Yesterday my kid did something I am super proud of - she asked for help.
R has been in a swim team since 3 years now, and while she mostly does great on all stroke mechanics, one area that she has never improved (or even learnt properly) is diving start off platform. This has greatly hindered her swim times in most races, and if she actually learns to do a clean competitive start off platform, she can cut down several seconds of her every race. We’ve been talking about this for a while with her.
Except, she determined as a wise pre-teen that she was much smarter than her parents. Our efforts to tell her nicely (and then bluntly) that her dive starts sucked went to empty ears and ended with more melodrama about how we dont love her (duh!). So around 18 months ago I gave up and told her unless she was ready for this, there is no use in us pushing her because she refuses to listen. And then something odd happened yesterday.
I go to pick her up, and even before we leave she says she went to the coach and talked to her about improving her dive starts. She told her coach, her dive starts sucked big time, and it was important for her to learn it the right way so she can be more competitive. The coach immediately gave her more pointers for private lessons and pointed her to other teachers at the swim team club that taught this exact skill she needs. She gave us the contact numbers of those coaches and asked us to ping them so she can get some help.
To say that I am thrilled with this is an understatement. My only comment to her as she said this was I was incredibly proud of her to ask for help when she realized she needed. And yes, we’ve already pinged the coach and she’s excited to get started! If anything I want her to do this as much as possible - do not ever be afraid to seek help when you don’t know something or you want to improve! I wish i had her guts and maturity when I was at her age of 10 years!