Does your child love spending time in the water? Are they interested in taking their swimming to the next level? Helping your child set and achieve swimming goals can be a rewarding experience, fostering physical development, discipline, and a sense of accomplishment.
As a parent, you play an essential role in their aquatic journey. Whether they aspire to be the next star Olympian or simply improve their skills, effectively setting and maintaining these goals is key.
Here’s a guide to assist you in this journey. It includes the importance of SMART goal setting, understanding long-term vs. short-term goals, and some helpful tips to help your little swimmer achieve their goals.
How to Set SMART Swimming Goals
SMART goals are a well-established framework for setting and achieving objectives. The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Each component helps create clear and achievable goals, ensuring effective progress tracking and completion.
While the framework may sound too formal for a child’s swimming goals, it’s quite simple to understand.
Specific
A specific goal is clear and well-defined. It answers the questions of who, what, when, where, and why. Specificity helps focus efforts and clearly defines what needs to be accomplished. For example, instead of having your child be better at swimming, a specific goal would be to swim 50 meters unaided.
Measurable
Measurable goals provide criteria for tracking progress and determining when the goal has been met. This involves using concrete numbers or indicators to quantify your goal. Here are some examples of a measurable goal:
- Float in the water for at least 10 seconds
- Swim at least 200 feet
- Self-rescue at the side of the pool
Measurable swimming goals are tracked monthly at Bear Paddle so you can see progress and improvement.
Attainable
For your child to stay motivated, it’s important for goals to be realistic and practical. Setting an attainable goal helps maintain motivation and reduces frustration. They are set to challenge your child but not thwart them with their difficulty.
Learning to self-rescue from a pool is an attainable goal that encourages the child to persevere. A child needs this skill in order to learn how to swim across the pool. Learning to swim without knowing how to get out of the pool would set a child up for failure.
Relevant
A relevant goal aligns with broader objectives and is worthwhile for the child. It should make sense within larger aspirations or values and be a stepping stone to a bigger goal.
As parents, you should set a goal related to a milestone such as a vacation or time by the water with friends and family. Then they have something to look forward to, and a moment in time where they will be able to see their success!
Timely
Timely goals should have a defined deadline, creating a sense of urgency and prioritization. This timeframe helps focus efforts and ensures the goal is addressed within a reasonable period. Doing so increases the likelihood of accomplishing the goal since you know a clock is ticking.
A realistic timeframe to achieve a swimming goal is “within the next three months,” “before summer ends,” or “at the end of the current swim season” if your child is a competitive swimmer.
Quick Recap
SMART goals help break down objectives into manageable and clear steps, making achieving them easier and not overwhelming the child. Here’s an example of a SMART swim-related goal for an advanced swimmer.
- Specific: Improve freestyle stroke technique.
- Measurable: Reduce 50-meter freestyle time by five seconds.
- Attainable: Achieve this improvement within three months.
- Relevant: Achieving this goal helps the child qualify for the swim team.
- Timely: Aim to accomplish this goal by the end of the current swim season.
Long-Term vs. Short-Term Goals
Some children want to become Olympic swimmers one day, and that’s an exciting long-term goal. However, it’s important to set short-term goals to set them up on the right path.
Short-term goals are milestones that can be achieved relatively quickly, usually within a few weeks or months. They are stepping stones towards larger objectives. Meanwhile, long-term goals take more time to achieve and require sustained effort and dedication, often spanning several months or even years.
Let’s set a realistic example. A child can first set a goal of holding his breath underwater for a certain number of seconds. Afterward, finish a lap within a given duration. These small achievements help build confidence and skill to ultimately achieve the bigger goal, which can be to place in a swimming competition. He can practice more until he gains a gold medal if he achieves a bronze finish.
Some swim schools offer little rewards to celebrate achievements, such as learning a new skill or mastering an advanced swim stroke.
Moreover, these short-term goals help the child cope with roadblocks that can sometimes come up. It’s normal to fail and experience setbacks, but as a parent, you must encourage your child and help them overcome these obstacles.
Guiding, Not Pushing
A parent’s role is to guide and support their child in every endeavor they pursue. The desire to see them succeed can sometimes lead to pushing harder than you may realize. The key is to help your child set and achieve their goals, guiding and supporting them with their chosen path and not pushing them too hard. This approach fosters a love for the sport, encourages personal growth, and helps build self-motivation and resilience.
It’s also important to encourage your child to set goals based on their interests and aspirations, celebrate their successes, and provide comfort and support during setbacks. After all, parents are a child’s number one coach and biggest fan at the end of the day.
As a parent, your role is to guide and support your child, not to push them too hard. Teach them how to set and maintain swimming goals based on their interests and aspirations. Celebrate their successes and provide comfort and support during setbacks.
Tips for Achieving Your Child’s Swimming Goals
Encourage Autonomy
Learning how to set and maintain swimming goals can be a fun experience with your child. Let them lead in setting what they want to achieve, as this ownership is crucial for their motivation and commitment.
Instead of dictating what they should aim for, ask open-ended questions like “What do you want to achieve in swimming?” or “How do you feel about your progress?” Pay attention to their responses to show that you value their opinions and actively listen to their experiences.
Be Supportive
Show enthusiasm and support for their efforts, celebrating big and small achievements. Celebrate milestones together, no matter how small they are. As they share something they’ve learned after swim class, you can take them out to get their favorite dessert as a form of positive reinforcement.
During challenging times, it’s also important to offer words of encouragement. Remind them that these are just obstacles they can surpass and emphasize their strengths and past achievements. It can also help to show them how far they’ve come since their first time in the water.
Communicate Openly
Children sometimes don’t open up to their parents for fear of disappointing them or getting scolded. Maintain an open line of communication about their goals and feelings, fostering an environment where they are comfortable expressing themselves.
Regular check-ins, in the form of casual conversations about their progress and any concerns they might have, can help you understand their needs and adjust support accordingly. Moreover, listening without judgment can help them freely voice their frustrations and thoughts.
Focus on Efforts, Not Just Results
Goals aren’t just about the results but the hard work and dedication required to achieve them. Help them understand that setbacks are part of the learning process and encourage a healthy mindset by focusing on what can be learned from each experience.
Balance Structure with Flexibility
It’s normal for things not to go according to plan, so your child must learn to be flexible and adapt to their changing interests and needs. Adjust the goals if they become unrealistic or no longer align with what they want. Moreover, it’s important to recognize the need for a break to avoid burnout. Don’t close your child’s doors to other activities and rest.
From Beginner to Champion: Set Swimming Goals for Success
Not all swimming goals are easy to achieve, and the journey can be challenging. However, with SMART goal setting and the right support and guidance from parents, anything is possible.
By teaching your child how to set SMART swimming goals, you can support them in their swimming journey, ensuring they stay motivated and make steady progress. With you by their side, they can experience the joy of reaching their personal best and develop a lifelong love for swimming.
Be the best support system for your child. Learn more tips by visiting the Bear Paddle blog.