Building up endurance - 9 year old kid

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...

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.

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.

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

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.