If you are like me, you have heard them all. From parents and swimmers. I hope you have never used them yourself.
My favorites:
- Had to poop
- Had to pee
- Ate too much
- Didn’t eat enough
- Pool was longer than I thought
- Pool was shorter than I thought
- Suit too tight
- Suit too big
- Flags in wierd spot
- Lines in wierd spot
- Thought it was a 50
- Thought it was a 100
- Thought it was an IM
- Goggles full of water
- Goggles in the water
- Didn’t warm up
- Didn’t warm down
- Warmed up too much
- Warmed down too much
- Sat too long
- Stood too long
- Too long between race
- Races too close together
- Ate too much
- Starving
- Drank too much
- Dehyrated
- Stayed up too late
- Got up too early
- Wanted to give someone else a chance
- Wanted to go home
So we are clear, I myself have said some of the lame-o excuses AND have let my children use them. The reality is though, it is a level playing field. At 6 PM on Sunday, everyone is tired. When two pools are racing at once, everyone has to keep a sharp ear on their pool. All the kids are sitting around, eating their weight in nachos. The kids who are true warriors can race their best under any conditions. No excuses.
And when you tank you tank. Have the humility to say “I (or my kid) didn’t have the best race / day / meet. There is nothing wrong with blowing a race, and truth is no one cares. (If your friends do, I strongly urge you to find new friends). I don’t want my kids to blow it off when they have a bad race or meet. They need to address it. But they also don’t need to come up with a lame excuse.
I love it when my kids say “I got too close to the wall on my third turn and it really showed in my time”. If they had to pee, not my problem. Maybe the problem of the kid in the heat after them.
flylikeagirl 
I think all coaches should carry around a mirror and a picture of his swimmers. I would say that at least 90% of the time when a swimmer fails to do what they wanted to do or what their parents want them to do that it is the swimmer’s fault. And I would show the swimmer the mirror and the parent the picture when they asked or complained.
I have heard everything over the years about swimmers and why they didn’t drop time. Before I knew much I a parent complained to me that the HS coach could not taper her swimmer like the club coach. Of course it could not have been the different practices for a whole season and was the swimmer giving 100% effort in HS swim all the time. No it was taper issues.
Then this past summer I saw/heard it all at the big meets for the swimmers at the end of the season. We had kids dropping time. That is normal. Those kids happen to be the ones that made it to the most practices. Then we had the kids that stayed about the same or went up slightly. Their parents weren’t happy and were asking all the questions. Of course those were the swimmers that either didn’t do doubles because of this or that. Or the ones that went on vacation 12 days before the big meet. Or the ones that just didn’t make that many practices. The lastly was the swimmer that was seeded 3rd in the big meet in her big event and finished 18th. With a 11 sec increase in a 200. That is the swimmer that ran track in the spring and hardly came to practice. Then missed because of homework. Then when she did come she had an ear infection and could only kick. Then went on vacation during the second half of the season. And the parents were surprised how badly she did. Really?
I heard all the excuses last season. I don’t really care, but I heard them. Of course no one said it their fault(swimmer) or their kid’s fault. Well some did say the kid, but plenty of blame to the coach and team as well.
No one really could look in the mirror.