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.
Hi Steppinthrax,Varna01 is absolutely correct - emphasis should be placed on making the effort to teach proper stroke technique that will lead to more efficient, and faster, swimming, as your daughter continues to develop in the sport. And as Varna says, the earlier you start on this process, the more you will save in the end. I tell this to my Masters swimmers all the time - developing proper stroke technique will save you from having to make a trip to the doctors' office due to injuries induced by poor swimming - not to mention make you a better swimmer!
Also, just to respond to some of the commenters here who felt the need to raise issues about the yardage that age groupers are doing - although in my opinion, yardage is not as important at a young age as technique, I feel that these decisions should really only be of concern to coaches and families. If the families do not feel comfortable about the amount of yardage, they can bring this up to the coaches directly.
Best of luck to you both!
Hi Steppinthrax,Varna01 is absolutely correct - emphasis should be placed on making the effort to teach proper stroke technique that will lead to more efficient, and faster, swimming, as your daughter continues to develop in the sport. And as Varna says, the earlier you start on this process, the more you will save in the end. I tell this to my Masters swimmers all the time - developing proper stroke technique will save you from having to make a trip to the doctors' office due to injuries induced by poor swimming - not to mention make you a better swimmer!
Also, just to respond to some of the commenters here who felt the need to raise issues about the yardage that age groupers are doing - although in my opinion, yardage is not as important at a young age as technique, I feel that these decisions should really only be of concern to coaches and families. If the families do not feel comfortable about the amount of yardage, they can bring this up to the coaches directly.
Best of luck to you both!
