Parent Education: Onboarding New Families

Written By: Pam Swander

With the beginning of the new season comes the influx of new families to our programs. Helping parents new to your team acclimate to their role as sport parents will help the whole family have a positive first-year experience. After all, we know swimming is about F.U.N. for the whole family. Using the acronym F.U.N. is a good way to help parents remember the following three tips.

F = Family meeting recommended to new parent members. During the family meeting parents will discuss their values and expectations for their child while participating in swim team.

An example of family values to discuss may include, how does your family define sportsmanship and success, what makes a good teammate, and how to show gratitude for the coach.

Expectations parents might share with their swimmers may include, why they signed up for the program and what they want their child to learn. Other expectations may include the time commitment and appropriate behavior while participating in practices.

U = Understanding The Team’s Processes.

N = “Never let them see you sweat”.

This is from the perspective of the swimmer in the water looking up at the stands for their parent’s approval after a race or during swim practice. At that moment, the swimmer wants to see a happy face, full of joy and approval! Parents will want to give thumbs up and high fives. The most important words a parent can say are “I love to watch you swim”. The coach’s role is to do the heavy lifting in critique, technical corrections, and race review.

Sharing these tips, Family meeting, Understanding how your team works, and never let them see you sweat will help set them up to be the best sport parents they can be and ensure lots of swimming F.U.N.

Pam Swander is a veteran coach who has coached at every level of the sport from summer league to college. NCAA Division I coaching roles include Clemson University, Indiana University and University of South Carolina. Coach Swander has helped her teams and athletes achieve at the highest levels of the sport - Olympic Trials finalists, World and American world record holders, NCAA, SEC and Big10 Individual Champs and Big10 Championship team titles. Over her college coaching career, she has garnered international experience by accompanying many of her athletes to international meets and championships, including the 2008 Short Course World Championships in Manchester, England where Kate Zubkova won a silver medal while representing Ukraine and IU. At the club level while serving as South Carolina Swim Club’s Head Coach (2016-2018) the club achieved Bronze Medal recognition in the USA Swimming Club Excellence Program and won 2016 LCM and 2017 SCY State Championships. For six years as North Regional Manager and Senior 1 coach at SwimMAC Carolina she oversaw eight Junior National Championship team titles. She achieved club management recognition while serving on SwimMAC’s leadership team helping MAC earn Gold Medal top honors in the USA Swimming Club Excellence Program. She collaborated with MAC coaches to develop and implement SwimMAC’s high-performance initiative. The program produced Olympian Kathleen Baker, and eighteen, 18-Under Olympic Trials qualifiers who went on to have outstanding college careers. As a result, CEO & Head Coach of SwimMAC Carolina, David Marsh received 2012 Developmental Coach of the Year award from USA Swimming for having the most 18-Under Olympic Trials qualifiers in the Nation. In addition to her elite-level coaching experience, Swander has developed community swim lesson curricula, coached High School, served as both the Director of USA Swimming’s Select camp, and the Vice Chair of Hospitality on the U.S. Olympic Trials Committee, and represented Indiana Swimming as a Delegate at the USA Swimming National Convention. Pam is married to Jeff Swander and their two children, Laura and Kevin, became top swimmers at Auburn University and Indiana University, respectively.