan to clean the apartment as my roommate's Mom is visiting tomorrow! And then I'm probably going to get myself organized for the week ahead.
I'm not feeling very social because my job and work are very social, so when I get home I crave introverted activities. Tonight’s act of solitude will include going for a midnight bike ride in Central Park with my headphones in while listening to Music. I hope to find a good spot to see the full moon.