Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Paul Smith — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 03:00:27 GMT

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!

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:56:50 GMT

Thanks so much. I get what you mean and very much appreciate your feedback. :)

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 12:43:11 GMT

Thanks for explaining. Getting advise from masters was what I needed. Cause in the end, you guys in general see the big picture better then anyone else I think. Though I thought many here were USAS swimmers before, maybe I was wrong. I got advises on this topic before not to interfere, not to coach, which I follow strictly. It's not my intention to brag about my kid or competing times here... When you're a swimmer parent, you feel kinda comfortable when a master tells you the swimmer looks to be on the right path. Like, if majority tells me 6x4000m per week for 11yo is too much , then that would ring alarm bells on my side maybe to seek for another club or coach.. Hope this explains my point of view.

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

gobears — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 11:02:49 GMT

Thanks so much. I get what you mean and very much appreciate your feedback. :) You're welcome. Now we just need to get you to join us in the water ;-)

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

gobears — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 09:28:01 GMT

It does. Glad you found some help. Just FYI - the term "Master" here means nothing besides "over 18." The term doesn't mean that members have reached the pinnacle of the sport (though, arguably, there are a few USMS athletes who fit that description). There are some here who do have a lot of experience both as swimmers and as coaches. Some of us probably have hypersensitive "pushy-parent" detectors because we've seen (or maybe experienced) those parents along our swimming journeys. I'm glad you are looking out for the best interests of your child. In my experience as a swimmer, a coach and a parent of swimmers, I would say that your kids need to see you as their cheerleader (encouraging them, loving them and supporting them). Let them own their sport. Let them own their successes and their failures. Let them make their own mistakes and learn from them. Swimming can be such a fantastic avenue for learning to win, lose, work your tail off, set long term goals, push yourself past your comfort zone and so much more. But if swimmers have a parent constantly taking charge they won't own those things and won't really learn from them, IMO.

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 09:20:27 GMT

Hi, Started this thread in 2013 to get ideas on how to improve 9yo's endurance and what to feed her etc. I've got the best answers from you guys. Then post after post, it was about training sets per week and times as I was interested to know if she's on the right path and what other clubs/coaches do. I'm trying to share as well as try to understand what others do in different age groups and what are the results. Sorry to bother those are not interested.

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

gobears — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 08:19:53 GMT

I'm not sure if you realize that United States Masters Swimming is the governing body for swimmers 18 and over. People on this site are usually adult swimmers themselves - some who have been swimming since childhood, many who started as adults. Though some here know about USAS, this is probably not the ideal place to discuss being the parent of a USAS swimmer. Some of us who swam as kids aren't big fans of parents seeming to live vicariously through their kids' athletic endeavors. The best parents are supportive but let their kids own their own swimming experience. No fun when mom or dad is telling you or the coaches what to do. Especially when that parent has little to no swimming knowledge. You may or may not think this applies to you - but it may explain some of the responses you are getting.

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 13:50:07 GMT

Doesn't usaswimming.org have a forum for parents to brag about their kids? Unfortunately no. There is no specific forum for swimparents to "brag about their kids", so I suppose that is the reason why it is on General Swimming Discussions section. But it would be a good idea to make a separate section for such weird people like us. And its not so much about bragging, but to share experience how to be less weird and not to projectile our own hopes and wishes over the kids.

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 13:48:18 GMT

At the age of 9 she's still a baby. there's no hurry. All will come right in the end. You are likely to have another ten years, at least, in swimming. Just encorage as much as you can and enjoy the journey together. Easy to say, but sometimes hard to do... (at least it was hard for me). Also one sad thing that I often notice is that most of the talented kids at their early ages do not develop further and get lost over the years. So I do agree "no pushing" till they realize themselves what they wanna do.

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

aquageek — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 11:34:12 GMT

Easy to say, but sometimes hard to do... (at least it was hard for me). Also one sad thing that I often notice is that most of the talented kids at their early ages do not develop further and get lost over the years. So I do agree "no pushing" till they realize themselves what they wanna do. USA Swimming offers many articles and features on how to not be a crazy parent. I would also refer you to Swimming World and swimswam.com, both good sources of effective swim parenting. If I wanted to talk about age group parenting I would simply go to any one of the 50+ kid meets I attend annually. There I can hear all about all the 9 year old Olympians for hours on end.

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

gobears — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 10:23:58 GMT

Doesn't usaswimming.org have a forum for parents to brag about their kids? I get it if the people talking about their kids are masters swimmers themselves. Otherwise, it sounds like non-swimmer parents trying to micromanage their swimmers' USAS experiences. On a masters swimming forum...

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 10:22:20 GMT

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

aquageek — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 08:48:40 GMT

Doesn't usaswimming.org have a forum for parents to brag about their kids?

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 14:39:30 GMT

Missed to reply to your message sorry. Thanks for the interest and I'm also interested to know about the yardage/days of your girls and their progresses. Hi, My younger daughter made last June in LCM: 37.54 (50 FR); 40.13 (50 FLY) 39.88 (50 Back); 45.58 (50 BR) and 03:01.85 (200 FR). My elder daughter's time in LCM are 28.52 (50 FR); 1:02.92 (100 FR relays); 36.89 (50 BR); 1:20.46 (100 BR); 30.41 (50 FLY); My younger daughter is making above times for the last 6-8 months (no progress), but I must admit that she is doing so without any hard efforts. For the last 6 months I'd say that she barely swims 2-2,5 km a day (and instead of 6 days a week as she used to before and well over 3,5 km a days, she now swims only 3-4 days a week). But since her times are okay and I want her to have fun, I let her do whatever she wants with her training schedule. Unlike my younger daughter, my elder one needs to put a lot of efforts as obviously this is not her thing (despite that timings are okay so far), but she is determined to achieve better results (especially she is discouraged when she sees that her younger sister outswims her competition without any effort and hard work prior the competition). She swims 5 days a week (5 km approx. per session) and she does other sports to gain benefits for her swimming. So sometimes I try to cut her training time, cause after all, summer is outside.. and I try to explain her that she needs to put more effort due her father's (my) mistake to work on her stroke and swimming while she was 10 (she started to swim at 9,5), 11 and 12 (we lost those years, cause I let her swim in a club with a very poor coach). Just less than half a year ago I was the "pushiest" parent, but then I've identified that this is wrong approach. Now I only provide advise for her technique, bought a membership card for local wellness center (so she can relax at the end of the week), drink my cider while watching her swim and smile even when she does something wrong. Recently former Olympian (2008 and 2012 Olympics) started to work for one of the local clubs as a coach. I do not know if this is temporary or permanent thing (as far as I know - temporary, but I hope to be wrong), but I intend to ask him to give my both daughters some technique wise /morale wise /attitude wise sort of advises (paid private lessons) that could become a push which comes from the outside. But I'm not sure if he shall agree or not. So my advise to you is to keep working on the technique (constantly without days off) and to keep modest yardage per session, cause yardage does matter after age of 13-14 when she will need endurance.

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 13:03:05 GMT

Missed to reply to your message sorry. Thanks for the interest and I'm also interested to know about the yardage/days of your girls and their progresses. These are great times for her age. I have two girls (8,5 and 14 now), so I also kinda interested to see your girl's progress. The most important thing for her is not to lose the technique. Endurance shall increase even more during the time.

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 12:47:36 GMT

No, not in that way. Thanks for your opinion. astro - maybe you've answered this already - but, do you swim? Much more rewarding to keep track of your own yardage and best times, IMO...

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

gobears — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 09:32:34 GMT

astro - maybe you've answered this already - but, do you swim? Much more rewarding to keep track of your own yardage and best times, IMO...

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 05:51:07 GMT

Forgot to mention that the distance been dropped to 3500meters as of April. The last 4 months. Still 6days per week. Drills, 100s 200s, sprints.. It takes around 60-75mins in water and 30mins of dryland 4 times a week. Now they re on holiday and will start again by September. And sorry if it looks like im bragging.. I'm trying to learn as much as possible and inform as much as I can.. ;)

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 07:58:33 GMT

These are great times for her age. I have two girls (8,5 and 14 now), so I also kinda interested to see your girl's progress. The most important thing for her is not to lose the technique. Endurance shall increase even more during the time.

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

aquageek — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 07:14:19 GMT

Is this now the parent's humblebrag forum? If so, can Jim Corbeau please speak up cause his kid is a swimming superstar.

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Bill Sive — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 05:24:54 GMT

I sometimes swim with a Youth Team during their workouts. The young swimmers in this age group only swim for one hour. No, distance, except for LCM season, and then its no more than a 200 at a time. Most of the workouts are pretty evenly split between sprints and drills.

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Rob Copeland — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 02:01:31 GMT

When hasn’t this been a parents/coach brag forum? If we can’t brag on about the accomplishments of our fellow swimmers, what will we talk about? And yes, sometimes the swimmers are ourselves and sometimes they are a family member. Did I mention that I counted for my mom at Short Course Nationals this year? :banana: But that should be under the Building up endurance – 85+ year old kid thread:groovy:

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 10:05:15 GMT

Hi, wanted to put feedback on this.. She is 11.5yo now and the latest times are: SCM 50FR 30.5 100FR 1:06 50FL 33.8 100FL 1:13 200IM 2:43 200FR 2:26 Seems the endurance and pacing keeps improving over time...

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 07:55:03 GMT

Sorry for my late response. She's 11 now and actually enjoys more and more as she gets these results. And yes, rest of the team also progressed, though cant say if its that much. She's probably among the ones who progressed the best.. maybe it was their technique that helped or their endurance developed.. probably both.. I do hope that much of the yardage is working on technique too, but dont have a clue on that..

RE: Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Former Member — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 05:40:42 GMT

Hi, Wanted to put feedback on times with the 4000m / 6 days program I mentioned above.. (SCM) 100M FR 1:08 100M FL 1:17 200M IM 2:47 200M FR 2:31 50M FR 31.6