COVID rules barring parents from junior training are creating a new wave of super nippers.
In a stunning positive side effect of the pandemic, surf lifesaving officials say sessions have improved dramatically.
Without mums and dads hovering nearby, youngsters are developing skills faster, becoming more confident and showing greater resilience.
More than 4000 Sunshine Coast nippers, aged five to 13, have returned to the beach for the summer season.
Numbers are as strong as last year, but some clubs have had to cap enrolments due to COVID.
There are strict new regulations that mean only coaches, age managers and water safety volunteers can be near the kids during training.
However, Kawana Surf Life Saving Club’s nipper president Megan Lovell said that instead of being a hinderance, the changes had been a huge blessing.
She said age managers were reporting that activities were running much more efficiently.
“It’s way better. Before we had parents jumping in the water with the kids, or the children looking over at mum or dad if they felt unsure.
“What we are finding now is they are taking more calculated risks and becoming more confident and independent.
“Our main goals are for them to be confident in the water, be able to read the waves and be safe. This has become more achievable with the separation.’’
The forced experiment has been so successful that the club has decided it will keep the roped off area even when COVID rules are relaxed.
University of the Sunshine Coast child and adolescent psychology expert, Dr Rachael Sharman, congratulated Kawana nippers on their stance and said it would help young people better navigate the real world.
Dr Sharman said research showed that when parents became too involved, no matter how well intentioned, it increased anxiety in children.
She said it was never easy for parents to see their child smashed by a wave or fall off a board and not react, but they had to trust the coaches and officials to intervene if required.
“If children are constantly looking to their parents for help, they are not learning skill development. They will not have the chance to fail and then build resilience and will have no skillset to fall back on when things go wrong, which they invariably do in life.
“They also need the truth, rather than a mistaken belief they are good at everything. A coach will give them this and push them, which is not a bad thing.
“Boys, in particular, can lift dramatically when they have someone who expects better of them. They tend to do what’s expected.’’
Dr Sharman said there had been a rise in “bulldozer parents’’, who interfered even more than the “helicopter’’ variety.
She said they caused the most issues and she had seen them undermine coaches and tell kids to do “the opposite’’ of what was being taught.
Kawana nippers Travis Lovell, 10, and little brother Jett, 8, get ready for board training. Picture: Warren Lynam
Mrs Lovell, who moved to Australia from Canada a decade ago, has four children in Kawana nippers: Travis, 10, Jett, 8, Felix 7, and Charli, 6.
She and husband Wayne have gained their bronze medallions and enjoy patrolling Kawana beach.
Kawana has 279 in its nipper program this year, while latest membership figures from Surf Life Saving Queensland show Noosa has 523, Alexandra Headland 464, Mooloolaba 394, Dicky Beach 385, Metropolitan Caloundra 371, Maroochydore 298, Marcoola 215, Coolum 202, Sunshine Beach, 176, Bribie 174 and Mudjimba 158.
CAUGHT IN A PARENT TRAP: Don’t miss columnist Jane Stephens on Sunday in sunshinecoastnews.com.au
