Quality Pre and Post-training for Age Group Swimmers
The following excerpt is the Foreword from the upcoming CoachingBest Production (to be released in Early Spring 2024).
“Q. P. P. T – Quality Pre and Post-training for Age Group Swimmers”
“Q. P. P. T. is a new approach to the traditional Warm-up and Cool-down routine because general, sport-specific, and training session-specific movement competencies are added to prepare the athlete for an effective training session. Moreover, the contemporary focus is on the importance of correct posture, body alignment, and body control, which are considered fundamental and critical because faulty posture seriously affects athletic performance and life quality. The same principles apply to competition as event-specific movement competencies are carried out in the Pre and Post-competition phases. Furthermore, fatigue and the recovery triad: hydration, nutrition, and sleep are key for effective workouts. In other words, the former Warm-up and Cool-down are now more inclusive and comprehensive. They have frequently been taken for granted although they are central to developing overall functional and motor fitness, physical abilities, and technical skills.
Based on recent medical reports, mental wellness has become a big issue due to the enforced lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has affected every age in society, including the youngest children. It is, therefore, imperative to include health and mental wellness skills in all sports programs, given the current rise of stress, anxiety, depression, suicide attempts, and actual suicides not only among the elite but also among younger athletes.
Statistics Canada (2019) provides their latest data on youth suicide:
129 males – 11.9% per 100, 000
71 females – 6.9% per 100, 000
Suicides account for 25% of all deaths among 15-19 year olds.
According to 2021 data by the US CDC (Centers for Disease Control), 45% of American High school students have experienced a high level of anxiety and stress; 20% (1 out of 5) had thoughts about suicide, and 9% committed suicide.
Laura Ingraham, Fox News (January 9, 2024) reported:
… American people feel hopeless, and suicide among youth has risen by 62% as America's youth is in the midst of a full-blown mental health crisis. The Washington Post reports that the CDC found nearly 45% of high school students were persistently sad or hopeless in 2021. Almost one in five seriously considered suicide and 9% in this survey tried to take their lives during the previous 12 months. It turns out that locking kids down, robbing them of their socialization, robbing them of sports and key milestones in their development, and then confusing them with gender fluidity propaganda doesn't make them happy and well-adjusted …
Given these statistics, one can deduce that most likely athletes are among these statistics. I have argued for years (since 1994, to be exact) that sports programs must include health-related aspects for daily living and overall mental wellness.
Only recently has this become a national and international issue after suicides and mental breakdowns by Elite and former Olympic athletes, as told by Michael Phelps in the 2020 documentary “The Weight of Gold.” It became the focus indeed during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as Japanese Tennis player Naomi Osaka and super US gymnast Simone Biles declared personal mental issues. A source told the SwimSwam that ‘things haven’t gone as smoothly’ for Hungarian swimmer Kristof Milak in 2023. After previously being announced as one of the stars racing all three legs of the 2023 World Cup circuit, he has pulled out of the opening stop in Berlin from the 2023 World Championships due to mental and physical fatigue
…and this, after just making a recent returning to heavy training. Russian swimmer Kliment Kolesnikov, Tokio Olympian, says, “ Olympics aren’t everything,” and shares his mental health perspective by saying that:
… Too much emphasis on swimming can weigh down other aspects of life. Kolesnikov, 23, said that while the Olympics remain the highest level an athlete strives for, centering your identity solely around sport can lead to mental health struggles. It has not lost its meaning as a whole, the Olympics remains the best thing that can happen in the life of an athlete, but it is no longer the meaning of life; there is no need to connect them,” Kolesnikov said (translation). By doing this, people then begin to suffer from depression. The right approach to this is: ‘It’s just like a competition, after which you forget about it all. Besides the Olympics and swimming, there are other things you can do and enjoy … (Southerland, November 29, 2023, SWIMSWAM).
I presented in 1994 as the keynote speaker in Germany, “Sports as Enjoyment – Fron (physical, emotional, and mental labor) and Destruction (mental and death/ suicide). The audience was shocked as this was considered too severe and upsetting! An extensive essay in 2021 discussed the mental health crisis in sports, which had risen to an alarming scale.
*Refer to our CoachingBest, December 2021 article “Are Sports Prepared to Deal with Mental Issues of Athletes?”
According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as many as 35% of elite athletes experience mental health symptoms and disorders. But despite challenges like the stigma surrounding mental health, conversations are becoming more normalized in high-performance sports. The IOC has created a mental health recognition toolkit to help those in sports recognize and address mental health (SIRC, 2023). Although this is laudable, addressing the issue at the elite level does nothing to the happenings in the developmental or lower levels, mainly because few coaches are trained or educated enough to deal with these issues. In these perplexing times, mental wellness is now a significant factor for life quality and has to be addressed through numerous sources, such as quality sports programs and positive sports participation experiences.
I already envision counterarguments, “We just coach swimming. We don’t have the time.” I don't know that psych stuff!” Really? So, why are we coaching? We should help children and youth become good athletes and fully functioning members of society through a holistic and athlete-centered approach. Furthermore, children and youth need our assistance and help in these critical times by providing the opportunity to engage in sports activities in a positive and encouraging environment. After all, the Greek classical philosopher Plato got it right: “A sound mind in a sound body.” Therefore, coaches must act by incorporating mental wellness strategies into their programs. Activities like Progressive Relaxation, deep breathing exercises, Pilates, Yoga, and Tai Chi can be added to acquaint athletes with strategies to deal with personal stress management. This means sports coaches must become more educated in this area to be more aware and sensitive to their athletes’ needs and health status.
The former traditional term “general athleticism” has been re-titled as “Physical Literacy” to ensure that children become fitter and more literate in their movement competencies for sports activities. However, Canadians are dropping the ball that their kids are not getting enough exercise. A new report card (October 4, 2022) by Canadian ParticipACTION gives children nationwide the "D" letter grade for overall physical activity. That’s a decline from the last survey in 2020, with a D+ for children ages five to 17 years (2022 Participation Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth). It seems to establish that despite all that national hype and “hullabaloo” over physical literacy, we have not been effective or successful.
Sportskid released an interesting Newsletter on November 24, 2023: Youth Sports, as a term, conjures different ideas and feelings depending on who uses it. The newsletter is aimed at those who understand youth sport as an integral part of a national sports effort; physical education teachers might emphasize its movement learning or fitness aspects. Sociologists, however, focus on how youngsters learn to participate more fully in their culture through sport.
Youth sports programs are much more than a ‘ramp to High performance.’ They are institutions responsible for the socialization of children into their communities. The loss of opportunities, a waning interest, or reduced participation is alarming and a sign of how fragile institutions can be or have become. During the pandemic, participation in social and physical activities dropped, and all sports were canceled. It was widely assumed that the situation would eventually return to normal. But youth sports participation, however, needs to catch up in ways that should get our attention.
According to the 2023 “The State of Play,” the Aspen Institute’s Annual Report from their Project Play, three significant participation trends have been identified in this year’s report: Children play team sports less regularly. Core sport participation has declined by 5% for 6- to 12-year-olds since 2019 and 6% for 13- to 17-year-olds over the same period (a core sport is a child’s primary activity). Tom Cove, CEO of the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, noted that:
… None of us should misunderstand that many kids play sports less because they love a sport and more because they want to be with friends, he said. When you break up a team, a child gets into other routines and doesn’t get to be with their friends, so they figure out other ways to be with their friends besides sports…
The pandemic forced families to find other ways to spend their time. Since sport was not an option, youngsters found other activities to participate in with their friends that took up less time than many of their pre-pandemic sports. Enticing these youngsters or, more accurately, their families back into highly structured sports programs will take work. Children just starting sports participation are not necessarily interested in High performance. They and their families need time to become invested in a sport before they can begin thinking about progress or goals.
Interesting Facts:
Sports participation is increasing for girls and declining for boys. Boys still participate more than girls (40% to 35%). High attrition rates still need to be solved. In terms of dropout, some sports did better than others. The lowest dropout rates between 2019 and 2022 occurred in tackle football (27%), flag football (32%) and basketball (31%). The highest dropouts occurred in track and field (56%), swimming (54%), and lacrosse (54%). The report calls these numbers ‘churn rates;’ in sports lingo, they’re usually called dropout rates.
This raises issues in youth sports of how we can make programs better. How can the dropout be reduced, and the retention rate increased? How can children have sports opportunities regardless of their economic status? Since sports coaches, as part of the educational system, are involved in developing young athletes, they need to be trained in teaching/coaching pedagogy (the science and art of teaching/ learning) because change does not happen through ‘osmosis’ or ‘wishful thinking’ but is accomplished through proper development and training in ‘all-round athleticism,’ and foremost through an ‘athlete-centered’ program versus pushing early specialization. It does not stop at the children's and youth’s sports levels but must continue into the adult world and society.
However, it all depends on the personal coaching philosophy! I held that belief long before the current crisis in almost every sport became exposed to the public. It shows that we have failed many athletes over the past decades.
Physical and Mental Decline in General Society
Another interesting statistic from the USA (February 28, 2023): it is no secret that America’s military struggles to find people fit for service. Maintaining health and wellness among its existing members has also become a challenge. A Department of Defense report, cited during a Feb. 16 Congressional hearing, offered a ‘hard pill to swallow’ as 77 percent of Americans between 17–24 are now physically unqualified to enter the armed forces. This represents a 6 percent increase from 2017. Accentuating this was last year’s battle (2022) to find new recruits in every military branch. One of the major hurdles recruiters face is obesity, which has become a dominant health challenge for Americans. As of 2020, the prevalence of obesity in the adult population reached nearly 42 percent!
Sports programs must offer quality physical development and training because schools are not doing it! Q.P.P.T. is the most essential concept of planning and setting the stage for excellent physical and technical preparation in a sports program. Factors significantly impacting, such as fatigue, nutrition, hydration, sleep pattern, and mental wellness, are included. Foremost, Q.P.P.T. proposes a progressive program based on athlete-centered development and advocates a severe reflection, re-direction, and change of current programming.
An inclusive “SUPPLEMENT” section provides additional information on topics covered in the main text. I realize most people are ‘hooked on their Tech gadgets,’ and reading technical ‘stuff’ is not always motivating. However, the content has been carefully assembled to offer more insight into the coaching scenario to create a better training environment and a more thorough understanding of the complexity surrounding and determining the success of athletic performance. Q.P.P.T. combines research and personal writing over many years as an academic in coaching sciences and as a lecturer, facilitator, coach developer, and coach mentor in the Canadian National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP).