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!
Parents
Former Member
I would be interested in learning more about this...
I have to admit that I was wondering about overtraining...
I have a lot of questions about overtraining but not many answers. For me, I discovered that when training for a race, I do much better training every other day than I do 5 days a week - but then I haven't been a pre-teen since the 60's. My impressiom form my age-group days is that I would have done better as as an age-grouper with less swiming.
I read in "Swimmer" mag that age-group teens have more shoulder pain than even geezers such as myself. I immediately think there is some overtraining - or other form of mis-training abuse- going on.
I think coaches like overtraining. It weeds out most of the less motivated athletes - but it also "weeds out" some champs and physically wrecks others, too.
Part of me thinks "The coaches would change if they were hurting the athletic performance." Then I remember that high school football programs gave kids salt tabs and withheld water during practice well into the 1960's.
I would be interested in learning more about this...
I have to admit that I was wondering about overtraining...
I have a lot of questions about overtraining but not many answers. For me, I discovered that when training for a race, I do much better training every other day than I do 5 days a week - but then I haven't been a pre-teen since the 60's. My impressiom form my age-group days is that I would have done better as as an age-grouper with less swiming.
I read in "Swimmer" mag that age-group teens have more shoulder pain than even geezers such as myself. I immediately think there is some overtraining - or other form of mis-training abuse- going on.
I think coaches like overtraining. It weeds out most of the less motivated athletes - but it also "weeds out" some champs and physically wrecks others, too.
Part of me thinks "The coaches would change if they were hurting the athletic performance." Then I remember that high school football programs gave kids salt tabs and withheld water during practice well into the 1960's.
