Hey Rockfish
I liked your comment about the body marking. I had to make sure that I took a few picutures of my daughter last summer (at her request!) when she stood with a sideways turn to model her race numbers on her arms and legs 
I have a lot of experience in this regard and itās my belief that just because a child can do something doesnāt mean they should.
My 10-year old has considered doing a sprint tri (because some of her friends have done them) but I wonāt let her for many of the reasons covered in the foregoing posts. Also for one that wasnāt covered: safety. Children are capable of adult-like speeds on the bike but if a car were to pull out in front of them they donāt have adult-like bike-handling skills and would be less likely to be able to avoid the accident.
Regarding doing it willingly or being pushedā¦ most Iāve seen arenāt necessarily being pushed but their parents have certainly set up a system whereby the children are praised for doing the tris and the daily, lengthy workouts necessary to compete in them. Basically, a kid will steal if a system is set up where they are rewarded for it by their parents.
donāt get me started on the mediaās portrayal of āinsert anythingā. A few nuts who do these things are simply that, a **few nuts. **They just seem to garner 99% of the mediaās attention.
A story about a guy who nurtures and spends a lot of time with his kids does not produce high ratings.
You never saw swimmers at the Olympics that were older than 23 and that were not part of the former Eastern Bloc until the 1990s because there were no professional swimming until then. Competing at the highest level does mean at least 4 or 5 hours a day at the pool, and you could not hold a job and continue to swim so you moved on with life when you graduated from college. You do see more āolderā swimmers now, but professional swimming is still very small and there is nothing comparable to the professional track circuit in Europe or all the road races. So, only the very best swimmers can keep swimming at the highest levels much past college.
I think, however, that Masters Swimming in the US is continuing to grow and that a large portion of the masters swimmers are former college or at least high school swimmers.
Personally, I did not swim at all for 18 years after college until I decided to do some triathlons. I had done all I could with swimming and set my career bests in the 200, 500, 1000 and 1650 freestyles, along with the 400 IM at my last college meet. I could not possibly swim as much in law school or as a lawyer as I could in college. Besides, why bother to keep swimming when there is so much more to do in life? Even now I have little interest in seeing how āfastā I can swim, but am mostly concerned with getting through the swim part of a triathlon with as efficiently as possible.
For 15 and 16 year old kids to be focused enough to be at the pool 16-20 hours every week and passing up many of the social things that their friends are doing takes a lot of maturity and drive. I think that the reason you donāt see to many 30 year old swimmers kicking ass at the Olympics is the burnout factor. Most other sports have a lot of competitve āolderā athletes but swimming seems to be a sport that the top athletes hang onto until they get through college and then drop out.
I was a competitive swimmer through college. I stopped after college for several reasons and, while I was a little āburned outā that was pretty far down on the list of reasons I stopped. I quit because the costs vs the rewards of keeping at it just were not there for me.
It takes about 7 hours a day, 6 days a week to train to be a competitive swimmer. Also, several more hours are āused upā getting to and from practice, recovering etc. It is just not possible to do it and hold down a meaningful full time job. So once the gravy training of scholarship and parental grants runs out, you must choose between finding a source of income or trying to eek out a living while continuing to train and that is really hard for a swimmer to do. There are almost no opportunities to make money as a swimmer unless you are one of the top 10 swimmers in the US.
By 22, I was certain I had gotten as fast as I ever was going to get, or at least certain I had gotten to the highest level of the sport I could atain. I could have swam for 100 more years and I never would have reached the next level of the sport. I had been at it full time, very hard for over 10 years. Iād had the best coaching available. I reached the limits of my talent and I had proven that to my satisfaction. I could not possiby see any logic in putting off law school and getting a real job just to see if I could drop my 500 freestyle time another second or two. I gave it up cold turkey and was quite happy to become a regular old Joe āworking outā 5 hours a week on my bike or running.
Iām glad I started young and to the extent I had ārun insā with my parents (and they were few), it was always me pushing and them trying to hold me back. I begged my parents to let me do it in the first place then begged them to let me do more. I pressured, cojoled and shamed them in to doing lots of things for me and spending lots of money to keep me in the sport. Sometimes it is the kids who are the evil ones in the child vs parent sports arena!
My 7 year old son will do his 3rd tri this Sunday with the SVTC in Cupertino, Ca. He would race anyone any time anywhere for anything. We donāt push him at all itās just the way he is. I took him to a 10K 2 weeks ago to watch me but he saw there were some kids in the 5k he got mad that I didnāt sigh him up. We have to limit him to one sport at a time and make him choose what he wants to do. He actually thought about a competitive dance team but he picked swim team again this summer. The only sport we wouldnāt let him do was full contact football because he in small and barely over the min weight limit.
The only triathlon ātrainingā we do is pre race transition practice because we can do that in the house. He just runs down the hall and puts his shoes and shirt on and runs back. He will ride his bike on some of my long runs so it gives us some good time together. I came out to the garage the other day to find him trying to set his little bike up on my trainer. He just wants to go all the time and itās a hell of a lot better then video games and the computer.
After the Ironkids race last year I had some concerns because of some of the parents and how much cash they spent on equipment. But he doesnāt care he rides a Mt. Bike and not a custom Felt with Zipps, he just likes to race. I coach his little league team and I see kids with $100 bats and $150 gloves that canāt hit or catch a ball. Watched soccer parents yell at 7 year olds and volunteer refs. I have seen parents yell at their kids after winning at a swim meet because they didnāt win by enough. It kills me but I can only control me and my family. Someday if he wants to play chess and give up sports I will support that as long as he likes it.
He crewed with me for a friend at last years Ultraman and had a blast so now he wants to do a DecaMan because he hears it was the hardest triathlon in the world. We will see if that idea lasts. Next year I hope to do a family sprint. My wife will swim, I will bike and chris will run.
Dave
Just noticed the post about body markings at kids races. The best part of any triathlon!
My wife has an eight year old little sister (pretty funny story ā she graduated from high school in June, and celebrated the birth of her sister in July) who loves to do races. She likes winning trophies. She has clocked a sub-8:00 mile before, though she usually averages about 9:00. She also did a 5K in December, all the way without stopping to walk, in under 30:00. I do all these races with her, and I never push her to run harder or faster.
She wants to do a bike race, but the only way thatās going to happen is if she does a kidsā tri. Iāve talked with her about it, but sheās a lilttle apprehensive about swimming. She loves the water, but I think sheās intimidated by the idea of doing a triathlon. So I just let her alone about it.
I like doing the running races with her, and I love to see her running and exercising. And she enjoys winning trophies. She loves bringing them home to her family. Sheād rather run an 11:00 mile and win a trophy than run a 7:40 mile and not win one.
If we go a couple of months without racing, sheāll ask me when one is. If thereās one close by, she puts in to do it. I try to be very careful to encourage her to run without pushing her too hard. I donāt want to live my athletic dreams through her. I donāt want to be one of THOSE parents (even though Iām not her parent, but you know what Iām saying).
There is a fine line between encouraging a child to compete and pushing them too hard and too far. I want my slster in lawās experiences to be fun. If she stops having fun, we wonāt do another race.
RP
My 5 1/2 year old canāt wait until sheās old enough to do a tri. She runs a lot of keiki races and 5ks. When I was a kid I was swimming all year long, soccer 1/2 the year, horse shows, baseball, etc. My parents didnāt push me to do any of it. In fact, I kind of wish they had discouraged me from quitting swimming. Iād be a lot faster now had I not taken a 17 year break. I was burned out with all the training and the seasonal novice team was not competitive enough for me. Anyway, this past weekend in a sprint race I got passed on the run by what looked like a 7 year old running with his dadā¦kj
My 12 year-old has done 2 kidsā triās (100 yd / 1 mile / .5 mile) and my 8 year-old one at half that distance. I think they were more curious than really interested.
Itās a damn shame too since my 12 year-old runs a 7 minute mile and does the 100yd IM in about 1:20, so should be 4:30 for 300yds? She also has a 47cm road bike. Having your own road bike is a real advatage in the kiddy triās and a must in the adult ones the kids do.
The good news (for me) is she does want to be a pole vaulter like her old man used to be.
What an adorable child! Is that yours (so far as you know)?
Thanks, yes, as far as I know.
Dave
IMO when starting a kid early it is very important to have the right trainer but most important is the temperament of the kid. You should never force a kid to practice a particular sport or force him to train on a day he should not.
Both my 10 and and 12 year old kids are trained in a military base by GANFES, the Mexican version of Navy SEALS. This might seem as a lot of pressure for my kids but they really enjoy training 2.5 hours a day 5 days a week with these SOFs. With the formal job of these sergeants/triathlon trainers you would expect them to be too tough as trainers for kids but they do an incredibly good job. They are very nice to the kids and they are very aware of the need to look carefully for overtraining signs on the kids. As a matter of fact, just yesterday 12 year old Sergio Jr, my older kid, had to skip the day of training to recover from sleeping a couple of hours less the day before. His trainer noticed this on the field and Sergio Jr rested that day. This confirmed to me that they are very alert at this issue. Today he resumed training in very good mood. In our case I think that starting them early was a good decision, but we were extremely lucky to have such good trainers. I can imagine that this is not always the case and this has an effect on results and particular disappointments.
Best wishes,
Sergio
PS Below 12 year old Sergio Jr in the kids version of the ITU World Cup Mazatlan 2005.
donāt get me started on the mediaās portrayal of āinsert anythingā. A few nuts who do these things are simply that, a **few nuts. **They just seem to garner 99% of the mediaās attention.
A story about a guy who nurtures and spends a lot of time with his kids does not produce high ratings.
Obviously you donāt spend much time around parents of athletes if think there are just a āfewā nuts.
āKids should just play a variety of team sports at a young ageā
I agree. Expose them to as many sports as possible but let the kids pick the ones that interest them.
I tried to get my 16 yr old son into triathlons a couple of years ago. Even built him up a really nice road bike for last year, but he just wasnāt into it. Heās the star of the high school basketball, soccer and volleyball teams, which are the sports he really enjoys. As long as heās getting physical exercise is all that matters.