My girls 11 and 12 have been squad swimming for a few years now and go pretty well. They were swimming 3 times a week and now are swimming 4 times. I’m worried about them burning out, losing interest etc They rarely complain about the training, but it’s hard and relentless and they are often quite tired. I don’t want them to get to the point where they start losing motivation. I would prefer they are still swimming at 15/16 and not making state teams as opposed to getting flogged in training, getting great times, making state teams at 13 and then quitting.
There is a good team of coaches, the head coach can see they have talent and wants them to swim more. We upped to 4 times so they could qualify for the short course champs, which they did, but I think they should drop back down to 3 times after the meet. I think it would be much more motivating for them to train in blocks or cycles. i.e they train 3 times a week, but for a qualifying competition/big meet they up their training for 8 weeks. Race, a bit of time off and then back to 3 times a week. I’ve found that the last 2 months has been really good, they have been very motivated to train as they have a goal in mind. I’ll have a chat with the coach, but I’m pretty sure this is not something he’s going to agree with. I would imagine most coaches and squads have the same philosophy. Flog the kids for as much as possible, week in, week out, all year round and hope they don’t burn out. Thoughts?!
Edit
They also play basketball as well and they get a lot out of that.
Let the kids decide. If they wanna swim more, let them swim more. If they wanna swim less, let them swim less. Give them the opportunity to have some control in their destination.
Having been through the “system” both as a kid and a parent, I think it will be very unlikely the swim coach will see it your way. That’s not their job.
As a parent, we always let our kids “direct” just how involved they were going to be. If they were tired, we’d skip a practice or two. If they wanted to have a sleep over with a friend and not make an early Saturday morning practice, heck yeah. We never skipped meets or relays they’d committed to though. Also, we always explained the potential consequences to the kids that they may get bumped down a group, left off a relay or maybe not taken on a travel trip. Btw, we had many conversations with their coaches over the years when the coach objected. One non-negotiable thing for us (and the kids) was a 2 week summer camp every year which usually happened about 2-3 weeks deep into summer long course training. The coaches really loved that, not!
Also, we always encouraged them to do other sports they were interested in, be involved in clubs and school activities with the notion that it will all naturally sort itself out. Did any of our kids (1 of the 3 had the potential) end up swimming in college, nope! Do all of them still enjoy swimming (and other sports), absolutely!
The way we saw it our job was to raise healthy, happy, respectful, productive humans. Our job was not to make them the fastest swimmer they can be.
12/13 is old enough to decide how serious they want to be. They may regret the decision in 10 years, but you won’t. My daughter wanted to play volleyball, but physically she wasn’t tall enough. She also played golf and was much better suited for that. I let her choose.
She choose volleyball and never made varsity.
When she was a freshman in college she was hitting golf balls on the range. The coach saw her and asked why she didn’t try out for the team. She told the truth, no short game.
Then she came to me and jokingly asked, “why didn’t you make me golf instead of volleyball?†I answered, “When was I ever able to make you do anything?â€
She really enjoyed her high school years doing what she wanted. Now she enjoys her adult years and her family. No regrets from either of us.
I don’t have an answer, just posting because I am in a similar spot. My daughter has just turned 12 and honestly does not have a lot of talent but loves swimming. We have tried to encourage her to do other sports but she only ever wants to swim.
She started with squad 2 years ago doing 2 sessions a week, a year ago it was 3 times a week to currently she is doing 5 swims a week. She has improved massively in the last 6 months and actually seems to respond to the volume really well, she is an endurance swimmer for sure, longer the session or race the better she goes!
I am a bit worried about burn out but lock downs are ensuring plenty of rest at the moment! As soon as a lockdown is announced her first issue is ‘oh no the pool is closed’, for as long as that is the thought process I am happy for her to do as much as she wants.
I think your kids need to decide.
Now is an important age for swimming.
Swimming kind of sucks as a sport, in that it usually requires a lot of training and doesn’t have a large track record of success with late adopters.
There seems to be more success with late adopters in other sports.
Alan Webb, Gwen Jorgensen, Andy Truard (successful local kid) all took up running after loosing interest with swimming.
No doubt people will contradict me - but on my college team there were only two kids that were NOT practicing 8 or more times a week by age 12. And those two were both sprinters.
That said my kids were only luke warm about swimming.
And I didn’t encourage them much because I felt elite youth swimming is a jealous and demanding activity.
Let them decide if they want to do 3 or 4 sessions! Just don’t let them stop completely - that they’ll regret (my parents let me quit various stuff completely and I really wish they hadn’t).
4 sessions seems pretty laid back. My son (14) was doing 5 or 6 before covid, 4 or 5 this year due to rationing of pool time. He’s starting in a higher group in September with 7 sessions. The group objective is to qualify for Junior Nationals…
My son is on the same team I was on and we are seeing good success with delaying some of the training load increases. But 7-9 sessions is pretty normal for 12-15 year olds
… I was doing 9 at a pretty early age and by university most of the team had a similar path.
Kayla Han and Teagan Odell did you see their results at 13-14 years old last week in Irvine ? I say do the fall season at whatever level the coach recommends and let them do a taper meet and then reevaluate. You can be honest at that point and have a little better info on their potential. Let them know they can pull the plug at any time if they want
Former USA Swimming club assistant coach…
If you look at the research & anecdotal evidence, kids their age should be playing multiple sports. A good coach knows this. In the next couple of years they’ll need to decide to focus on one sport. I’ve seen this first hand & a good, knowledgeable coach can help guide the swimmer & family. If the child wants to specialize & look to college as a possibility then it’s time to discuss this with your coach.
Former USA Swimming club assistant coach…
If you look at the research & anecdotal evidence, kids their age should be playing multiple sports. A good coach knows this. In the next couple of years they’ll need to decide to focus on one sport. I’ve seen this first hand & a good, knowledgeable coach can help guide the swimmer & family. If the child wants to specialize & look to college as a possibility then it’s time to discuss this with your coach.
We’re in Australia and we don’t have the college/sports scholarship thing you guys have. I think what would be good is for them to tick over for the time being and maybe when they are a bit older to really focus on their swimming and see how they go.
Let them decide if they want to do 3 or 4 sessions! Just don’t let them stop completely - that they’ll regret (my parents let me quit various stuff completely and I really wish they hadn’t).
Yups I always engage with them and chat to them about what they want/like etc. My main goal is for them to enjoy swimming and have a lifelong love for the sport. I’m 49 and am still racing at swim meets with them.
3-4 times a week is pretty casual for that age; it doesn’t sound like you are pushing too hard right now. Like realAB, by the time I was 14 or so I was doing 8-9 sessions per week. I think keeping them at the level they are at sounds like a good plan, they are about to hit that stage where everyone is going through different growth spurts and puberty stages, so unless they are (or are going to be tall), basketball might not be as fun two years from now. The 13-14 years were probably my favorite time as a swimmer, no severe pressure yet for time standards but approaching Junior National cuts, making friends with rivals from other clubs in the LSC, getting to go to Zone meets, etc. If the coaches promote a fun environment, they will probably stick with it through their own decision. The only times I’ve really hated swimming is knowing I’m coming to a workout to probably get yelled at during it at some point.
Interesting to see how the numbers dropped off at the state champs with the older age groups. 90 kids racing the 12 yrs Female 50m, 18 kids racing the 15 years Female 50m.
IIRC there are some studies that show that kids really don’t need to make a choice for swimming until around the 13/14yr AG.
In the meantime have them play as many sports as they want. Really that goes for everyone. No kid needs to worry about specializing until they are in their teens. If you (insert sport here) coach tells you they need to specialize at age 9 or 11 tell them to go fuck off. That’s one sign of a coach you should avoid, or have your kids avoid
IIRC there are some studies that show that kids really don’t need to make a choice for swimming until around the 13/14yr AG.
In the meantime have them play as many sports as they want. Really that goes for everyone. No kid needs to worry about specializing until they are in their teens. If you (insert sport here) coach tells you they need to specialize at age 9 or 11 tell them to go fuck off. That’s one sign of a coach you should avoid, or have your kids avoid
Yeah it was a bit depressing seeing 10 year olds swimming insane times, sub 60s for 100m. The kids coach is insisting the kids swim more, but we are going to have a chat with him. They play basketball and it’s important for them to have a life. I think swimming for kids needs to be managed much differently. How many hours would an average squad kid swim 8-10? Plus land training, plus meets. It’s way too much IMO. The thing is coaches know they need their kids to swim more to get the results and in Australia coaches will move up the ladder the more kids they can get to achieve national times. It’s basically thrash the shit out of all your kids in the squad, most will burn out, get injured and quit, but if you can get 3 or 4 to get national times then that’s great. The primary goal should be to keep kids swimming until they leave school and beyond. Limit how much kids swim. But then this means no Olympic glory for Australia…