Hi,
I've been following this forum for more then a year and this is my first post here.
My daughter is 9 years old and she has been swimming for 2 years. For the last 8 months she's been training 4 days per week; half-hour dryland, one hour pool. She is a happy swimmer and they have great friendship within the team. Her free and breaststroke styles are quite fine. Her short-course(25m) 50meter times are: Free 40 ; Back 48 ; *** 51 ; Fly 50
But whenever she's in a meet, her stamina drops clearly at around 35m. As for the freestyle, her 25meter time is around 16 seconds. She usually turns before her friends, falls behind at last 15meter. It disappoints her.
How can we help her to build up her endurance?
What should we have her eat before the meet? Should we take her out for jogging, hiking, biking or any other physical activity? All suggestions and hints are appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
Some of my favorite quotes related to this:
- 6 most important words a swim parent should use "I love to watch you swim". Take away, reduce pressure and expectations early on and validate that the athlete is loved and your there for them regardless of how they or the kids around them are doing
- "no one ever remembers the fastest 12 year old". Take away, as many have already said here just focus on falling in love with the sport at this age, everything else will fall into place if the coach/team has a long term development strategy
- Teri McKeever said of Missy Franklin when she first saw her swim at a very young age something to the effect of "if she can ever get all of that moving in the right direction look out". Take away is coaches can preach and train technique based workouts all day long but some kids just take longer to dial everything in
Last thing, every single study in the last 10 years on injuries of young athletes has pointed to early specialization as most likely the leading cause. Play other sports, take breaks, don't rush development of kids 12 and under!
Some of my favorite quotes related to this:
- 6 most important words a swim parent should use "I love to watch you swim". Take away, reduce pressure and expectations early on and validate that the athlete is loved and your there for them regardless of how they or the kids around them are doing
- "no one ever remembers the fastest 12 year old". Take away, as many have already said here just focus on falling in love with the sport at this age, everything else will fall into place if the coach/team has a long term development strategy
- Teri McKeever said of Missy Franklin when she first saw her swim at a very young age something to the effect of "if she can ever get all of that moving in the right direction look out". Take away is coaches can preach and train technique based workouts all day long but some kids just take longer to dial everything in
Last thing, every single study in the last 10 years on injuries of young athletes has pointed to early specialization as most likely the leading cause. Play other sports, take breaks, don't rush development of kids 12 and under!
