😉 found on Instagram🤣🏊

Here's something nobody tells you when your kid starts taking swimming seriously: The moment it's actually working... is the moment it feels the most like it's falling apart. Most families quit right here. Six months too early. They misread one sign... and it's the best news they'll get all season. Let me show you what it is. I don't know where you're at right now. But this one's for any swimmer.. or swim parent... in a hard stretch. You're losing sleep. Doubting the whole thing. Wondering if the early mornings are adding up to anything... with no way to know for another two seasons. That's what hard actually feels like in this sport: Known costs. Unknown payoff. Almost no milestones along the way. The times sit still for months. You can't tell if you've plateaued or you're about to break through. Stuck, or standing right on the edge of something. Here's the good news: Hard means most kids quit. Most parents tap out. Which means... good. More lane for the ones who stay. When you're young in this, hard feels like a sign to pull back. Ease off. Maybe this isn't your kid's thing. But once you see what the path is actually supposed to look like, hard stops being a warning. It becomes a filter. Every 5am you show up for. Every meet that went sideways that you came back from anyway. That's one more name selected out of the pool you're racing. You survived another round of culling. And here's the part that sounds backwards: The kid grinding to drop a single second has it HARDER than the one already winning nationals. Not easier. Harder. Because the one at the top has momentum, belief, a whole crowd behind them. Your kid has a kickboard, a black line, and a question mark. They just can't see it yet... because they've never watched what it costs at the very top. That's me in the photo. Still grinding. Still chasing something most people gave up on years ago. The work doesn't stop when you "make it".. it just changes shape. So which sign am I talking about? The one that quietly tells you you're actually on the right path?

I have a gift for you and it's exclusive for our Skool members: The new 39-minute Confidence Mini-Course for swim parents is here!! It shows swim parents exactly what they can start doing TODAY to help build their swimmer's confidence - especially on race day!! (...without having to do much extra cuz you're busy 😊) It's available for free until Friday evening (May 29) here on Skool. 👉 Comment "GIFT" in the comments below and I'll DM you access as soon as I'm online again. After Friday, I'll move the Mini-Course to the Premium membership for $9. 👋 If we haven't met yet... Hi, I'm David Karasek and I'm a former Olympian and Swiss record holder in the 200m IM. I got lucky at the end of my career because I had the opportunity to work 1:1 with the sports psychologist of Michael Phelps… and it changed EVERYTHING in my life! I created this community for swim parents of competitive swimmers who want the best for their child, and inside you now get the 39-Minute Confidence Mini-Course, which includes: ✅ The "Gap vs Gain" lens: The 1-second brain choice 95% of swim parents make wrong at every meet, even when they don't say a word (Dan Sullivan named this 40 years ago — almost no swim parent has heard of it) ✅ The 400-kid Stanford praise study: The exact kind of praise that makes competitive teen swimmers QUIT faster when sets get ugly… and most parents use it daily without realizing ✅ The "4 Cs Cycle": Why "you've got this, sweetie!" bounces off, and the 1 stage you've been pouring all your energy into for years that doesn't actually move the needle ✅ The 4 sources of confidence - ranked - verbal praise comes in dead last. The strongest one isn't anything you say. (Hint: a 9:30pm bedtime does more work than any "good luck" text on race morning) ✅ The 2-line dinner-table swap: Drop "you crushed it" tonight. Replace with the exact words that build a Practice Champion AND a Race Day Champion (it works on the drive home too)

If nervousness and race anxiety are a thing in your family, use this checklist to identify what to say and what NOT to say before a race. There's no magic sentence that eliminates nervousness, but the important idea (for parents) is that when your child is struggling with nerves... it's THEIR opportunity to build their character. And while it sucks to see them suffer, you don't want to rob them from their chance to become a stronger and more resilient human being. So very often the best thing to say is just "I love you" ❤️ and then shut up and let them do their thing.

This is important to understand for both swimmers AND parents. Watch the video and share in the comments what your Go To answer is after you just hit a PB. Be honest. Whatever your answer is, it's ok 😊 There's no place for judgement in this group. Only growth. And new PB's!!