I have three kids swimming.
Two girls (8 & 10) and a son 12.
All the kids started together (private lessons) about three years ago. Today they are involved in age-group swimming. The girls are seeing great results (best/fourth in our country), ds is still busy "catching-up". He is incredibly dedicated and ambitious, his dream being to come home with medals...
He does enjoy swimming...but, we can turn it any way we want, he is after measurable performance! Ds is good, and has come a long way. Still, I am wondering whether he will ever excel...
He is athletically built and will likely be tall. These past months he has trained five times per week (2h), and will step it up to 6/7 times per week in the fall. I am wondering whether this "will do", or whether we should gently steer ds towards a sport where he can truly succeed (by his standards!!).
I don't know a thing about swimming, so am in no position to judge this situation. Most of all, I am not a "pool-mom", and my only concern is, that my sun might be chasing a shadow....
Thank you for any insights!
it seems very "risky" to put all apples into one basket (swimming), if what he really is after is "official recognition".
I am seriously worried, that he missed that train in swimming, due to having started late (he started swimming about three years ago, started to become serious about one year ago)...or simply not being "talented" (if that even exists in swimming???).
To answer your original question: certainly talent plays a role in swimming success, and "athletic build" is only a part of it. Joint flexibility, "feel" for the water (which I guess comes from a kineasthetic sense of some kind) are also important.
But he is only 12 and there have been plenty of cases of late bloomers (and early flameouts) in swimming. One thing that can be hard to teach is competitiveness, and evidently your son has that in spades.
Accolades -- "official recognitions" -- are nice and can motivate people to work hard, but I think one lesson your son needs to learn is not to define his success SOLELY in those terms, and to be patient. As you say, he is improving. Others are too, but if he is working hard then he may well continue to improve after they stop. And he can have goals (eg based on motivational time standards) that do not depend on his placing relative to other kids.
As far as your fear of "putting his eggs in one basket," I wouldn't worry about that at all. He should do what he enjoys. Swimming is a good exercise, builds character, and is a good way to make friends. If he gets tired of it later, he can still do other sports, it isn't as if he is "stuck" in just one.
it seems very "risky" to put all apples into one basket (swimming), if what he really is after is "official recognition".
I am seriously worried, that he missed that train in swimming, due to having started late (he started swimming about three years ago, started to become serious about one year ago)...or simply not being "talented" (if that even exists in swimming???).
To answer your original question: certainly talent plays a role in swimming success, and "athletic build" is only a part of it. Joint flexibility, "feel" for the water (which I guess comes from a kineasthetic sense of some kind) are also important.
But he is only 12 and there have been plenty of cases of late bloomers (and early flameouts) in swimming. One thing that can be hard to teach is competitiveness, and evidently your son has that in spades.
Accolades -- "official recognitions" -- are nice and can motivate people to work hard, but I think one lesson your son needs to learn is not to define his success SOLELY in those terms, and to be patient. As you say, he is improving. Others are too, but if he is working hard then he may well continue to improve after they stop. And he can have goals (eg based on motivational time standards) that do not depend on his placing relative to other kids.
As far as your fear of "putting his eggs in one basket," I wouldn't worry about that at all. He should do what he enjoys. Swimming is a good exercise, builds character, and is a good way to make friends. If he gets tired of it later, he can still do other sports, it isn't as if he is "stuck" in just one.
