My daughter has been swimming since she was 5, but started a swim team around 2 years ago. My daughter is 10 years old. She swims for a Naval Academy Swim Club and has been doing roughly 5 a week. She swims meets generally twice a month where we go to another school or university. Before she was at the another swim club that "went away". However when she was there, she made remarkable time reductions, she swims mainly 100-free, 100-back, 100-***, 50-free, 50-back, 50-*** and 100-IM (in the previous team and current team). What is bothering us is in the previous team (4-days a week 1.5 hours each time), she was making time reductions at each meet on each event. However she is at a new swim club (a Naval Academy Swim Club) and she spends more time during practice (5 days a week 1.45 hours each time), however she has recently beginning to ADD TIME, something she has never done before.
Some other information
- She has always been the fastest in her team (before/after) she has always been the fastest during each event during each swim meet (before after).
-100-back (1:21:85) / 100-*** (1:35:73) / 100-free (1:14:28) / 100-IM (1:23:56 / 50-*** (44:28) / 200-free (2:40:97).
-She has recently added 1 to 2 seconds "here and there" instead of dropping time.
-We have arranged a meeting with the coach to discuss.
-She's been with the new time for 3 months, 99% of the time the coach just practices freestyle with the students.
I am father of 2 daughters (13Y and 8Y). Both swimmers. And training of daughters is something that I care much. My elder daughter started to swim at her age 9 and at that time I was thinking that to learn proper swimming is something easy-peasy, and that only power and strength make the difference between the 1st and last place at competitions. You all know - I was wrong. I caught up late, at her age 11, when I understood that she has power, but no technique. She was making 42 sec - 50free (without mentioning timing in other styles). I hired another good individual coach and it took him over a year and half to break the bad habits and wrong swimming technique. Now she makes under 28s her 50 free and 35s in 50 breaststroke, which is acceptable for the time being. My younger daughter started to swim at her age 6 with the new coach and she started to learn the proper swimming from the very begining and for the last 2 years she became very good, cause 50 free tooks her only 37s.
After all the above fanfaronade and mounting the high horse, here is my point: If the coach is bad (i.e. unaware of his real task), don't let your daughter to swim a minute more under his guidance. But you have to be pretty sure if the coach is really bad or your daughter is just having her lay-low period and other distractions, or she just might need some rest (a week or two off the pool).
- Watch your daughter's training sessions (for a whole week, not one day only) and take notes what exercises he/she is giving each day to his/her students (cause each day is different).
- Watch how the coach is communicating with his/her students and whether he is making any adjustments in his/her students technique or training and also make a research about the coach's past success/failure.
- Watch the mood in the team, cause teammates are one of the biggest help in your daughter's success, cause they compete with her all the time and push the limits.
- Then have an in-depth conversation with your daughter about her thoughts, mood etc. and make sure that this shall be a two-way discussion, not only you speaking and answering questions yourself.. :) (if you are the pusher in the family, let someone else talk to her).
Make sure not to over push your daughter, cause at the end she could end up quitting, but do not slack too much either. As everyone else previously mentioned, she must have fun, cause if she's having fun she'll train harder. FYI 5 times a week 1,45 hr is not too much. My 8Y older swims 6 times a week, 2 hrs each session.
Thank You for this reply,
Yes, my wife and I have "carefully observed" the way the coach works with the students. We have observed other children. We are finding that this new coach she has is not necessarily BAD she is just not correcting our daughter well (which is what I meant by "micromanage"). Some of her stroke mechanics is wrong and we have watched other kids who used to be with her who have improved greatly. Every component of their stroke has became perfect!!!
We don't want to move her to another team, but we may end up having to hire a private coach for her to work on her mechanics temp, until she can see an improvement.
I am father of 2 daughters (13Y and 8Y). Both swimmers. And training of daughters is something that I care much. My elder daughter started to swim at her age 9 and at that time I was thinking that to learn proper swimming is something easy-peasy, and that only power and strength make the difference between the 1st and last place at competitions. You all know - I was wrong. I caught up late, at her age 11, when I understood that she has power, but no technique. She was making 42 sec - 50free (without mentioning timing in other styles). I hired another good individual coach and it took him over a year and half to break the bad habits and wrong swimming technique. Now she makes under 28s her 50 free and 35s in 50 breaststroke, which is acceptable for the time being. My younger daughter started to swim at her age 6 with the new coach and she started to learn the proper swimming from the very begining and for the last 2 years she became very good, cause 50 free tooks her only 37s.
After all the above fanfaronade and mounting the high horse, here is my point: If the coach is bad (i.e. unaware of his real task), don't let your daughter to swim a minute more under his guidance. But you have to be pretty sure if the coach is really bad or your daughter is just having her lay-low period and other distractions, or she just might need some rest (a week or two off the pool).
- Watch your daughter's training sessions (for a whole week, not one day only) and take notes what exercises he/she is giving each day to his/her students (cause each day is different).
- Watch how the coach is communicating with his/her students and whether he is making any adjustments in his/her students technique or training and also make a research about the coach's past success/failure.
- Watch the mood in the team, cause teammates are one of the biggest help in your daughter's success, cause they compete with her all the time and push the limits.
- Then have an in-depth conversation with your daughter about her thoughts, mood etc. and make sure that this shall be a two-way discussion, not only you speaking and answering questions yourself.. :) (if you are the pusher in the family, let someone else talk to her).
Make sure not to over push your daughter, cause at the end she could end up quitting, but do not slack too much either. As everyone else previously mentioned, she must have fun, cause if she's having fun she'll train harder. FYI 5 times a week 1,45 hr is not too much. My 8Y older swims 6 times a week, 2 hrs each session.
Thank You for this reply,
Yes, my wife and I have "carefully observed" the way the coach works with the students. We have observed other children. We are finding that this new coach she has is not necessarily BAD she is just not correcting our daughter well (which is what I meant by "micromanage"). Some of her stroke mechanics is wrong and we have watched other kids who used to be with her who have improved greatly. Every component of their stroke has became perfect!!!
We don't want to move her to another team, but we may end up having to hire a private coach for her to work on her mechanics temp, until she can see an improvement.
