Anyone one care to discuss the hows and whys of swim team training? There’s an aspect I just can’t understand. I’ve been swimming most ofmy life. I began just after high school. I graduated in 1979. In h.s. I was across-country and track distance runner. I’ve never been on a “swim team,” and other than the few open/masters swim meets I’ve participated in…my only competitive swimming has been for triathlons and open water events. I did get a bit of knowledge about swim teams when my daughter was on her h.s. swim team. But what confounds me about swim team (in h.s. anyway) is how the longer swims are handled (500/400 freestyle, and to some extent the 200 freestyle). Frequently it seems that none of the swimmers what to swim in the long events. I’ve even seen on several occasions where the 400/500 isn’t even competed due to lack of interest on both teams. Dumb if you ask me! If I was coach I’d just put someone in there that could finish and get the points. And of course the entire team trains the same way at practice. Why? I guess it’s because of my running/track background. A distance runner doesn’t need to hurdle so there’s no need to train at hurdles. Similarly, in my mind, a (h.s.) distance swimmer (freestyle events) wouldn’t need to butterfly so why train at it? Personally, if I coached a (h.s.) swim team, I’d find a couple of swimmers that would want to train only for the longer events. They’d swim a seperate workout from the rest of theteam, and would always swim the long freestyle events. Why don’t swim coachesdo that?
Dan
OK...but I'm talking about specialization at the high school level here...not grade school/youth levels. In most other sports, during their h.s. years is when an athlete choses their speciality. So...aside from the team size and pool space that knelson brought up...why not let a high school kid specialize? I'm not real familiar with grade school/youth swimming, but if a kid has been swimming from an early age, wouldn't they know by the time they're in h.s. whether they like or excel at a particular stroke/discipline?
Dan
High school swimming is not the pinnacle of the sport. Serious swimmers who want to be the best at their sport usually swim year-round. They are attending much more prestigious meets like Junior Nationals, Nationals, Olympic Trials. Kids that don't want to swim year round can do well in high school but they are often not as fast as their teammates who swim USAS.
There's a lot more room on a track than there is in a swimming pool.
Yeah, that's true. Nevertheless, if there were a kid that excels at longer distances and didn't like the sprints, or other strokes, I'd let him/her specialize in the longer freestyle events.
Dan
You would never have a Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin or Tracy Caulkins if you forced specialization at a young age. As a coach, I would never sacrifice a swimmer's future potential for points at a high school dual meet...
You would never have a Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin or Tracy Caulkins if you forced specialization at a young age. As a coach, I would never sacrifice a swimmer's future potential for points at a high school dual meet...
Great point. Specialization at a young age is detrimental to a swimmers growth and future potential.
How many "masters " football or wrestling teams are in effect out there? Swimming seems to be the largest of after HS & college age sports I can think of.
And at my son's school, he was not permitted on the high school swim team because a) he was not a club swimmer, and b) he has a commitment to a community orchestra that would make him miss Saturday practices (even though I assured the coach that I could get him into a pool later in the day). It's the same with other sports in our district as well.
Wow! This is unfortunate...and a bit delusional by the coach. At the h.s. in my town, where my daughter swam, essentially anyone and everyone is accepted on the h.s. team and no one is kicked off (at least not for ability, or things like your son's situation). The only qualifier is that a kid needs to be able to swim one lap (50m) without touching the bottom (they want it to be swim "team" and not swim "lessons"). I guess that's why they have so many kids on the team. In fact, it's kind of a "fallback" activity for some kids. If they try out and don't make it onto a winter team that does have cuts (basketball, hockey, gymnastics, etc) they end up on the swim team.
Dan
