Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

Thanks for the feedbacks. There's no complaint whatsoever from her, I just wanted to know your thoughts on it. Not considering to pull her a day from practice. She has lots of energy to play ball etc with her friends after training sessions. However, I do agree that it's much, if it's gotta be all about technique at this age. Her times will drop further with the current program for sure. I just can hope improved technique to be a major part of it. Swimspire; I agree with you about her butterfly. Back in Apr'13 it was 50secs, in Oct'13 it was 41 ! It was all about timing and technique. Now it's 39, so, not much of an improvement last year. Technique not improving? Most probably. Was watching their session a week ago, I've seen coach instructing her one-on-one how to extend arm stroke forward during butterfly. She still has a lot to improve, will always have! I didn't abandon the idea of swimming analysis. I think it would be an awesome opportunity to see and get things better. Besides all, it would be fun for her, for us. :) However, it's not gonna be me who is going to evaluate the results. Gotta be a swim coach, the right one. Then private sessions gonna be needed for corrective drills, which she has no time for. If it would work out without corrective drills, showing this and that while watching the videos, then I would do it tomorrow.

Wanted to put feedback on progress with the above mentioned program. There was a meet this weekend and improved times are: 100m FR 1:14 ; 100m BR 1:34 ; 100m BK 1:28 ; 200m IM 2:59 ; 100m FL 1:29 I've noticed that her streamlines were much better then before..

Is she doing fishtailing. It can interfere with strealine.

Nope. She doesn't do that. Is she doing fishtailing. It can interfere with strealine.

Astro My name is Darian Townsend, I am an Olympic Gold Medalist and professional swimmer, currently training for the 2016 Olympics. I have also been coaching for the last 8 years. Your question intrigued me because I struggled with this issue for many years throughout my career. I am more of a 100 and 200 swimmer, but the issue was the same. I would be ahead of my competitors for most of the race and then they would pass me right at the end. It was very frustrating and it lead to many unhappy feelings towards the sport. It wasn't till I decided, after a particularly frustrating meet, that I wasn't going to be the "rabbit" anymore. What I mean by that is, that the other swimmers were using my fast pace at the beginning of the race to set their pace. Basically I was using all my energy in trying to get away and they were simply just pacing off me using less energy. I decided if I was going to carry on swimming, I wasn't going to be the pace setter. But to avoid not being the pace setter I had to learn how to swim from behind and more importantly get comfortable not always swimming from the front. This skill is learnt in practice!!!! She has to train the way she wants to race. "How can we help her to build up her endurance?" This can be done in many ways. Being that she is so young, training more is not the only option. As she gets older she will be able to handle more training, but right now it's important that she grows to love the sport and not dread going to practice. Before giving her too much advise, I would meet with her coach to discuss your concerns. There is no point her receiving 2 different forms of advise from you and her coach. This will only confuse her. I would suggest to her coach that she starts to learn how to race her competitors, instead of blowing them away on the first 25. In her next race she should focus on reserving energy for the finish and having her race the kids into the wall instead of trying to hang on. This is a much more fun way to swim any race. When you are pulling away from someone or catching them towards the end of a race, you get an energy surge and it's amazing how fast you can finish when this happens!!! "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." I think doing other activities as part of her training at that age is really important. Swimming is a very unique sport in that we compete in a very different world to the one we live our lives in every day. I'm referring to the water here. Developing "land skills" is very important for later on in our lives as swimmers and as regular humans :) Biking is a form of cross training that really helped me develop my leg strength and as a result my kick has always been a strength of mine throughout my career. It is also non impact so their is very little stress it puts on any joints that could lead to injury. Before a meet you want to eat foods that are light and won't cause a heavy, full feeling. It all depends on how much time you have before you race or train. Oats are a great source of energy, granola bars, bagels, fruit, chicken, etc. Just make sure she is eating some sort of protein with her every meal! Hope this information helps! Contact me through my website is you have any other questions :)

By streamline above, i mean her streamlined underwater btw. Nope. She doesn't do that.

Hello Darian, Thanks for dropping by and writing feedback on this. Endurance/pacing: She keeps learning in time what the pacing is. She gets better and better. Her split in 100m FR 1:14 was 36/38. Mind that she can probably swim 50m FR in 33secs now. Activity: She's biking in summer but other then that it's quite hard to find time (swimming+school/homeworks) and good weather combined. Eating/drinking before a meet: I think drinking plenty of water and keeping the body hydrated well is also important. Just not before or during the meet but as a lifestyle. But hey, ssshh, Lochte may be here reading your tactics too :) Wish you the very best of luck for Rio! Astro My name is Darian Townsend, I am an Olympic Gold Medalist and professional swimmer, currently training for the 2016 Olympics. I have also been coaching for the last 8 years. Your question intrigued me because I struggled with this issue for many years throughout my career. I am more of a 100 and 200 swimmer, but the issue was the same. I would be ahead of my competitors for most of the race and then they would pass me right at the end. It was very frustrating and it lead to many unhappy feelings towards the sport. It wasn't till I decided, after a particularly frustrating meet, that I wasn't going to be the "rabbit" anymore. What I mean by that is, that the other swimmers were using my fast pace at the beginning of the race to set their pace. Basically I was using all my energy in trying to get away and they were simply just pacing off me using less energy. I decided if I was going to carry on swimming, I wasn't going to be the pace setter. But to avoid not being the pace setter I had to learn how to swim from behind and more importantly get comfortable not always swimming from the front. This skill is learnt in practice!!!! She has to train the way she wants to race. "How can we help her to build up her endurance?" This can be done in many ways. Being that she is so young, training more is not the only option. As she gets older she will be able to handle more training, but right now it's important that she grows to love the sport and not dread going to practice. Before giving her too much advise, I would meet with her coach to discuss your concerns. There is no point her receiving 2 different forms of advise from you and her coach. This will only confuse her. I would suggest to her coach that she starts to learn how to race her competitors, instead of blowing them away on the first 25. In her next race she should focus on reserving energy for the finish and having her race the kids into the wall instead of trying to hang on. This is a much more fun way to swim any race. When you are pulling away from someone or catching them towards the end of a race, you get an energy surge and it's amazing how fast you can finish when this happens!!! "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." I think doing other activities as part of her training at that age is really important. Swimming is a very unique sport in that we compete in a very different world to the one we live our lives in every day. I'm referring to the water here. Developing "land skills" is very important for later on in our lives as swimmers and as regular humans :) Biking is a form of cross training that really helped me develop my leg strength and as a result my kick has always been a strength of mine throughout my career. It is also non impact so their is very little stress it puts on any joints that could lead to injury. Before a meet you want to eat foods that are light and won't cause a heavy, full feeling. It all depends on how much time you have before you race or train. Oats are a great source of energy, granola bars, bagels, fruit, chicken, etc. Just make sure she is eating some sort of protein with her every meal! Hope this information helps! Contact me through my website is you have any other questions :)

Haha, no problem! Message me with any questions you have :) And yes lets not let Lochte in on too many secrets!

Hi, She participated in a meet last week and the times are: 100m FR 1:10 ; 100m FL 1:23 ; 200m IM 2:51 ; 400m FR 5:20 Regarding pacing, her splits were: 100m FR: 15.7/17.6/18.6/18.5 100m FL: 17.0/20.9/21.9/23.2 200m IM: 16.3/20.3/21.8/21.4/25.5/25.4/20.8/19.8 400m FR: 17.0/20.1/20.0/20.6 19.8/20.6/20.3/21.3 19.7/20.5/20.7/20.0 19.8/20.7/20.2/19.0 Kinda surprised to see how she improved her times that much in so little time..

Those are great times for a 10.5 yr old, her splits look great, and she should be proud. 4000m per day for 6 days per week is an enormous amount of yardage. Hopefully much of the yards are working on technique. Don't burn her shoulders up and don't burn her out - make sure it's fun. Speed can be developed quickly as she matures, provided she has good technique. Instruction from two different directions can be very hard for a kid to process at a young age.