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 not sure what the question is, but the answer is, "She's 10. Chill out."
If she is enjoying her new team, working hard, listening to coaches, and making friends, she's OK. It sounds like she is talented. Times will fluctuate and plateau as she grows. She could also be a little worn out. That schedule sounds like a lot of swimming. She could have some normal 10-year-old-girl social issues that are distracting her just enough to not hit her best times. Who knows?
As someone who has been a young swimmer, a coach of young swimmers and a parent of young swimmers I have one rule I try to live by. It's much easier to say this as a swimmer or coach than as a parent but: let your child own her own swimming experience. Sure, you may have to steer things here and there when there are real issues affecting your swimmer but trying to control her experience of the sport will likely lead to frustration for both you and your child. The best thing my parents ever did for my swimming was to let me own my own experiences. The great ones and the ones that taught me how to handle my own challenges.
Along the lines of Jim and Dan, the most important things for your daughter should be enjoying what she is doing and who she is doing it with. At 10 if your daughter has swims that are disappointing to her, that disappointment is most likely from failing to meet your expectations, not hers. Many kids (and their parents) have dreams of being the next Missy or Michael but don’t confuse these dreams with goals. Don’t let your dreams and goals ruin it for your daughter.
As for adding time, it could be because she isn’t eating or sleeping properly or has other emotional drama unrelated to swimming. If it is, fix it. Otherwise when you meet with the coach the 2 main questions should be “Is my daughter having fun?” and “What can I do to keep my daughter excited about swimming?”
Also, from USA Swimming: “Being A Swim Parent - The most important thing you can do as the parent of a swimmer is to love and support your child, both in and out of the pool. This support is a key factor in fostering enjoyment and learning as well as contributing to the child's individual success in the pool.”
For more on this and other great “Swimming Parent” materials go to usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx
What everyone else said, she should be having fun!
My granddaughter has been swimming AND competing since she was 4. Will be 16 soon and she still loves the sport. But there have been bumps--both of them associated with a mismatch between athlete and coach. Make sure your daughter is 'clicking' with her coach.
RE: sleeping that Rob suggest you consider. If your daughter is training too much it could definately impact her sleep cycles.
Somewhere, I don't remember where, I read a swimmer say the best thing he/she ever heard parents/grandparents say, "I love watching you swim!" Not, great swim, not you will do better next time, etc.
Is she focusing too much on times? She shouldn't be. She should focus on how it feels to swim fast (have done some reading into the psychology of swimming, but don't remember where I found that. For me, as a swimmer, that has helped a lot.)
Has she recently undergone a growth spurt: that can effect stroke mechanics.
Has her coach changed her stroke mechanics? I know my granddaughter's coach changed her stroke and it was a couple of months before there was any truly significant drops.
Hope this helps. Let us know what coach says.
Our concerns is her current coach is not "micromanaging" her swim mechanics. We understand she is talented, the coach even tells us so when we bought up her timing issues. Based on our experience with our daughter, we find that she needs to be "individually" corrected in order to gain benefit. The coach she has right now is not really doing this. We know of other coaches in other areas who are much more strict and exert a lot of pressure on the students. We are not looking for her to be the next Michael Phelps. But we are concerned she will start slipping with her current coach. We know of other students who moved to more strict coaches. Those kids were several ranks behind our daughter. Within a few months they are now trailing just behind our daughter. In a recent meet this child is now above our daughter.
All of the follow-up questions were about what your daughter thinks of all of this, and you didn't answer. I'm going to assume that "we" doesn't include her, because I've never met a 10-year-old who wanted to be "micromanaged."
One of the things that comes to mind after reading your reply is about the structure of the team. I know of a team where the swimmers go to practice, receive workouts and generalized stroke instruction, but to get true, "I am going to analize your stroke and give you specific drills and corrections" from the coach, parents have to enroll their child (and pay extra) for 'stroke school'. It is held at a time other than regular practice. Could this be the case with your daughter's team?
Our concerns is her current coach is not "micromanaging" her swim mechanics. We understand she is talented, the coach even tells us so when we bought up her timing issues. Based on our experience with our daughter, we find that she needs to be "individually" corrected in order to gain benefit. The coach she has right now is not really doing this. We know of other coaches in other areas who are much more strict and exert a lot of pressure on the students. We are not looking for her to be the next Michael Phelps. But we are concerned she will start slipping with her current coach. We know of other students who moved to more strict coaches. Those kids were several ranks behind our daughter. Within a few months they are now trailing just behind our daughter. In a recent meet this child is now above our daughter.
I don't think my daughter's h.s. team practiced that much.
Dan
Wow... I've never had daughters, and my sons were never much for competitive swimming. I did swim on a YMCA team back in the day who had an age grouper in the 8yo range breaking records left and right. I heard she burned out after a couple years.
I commute by bike to work on an almost daily basis and ride perhaps 10-12 hours per week. My legs are often sore (headwinds being what they are). I can't imagine making a little kid swimming those kind of hours.
