Youth Sport Weekend: Relay Fun (with linky)

My Children mostly participate in individual sports. Even at the young ages of 8 and 7, my daughters seem to place quite a bit of pressure on themselves to perform well. There is a real focus on individual technique, performance and achieving personal bests.

I truly believe that stepping up to the challenge of individual sport has many benefits for building confidence and character. However, The fun and enjoyment from their individual sports often seems to come from their results: swimming a good time, rather than actually enjoying the process of competing in the sport itself.  I wonder if perhaps they are missing out on some of the  fun, friendships, camaraderie, and team building that can be obtained from team sports.

Today, the girls swam in the Speedo Sprints Relay Carnival. The atmosphere at the pool was simply amazing and infectious. When the older kids swam their relay events the noise level in the pool was absolutely off the scale! It was hard not to smile and cheer at the fingernail biting closeness of some of the relay’s. The joy on the kids faces was priceless. Listening to our club members cheer for my little girls brought tears to my eyes!

Although swimming is not a team sport, I think relay events are the next best thing. The spirit of  camaraderie was there for all to see. The best part of the event was that the kids really seemed to be having fun!

Interestingly, many of the competitors swam personal best times as part of their relay teams. I wonder if taking some of the individual pressure and expectation off, or the added motivation to perform well for your team was responsible.

I think that in youth sport, it is important not to measure success just by winning or doing personal bests. In the relay competition today, the relay teams my girls were in did not receive any medals. However. The day was a resounding success as the girls were able to really have fun, enjoy swimming and enjoy competing with their friends.

 The relay carnival was so important today because ultimately I aim to make my children’s youth sports experience fun and fulfilling. In making sport enjoyable and fun, I believe I am giving them every chance to participate in an active lifestyle for life.

 I’d just like to add that my oldest daughter, Flash (8) participated in the Speedo Sprints Heats as well. This was a individual competition to select swimmers to represent the ACT at a NSW state swimming competition; The Speedo Sprint Finals, next month at Sydney Olympic park (SOPAC). I am quite excited to say that Flash was selected to be part of the ACT team. She is just so thrilled and proud of the opportunity to represent the ACT and swim at SOPAC. She also can’t wait to get her team uniform!  I will let you know how it goes!

If your children have participated in a youth sport this weekend, please consider adding your blog post to the link at the bottom of the page. My aim for ‘Youth Sport Weekend’ is to build a community of supportive parents to encourage and motivate each other to involve their children in a youth sport or active lifestyle.

When Winning Is Not The Most Important Thing

Today was supposed to be the little athletics relay carnival. This is one of my favorite carnivals of the year because It is simply so much fun! Athletics is predominantly an individual event. In the relay carnival the kids compete in teams and this gives a entirely new dimension to the sport. The carnival is held at the Australian Institute of Sport track (shown on my blog background). The kids love to feel like the real grown-up athletes, running on it’s bouncy surface.

Unfortunately the stormy, rainy weather caused a cancellation, much to the dismay of the girls. They had been awake dressed since 5.30am. My daughter, Muscles (7)  was super excited to be running on the AIS track for the first time. I have just now, put a still disappointed little girl into bed with promises of next year…

.

Last year the relay carnival was a resounding success for my daughter Flash….but not in the way you might be thinking. ….

There is a little girl in Flash’s age group that loves little athletics. She comes to just about every event and her mum is a great organizer and helper. When this little girl runs, she gives it her all and always has a smile on her face, even when she dramatically ‘collapses’ over the finishing line. The other girls are quite happy to drolly inform the alarmed officials…..

 ‘don’t worry…she does that all the time’

In the sprint events, this little girl usually runs last, by quite a long way. This doesn’t seem to bother her in the slightest and we are all very proud when she achieves a personal best. I’ll call her smiley.

Smiley, was on the relay team for the under 8 girls. The girls sat in the stands that morning in nervous anticipation. They discussed tactics and running order. They shared snacks between themselves, played hand-clapping games and eagerly awaited the announcers call. Once given the green light, they shot skipped off hand in hand to the marshalling area.

Flash is used to doing well at athletics (there is more here), but the girls didn’t place. Nevertheless, they cheered, encouraged each other, hugged at the finish and sprinted back to the stands holding their participation ribbons high, smiles wide! Smiley ran happily into the arms of her mum, exhausted and happy saying 

“…did you see me mum??...”

I’ll admit that I was a little worried about how my daughter would react to not doing well. But I was very proud of her that day. Not because of her individual sporting achievements, I was proud of her because of the maturity and sportsmanship she showed. It would have been easy for her to get upset and blame others in the team for not winning. But, there was no sign of any of this kind of behavior.

Later that night, after the carnival, I asked her how she was feeling. I was wondering if she missed or regretted not placing in the relay events. She was the last runner and had impossible distances to make up and I wondered if that had dented her confidence. My daughter just said that she had heaps of fun with her friends. She said it made her feel good that Smiley was so happy. She said that it also felt really good to just run, without having to worry about winning or doing a personal best.

I have always loved the relay carnival because it teaches kids that they are not just focusing on their own achievements and happiness. They are  working for the achievement of the team and the happiness of the team members. Certainly, winning can be a very satisfying and special feeling. However, there is a certain joy and satisfaction to working as part of a team, sharing your successes and failures with others who are as equally committed as you. I have heard that some Olympic level swimmers actually swim better times during the relay events. I wonder if the individual pressure is removed as they focus on something bigger than themselves.

Now I have a new reason to love the relay carnival because it has taught my daughter that sometimes there are more important things than winning. Things like friendship, teamwork, sportsmanship and empathy. As a parent these are important values I would like my children to learn….I think that my daughter has learnt lessons about friendship, personal integrity and respect for others feelings regardless of their athletic ability. I hope she will carry these lessons with her not only  throughout her sporting career, but for the rest of her life

…….She did tell me that she couldn’t wait for the next carnival, the Northside Regionals.. ……

…..that healthy competitive spirit is still there!

Friendly Competition

Today was the ACT little Athletics annual multi-event carnival. The kids in the under 9’s compete in 4 events and are awarded points based on their performance. Today, Flash competed in the 800m, long jump, shot-put and 100m.

There is another little girl in Flash’s age group, but a different club, called ‘Speedy’. For the past several years Flash and Speedy have taken it in turns to win their various events at the state level little athletics carnivals. Interestingly, speedy is also a very good swimmer and the girls have a fierce rivalry in the pool as well as on the track.

Today, GrumpyDaddy was doing our parent duty in the long-jump pit. Also on duty was Speedy’s Dad. Speedy’s dad told GrumpyDaddy that his daughter has singled out Flash as her main competition and trains not only to do personal bests, but to do well when she competes against Flash. Flash is also motivated to do well when she competes against Speedy. Importantly, The two girls have also struck up a good mutual friendship, they chat and play hand-clapping games while waiting for their events to start. Both girls are happy to see each other, are full of smiles and are not mean or spiteful to each other in any way.

In the first of  the day’s events Flash won the 800m convincingly in 3.05, taking out a lead of almost 40 points on Speedy.  Flash really seems to be developing into a very competent longer distance  runner. Interestingly, in swimming, Flash has the upper-hand in the longer distances as well. Whereas, Speedy can usually beat Flash in the sprint events.

In the long jump, Flash leaped a personal best of 3.29m. Can you guess the distance Speedy jumped??….3.29m exactly!! For the second jump Flash didn’t jump as far. However, speedy managed to jump another personal best, and further than Flash’s distance. With that terrific jump, Speedy was able to make about 10 points back on Flash.

Next came the shot put….Flash has issues when it comes to the throwing events. Last year she was competitive, but this year she had had several fowl throws. This has put a very large hole in her confidence. On her first throw, Flash made yet another fowl. When it came to do her second throw, she just plopped that dammed shot- put out there, right in front of her, as she was so concerned about throwing another fowl. Speedy however threw a personal best and took the lead in the point score.

In the 100m meters the two girls were in the same heat. I thought this was great because when they race with each other it really brings out the best in Flash. Flash ran a PB of 15.7 seconds. Speedy, however just pipped her across the line in a time of 15.3 seconds (also a PB!).

Speedy ended-up winning the overall point score and the gold medal. Flash finished up with the silver.

Directly after the carnival, Flash was in a very stroppy mood. She was very disappointed with her shot-put result. I also think that tiredness was a major contributing factor. After a rest at home though, she told me she was very proud of her achievements, She realised that she managed to get 3 personal bests today, and can’t wait to race Speedy and the other girls again!

I am truly glad that Flash has Speedy to run and swim with. Although flash was  initially disappointed today, I believe these experience will teach her valuable lessons and build her character. She will learn that it takes hard work and training to do well. She will learn that you can’t win all of the time and be good at everything. That each individual has their own strengths and areas to work on. It will also teach her valuable life lessons in sportsmanship and being a good winner and looser. It is also a good lesson for me to practice what I preach!! Hopefully the girls will continue to push each other to do their very best in swimming and athletics in the years to come.....

.....and I'll be there, in the shadows, to support her all the way!!